The latest public education news from The Texas Tribune.
With major state funding cuts looming, for many school districts, it's not a question of if — but how and when — teacher layoffs will occur. A new bipartisan bill from education leaders in the state Senate could temporarily change how schools go about that. Full Story
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Texas school districts are bracing for budget cuts and layoffs in the coming months. And as Ben Philpott of KUT News and the Tribune reports, education advocates are particularly concerned about the state's roll out of STAAR, a new testing system, in 2012. Full Story
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Texas school districts are bracing for budget cuts and layoffs in the coming months. But as Ben Philpott of KUT News and the Tribune reports, the cuts have some worried about 2012, when the state will roll out STAAR, a new testing system. Full Story
At last Wednesday's TribLive conversation, first-term House members Stefani Carter, R-Dallas, Cindy Burkett, R-Mesquite, and Rodney Anderson, R-Grand Prairie, explained why they think deep cuts to public education are possible. Full Story
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Last Wednesday, I sat down with three first-term members of the Texas House — Stefani Carter, R-Dallas; Cindy Burkett, R-Mesquite; and Rodney Anderson, R-Grand Prairie — to talk about their first weeks in office. Full Story
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For the latest installment of our nonscientific survey of political and policy insiders on issues of the moment, we asked whether public education is sufficiently funded in Texas — and how deep the coming cuts are likely to be. Full Story
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Cutting $10 billion public education funding could push more than two-dozen school districts from the group that receives state financing into the group that writes checks to the state to even things out between richer and poorer districts. Full Story
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Charter schools want access to the state's Permanent School Fund, which guarantees bond issues for traditional public schools, allowing them to secure advantageous interest rates. Not everyone is on board — including the traditional public schools. Full Story
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In the latest round of the political feud over $830 million in federal funding, House Republicans, led by U.S. Rep. Michael Burgess, R-Lewisville, passed a bill Saturday that attempts to block the enforcement of the Texas-specific Education Jobs amendment. Full Story
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The best of our best content from Feb. 14 to 18, 2011. Full Story
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Texas, like many other states, is proposing billions of dollars in cuts to help close a budget gap. But as Ben Philpott of KUT News and the Tribune reports, one thing Texas has that nobody else does is $9 billion in a piggy bank called the Rainy Day Fund — and lawmakers are divided over whether to crack it open. Full Story
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A report from a conservative education think tank says social studies standards in Texas give students a distorted and politicized view of history that, in one case, resembles "Soviet schools harping on the glories of state socialism." Full Story
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In an interview with KRLD's Scott Braddock in Dallas, David Anthony, the departing superintendent of the state's third-largest school district, said districts are in a "difficult situation" as they try to meet new student achievement measures while coping with cuts. Full Story
Gov. Rick Perry has said he can't sign an application to receive $10 billion in federal education aid because it requires an assurance he cannot constitutionally make: that the Lege will not use the money to offset state funding of public education. Full Story
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Six months after Congress established the $10 billion Education Jobs Fund to help states retain and hire teachers, Texas is one of only two states that has not received its money. Whether the state will gets it depends on a game of political chicken between Gov. Rick Perry and a certain Austin Democrat. Full Story
The executive director of the Texas Charter Schools Association talks with The Texas Tribune about how cuts in education funding will hit charter schools hardest, and how they can partner with traditional public school districts in "win-win"arrangements — like sharing facilities. Full Story
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Gov. Rick Perry's State of the State speech on Tuesday was part pep rally, part budget proposal, with a dash of national politics. And, as Ben Philpott of KUT News and the Tribune reports, Democrats weren't charmed. Full Story
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State Democratic lawmakers responded to Gov. Rick Perry's State of the State address Tuesday, calling his budget proposals a "Ponzi scheme." Full Story
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That "certain Texas congressman" whom Gov. Rick Perry called out in his address today for blocking federal education money responds. U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett says Perry's jibe "says less about the state of the state and more about his own state of denial." Full Story
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