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This Is Your Texas
This Is Your Texas is a Facebook community for Texans interested in creating a respectful space for diverse perspectives on policy issues. Too often, Texans feel unheard or unrepresented by policy conversations by state leaders. Our group flips the script by enabling people impacted by policy decisions to lead the conversation. Join now.
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This Is Your Texas
How to fix affordable housing in Texas, by Texans
At roundtable discussions in Dallas, Texans identified how expensive housing affects economic mobility and quality of life. And they came up with ideas on how policymakers can help residents.
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This Is Your Texas
Q&A: State Rep. Joe Moody on criminal justice and the Legislature
To close out This is Our Texas’ month-long discussion about criminal justice, we did a Q&A with the Democratic chair of the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee.
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Lawmakers couldn’t agree on property tax reform, but Texas homeowners can still get some relief
Cities, school districts and other local governments can provide discounts on property tax bills through the homestead exemption process. But not all Texans qualify for every exemption.
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This Is Your Texas
Four things experts taught us about civility in a divided era
The Texas Tribune’s Facebook community, This Is Your Texas, spent a month discussing how to improve civil discourse. Here’s what some experts told us.
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This Is Your Texas
Texas schools that want to arm their employees have two choices
Schools can pick between programs known as the school marshal program and the Guardian Plan. Here are four things to know about the two existing initiatives that allow school districts to arm their employees.
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This Is Your Texas
Advocates say arming Texas school employees won’t cost that much. But many districts don’t want to do it.
Experts say it costs about $500 to train a school employee under Texas’ school marshal program. But school leaders say their worries go beyond the cost.
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This Is Your Texas
Voting rights groups say a citizens commission could fix gerrymandering. It’s unlikely to happen.
As the U.S. Supreme Court ponders a Texas redistricting case, a coalition of voting and civil rights groups is pushing to establish an independent commission in which citizens, rather than lawmakers, would draw the state’s political maps.
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In Texas, Democrats can vote in the Republican primary — and vice versa. How do party leaders feel about it?
“If you’re voting in a gubernatorial election … it’s a drop in the bucket,” says one Republican strategist.
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This Is Your Texas
When Texas standardized tests have glitches, special education students can be deeply affected
As thousands of students take the online STAAR assessment were booted from the testing server this week, parents and special education advocates argued that the students most affected by these glitches are the ones most ill-equipped to bounce back.