Texas Senate passes controversial education bills.

The Texas Senate has passed a bill that would prohibit public universities from granting tenure to newly hired professors. The bill, which passed largely along party lines, now heads to the Texas House, where Speaker Dade Phelan has expressed less interest in doing away with tenure. Faculty and higher education experts say tenure is a vital protection of academic freedom at a university that guards faculty pursuing new ideas or controversial work from being fired or punished.