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LOS ANGELES (AP) — Siemens plans to invest $285 million in manufacturing in the United States, the tech company said Thursday, including two new facilities in California and Texas.

The U.S. is the largest market for the company. The recent investments in the Siemens’ U.S. manufacturing footprint and the planned acquisition of Altair, a Michigan-based software company, mark more than $10 billion in investment in the U.S.

“We believe in the innovation and strength of America’s industry. That’s why Siemens has invested over $90 billion in the country in the last 20 years. This year’s investment will bring this number to over $100 billion,” Roland Busch, president and CEO of Siemens AG, said in a statement. “We are bringing more jobs, more technology and a boost to America’s AI capabilities.”

Siemens’ announcement comes as chip giant Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. said it plans to invest an additional $100 billion in the U.S., on top of $65 billion in investments the company had previously said it would make. That investment will be for three more chip manufacturing plants, along with two packaging facilities, in Arizona.

Siemens said it plans to open two manufacturing facilities for electrical products in Fort Worth, Texas, and Pomona, Calif. The company said it expects its latest investment to create more than 900 skilled manufacturing jobs, with the equipment produced in those factories supporting the U.S. commercial, industrial and construction sectors. The move will also allow the company to power AI data centers.

HOUSTON (AP) – Nearly two months after an explosion sent flaming debris raining down on the Turks and Caicos, SpaceX launched another mammoth Starship rocket on Thursday, but lost contact minutes into the test flight as the spacecraft came tumbling down and broke apart.

This time, wreckage from the latest explosion was seen streaming from the skies over Florida. It was not immediately known whether the spacecraft’s self-destruct system had kicked in to blow it up.

The 403-foot (123-meter) rocket blasted off from Texas. SpaceX caught the first-stage booster back at the pad with giant mechanical arms, but engines on the spacecraft on top started shutting down as it streaked eastward for what was supposed to be a controlled entry over the Indian Ocean, half a world away. Contact was lost less than 10 minutes into the flight as the spacecraft went into an out-of-control spin.

Starship reached nearly 90 miles (150 kilometers) in altitude before trouble struck and before four mock satellites could be deployed. It was not immediately clear where it came down, but images of flaming debris were captured from Florida, including near Cape Canaveral, and posted online.

The space-skimming flight was supposed to last an hour. The Federal Aviation Administration said it would require SpaceX to investigate the accident.

“Unfortunately this happened last time too, so we have some practice at this now,” SpaceX flight commentator Dan Huot said from the launch site.

SpaceX later confirmed that the spacecraft experienced “a rapid unscheduled disassembly” during the ascent engine firing and said it alerted safety officials.

Flights were briefly grounded at Orlando International Airport “due to space launch debris in the area,” the airport posted on X.

Starship didn’t make it quite as high or as far as last time.

NASA has booked Starship to land its astronauts on the moon later this decade. SpaceX’s Elon Musk is aiming for Mars with Starship, the world’s biggest and most powerful rocket.

Like last time, Starship had mock satellites to release once the craft reached space on this eighth test flight as a practice for future missions. They resembled SpaceX’s Starlink internet satellites, thousands of which currently orbit Earth, and were meant to fall back down following their brief taste of space.

Starship’s flaps, computers and fuel system were redesigned in preparation for the next big step: returning the spacecraft to the launch site just like the booster.

During the last demo, SpaceX captured the booster at the launch pad, but the spacecraft blew up several minutes later over the Atlantic. No injuries or major damage were reported.

According to an investigation that remains ongoing, leaking fuel triggered a series of fires that shut down the spacecraft’s engines. The on-board self-destruct system kicked in as planned.

SpaceX said it made several improvements to the spacecraft following the accident, and the Federal Aviation Administration recently cleared Starship once more for launch.

Starships soar out of the southernmost tip of Texas near the Mexican border. SpaceX is building another Starship complex at Cape Canaveral, home to the company’s smaller Falcon rockets that ferry astronauts and satellites to orbit.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House on Thursday voted to censure an unrepentant Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, for disrupting President Donald Trump’s address to Congress.

Green was joined in the well of the House by more than 20 fellow Democrats as Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., read the censure resolution. Green and some of his colleagues began singing “We Shall Overcome,” an anthem of the Civil Rights Movement, as Johnson spoke. Republicans in the chamber yelled “order” as the singing continued. Eventually, Johnson declared the House in recess.

The resolution against Green was approved in a mostly party-line vote of 224-198. Ten Democrats voted for it; no Republicans voted against it.

Johnson had Green removed from the chamber during the early moments of Trump’s speech Tuesday night. Green stood and shouted at Trump after the Republican president said the Nov. 5 election had delivered a governing mandate not seen for many decades.

“You have no mandate,” the Houston lawmaker said, shaking a cane and refusing an order from Johnson to “take your seat, sir!”

Republicans acted quickly to rebuke Green with a censure resolution that officially registers the House’s deep disapproval of a member’s conduct.

There was also animated discussions among a handful of Green’s supporters and Republicans after the vote. Rep. Dan Meuser, R-Pa., said Democrats were upset because they believe the rules of decorum in the chamber are not being equally enforced.

Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., confirmed the tenor of the exchange.

“In terms of rules of decorum, they’re often violated by our Republican colleagues and the response is not punitive,” Pressley said.

Rep. Dan Newhouse, the resolution’s sponsor, said the censure effort was a “necessary, but difficult step.”

“This resolution is offered in all seriousness, something that I believe we must do in order to get us to the next level of conduct in this hallowed chamber,” said Newhouse, R-Wash.
Not the first outburst

It’s the latest fallout of the boisterous behavior that has occurred during more recent presidential addresses to Congress. Outbursts from lawmakers have happened on bothsides of the political aisle.

Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., noted that Republicans were silent when members of their conference interrupted Democratic President Joe Biden’s speech last year.

Some yelled “say her name” in reference to nursing student Laken Riley, as Biden spoke about immigration legislation that some lawmakers were working on. Riley was killed while running on the University of Georgia campus by a Venezuelan citizen who illegally entered the United States in 2022 and had been allowed to stay to pursue his immigration case.

“Nobody apologized for interrupting Joe Biden time and again,” McGovern said. “You talk about lack of decorum. Go back and look at the tapes, and there was silence from the other side.”

The resolution says Green’s actions were a “breach of proper conduct” during a joint address and that he had to be removed from the chamber by the Sergeant at Arms “after numerous disruptions.” Democrats tried to table it Wednesday, but that effort failed on a party-line vote.

Johnson tweeted before the vote that Green “disgraced the institution of Congress and the constituents he serves.”

“Any Democrat who is concerned about regaining the trust and respect of the American people should join House Republicans in this effort,” Johnson said.
No apologies

Green, now serving his 11th term, offered no regrets Wednesday when he explained his actions. Before speaking in his own defense from the House floor, he walked up to the Republican side of the chamber and shook Newhouse’s hand. Green said he did not blame Johnson or those who had escorted him out after his outburst.

“Friends, I would do it again,” Green said.

Green took to the House floor again Thursday, hours after the vote. He even read the resolution and called himself a “proud, liberated Democrat, unbought, unbossed and unafraid.”

“I did disrupt and I did so because the president indicated he had a mandate and I wanted him to know he didn’t have a mandate to cut Medicaid,” Green said.

House Republicans last week passed a budget blueprint that seeks some $880 billion in savings over 10 years from the committee that handles health care spending, including Medicaid. Democrats warn cuts to the program are unavoidable under the GOP’s plan, yet Trump said last week about the state-federal health care program, “We’re not going to touch it.”

Some Democratic lawmakers skipped Trump’s address. Others walked out during it. With tensions clearly on the rise, House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York had told colleagues beforehand that “it is important to have a strong, determined and dignified Democratic presence in the chamber.”

“I think Al Green was telling the truth,” said Rep. Mark Takano, D-Calif. He was among the dozens of Democrats who held up signs that said “False” and displayed other protest slogans throughout Trump’s speech.

Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who was speaker during Trump’s first term, recalled her own memorable moment during a Trump address when she ripped his speech up after he handed it to her following his address.

“Everybody has to make their expression of how they see things. I think we should keep our focus on the president’s speech,” Pelosi said.

Trump, in an interview with Fox News Digital, was harshly critical of Green.

“Nobody takes him seriously,” Trump said. “He is an embarrassment to Congress but a much bigger embarrassment to the Democrats.”
Censures becoming less rare

Members of the House Freedom Caucus, a group of the most conservative Republicans, indicated that the censure vote was not the last of the efforts to punish Green. The group’s chairman, Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., said a resolution would be filed next week to take away Green’s committee assignments.

The punishment by censure is a rather infrequent event, with Green becoming the 28th House member cited. But there has been a spate in the past four years, beginning with Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., in 2021, when Democrats were in the majority. In 2023, Republicans took back the House and censured three Democrats — Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and then-Reps. Jamaal Bowman of New York and Adam Schiff of California.

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Associated Press writers Matt Brown, Lisa Mascaro and Leah Askarinam contributed to this report.

ATLANTA (AP) — It turns out 2025 isn’t the year for legalized sports betting in Georgia.

Efforts to send a state constitutional amendment to voters failed Thursday in the state legislature, as neither the amendment nor a bill laying out details ever came to a vote in the House.

Voters in Missouri narrowly approved sports betting in a 2024 referendum, making it the 39th state to legalize the practice. But like in Georgia, legalization faces high hurdles in the 10 remaining states that bar sports gambling.

Thursday was the deadline for each Georgia chamber to pass its own legislation to the opposite chamber. The measures still could be revived in the last month of the session, but it much less likely. Lawmakers could still consider the measures in the 2026 half of Georgia’s two-year session.

“It came in late and I guess people just weren’t there yet,” said House Higher Education Committee Chairman Chuck Martin, an Alpharetta Republican, referring to a bill and constitutional amendment that were introduced only last week.

“We’ll keep working with people and trying to do what’s in the best interest of the state,” Martin said, saying a referendum was still possible in on the November 2026 ballot.

Sports wagering is backed by Atlanta’s professional sports teams, business groups and Republican Lt. Gov Burt Jones. But those powerful proponents have struggled to pass a law in the seven legislative sessions since the U.S. Supreme Court in 2018 struck down a federal law that banned commercial sports betting in most states.

In Minnesota, a proposal failed on a 6-6- tie vote in a Senate committee on Feb. 13, even though the sponsor said his bill was supported by the state’s 11 Native American tribes, which operate casinos, the state’s two horse racing tracks, charitable gambling operations and local sports teams.

California voters rejected wagering in 2022. A proposal to legalize sports betting passed the Texas House in 2023, but the state Senate spurned the proposal.

One state where the issue is making progress is Hawaii, where the state House on Tuesday passed a bill that would legalize online sports betting.

Missouri is currently making rules and taking applications from sportsbooks, with the launch of legal betting delayed until late summer or early fall.

Without Democratic votes in Georgia, a constitutional amendment couldn’t achieve the two-thirds majorities needs to pass the state House and Senate.

Republicans in the state are far from unified. Some GOP lawmakers oppose sports betting, warning that legalizing sports betting will provide a pathway to addiction, especially for younger gamblers.

House Minority Whip Sam Park, a Lawrenceville Democrat, said Wednesday that his party wants to prioritize use of any tax money for prekindergarten. That was part of the constitutional amendment proposed by Martin’s committee.

Supporters have argued that Georgians should get a chance to vote, arguing many already bet on sports illegally.

“I believe strongly — and Georgians by wide margins agree with me — that this change will not only bring in much needed revenue to educate our youngest learners but also provide consumer protections that don’t exist in today’s black market,” State Rep. Marcus Wiedower, the Watkinsville Republican who sponsored the measure, said in a statement

Of the 38 states that currently allow sports betting, some allow only in-person bets, although most allow electronic betting from anywhere.

AUSTIN (AP) – Four years ago, after all electricity sources struggled to keep Texans’ lights on during Winter Storm Uri, the state’s top Republican leaders singled out solar and wind energy for scorn as they worked to goose natural gas-powered generation.

After decades of growth in solar and wind put Texas among the nation’s top producers of renewable energy, the state’s leaders turned against renewables as they began to compete more fiercely with coal and gas-fueled power.

At the same time, anti-renewables rhetoric swelled nationally as well as part of a broader fight over combating climate change — which climate scientists say has led to more severe weather in Texas and increased risks to life and property.

But with this year’s legislative session underway, the political tides around energy are quietly turning in the country’s biggest oil and gas state.

Texas faces a massive surge in demand for electricity due to an increase of large users like crypto mining facilities, in addition to population growth and more extreme weather. And policymakers are recognizing that in order to meet that demand, the state will need all the generation it can get — from every source.

“Here in Texas, we believe in an ‘all-of-the-above’ energy approach,” Gov. Greg Abbott said in December, touting Texas as the fourth-largest oil producer in the world and the leading state for wind and large-scale solar generation. “We will increase capacity of our grid to ensure that every Texan has affordable, reliable power and unleash the full potential of Texas’ nuclear industry. And we will produce enough energy power on the grid to make sure that every home, every business and every location is going to have access to the power they need.”

The recent expansion of renewable energy in Texas has helped stave off crises since the grid came close to catastrophic collapse in February 2021 when Uri plunged millions of Texans into darkness and left hundreds of people dead.

Texas increased its energy supply by 35% over the last four years, Abbott said in his State of the State address in February. A whopping 92% of that new supply, according to energy consultant Doug Lewin, came from solar, wind and battery storage.

Texas added more battery storage capacity than any other state last year, and, excluding California, now has more battery capacity than the rest of the country combined. The state installed around 9,700 megawatts of new solar generation last year and 1,735 megawatts of wind power, according to a January report by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. Solar power and battery storage set records last summer, providing nearly 25% of electricity needs in the middle of the day, according to the Dallas Fed’s report.

Texas also added 3,410 megawatts of gas-fueled power last year after losing 2,172 megawatts in 2023. The Electricity Reliability Council of Texas, the state’s main grid operator, estimates that 1 megawatt of electricity can power around 250 homes.

These additions meant that ERCOT didn’t have to issue a single emergency alert last year during the sixth-hottest summer on record in Texas. In 2023, during the state’s second-hottest summer, ERCOT issued 11 alerts asking Texans to conserve energy.

The grid also made it through several cold snaps this winter with plenty of supply on hand — though experts warn that solar plays a smaller role in meeting peak demand during the winter. Weatherization requirements the Public Utility Commission imposed on power plants after Winter Storm Uri also contributed to greater resiliency on the grid.

On top of increased reliability, renewable energy resources saved Texas power consumers around $11 billion in the last two years, according to a report by IdeaSmiths LLC, an energy analytics firm, that was funded by pro-renewables trade groups.

“These resources materially contribute to having enough power on the system and also being able to do it most affordably,” said Bryn Baker, senior director of policy innovation at the Texas Energy Buyers Alliance. “Being able to maintain the ability for all resources to play in the market is critical for Texas to maintain its energy leadership, as well as economic leadership.”
Energy demand expected to soar

Despite those gains, ERCOT predicts that Texas’ energy demand will nearly double by 2030, with power supply projected to fall short of peak demand in a worst-case scenario beginning in summer 2026.

That surge in demand is being driven by population demand, more extreme heat and cold, and an influx of large power users, such as crypto mining facilities, artificial intelligence-related data centers and electrifying oil and gas field operations.

State lawmakers have looked to boost natural gas-fueled generation — in 2023 they established the $5 billion Texas Energy Fund, which offers low-interest taxpayer funded loans to incentivize construction of new gas-powered plants. But those plants take years to build. New advanced nuclear technology at scale is also years away, even as the state’s top leaders throw their support behind the burgeoning industry.

As a result, experts warned, Texas can’t afford to block any forms of generation, including renewables.

“We’re going to need every megawatt that we can get, from every generation resource that we can get,” Michael Jewell, an energy attorney and expert, said. “Legislative proposals that would discourage the continued development of every resource — that’s anti-energy.”

Renewable energy advocates hope that message is getting through to lawmakers as they grapple with how to meet soaring demand this legislative session. They emphasize that they are not against gas-fueled generation, and that Texas needs a mix of resources to grow its grid.

“I think, and I hope, and I pray that the conversation has changed,” said Matthew Boms, executive director of the Texas Advanced Energy Business Alliance. “With those kind of numbers, the whole conversation changes from, ‘What should the mix look like?’ to a different conversation, which is how we’re going to meet all of this load growth.”
Renewable energy projects benefit lawmakers’ districts

Renewables proponents also point to the millions of dollars in tax revenue that solar, wind and battery storage projects funnel into local school districts and communities — many of them in the districts of key lawmakers.

In House Speaker Dustin Burrows’ district — which includes parts of Lubbock and its surrounding counties — existing solar, wind and storage projects are projected to pay around $94 million in local tax revenues over their lifetimes, according to the IdeaSmiths report.

The district of Sen. Charles Schwertner, R-Georgetown and chair of the Senate Business and Commerce Committee, is poised to see $499 million in local tax revenues from existing solar and storage projects. And Rep. Drew Darby, R-San Angelo and chair of the House Energy Resources Committee, represents a district expected to see $293 million in local tax revenues from renewable energy.

Those dynamics — demand growth, the role of renewables and storage on the grid and the economic impacts of the industry — suggest that the Legislature may be less inclined to clamp down on solar and wind this year as lawmakers have tried to do in previous sessions.

“We are actively exploring and promoting advanced technology, including small modular nuclear reactors, larger duration battery storage and geothermal energy,” Schwertner said at the ERCOT Market Summit last month. “These technologies and others offer unique advantages in providing stable, dispatchable power, and Texas is committed to leading in their deployment.”
Anti-renewables bills resurface

Still, anti-renewables sentiment has not gone away in the Capitol.

“There’s certainly ideological opposition. It’s very serious,” Lewin said. “The Legislature walked right up to the edge of really kneecapping the renewable industry last session. I’m sure those discussions will be weighty this session — but I hope not.”

Lawmakers have filed a number of bills that would restrict the development of renewable energy or favor natural gas generation in the energy market.

For example, a proposal by state Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham — and co-sponsored by state Sen. Phil King, R-Weatherford, the vice chair of the Senate Business and Commerce Committee — aims to reduce the impact of wind and solar projects on residential neighbors and the local environment by imposing strict permitting and siting requirements and restricting tax abatements for those projects.

The bill, Senate Bill 819, would not apply those standards to other energy facilities, such as natural gas or coal plants. A near-identical bill passed the Senate in 2023 but failed to advance in the House.

Renewables advocates warned that the bill would sharply curtail new wind and solar development, unduly interfere with the energy market and step on the private property rights of landowners to lease their land out for energy projects.

Senate Bill 388, filed by King, aims to offset the impact of federal incentives to build wind and solar projects by requiring 50% of new generation to be “dispatchable” — namely, natural gas and coal.

Dispatchable generation can be turned on at any point and does not rely on intermittent resources like sun and wind. Lawmakers have emphasized a need for dispatchable resources to offer greater reliability when grid conditions are tight.

But at least one lawmaker, in addition to industry trade groups, expressed skepticism at a Senate Business and Commerce Committee hearing Tuesday that the bill would effectively boost natural gas and increase reliability.

The bill represents “a heavy-handed, prescriptive recipe for what the market should build,” Sen. Nathan Johnson, D-Dallas, said, “cutting off the investment and innovation that the private sector can bring to this market.”

Mark Stover, executive director of the Texas Solar + Storage Association, testified to the committee that the bill would have a “destabilizing effect” on the energy market.

“While the bill may seem straightforward,” Stover said, “we believe it could produce unintended consequences that could actually increase costs on consumers and undermine reliability.”

Other legislative proposals would specifically tax renewable energy projects and bar offshore wind facilities from connecting to the grid.
Lawmakers aim to boost grid’s growth

Beyond legislation related to the type of energy on the grid, lawmakers are more broadly focused on how to meet demand growth.

Senate Bill 6 — a priority bill of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who presides over the Senate and wields enormous power over which legislation is approved — aims to firm up the state’s energy demand forecast, more fairly allocate the costs of building out necessary transmission infrastructure and ensure that existing generation is not removed from the grid to serve large industrial users. House Bill 2678 looks to support the development of advanced nuclear technology in the state, in line with Abbott’s and Patrick’s priorities.

Lawmakers have also proposed measures to increase consumer protections, including by tightening oversight of third-party solar panel sellers, re-establishing a low-income electricity bill assistance fund and requiring that new battery storage projects have safe removal and disposal plans at the end of their lives.

As the clock ticks on the remaining months of session, Lewin said, lawmakers will have to decide whether they want to focus on pushing down, or building up, certain resources.

“There’s only 140 days — you don’t really have enough time to do both,” he said. “Building up a nuclear industry in Texas will take a lot of good legislative thinking and focus and attention. I hope that they focus on stuff like that — and not on punching down at renewables.”

AUSTIN – A bill filed in the Texas House co-authored by a majority of the chamber is aiming to restrict the use of bathrooms by transgender people in public spaces and may potentially go further than previous iterations of similar bills to outline restrictions and penalties.

House Bill 239 would mandate that family violence shelters, prisons and bathrooms and locker rooms of state and county buildings are segregated by state definitions of sex, and create fines for those who violate the bill’s provisions. HB 239 does allow for single-person and family restrooms, and creates exemptions for children under 10 and those who may need assistance using facilities, likey the elderly.

The bill comes as some Texas lawmakers, including Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, have become increasingly vocal about bathrooms being used in the state Capitol by transgender people.

HB 239 echoes 2017’s Senate Bill 6 — a focal point in the Legislature before withering support killed it in a special session — but differs from the 8-year-old counterpart on several fronts. The 2025 bill follows SB 6’s restrictions on bathrooms applying to state and county-owned facilities like the Texas Capitol, public schools or agency buildings. The bill would also extend to public universities. HB 239, however, is more detailed, crafting its own definition of biological sex, increasing proposed penalties and attempting to insulate itself from potential litigation or constitutional challenges.

HB 239’s definition of biological sex is similar to SB 6, yet goes further to clarify the state’s recognition would solely come from a person’s “original” birth certificate. The new language would ignore updated birth certificate markings for trans people who legally amended their documentation.

The bill also proposes an increased financial penalty for those who violate its provisions, with a $5,000 civil fine for the first offense, compared to a $1,500 penalty proposed by its 2017 counterpart. A second violation under HB 239 would increase the fine to $25,000.

The increased penalties were what Cathryn Oakley, senior director at the Human Rights Campaign, said stood out the most in HB 239. Oakley began working in Texas with the center in 2017 to rally against SB 6, and has been working alongside and against lawmakers since to combat anti-trans legislation. While the bill does introduce some new provisions like restricting prisons in the state from accepting trans inmates — which a Senate bill this session is also seeking to prohibit — Oakley said the ideas behind it are far from new.

“What we’re seeing is that there’s not a ton of creativity going on,” Oakley said. “These bills are introduced in other states, as well, and it’s interesting to me to see sort of where the trends are.”

HB 239 also has provisions that aim to bar state courts from certifying any writs or injunctions labeling the proposed law as unconstitutional, and that would grant sovereign immunity to the state and its employees for enforcing it. While SB 6 had a clause prohibiting lawsuits from being filed by public entities against it, it explicitly waived sovereign immunity — which makes people ineligible to sue — and did not block suits over the bill’s constitutionality.

But public sentiment over bathroom laws also differs now than they did almost eight years ago, as lawmakers and advocates nationally have gradually found footing for restrictions on a myriad of issues aimed at transgender Americans. In October, the Odessa City Council passed an ordinance limiting individuals from entering public bathrooms meant for the opposite sex, and the U.S. Congress passed a similar ban for the nation’s Capitol in November.

Rep. Valoree Swanson, R-Spring, filed HB 239 in November. It duplicates two earlier bills: one filed by another House representative in January, and another filed in the Senate. Swanson is joined by 77 co-authors on the bill, who signed on in late February when the bill was referred to committee. All are Republicans save one: Rep. Sergio Muñoz, an eight-term Democrat from Mission.

Despite the majority in the House signing on to the bill, the 77 members may not be completely indicative of its chances of success. As SB 6 went through the Senate in 2017, former House Rep. Ron Simmons, R-Carrollton, filed House Bill 2899, which failed to leave its committee despite its 79 co-authors during the regular session. Simmons later reintroduced the bill as House Bill 46 during that year’s special session, but the new version garnered only 60 authors before also failing.

While Swanson was a co-author on both HB 2899 and HB 46, Muñoz was not on either. Neither Swanson nor Muñoz could be reached for comment.

HB 239 was referred to the House Committee on State Affairs and currently is not scheduled for a hearing.

Article originally published by The Texas Tribune. To read the originally published article, click here.

Over the last three years, the head of a small charter school network that serves fewer than 1,000 students has taken home up to $870,000 annually, a startling amount that appears to be the highest for any public school superintendent in the state and among the top in the nation.

Valere Public Schools Superintendent Salvador Cavazos’ compensation to run three campuses in Austin, Corpus Christi and Brownsville exceeds the less than $450,000 that New York City’s chancellor makes to run the largest school system in the country.

But Cavazos’ salary looks far more modest in publicly posted records that are supposed to provide transparency to taxpayers. That’s because Valere excludes most of his bonuses from its reports to the state and on its own website, instead only sharing his base pay of about $300,000.

The fact that the superintendent of a small district could pull in a big-time salary shocked experts and previewed larger transparency and accountability challenges that could follow as Texas moves to approve a voucher-like program that would allow the use of public funds for private schools.

Cavazos’ total pay is alarming, said Duncan Klussmann, an associate professor at the University of Houston Department of Educational Leadership & Policy Studies.

“I just can’t imagine that there’d be any citizen in the state of Texas that would feel like that’s OK,” Klussmann said.

Details concerning Cavazos’ compensation, and that of two other superintendents identified by ProPublica and The Texas Tribune, drew a sharp rebuke from the association that advocates for charter schools across the state.

“It’s not acceptable for any public school to prioritize someone’s personal enrichment ahead of students’ best interests,” Brian Whitley, a spokesperson for the Texas Public Charter Schools Association, said in a statement. He added that any payment decisions made at the expense of students should be reversed immediately.

“The public charter school community has long embraced strong accountability and transparency. That’s what Texans deserve, both for academic outcomes and taxpayer dollars,” he said. “To that end, the full picture of superintendent compensation at all public schools should be made clearer.”

Texas lawmakers have filed legislation that would cap public school superintendents’ annual salaries, but most bills would not restrict bonuses. Those bills also don’t apply to private schools that stand to receive an influx of taxpayer dollars if lawmakers pass legislation this session approving education savings accounts, a type of voucher program. Private schools wouldn’t be subject to the same level of state oversight as public schools.

Lawmakers who advocate for vouchers won’t be able to gauge whether the investments were worthwhile if they don’t mandate that private schools follow the same financial and academic reporting requirements as public schools, said Bruce Baker, a professor at the University of Miami Department of Teaching and Learning.

Cavazos’ compensation proves that even those reporting standards are “woefully inadequate,” Baker said.

Texas school districts must post all compensation and benefits provided to their superintendent online or in public annual reports, according to rules set by the Texas Education Agency. They must also report superintendents’ salaries and any supplemental pay for extra duties to the state. But Valere excluded more than a dozen bonuses and additional payments it awarded Cavazos, some of which its board granted to him in perpetuity.

ProPublica and The Texas Tribune uncovered the total amount the district paid Cavazos by combing through federal tax records that the charter network must file annually with the Internal Revenue Service to maintain its nonprofit status. The news organizations then gathered additional details through public records requests to the district and the state.

Cavazos, who has overseen the charter district since 2014 and previously served as superintendent in two other public school systems, declined an interview and did not answer written questions for this story.

Board members provided written responses to questions through attorney Ryan Lione, who serves as outside counsel for the district. In defending Cavazos’ compensation, they likened his role to that of a corporate CEO, which they said comes with “many more day-to-day duties,” including fundraising, overseeing expansion and guiding the charter through a 2020 split from its parent organization.

“We believe that the benefits that Dr. Cavazos brings to Valere through his vast experience and knowledge justify the compensation that the Board has and continues to award him,” the Valere board’s statement read.

Board members said that they did not believe the district had run afoul of any state reporting requirements because no one from the state had told them that they had.

But Jake Kobersky, a spokesperson for the state’s education agency, said it does not monitor whether districts post their compensation information online and that it only follows up if it receives tips about violations. He declined to comment on whether the district’s omission of bonuses paid to Cavazos in its reporting to the state or on the district’s website was a violation, but after questions from the news organizations, Kobersky said the agency is now reviewing the district’s reporting to “determine what next steps, if any, are necessary.”

At least two other Texas charter school districts have also paid their superintendents hundreds of thousands of dollars on top of what they publicly reported in recent years, our analysis found.

Dallas-based Gateway Charter Academy, which serves about 600 students, paid its superintendent Robbie Moore $426,620 in 2023, nearly double his base salary of $215,100, the latest available federal tax filings show. Pay for Mollie Purcell Mozley of Faith Family Academy, another Dallas-area charter school superintendent, hit a high of $560,000 in 2021, despite a contracted salary of $306,000. She continued to receive more than $400,000 during each of the two subsequent years, according to tax filings.

The districts didn’t publicly post the additional payments on their websites, and only Faith Family Academy has reported any extra pay to the state. Moore, Mozley and Faith Family Academy did not respond to requests for comment. In a statement, Gateway Charter Academy did not address questions related to the superintendent’s compensation. Without providing any details, the statement said the district has made mistakes but is implementing “corrective measures.” Since it was contacted by the newsrooms, the district has updated its website with a new document that lists an undated $75,000 bonus for Moore. The Texas Education Agency did not answer questions about either school district.

Valere, however, stands out among the charter school districts identified by the news organizations.

Board members have voted to increase Cavazos’ pay or other financial benefits in 14 of their 24 meetings since 2021.

In one instance, the board granted Cavazos a bonus of $20,000 after taxes for every month that he continued to work for the district. The increase, described as a “retention incentive,” bolstered his take-home pay by an additional $240,000 annually.

“It’s almost like they’re just convening just to keep giving away their school’s money to this individual,” said David DeMatthews, a professor at the University of Texas Department of Educational Leadership and Policy. “I don’t think teachers that work in that school would feel so great that rather than make those investments into their children, they’re making it into this gentleman’s bank account.”

Board members defended their decision to dole out repeated bonuses to Cavazos, including payments totaling roughly half a million dollars to fully reimburse a withdrawal he made from his retirement fund in 2018 for a “personal emergency.”

They declined to discuss the nature of the personal emergency but said the payments were “the right thing to do” to ensure that Cavazos could retire one day. Board members claimed that a “significant” portion of Cavazos’ compensation came from private donations but would not say how much or provide documents to support their assertion.

The board also said that it rewarded Cavazos for his work leading the district through a “difficult” 2020 separation from its former parent organization, Southwest Key Programs, the Texas-based nonprofit that provides housing for unaccompanied minors who arrive at the southern border.

The split came after The New York Times revealed that Southwest Key’s leaders, including then-CEO Juan Sanchez, had used money from the charter district and its for-profit companies to bolster their pay well beyond the $187,000 federal cap for migrant shelter grants. Sanchez, who also served on Valere’s school board at the time, received $1.5 million in 2017 as the charter struggled with debt and students contended with deteriorating buildings, the Times found. In response to the reporting, a Southwest Key spokesperson disputed that the nonprofit had unfairly taken money from the schools. Sanchez, who resigned in 2019, denied wrongdoing, saying in an interview with ProPublica and the Tribune that his salary did not come from the charter’s coffers.

State records show that the state education agency closed an investigation in 2022 into “conflict of interest, nepotism, and misuse of funds” at Valere. The agency would not provide details on what prompted the probe or share information about its findings.

To piece together Cavazos’ compensation, the newsrooms filed public records requests for payment records and meeting minutes, which the district had not posted online for years. On at least two occasions, Cavazos received payments that initially appeared to have no record of board approval.

Minutes from a January 2024 meeting showed that the board did not vote on a $73,000 payment he later received. When the newsrooms asked about the discrepancy, the board said it provided the reporters with the wrong copy of the minutes and pointed to a different version the district had later posted online that included approval of both the payment, for a life insurance plan, and a car lease.

Another bonus came after a November board meeting attended by a reporter from the news organizations who heard no discussion of the payment. Questioned about when the board approved the bonus, members said they had done so during a closed-door portion of the meeting. After the reporter pointed out that such an action was against state law, board members said they voted after ending the closed session but before allowing the public, including the reporter, back into the meeting room.

Three academics who study school performance and compensation data said they have never seen a school board fully reimburse any employee’s retirement account or approve so many hefty bonuses in such a short period.

Experts, including Klussmann, a former superintendent of a district in Spring Branch, Texas, said that the money should be put toward students’ education. The vast majority of Valere’s students qualify for free and reduced meals and more than a third are English-language learners, which education experts say are often clear indicators that students are at a learning disadvantage.

Valere’s student performance on state exams also lags behind statewide averages, data shows.

Last year, Valere teachers left at a higher rate than in most schools across the state. The turnover has been difficult for Marisol Gauna’s son, who has autism and ADHD. Gauna says he no longer has a special education teacher who works with him one on one to help overcome learning hurdles. As a result, she worries he could fail the eighth grade.

A parent of three children in the district, Gauna was flabbergasted when she learned about Cavazos’ pay from ProPublica and the Tribune. Those funds, she said, could be used to retain teachers, improve sports facilities and provide healthier cafeteria food.

“It should go to the school or even to the teachers so that way there can be good, responsible teachers that want to stay there,” Gauna said.

Article originally published by The Texas Tribune. To read the originally published article, click here.