Every Friday morning, I join the Cardle and Woolley show on 1370 Talk Radio in Austin to discuss the week’s Winners & Losers. While the Texas Big 3—Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and House Speaker Dustin Burrows—get a big thumbs up for telling state agencies to trim their budgets by 3%, here’s who made the list:
WINNER: Dolly Parton, The One Thing Americans Agree On
It has been a while since America has had such a sad loss as the great Dolly Parton—an artist, philanthropist and philosopher who rose up from poverty and represented the best of America—the spirit of our story. In these divisive times, Dolly Parton has been called the only thing most Americans agree on. We all miss her already.
WINNER: U of H Cleans Up Core Curriculum
Gov. Abbott’s directive to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board this week to develop a three year degree option is a Winner move, coming alongside the announcement by University of Houston that the Board of Regents has cut 40% of its core curriculum classes, which few could argue were integral to a college education.
U of H Professor David Mazella, a member of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), loudly disagreed, charging that U of H is following the path of former Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orban. Mazella called the curriculum changes an “Orbanization of Higher Ed in Texas.”
Of course, nobody has any idea what he means (and fewer than 5% of Texas professors belong to the AAUP), and there are a couple holes in the media reporting of this story.
First, almost all the media reported that classes that were cut included Introduction to Global Climate Change, Introduction to LGBT Studies and Black Liberation Theology in order to push the narrative that there has been some kind of Republican purge of U of H’s sacred body of knowledge. No media outlet mentioned that the cuts also included Homer to Hollywood, the Bible and Modern Pop Culture and a History of Jewish Food. Keep in mind that these are courses anyone could take and get credit toward a degree.
The media also did not look at the courses that remain in the Core Curriculum. Sure, Intro to Climate Change is gone, but the Core Curriculum includes Environmental Science, Earth Systems and Natural Disasters. A student can still take LGBTQ studies as an elective, but that was no comfort to the AAUP as Professor Mazella told Inside Higher Ed, “We are under enrollment pressures…if these courses do not satisfy core requirements, they go away.”
What the professor means is if there’s no credit for these classes, no one will take them and professors will have to teach something substantive—or lose their jobs.
LOSER: Texas A&M Victoria Professors Working 9-to-5
Meanwhile, professors at Texas A&M-Victoria are outraged by an “abrupt policy change” that requires all full-time faculty to spend 40 hours a week on campus, as dictated by Senate Bill 2615, passed last legislative session.
Truth is, it wasn’t that abrupt. Senate Bill 2615 passed the Texas Legislature on May 30, 2025. Texas A&M-Victoria faculty were reminded in June that law had changed and they would be expected to comply. On July 15, faculty were required to sign a form clarifying that they understood the new requirement. Still, this week, Teresa Klein, head of the Texas Chapter of the AAUP, said “the timing of the impromptu mandate has left many faculty scrambling to rearrange their schedules to accommodate, negatively affecting their professional and personal lives.”
Of course, she also said it was probably sexist (“having a possible disproportional, discriminatory and disparate negative effect on female faculty”).
Klein told the Houston Chronicle that many faculty are resigning as a result of the rule, but so far it is not clear what she means by “many.”
When the Higher Education Reform Bill (SB 37) was passed in 2023, the AAUP predicted it would cause a giant “brain drain” in state universities, because professors would leave. They didn’t. In 2021, the AAUP predicted nobody would teach in Texas after the anti-DEI Bill (SB 17) passed. They also said students wouldn’t want to come to Texas—but college enrollment is up across the state, and university leaders told the Senate Higher Education Committee earlier this summer that there has been no exodus of faculty. The University of Texas just welcomed 150 new faculty members this year and student applications broke 100,000—the highest number ever.
LOSER: CBC Won’t Call 9/11 a ‘Terrorist’ Event
The Senior Director of Journalistic Standards and Public Trust at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) directed news reporters not to describe the attack on the U.S. on September 11, 2001 as a “terrorist attack.” With the 25th anniversary of the attacks coming up next week, the CBC official wanted to make sure she got her message out early, emphasizing her directive: “Do not refer to the Sept. 11 attacks as terrorist attacks,” by making the sentence both bold and in italics. Instead, she said news stories should report that: “The hijackings led to passenger jet crashes.”
This inexplicable idiocy undoubtedly will be a boost in popularity for Trump’s decision to rename Lake Ontario. I am looking for a place to buy a LAKE AMERICA tee shirt.
WINNER: Buc-ee’s Says No to Blue States
The legendary Texas gas station chain Buc-ee’s announced this week that it will no longer bother expanding its business into blue states. Announcing the Texas firm’s new outreach into Arkansas, Buc-cees CEO Arch Alpin made it clear that operating in “conservative, business-friendly” states makes a difference. We learned during the World Cup that people around the world love Buc-ee’s—not just Texans. Bad policies are why blue states can’t have nice things.
LOSER: Federal Judge Rules in Support of Drag Shows for Kids
Federal Judge David Hittner, from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, ruled this week that Senate Bill 12, which bans drag shows for children, is unconstitutional. I wrote about this earlier this summer—Why Can’t We Get Rid of Drag Queen Story Hour? The only update is Judge Hittner’s ruling is one more reason why we can’t get rid of Drag Queen story hours.
LOSER: Good Good Golf Makes Awful Awful Ad
While we wait for college football to begin next week, we want to make sure readers don’t miss this very weird story in the golf world that involves the now former title sponsor of the PGA Tournament at Barton Creek in November, Good Good Golf.
This week, Good Good put out this ad for Calloway’s new driver which depicts a male golfer pushing a woman down on a golf course. You can watch the ad here but the plot is simple—four or five young male golfers are standing around a putting green when a young woman walks up from the other side and reaches to pull a club out of a golf bag. Immediately, one of the young men runs up and forces her to the ground, then leans over her and bellows, “Do NOT TOUCH my new driver.”
Every golfer knows that if anything like that actually happened in real life—and it virtually never does—a half dozen other golfers would have punched the guy out before the golf cops arrived and escorted him off the course.
Callaway apologized immediately, explaining the ad had been made by Good Good—but they admitted they’d signed off on it. Blowback was swift and deserved. The Golf Channel has just postponed a new show Good Good was sponsoring because other companies started pulling out. We’ll see what happens with Austin’s upcoming tournament.
Have a great weekend!
Listen to Winners & Losers on Talk 1370, the Cardle & Woolley show, every Friday morning at 8:30 a.m. Here’s the listen live link.
Sign up to receive the weekly newsletter at www.texaspolicy.com/9thandCongress.
Follow Sherry on X @sylvester1630 and find her on Substack at sherrysylvester.substack.com.