To improve pre-kindergarten education, Texas schools should keep class sizes small and student-teacher ratios low, according to a newly released state report.
Morgan Smith
Morgan Smith was a reporter at the Tribune from 2009 to 2018, covering politics, public education and inequality.
In 2013, she received a National Education Writers Association award for “Death of a District,” a series on school closures. After earning a bachelor’s degree in English from Wellesley College, she moved to Austin in 2008 to enter law school at the University of Texas.
A San Antonio native, her work has also appeared in Slate, where she spent a year as an editorial intern in Washington D.C.
Posted in
Health care
Which Texas Schools Have the Highest Rates of Vaccine Exemptions?
The number of Texas students with non-medical exemptions to school immunization laws has soared statewide in the last decade. How does your school district fare? Check out our handy search tool to find out.
Posted in
Health care
New Child Welfare Chief Asks Lawmakers for Cooperation
The new chief of the state’s beleaguered child welfare system had a clear message for Texas lawmakers Tuesday: Time has run out for business as usual.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
Dallas Attack Tests City’s Progress in Police Relations
A fragile peace settled over Dallas one day after a sniper caused the worst loss of police officer lives since September 11, but beneath calls for unity tension simmered.
Posted in
Politics
Texas AG Shopped Transgender Policy to Second School District
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton approached at least one other North Texas school district about adopting the transgender student bathroom policy that is now the center of his lawsuit against the Obama administration.
Posted in
Politics
Texas, 10 Other States, Sue Over Obama Transgender Policy
Texas, joined by 10 other states, filed a lawsuit Wednesday to stop a federal directive instructing school districts to let transgender students use the bathroom that corresponds with their gender identity, state officials announced.
Posted in
Politics
Texas House Runoff Turns Ugly in Final Days
An already bitter Republican primary runoff for a Texas house seat has turned uglier in the final days before early voting begins as court filings from one candidate’s divorce and child custody battle take center stage.
Posted inState Government
Senators Talk Interstate Border Security Compact
Also, former Houston Mayor Annise Parker comes back home to teach at her alma mater, Rice University.
Posted in
Politics
Paxton Uses State Protection for Frequent North Texas Trips
For the past year, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has used taxpayer-funded security teams and drivers to travel at least twice and as many as four times a month to North Texas where he has a home and businesses, according to records obtained by The Texas Tribune.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
Former Paxton Aide: I Didn’t Ask For Departure Deal
Allison Castle, a former aide to Attorney General Ken Paxton, said Friday that he asked her to resign her post and that she did not ask for nor negotiate a now-controversial departure package.