At our TribLive conversation at the University of Texas at El Paso on 11/16, state Sen. Jose Rodriguez, D-El Paso, and state Reps. Naomi Gonzalez, D-El Paso, and Dee Margo, R-El Paso, discussed cuts to public and higher education and other byproducts of the 82nd Session.
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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Public Education
Survey: Teachers Say Working Conditions, Class Sizes Getting Worse
The Texas branch of the American Federation of Teachers has released the results of a web survey that reports extensive teacher layoffs, increasing class sizes, and deteriorating work conditions following state budget cuts.
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Public Education
With Control at Stake, State Board of Education Races Could Get Ugly
The official filing period for State Board of Education races hasn’t even begun, but the mudslinging certainly has. That’s no surprise: Political control over the divisive board hangs in the balance.
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Economy
Memo to Voters: There’s No Free Lunch
Voters clearly want good schools and nice roads and low taxes. It’s a political and policy question straight out of a business textbook: What’s the right balance of price and quality?
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Criminal Justice
TribWeek: In Case You Missed It
Ramshaw and Root on the debate that dominated the nation’s political news, Tan and Ramshaw on how it will affect Rick Perry’s campaign, Philpott on what “oops” might mean for Perry in South Carolina, Root on what it means in Iowa, Dehn with the latest Weekend Insider video, Galbraith on the split fates of water-related constitutional amendments, Grissom on an arrest in a 1986 murder case, Hamilton on UT-Arlington’s efforts to control tuition costs and M. Smith, Murphy and Gerdau on West Texas schools raising money with wind farms: The best of our best content from November 7 to 11, 2011.
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Guides
Texplainer: What Would Happen if the U.S. Dept. of Education Were Abolished?
Hey, Texplainer: One of the federal agencies Rick Perry managed to remember during Wednesday’s GOP debate is the U.S. Department of Education. He says he wants to close it. But what exactly would that mean?
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Energy
Windfall for Nolan County Schools
Energy development capitalizing on the high winds in West Texas has injected sluggish rural communities with new economic lifeblood. The “windfall” has bestowed hundreds of millions of dollars — an embarrassment of riches — on mostly tiny schools.
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Wind Farms Propel Money Into West Texas Schools
Energy development capitalizing on the high winds in West Texas has injected sluggish rural communities with new economic lifeblood. The “windfall” has bestowed hundreds of millions of dollars on mostly tiny schools.
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Energy
Voters to Decide City Elections, Amendments
It’s Election Day, and voters across the state will decide whether to add 10 amendments to the Texas Constitution. Voters in several cities also will be picking mayors and city council members.
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Health care
Lawsuit Gives Cover to Texas Lawmakers
Judges have been telling legislators what to do since we set up government to replace knife fights and bar brawls. And legislators use the courts to make them do unpopular but necessary things that voters don’t like. School finance, for instance.