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Thanks to action from the Legislature during the 89th session, we now have a new state office dedicated to bringing accountability to Texas universities. It will handle any complaints regarding violations of the law by state schools.
Governor Greg Abbott has appointed Brandon L. Simmons, who until recently chaired the Texas Southern University's Board of Regents, as the new Higher Education Ombudsman. He will lead the newly created office.
State Representative Briscoe Cain, who is now running to represent the new Texas 9th District in the U.S. Congress, explained the new state office, saying, "This past session, we passed a law to create a watchdog to investigate complaints about universities ignoring our state laws or misusing funds."
This move follows years of complaints about various Texas higher education institutions either outright violating or trying to sneak around state laws that ban things like DEI and other woke ideologies.
Cain went on to say that this new office could go a long way toward ensuring that state universities are still being held accountable to taxpayers when the Legislature isn't in session. He said, "Our legislature in Texas, as many may know, is very part-time. It's every other year, and so we do need somebody there in that interim to help us with this."