VanDeaver visits Cass County as new Rep

The District 1 Texas Representative dropped by Thursday at Historic Cass County Courthouse in Linden as a part of his listening tour before session picks back up.

Rep. Gary VanDeaver said he is happy to serve in his district, which formerly comprised Bowie, Franklin, Lamar, and Red River counties. As a result of redistricting in 2022, VanDeaver’s district now includes Cass.

“Due to redistricting, District 1 has dropped off Franklin county and picked up Cass and Morris Counties,” VanDeaver said, addressing citizens. “Before the session, we do a listening tour so that I can listen while you tell me what’s on your mind.”

After the legislative session, representatives hold similar tours called town halls, where they again visit their district and discuss the legislative session.

“Then for 140 days, we come home and live under the laws we pass,” VanDeaver said.

The house filed nearly 10,000 bills last session before, VanDeaver said, before he gave an overview addressing some of the concerns he had heard recently from other parts of his constituency.

“I just really marvel at the foresight of our forefathers for the system they put in place here in Texas,” VanDeaver said. “It’s a really good system. Another great idea they had was that we have to have a balanced budget.” “In Texas, we can’t have a deficit and a lot of states in this country could only dream of that kind of stability,” he said.

Some topics of noted concern he had recently heard included border security, critical theory, gender modification, school libraries, abortion, gun safety, inflation, ongoing drought and teacher shortages among others, he said.

“Those are big, statewide issues,” VanDeaver said. “We spend a lot of our staff time on things that come directly out of this district to make life better for Texans.”

Another example was that lawmakers are filing a bill to allow virtual depositions to continue, after a Bowie County Judge talked about how helpful they were during the pandemic. They decided that allowing virtual depositions would greatly benefit rural Texas areas, where it could be a hardship for some having to travel from a very rural area, to a larger city like Texarkana.

VanDeaver said he supports local decisions regarding serious teacher shortages–like one county who has chosen to switch from five school days per week to four. Van-Deaver said that the only concern he might have is whether or not educational goals can be met in that time frame.

“Internet access is really a necessity,” VanDeaver said, adding that about 7 million Texans don’t have access to the internet, something they are working to remedy. During the pandemic, many had to conduct school virtually–a problem for those who did not have internet access that HB 5 is meant to remedy.

Internet access is important for using Telehealth–a way in which one can visit their doctor virtually. This is, again, because it can be a hardship for those in more rural areas to drive to places like Tyler to see a doctor.

“Small, rural community colleges are about to go away without adequate funding,” VanDeaver said. “They have a small tax base to pull from.”

Cass County resident Earl Cuban voiced his concerns on what he called the capture of institutions by Marxist ideology. This type of Marxism, Cuban said, is more akin to religion and comes from the works of a Marxist Brazilian educator named Paul Freire and his book ‘Pedagogy of the Oppressed’.

Cuban said Freire believed that education was a means to building a “critical consciousness” or a hierarchy of oppression.

“When, in the 1960’s, the Supreme Court ruled that Marxism isn’t a religion, they were wrong,” Cuban said. “It’s all in (Freire’s) book … a works based religion that morally obligates a set of beliefs with the intention of setting them into practice.”

“They want to take your children and turn them into activists,” he said. “The entire educational system is captured.”

Cuban said the Marxist ideology–or religion, as he sees it–is a critical theory that’s not based solely upon race, but upon an oppression hierarchy. Gender modifications of children also fall under what Cuban called the “Marxist religion” or critical theory.

“They are creating child activists that will then turn into adult activists,” Cuban said, recommending others look at the work of author James Lindsay, who he said amplifies objective truths over what he deems postmodern subjectivity.

Local Paul Hale discussed a few things he was unhappy about. Hale said he went to visit the capitol in 2021.

“We had a few things that passed that pleased me,” Hale said. “We did have eight priorities that our community put before the committee that were very watered down when handed back to us.”

Hale was concerned with what he called the transgender issue and the effect of gender ideology on kids throughout the nation.

“We have a republican government,” Hale said. “Our representation is Republican. Red everywhere in Texas– Republican, that’s what I call ‘red’. We’ve got 237 red counties out of 254 in Texas.”

“Why can’t we stop this abominable aberration,” Hale asked. “We’re talking about puberty blockers (administered) to little kids. It doesn’t change sex and (it is) taking their sexual desires away from them (for life). We don’t allow a doctor to decide that we cut off a healthy boys arm off but in some places they say it’s perfectly find to cut a child’s (sex organ) off.”

“God will hold us accountable for what we do and what we don’t do,” Hale said.

In response VanDeaver said he didn’t disagree with Hale. “I think to say there are certain things to be outlawed,” VanDeaver said. “I don’t disagree with you.”

A woman in the crowd spoke up in support of Hale and talked about the quality of books being sent into school libraries from out of state.

“Not only what Paul is talking about, but the books in our school system, they are coming from California,” she said. Without an outside audit, she said “The school will have to allow it.”

“Legislation really needs to step in and take a look at some of these books,” she added.

Someone mentioned schools throughout the country have ordered books and materials for school libraries, only to find that when they get the order in, there will sometimes be sexually explicit material aimed at school aged kids packaged alongside the ordered materials.

“We don’t want sexually explicit books or pornography in our schools,” VanDeaver said.

VanDeaver agreed that he had seen some of the types of books that were being talked about and the inappropriate nature of said books. Age appropriateness is important when it comes to reading materials for school aged children, he said.

“We don’t want to get on a slippery slope of banning books,” VanDeaver said, reminding that totalitarian regimes often start off with book banning/taking materials away from their citizens.

“We absolutely do not want pure pornography,” Van-Deaver reiterated. “But we have to be careful when we start talking about censoring or banning books.”

Cuban spoke up about school culture and how he felt Marxism slips in like a social contagion through gender activism, which he said is beneath the Marxist umbrella, causing children to question objective reality and truth.

“There is a culture in these schools now where, one in one class changes (gender) and then it spreads to all the other classes–like a virus,” Cuban said.

“We are there for a purpose, to educate our children,” VanDeaver replied. “(Educators) have kids coming from homes where they are having to deal with things that you and I maybe never had to deal with.”

“Our job (as educators) is to make wise decisions, nurture the children and meet them where they are at–whatever type of life they’ve had,” he added.

VanDeaver said that schools are a reflection of our society.

“We nurture these children, meet them where they are, but in a way that does not include indoctrination or brainwashing,” VanDeaver said. Paige Brock, Linden ISD business manager then spoke up on fiscal aspects of school business.

“I work in finance–and we don’t get enough and I know that,” Brock said. “But the way we finance school districts is unnecessarily complex.” VanDeaver nodded in agreement.

“It is, it’s very complex,” he said. “And it lends itself to small rural schools not getting their share because they don’t have the staff to process.”

HB 5, he said, supplements some of this by giving weights to and for basic allotments for programs like the Gifted & Talented (GT) program, among others.

Another man asked VanDeaver about vouchers for school funding that would allow parents to take kids out of public school and send them to a school where “they are better matched.”

VanDeaver said he doesn’t believe in vouchers, however. “The only way that works, the voucher has to follow that child to whatever school the parent chooses to enroll them in,” he said. A voucher, he explained, would mean that a private school would have to take any child–even if they weren’t equipped to meet that child’s needs.

“Sending state money without accountability,” Van-Deaver said. “Private schools are still going to charge extra tuition. But I support parent’s rights to choose what type of education their child gets.”

VanDeaver said many in the Texas legislature have no concept of what life is like in rural Texas.

“The struggle is real,” he said. VanDeaver mentions how things like Telehealth help, but said that clearly doesn’t solve everything because sometimes, folks have to get to the doctor in person.

Hale brought up election security and said we don’t have any election laws in Texas.

“Lt. Gov Dan Patrick apologized, he owned it,” Hale said. “He said we are going to get this right. You’re in the House, are we gonna get this done?”

VanDeaver said he couldn’t be sure of the accuracy of that narrative but said “we want to make it easy to vote and hard to cheat.”

Local Brit Lowery brought up the Marvin Nichols controversy and mentioned how at a baseball game, her group was paying for bottles of water that were marked Dallas that undoubtedly came from the reservoir.

“We do see this as an unprecedented land grab here in North East Texas,” Vandeaver said.

VanDeaver said plainly he wasn’t sure if it could be stopped, but there has been much in the works regarding meetings about slowing or stopping the Marvin Nichols reservoir.

“They are stealing our water and selling it back to us,” someone said.

“It’s a heck of a business plan isn’t it,” said Cass County Judge Travis Ransom, shaking his head.

Ransom stood to recognize nearly a dozen Level IV BSN student nurses who had attended from Texas A&M University– Texarkana with their instructor. In 2015, VanDeaver had helped secure $ 32M in funds for a brand new facility for medical studies at the Texarkana University, where the student nurses are expected to graduate in a few short months, Ransom said.

“Now, these students are now going to graduate from a state-of-the-art facility thanks to that,” Ransom said. “Isn’t it good to see the fruits of your labor?”

“It is wonderful,” Vandeaver said. Ransom thanked the representative for coming to Cass County often and VanDeaver lauded his Chief of Staff Trish Conradt and Administrator Sharon for all their hard work.

“If you call the office, you’ll probably talk to one of them,” VanDeaver said. “Just know that when you get them, you are getting the A Team.”