© Yi Chin Lee/Houston ChronicleTexas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick
The lieutenant governor made the comments during a Friday press conference days after the University of Texas at Austin passed a faculty resolution supporting faculty rights to teach critical race theory. As lieutenant governor, Patrick serves as the president of the Texas Senate and therefore is heavily involved in legislative matters, including efforts to ban the controversial theory that says American institutions and culture are systemically racist and oppressive to racial minorities.
The Dallas Morning News reported Patrick said the professors at UT
"don't understand that we in the Legislature represent the people of Texas. We are those who distribute taxpayer dollars. We are the ones who pay their salaries, parents are the ones who pay tuition. Of course we're going to have a say in what the curriculum is."Patrick, a Republican, is running for reelection as lieutenant governor, and he has made opposing critical race theory a part of his campaign after successfully working to ban the theory in K-12 public schools last year.
His new push to ban faculty tenure came days after he tweeted a response to the UT Austin faculty resolution.
The non-binding resolution says it "affirms the fundamental rights of faculty to academic freedom in its broadest sense, inclusive of research and teaching of race and gender theory" in the face of legislative efforts to ban both.
The lieutenant governor said that professors who want to teach critical race theory should "go to a private school" and raise their own funds.
"I'm not going to pay for that nonsense," he said.
Banning critical race theory in public schools has been a major component of the 2021-2022 legislative calendar in Republican-controlled states. Numerous state legislatures have introduced bans, and several others, including Texas, have enacted them into law.
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