Six months after Congress established the $10 billion Education Jobs Fund to help states retain and hire teachers, Texas is one of only two states that has not received its money. Gov. Rick Perry blames a “certain Texas congressman.” U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin, the congressman in question, blames Perry. Don't expect their feud to end any time soon.

With just 56 students, Marathon ISD is one of the state's smallest. But its fate is critical to the West Texas town's survival. And if what is happening here works, it could serve as a model for other towns looking to shield their way of life from the death knell of school closures.

Leaders from school districts across Texas had tough words for lawmakers as they gathered this morning to denounce the "devastating" cuts to state public education funding.

With some top state leaders warning that Texas' dire fiscal situation will lead to the loss of several thousand state jobs, House budget writers will release their first draft budget today. As Ben Philpott of KUT News and the Tribune reports, big job cuts may be just the beginning.

On the letters page of Wednesday's New York Times, U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin, slams Gov. Rick Perry for failing to take $830 million in federal money that Perry and other Republicans complained had strings attached but that Doggett says would have prevented "anti-education 'smoke and mirrors' budgeting" by the state.