The latest public education news from The Texas Tribune.
The Obama administration’s education budget includes $900 million for the Race to the Top program. And this time around, there’s a twist: Individual districts — as opposed to states — can apply for the funds. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/RaceToTop.jpg)
Protecting education and recognizing that the rapidly growing Hispanic population will gain a major political voice in Texas were themes that emerged Monday at the Tribune's “New Day Rising” forum. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/0f4c0b57acc88a50c520c0ea1448d358/BD%20INC%20Politics%20and%20Governance%2001%202011)
Corpus Christi's Flour Bluff ISD has blocked extracurricular clubs from meeting on campus to make sure it's complying with federal law after denying approval of a gay-straight alliance. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/Classroom.jpg)
The best of our best content from Feb. 21 to 25, 2011. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/tribweek-feb262011.png)
For lawmakers scrutinizing every possible saving, “administrative costs” presents an easy mark. But there may be less to cut than they imagine. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/SchoolFundingCuts.jpg)
Some state lawmakers are hoping a new state constitutional amendment will bring an end to the so-called Robin Hood school finance system, as Texas Public Radio's David Martin Davies reports. Full Story
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
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/4c332c4ee8f50dff409bd4b4e0e90fc5/BD%20INC%20Shapiro%2001%202011)
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
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/20100720_Sen_Educ_Comm_MG_5226x.jpg)
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
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
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/NewGuys_Still.jpg)
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
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/videos/NewGuys_Still_1.jpg)
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
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/Education-Funding.jpg)
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
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/inside_intelligence-logo_1.png){kind=logo}
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
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/TxTrib-AusDiscoverySchool-SM007.JPG)
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
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/603df418e072af8b5391eeaca517b628/DO%20NOT%20USE%20Perry%20Dogget%20Side%20by%20Side%202011)
The best of our best content from Feb. 14 to 18, 2011. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/TribeekFeb192011.png)
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/videos/Screen_shot_2011-02-16_at_2.16.44_PM.png)
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
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/TexasMoneyTree.jpg)
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
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/us-textbooks.jpg)
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