When political consultants take on wealthy candidates, does that mean they can milk them and their campaigns for all they’re worth? Are they simply trying to help good people get elected? Or both?

One education model — with unproven results — serves almost a third of pre-kindergarteners in Texas. Its grade? Incomplete.

The Rainy Day Fund seems like weather word play waiting to happen. It can plug holes in the budget, defend against an economic perfect storm and keep the deficit clouds at bay. That’s certainly how some see it when looking at the next biennium's projected shortfalls.

The stimulus money increased funding for education last session. But can the state keep it up next session without more federal money?

Sorry, retired teachers and other public employees: You'll have to do without that extra $500 you were expecting. And you shouldn't count on any additional benefits next year — not if the state pension fund continues to be, in the words on one state senator, "actuarially unsound."

The State Board of Education, which has showcased some intense philosophical fights, has drawn scrutiny for becoming a partisan battleground. For now, members are just trying to get along — but the rifts are as big as ever.

Kay Bailey Hutchison won't resign from the Senate to run for governor. Hutchison and her aides began calling other Republicans Friday afternoon to tell them to make other plans.

Districts prepare to go to court with the TEA over minimum grades policies, prompting the question: How much should schools emulate the real world? And how many second chances should students get?

The federal government is giving away $4.35 billion to state education systems through Race to the Top. But is Texas already out? 

State schools chief Robert Scott recently failed to get the Legislature to increase the cap on charter schools — then found a legal way to do it anyway, much to the dismay of state Democrats and teachers unions.

Federal officials say Texas' testing standards in reading are below the “basic” proficiency standards — and that low bar means  those passing the TAKS may not be as proficient as advertised.

Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison is playing a high stakes game of will-she-won't-she. So should she or shouldn't she?

So what if he's no longer the chair of the State Board of Education? Self-described "religious fanatic" Don McLeroy has big plans for Texas education — and science is just the beginning.

“I represent a district that has 80 percent renters, 70 percent of people speaking a first language other than English, where there’s a high school with 42 languages and 40 percent turnover of the student body every year — now tell me how you plan to calculate the dropout rate,” Rep. Scott Hochberg said. “I will stipulate that it’s too big — let’s just start there. I wish we fought over solutions as much as we fight over the number.”

Despite years of research, the true picture of dropout and graduation rates remains elusive, even the subject of cross words between researchers. The consensus: Far too many Texas public school students, particularly those from poor and minority families, don’t cross the high-school finish line.