Few members of the State Board of Education have finance expertise. Should we be concerned that they manage the investments of the $23 billion Permanent School Fund?
Economy
Get the latest on jobs, business, growth, and policy shaping the state’s economy with in-depth reporting from The Texas Tribune.
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Demographics
Ticked
The worst outbreak of fever-tick infestations in South Texas in four decades has ranchers and animal-health officials scrambling to prevent not just a loss of billions to the state cattle’s industry but an outright ban on our cattle.
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Economy
TribBlog: Where’s the Stimulus?
Texas ranks poorly among the states when it comes to letting taxpayers know how it’s using federal stimulus dollars, according to a report released today by several nonprofit public interest groups.
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Economy
Their State of the State
Governors across the country have been delivering their state report cards in January — but not in Texas, where the State of the State address is only given during odd-numbered years, when the Legislature is in session. Ben Philpott, reporting on politics for KUT News and the Tribune, asked people from different sectors of the economy to offer their own outlook for Texas in 2010.
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Demographics
Latinos and the Pay Gap
In Texas, they earn 35 percent less than their Anglo counterparts — a disparity that’s bigger here than elsewhere. Is it because of education, age, discrimination, or some combination of the above?
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Economy
The Tuition Time Bomb
It costs an average of 63 percent more to attend a four-year state school today than it did in 2003 — and that’s still not enough to keep pace with bulging university budgets. Some policy makers see the higher education business model on the cusp of collapse.
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Economy
TribBlog: Snip, Snip
No surprise here, but still: State leaders want state agencies to cut five percent from their current budgets “due to the uncertainty of the state’s short-term economic future, as well as potentially substantial long-term costs associated with the passage of federal legislation currently being debated in Washington, D.C.”
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Economy
Out of the Race
Texas will not apply for Race for the Top, the one-time federal grant worth up to $700 million for the state. Texas Education Commissioner Robert Scott cited strings attached to the potential money: “It was chock full of burdens. Their overall policy was to control curriculum across the country.”