Ramsey on what a GOP supermajority means, Ramshaw on a crime victim not eligible for crime victims’ compensation, M. Smith on grave matters and state regulation, Hamilton on the college pipeline at San Antonio’s Jefferson High, Hu on a senator’s anticlimactic return, Grissom on the coming closure of juvenile lockups, Aguilar on the return of residents to their drug-war-torn Mexican town, Galbraith on next session’s energy agenda, Philpott on the legal fight over federal health care reform and Stiles on the travel expenses of House members: The best of our best from Dec. 13 to 17, 2010.
Higher Education
Coverage of universities, colleges, student issues, and education policy shaping Texas’ campuses, from The Texas Tribune.
Posted in
Higher Education
Him Again
State Sen. Jeff Wentworth, R-San Antonio, wasn’t expected back at the Capitol this session after seeking two high-profile higher education jobs over the summer. But both opportunities fizzled, and now the 70-year-old says he’s “gunned up and ready to go” for his seventh term in the Senate — even if he’ll return with clout resembling that of a freshman. He’s without the aides who knew him best and stripped of the Jurisprudence Committee he used to chair. Still, his insistence on putting his own political views ahead of his party’s could make him a key player at a time when Senate Republicans are a few votes short of a two-thirds majority.
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Higher Education
Free Advice
The interim principal of San Antonio’s Thomas Jefferson High believes that the current juniors will be the school’s first with a 100 percent graduation rate and that many will go on to respected universities. One key factor: Allison Najera, a 2010 University of Texas graduate placed at Jefferson through a new program: the Texas College Advising Corps.
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Higher Education
Deflated?
Over the last 12 years, the University of Texas has increased its merchandising royalties from $600,000 to, most recently, a one-year haul of more than $10.1 million. Not coincidentally, during that period the Longhorns excelled on the football field. This year, however, saw the team’s first losing season since 1997, ending without a bowl game. After enjoying the financial benefits of prolonged success, what will be the cost of failure? And how will it impact UT’s $3 billion capital campaign?
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Higher Education
TribBlog: Taking On Tarleton
Today, leaders from journalism and First Amendment advocacy groups sent a letter to Tarleton State University challenging a controversial and restrictive open-records policy.
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Energy
John Nielsen-Gammon Audio Interview
An audio interview with John Nielsen-Gammon, Texas’s state climatologist
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Criminal Justice
John Nielsen-Gammon: The TT Interview
The Texas state climatologist on the reasons for rising temperatures, why international science on climate change is fundamentally sound (no matter what state officials say), what he thinks of our fight with the EPA and how long the drought in Central Texas is likely to continue.
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Higher Education
TribBlog: Texans OK With Some Higher Ed Cuts
A new survey commissioned by the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative think tank, finds that 80 percent of Texas voters believe that colleges and universities could be run more efficiently than they are now.
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Higher Education
A Conversation With Dan Branch
For the 18th event in our TribLive series, I interviewed the Dallas Republican who chairs the House Higher Education Committee about the speaker’s race, how the shortfall runs smack into the ambitious plans of universities and why tying funding to outcomes is the best accountability that tax dollars can buy.
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Demographics
TribWeek: In Case You Missed It
M. Smith and Butrymowicz of the Hechinger Institute on charter schools and public schools making nice in the Valley, Ramsey’s interview with House Speaker candidate Ken Paxton and column on the coming budget carnage, Hu on the Legislature’s disappearing white Democratic women, Grissom on the sheriff who busted Willie Nelson, Hamilton talks higher ed accountability with the chair of the Governor’s Business Council, Aguilar on the arrest of a cartel kingpin, Ramshaw on the explosive growth in the number of adult Texans with diabetes, Philpott on state incentive funding under fire and Galbraith on the greening of Houston: The best of our best from November 29 to December 3, 2010.