For this week’s nonscientific survey of government and political insiders, we asked what will dominate the next legislative session and about the odds for school vouchers, high-stakes testing and a Medicaid expansion.
Public Education
Explore The Texas Tribune’s coverage of public education, from K-12 schools and funding to teachers, students, and policies shaping classrooms across Texas.
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Guides
Texplainer: What if Texas Schools Don’t Meet Federal Benchmarks?
Under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, Texas public schools are supposed to have 100 percent passing rates in reading and math by 2014. The chances of meeting that benchmark are slim. So what happens next?
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Public Education
Texas Weekly Newsreel: Property Tax, Speed Limit, PAC Money
This week on the Newsreel, a look at property taxes versus sales taxes, 85-mph speed limits and Super PAC contributions from Texas.
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Public Education
Comparing School District Expenses Has Challenges
Because of the complexity of school finance, it’s tempting to turn to per-student spending to understand how well — or how poorly — a district is spending its money. But that approach has its perils.
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Energy
Weekend Insider: Pocket Prairies, School Spending
Houston conservationists reintroduce native plants to the area, and we examine how much money school districts spend per student.
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Public Education
New Online Marketplace Emerges After Changes to Textbook Buying Law
In 2011, Texas drastically changed the way it regulates school district purchases of instructional materials. Last week, a new online marketplace opened, giving districts more than 100,000 options to exercise their newfound freedoms.
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Public Education
In Hard Times, Staffing at Schools Closely Watched
How school districts manage personnel costs will be increasingly monitored as debate over efficiency progresses — as will the ways they have coped with the loss of roughly 25,000 employees they shed before the 2011-12 school year.
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Public Education
A New Run at School Choice
Despite a half-hearted attempt at the end of the 2011 legislative session, the last real grasp lawmakers made at passing private school vouchers was in 2007. But that could soon change.
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Public Education
San Antonio City Council OKs Castro’s Pre-K Proposal
An initiative from San Antonio Mayor Julián Castro that would direct a portion of sales tax revenue to fund full-day pre-kindergarten unanimously passed the City Council, leaving it for voters to approve in November.
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Public Education
Testing Firm Hits Back Against Claims of Flaws
After a UT-Austin professor’s research suggested a flaw in the design of the state’s standardized tests, an official with the testing vendor said the firm welcomes an “open dialogue” based on well-founded evidence — but not what he called “wild conclusions.”