The primary elections come in less than five months. The general election is about a year away. When that’s all out of the way, we’ll all be talking about lawsuits — some that have been filed, some that will be filed later — on school finance and franchise taxes.
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
Schooling the GOP
As the field of candidates shapes up for the March 2012 primaries, a new — at least since last election cycle — breed of GOP hopeful is emerging: the education Republican.
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Public Education
Some GOP Hopefuls for Texas House Pick Education Message
At least some Republican 2012 primary candidates for the Texas House hope to trade the anti-government cries of the last election cycle for a message with a decidedly different focus: the state of Texas public schools.
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Demographics
Anti-Tax Groups Oppose Constitutional Amendments
Texas voters started going to the polls this week to decide whether to add 10 amendments to the state’s massive Constitution, potentially taking the total number of amendments to 477. A few of them have drawn the ire of anti-tax groups.
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Criminal Justice
TribWeek: In Case You Missed It
Hamilton on efforts to boost faculty productivity, Grissom on newly uncovered evidence in an old murder case, Galbraith on a wind-powered construction boom, Dehn unfurls the new Texas Tribune Weekend Insider, Aguilar on this year’s record number of deportations, Ramshaw and Tan on budget cuts and cervical cancer screenings, M. Smith on local control over student grades, Root and Ramshaw on Rick Perry’s latest debate performance, Philpott on an issue that didn’t get its due in that debate and Titus and Murphy on fundraising and spending in congressional races: The best of our best content from October 17 to 21, 2011.
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Public Education
Education Board Could Give Schools More Control Over New Exams
The State Board of Education may try to modify the state’s rigid new standardized exams — the STAAR tests — in a way that allays school districts’ concerns that they’re losing local control over grading.
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Inside Intelligence
Inside Intelligence: The School Finance Lawsuits Will…
For this week’s nonscientific survey of political and government insiders, we asked about whether the latest round of school finance lawsuits is serious and how it will play during the elections and in the legislative session that starts in 2013.
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Demographics
TribWeek: In Case You Missed It
Aaronson interactively asks if stimulus funds created jobs in Texas, Aguilar on new voter registrar rules that could decrease voter turnout, Galbraith on a UT professor’s debunking of climate change “myths,” Grissom on an epic clash of El Paso political titans, Hamilton on the right’s new higher ed guru, Murphy maps household data from the 2010 Census, Ramsey on a coming rules fight in the Texas Senate, Root and M. Smith on Rick Perry’s performance at the New Hampshire debate and M. Smith talks public ed cuts with the state’s Superintendent of the Year: The best of our best content from October 10-14, 2011.
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Public Education
Online Classes Booming, But With Red Flags
As the popularity of online learning grows, public schools are grappling with how to most effectively integrate it into their classrooms — and some in the education community worry about the increasing influence of for-profit companies.
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Inside Intelligence
Inside Intelligence: School Finance
This week, we asked the insiders whether the school finance lawsuits will play in the elections and in the next legislative session.