Gov. Rick Perry isn’t backing down from his push for a “no-frills” approach to higher education. He wants students to move and be moved through the system quickly and efficiently. And if that wasn’t clear enough already, he underscored it with his veto pen.
June 2011
Posted in
State Government
Next Time?
Now that lawmakers have drawn, approved and sent congressional redistricting maps to the governor for approval, the Senate voted to hand future mapmaking to a bipartisan, non-legislative commission.
Posted in
Public Education
Staying After School
The special session hasn’t done much to alter the school finance plan that dragged lawmakers into overtime.
Posted in
Demographics
No Sanctuary
Precious days are dwindling away in the first-called special session of the state legislature, leading to speculation that one of the most divisive issues of the regular and special session, the “sanctuary cities” legislation, may not make the deadline.
Posted in
State Government
A Legislative Vortex
Gov. Rick Perry is promising to bring lawmakers back for another special session if they can’t dig their way out of the TWIA hole.
Posted in
State Government
Summer Reruns
The bill numbers have been changed to protect the innocent. If you had left Austin for a couple of weeks starting, say, right after the regular session, you’d have returned to find new congressional maps in place and little else to show for the special session.
Posted in
Higher Education
Audio: Student Leaders Discuss Higher Ed Reform
Natalie Butler and Christopher Covo, are both student leaders from public universities in Texas. But they find themselves on different sides of the state’s ongoing higher education reform debate.
Posted in
Higher Education
Groups Positioning For Long Higher Ed Debate
With multiple third-party organizations cropping up, along with a new Legislature-created oversight committee, expect a protracted debate about how best to tackle the state’s higher ed problems.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
TribWeek: In Case You Missed It
An Everybody-in-the-Pool effort on what’s left to do in the special session, Ramshaw on a doozy of a congressional race shaping up, Aguilar on the debate over sanctuary cities and other immigration proposals, M. Smith on the state’s used-up Rainy Day Fund, Grissom on efforts to kick the special interests out of an insurance fight, Dehn and Tan on whether the special session helps or hurts the governor’s national ambitions, Galbraith and KUT Radio team up for a series on the long-term outlook for Central Texas water, Aaronson on government attempts to balance openness and privacy with data releases, yours truly on Amazon’s run at a sales tax break, and Hamilton on an ethnic gap in higher education: The best of our best from June 20 to 24, 2011.
Posted in
State Government
Video: The Week in Texas Politics Recap: June 20 to 24, 2011
Want a quick recap of some of the happenings this week in the Texas Legislature? We’ve made it easier for you with our weekly video rundown of the action under the dome.