Lobbyists and lawmakers are fighting to preserve the terms of the contracts signed by parents who enrolled in the Texas Tomorrow Fund prepaid college tuition plan.
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
The Textbook Myth
Despite all the handwringing about Texas’ influence on the textbook market nationally, it’s just not so, publishing insiders say. The state’s clout has been on the wane and will diminish more as technological advances and political shifts transform the industry.
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Public Education
TribBlog: California Shuns Texas Textbooks
A Golden State senator says our State Board of Education can put its conservative spin on U.S. history where the sun don’t shine.
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Public Education
The Wild Card
“I was taught evolution, and it didn’t shake my faith in the Almighty whatsoever,” says George Clayton, who pulled off a stunning upset of incumbent Geraldine “Tincy” Miller, R-Dallas, in the GOP primary to win a seat on the State Board of Education. “Should creationism be taught as a counter to evolution? … No, I don’t think so. I think evolution is in the science book. It should be taught as a science.”
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Health care
TribBlog: Does Texas Already Mandate Health Insurance? [UPDATED]
Attorney General Greg Abbott is suing the feds for mandating that individuals buy health insurance. Some Texas political observers say Abbott did exactly that in 2009.
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Public Education
TribBlog: Bilingual Ed Decision Overturned
A 2008 federal court decision that ordered the state to restructure its bilingual and English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) programs was overturned by the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans today.
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Public Education
2010: Hinojosa, White Join Anti-SBOE Dogpile [UPDATED]
Where are their friends? Bill White wants Rick Perry to reject the State Board of Education’s social studies amendments, while a state senator pushes to do away with the board altogether.
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Public Education
TribBlog: SBOE vs. the Media
The State Board of Education accuses unnamed “media” of “erroneously” reporting its removal of Thomas Jefferson from state world history standards. Trouble is, the board statement is guilty of the same alleged lack of context, and it follows a pattern.
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Criminal Justice
TribWeek: In Case You Missed It
Grissom on the 1.2 million Texans who’ve lost their licenses under the Driver Responsibility Act and the impenetrable black box that is the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, Ramshaw and Kraft on nurses with substance abuse problems and rehabilitation that can get them back to work, M. Smith finds it’s not easy being Rick Green, Stiles on counting Texans (and everybody else), Rapoport on the State Board of Education’s war with itself and the runoff in SBOE District 10, Thevenot’s revealing interview with a big-city superintendent on closing bad schools, Aguilar on the tensions over water on the Texas-Mexico border, Hamilton on the new Coffee Party, Hu on Kesha Rogers and why her party doesn’t want her, Philpott on the runoff in HD-47, Ramsey on Bill White and the politics of taxes, and E. Smith’s conversation with Game Change authors Mark Halperin and John Heleimann: The best of our best from March 15 to 19.
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Public Education
The Runoffs: SBOE District 10
One candidate touts her education policy expertise; the other, his conservative political credentials. This race for retiring incumbent Cynthia Dunbar’s seat on the State Board of Education may come down to campaign money vs. Christian grassroots muscle.