Take a look back at our 2017 public education coverage and read about how the Texas Legislature failed to overhaul the school finance system, how several Texas students and teachers are still recovering from a devastating hurricane, and more.
December 2017
Posted inState Government
Now on the books: What Texas’ newest laws mean for you
This year, new laws went into effect in Texas that do everything from lowering fees for handgun licenses to requiring seat belts on new school buses. Learn more about the state’s newest laws.
Posted in
Congress
U.S. House approves billions more for Harvey relief, measure now heads to Senate
The U.S. House voted for billions more in Hurricane Harvey relief, but the U.S. Senate is not likely to take up the measure until after the holidays.
Posted inState Government
House Ethics Committee expands investigation into U.S. Rep. Blake Farenthold
The U.S. House Ethics Committee announced Thursday it was expanding its investigation into U.S. Rep. Blake Farenthold to explore, among other things, whether he used official resources for his re-election and if he made false statements to the committee.
Posted in
Health care
Texas, feds agree to renew Medicaid funds for safety net hospitals
With a Republican in the White House, top Texas leaders have reached an agreement with the federal government to keep Medicaid money flowing into Texas to help hospitals treat uninsured patients.
Posted inState Government
Paxton: Texans can bring guns to church unless church says otherwise
Attorney General Ken Paxton has clarified that licensed handgun owners can bring their weapons to church as long as the church does not say otherwise — a question raised after the deadly church shooting last month in Sutherland Springs.
Posted in
2017 Year in Review
Heat and a hurricane had a big impact on Texas criminal justice in 2017
Weather-related prison evacuations, legal battles over execution drugs and death sentences, and reform efforts at the Texas Legislature led the state’s criminal justice headlines in 2017.
Posted in
2017 Year in Review
Analyses in the rearview mirror: Bathrooms and GOP politics
2017 was the year when House Speaker Joe Straus found his voice, when the culture conservatives lost out to the business conservatives and when the fault lines that define today’s Texas GOP opened up for everyone to see.
Posted inHigher Education, Public Education
How many Texas eighth-graders from 2005 went on to college?
Use our Texas Higher Ed Outcomes Explorer to track the educational milestones of every student who started eighth grade in a Texas public school between 1997 and 2005. You can see figures broken down by county, ethnicity and other factors.
Posted in
2017 Year in Review
From border wall fight to new “sanctuary” law, immigration dominated Texas news in 2017
President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration garnered a lion’s share of headlines in 2017. But the state’s Republican lawmakers weren’t about to be upstaged by Washington, D.C. on the hot-button issue.
