Basic Constitutional Principles

this is certainly a collection of words https://t.co/SdyoYZEHr4

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 11, 2021

I know it's more honored in the breach than in the keeping, but the principle of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence that preceded it, is that power flows from the people to the President (and the Congress).  Not the other way around.

I know Trump didn’t understand that, but there’s no excuse for the junior Senator from Texas being so pug ignorant.

Speaking of which:

The King Of Awful Timing Has Thoughts https://t.co/C13BhzF0L3

— Charles P. Pierce (@CharlesPPierce) March 12, 2021

In Texas, not even the governor can close or reopen schools. They are separate governmental entities which collect their own taxes and are run by locally elected officials who don't answer directly to any other state official. The Texas Education Agency can set broad guidelines for when schools should open; mostly they can set how many school days each district must devote to education; but when those school districts open, close, and go on vacation (spring break, Xmas, Thanksgiving, etc.) is totally up to the districts. (TEA is a separate governmental entity with elected officials running it; they don't answer to the Governor, either.)

I mention this because the POTUS has no authority over schools in Texas whatsoever, or in any state in the Union, for that matter.  Not even the governor of Texas has authority here.  Aside from the fact it's March, Spring Break for most school districts starts next week, and the semester ends in about 10 weeks, with Easter break still to come.  And TEA has told schools they can enforce mask mandates or close schools largely as their districts see fit.  And frankly, at this point, no sane parent wants to change the school calendar as drastically as Cruz is calling for.  And if TEA decided to go tyrannical and tell schools to return to the classroom before the month ends, most school districts would respond "You and what army?"  They are planning the fall semester right now, trying to decide how to return to class, or if to do so; returning to classrooms for all students and teachers is a non-option, even if covid were known to have disappeared as completely as the last President said it would.

This is entirely Cruz shouting into the empty room of FoxNews, hoping to get more than an echo in response.  Another collection of words, in other words.