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.
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.
TribLive: Carter, Burkett and Anderson
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.
Carter, Burkett and Anderson on Public Ed Cuts
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.
Inside Intelligence: Public Education Funding Is…
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.
“Rube Goldberg” School Finance System Faces New Test
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.
Charter Schools Eye Permanent School Fund
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.
U.S. House Votes on Texas Education Money [Updated]
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.
TribWeek: In Case You Missed It
The best of our best content from Feb. 14 to 18, 2011.
Sara Hickman: The TT Interview
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FK7BaGFYzZs Texas Tribune donors or members may be quoted or mentioned in our stories, or may be the subject of them. For a complete list of contributors, click here.
Battle Over Rainy Day Fund Heating Up
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.



