Attorney General Greg Abbott on a recent federal court ruling prohibiting public prayer during a graduation ceremony in South Texas' Medina Valley Independent School District, in the San Antonio Express-News: "What the ruling demands and commands is that these school officials be both thought and speech police, where they go out and make physical changes to comments that are being made or remove a student who may be saying something.”

Gov. Rick Perry on Monday as Republicans searched for votes to bring up the school finance bill that Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth, filibustered to death Sunday night: "We come here to work. We don't come here to be show horses."

Education consultant Lynn Moak on the difficulty of passing a school finance plan this session: “Nobody has ever done this before. Nobody has ever had the kind of massive cuts to deal with. The Legislature really did not spend any time prior to January trying to work out a game plan, and wrote one as they went along, and it showed.”

U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts on the high court's decision to uphold an Arizona state law that punishes employers who hire unauthorized aliens: "The Immigration Reform and Control Act expressly preempts some state powers dealing with the employment of unauthorized aliens and expressly preserves others.”

Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth, the object of his scorn, in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram: "The sad thing about it is, he's using these issues, these politically charged partisan issues, which will help him probably in his presidential desires, but unfortunately he's using them ... against what we're trying to do on behalf of the schoolchildren that we all still represent in Texas."

An exasperated Rep. Burt Solomons, R-Carrollton, at a hearing on controversial congressional redistricting maps: “It’s a proposal, people. I can assure you there will be some changes.”

Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound, on measures designed to make Medicaid more efficient: “Every day that goes by that this is not implemented, we are losing money.”

House Higher Education Chairman Dan Branch, R-Dallas, on the possibility of adding bonds for campus construction projects to the special session call: "Stay tuned."

Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas, to Sen. Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, arguing about whether to sunset the provisions of her mandate relief bill during a Senate Public Education Committee: "This is an exercise in futility. You have the votes to do what you want."