The GOP congressman from Lubbock on Gov. Rick Perry, cuts in direct payments that could be headed for Texas farmers, his hopes for the supercommittee and what the 2012 elections will say about Americans’ view of the economy.
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
Little Opposition to Measure That Would Increase School Funding
Proposition 6 on the Texas constitutional ballot would allow the land commissioner to transfer hundreds of millions of dollars to public education. Ben Philpott of KUT News and the Tribune reports that the measure has seen little opposition.
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Higher Education
TribWeek: In Case You Missed It
Galbraith and Collier on the drought’s economic impact, Grissom on the latest in the Morton and Skinner cases, Hamilton on university regents’ potential conflicts of interest, Murphy on spending by Ron Paul’s presidential campaign, Philpott on Rick Perry’s plans for Social Security, Ramsey on the dirty little secret about dropouts, Ramshaw on how Perry and his staff downplayed allegations of abuse at state centers for the disabled, Root on Perry’s flirtation with birtherism, M. Smith on GOP candidates making public ed their focus and Tan and Hamilton on why students in Texas illegally get access to state financial aid: The best of our best content from October 24 to 28, 2011.
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Energy
Drought Eases, but Schools Still Trying to Keep the Grass Green
Fall weather conditions may bring a small amount of relief to the drought-stricken state, but as Nathan Bernier of KUT News reports, Texas’ worst single-year dry spell still has school districts wondering what to do with their football fields.
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Public Education
School Dropouts, Politicians and the Funny Arithmetic of State Budgets
Every time a student drops out of public school, taxpayers save money. That’s one fewer student, at an annual savings of more than $11,000 per year from state and local sources.
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Public Education
Schools and Taxes: The Next Big Thing
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.
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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.