A bill from state Rep. Rob Eissler modifying how end-of-course exams factor into graduation led House Republicans into a debate over how best to handle student testing during what one called “extraordinary times” in public education.
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
Public Education
House Committee Tackles School Finance
On the heels of a newly approved House budget that leaves public schools $7.8 billion short of what they’re entitled to under current funding formulas, the House Public Education Committee today considered a round of school finance bills.
Posted in
Economy
House Budget Shrinks Spending, Slashes Services
The Texas House started with a $164.5 billion budget and ended with the same total. But lawmakers spent the better part of a weekend making changes inside the budget for 2012-13 before giving it their approval, 98 to 49.
Posted in
Economy
Liveblog: House Debates HB 1
We liveblogged the full debate over HB 1, the House version of the general appropriations bills for the next biennium, which passed late Sunday night 98 to 49.
Posted in
Economy
Plenty of Politics in Budget Amendments
Numbers aren’t all that’s buried in the budget. Lawmakers have filed hundreds of amendments that are political in nature, from repealing in-state tuition for illegal immigrants to trying to push Planned Parenthood out of the family planning business.
Posted in
Public Education
Texas’ Complicated School Finance System: A Primer
The Texas public school finance system, responsible for underwriting the education of the nation’s second-largest student population, is notoriously byzantine. Here’s our layman’s guide to figuring it out.
Posted in
State Government
Eyewitness Identification Bill Tentatively Passes House
A bill to improve how police conduct lineups to solve crimes tentatively passed the Texas House today without opposition.
Posted in
Health care
“Retarded” Likely to Be Struck From Texas Statutes
File this in the “this hasn’t happened yet?” category: The Texas Legislature has taken one big step toward banishing the “R” word from state statutes.
Posted in
Economy
Deep Rift in Beaumont on School Administration
Beaumont’s Carrol A. Thomas, who makes $347,834 annually, is the highest-paid superintendent in Texas, even though his district of about 20,000 students is considerably smaller than those in other Texas cities.
Posted in
Public Education
Senate Finance Adds $5.7 Billion for Public Ed
Senators tried to improve the funding picture for public education on Thursday when the Senate Finance Committee voted 13-2 to add $5.7 billion to its initial proposal. But that’s still about a $4 billion reduction from current levels.
