Texans are well aware of the fact that their Republican politicians are remarkably vile. Somehow Ken Paxton has a chance of winning election, in spite of being quite possibly the most corrupt politician in America. Also in the running, though,is Greg Abbott, who has been actively undermining public education.

Schools in Texas are wildly underfunded, with hundreds having to reduce students to four days a week. This is very much by Abbott’s design. As Jessica Grose of the New York Times explained on Oct. 7, the governor signed into law a voucher program whose entire purpose is paying parents to take kids out of school and put them into unregulated “alternatives” — such as private schools or homeschooling — that have no real requirements to offer children an actual education. Since local school funding is tied to student head count, this has created a backdoor way to funnel money out of already-struggling public schools.

So don’t vote for Abbott. That’ll fix the problem, right? Get him out of office and everything will get all better.

Nope. The real problem is Texas billionaires.

Money is the likeliest answer. As Grose notes, Abbott’s war on education is backed by three powerful Texas billionaires — and major conservative donors — Tim Dunn and a pair of brothers, Farris and Dan Wilks. The trio made their fortunes in oil. But their single-minded hatred of public schools is rooted in evangelical Christianity.

“If you ever wonder why state laws and policies are more radical than most Texans would prefer, the answer has a lot to do with Dunn and his checkbook,” Russell Gold wrote in Texas Monthly in 2024. The same is true of the Filks brothers, who share Dunn’s dream of turning Texas into a far-right Christian theocracy.

As is familiar, billionaires are the problem, and especially Christian billionaires. Fundamentalist Muslim billionaires would be just as damaging, but the Christian billionaires would fight back.

You notice, the citizens of Texas don’t count. This would have to be a kaiju battle.