Hu, Philpott, and Ramsey on the Democratic gubernatorial debate, the pre-game, the post-game, and the highlight reel. Thevenot on the push for accountability in persistently low-performing schools. M. Smith on the Republican assault on sitting Republican appellate judge. Hamilton on a county with more than one Tea Party trying to claim conservative voters. With lawmakers staring down a growing budget crunch, Aguilar looks back at the last one for instruction. Grissom finds that U.S. Border Patrol has quietly stopped a program to deport illegal immigrants through Presidio. Ramshaw reports on a West Texas nurse who got into and out of criminal trouble for complaining about a doctor she worked with. The second University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll finds Rick Perry and Bill White with big leads in their respective party primaries. Rapoport found herself in the eye of the storm, traveling with Debra Medina on the day the candidate unexpectedly and disastrously made national news when Glenn Beck asked her on his radio shows about the attacks on the World Trade Center on 9/11. The best of our best from February 8 to 12, 2010.
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.
Posted in
Public Education
TribBlog: NYT Mag on SBOE’s “Christian Nation”
It seems the social conservatives on the State Board of Education may be on their way to getting more ink than any other politicians in modern Texas history, a cause that will be helped in this Sunday’s printing of The New York Times Magazine.
Posted in
Public Education
Tom Leppert: The TT Interview
The Dallas mayor left a hugely successful private sector career to lead the country’s ninth-largest city through an economic meltdown and the aftermath of a City Hall corruption scandal. And he doesn’t regret a minute of it. Here, he talks about fighting a sky-high crime rate, how he keeps party politics from his office, and every urban area’s Achilles’ heel: education.
Posted in
Public Education
The Brief: February 10, 2010
Paging Dr. Doug Ross. Debra Medina may soon be endangering your popularity.
Posted in
Demographics
Democratic Gubernatorial Debate: Liveblog, Video, Audio
In their first and probably only televised debate, Bill White sounded experienced, as you’d expect of a three-term mayor of Houston, while wealthy hair care magnate Farouk Shami was more passionate, more animated, and much more prone to political mistakes.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
Reform Follows Function
The federal push for accountability at “persistently low-achieving” schools across Texas is running smack into the hard, slow work of improvement at the local level.
Posted in
Public Education
TribBlog: Who’s He In Bed With Now?
The Obama administration — which is one of the ways Mark Sanford and Rick Perry are not alike.
Posted in
Public Education
TribBlog: States Echoing Texas on National Standards
State school leaders from across the West are complaining of too much federal intrusion into local curriculum decisions, along with inflexible rules – including that national standards be adopted “word for word.”
Posted in
Public Education
Heir Apparent
State Rep. Terri Hodge, D-Dallas, dropped her reelection bid on Wednesday to plead guilty to lying on a tax return. But it’s too early for Eric Johnson, her West Dallas-born, Ivy League-educated primary opponent, to claim victory.
Posted in
Public Education
TribBlog: Disability Rights Group Scolds SBOE Member
Disability rights advocates say State Board of Education member David Bradley’s comment to the Texas Tribune — “If you sit on the mental health commission, do you have to be retarded?” — is offensive and uninformed.