The largesse from billionaires Tim Dunn and brothers Farris and Dan Wilks has made its way into local politics. Courtney Gore, a Republican school board member in Granbury, says it’s part of their strategy to build support for vouchers.
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
Health care
Feds investigate another Texas school district for its gender identity mandate
Katy ISD’s board voted this past fall to require staff to notify parents if their child wants to use a different pronoun or identifies as a different gender.
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Investigations
Texas school districts violated a law intended to add transparency to local elections
The Texas Tribune and ProPublica analyzed 35 Texas school districts that held trustee elections last fall and found none that posted all of the required campaign finance records.
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Guides
What you need to know about Texas’ school safety policies
Texas lawmakers have mandated armed guards at every public school, panic buttons in classrooms and more staff training.
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Public Education
Appeals court blocks Texas from enforcing book rating law
Plaintiffs claimed that the 2023 law, which required book vendors to rate the explicitness of sexual references in materials sold to schools, was unconstitutionally broad.
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Politics
Some South Texas school employees could be barred from holding elected office after fraud investigation
A state-appointed board of managers overseeing the La Joya Independent School District is set to consider the policy this week.
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Public Education
Texas will use computers to grade written answers on this year’s STAAR tests
The state will save more than $15 million by using technology similar to ChatGPT to give initial scores, reducing the number of human graders needed. The decision caught some educators by surprise.
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Criminal Justice
Two Denton school district principals indicted on charges of illegal electioneering
A grand jury indicted the principals for allegedly using their school emails to encourage staff to vote for certain candidates in the March primary.
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Politics
A new Texas law allows schools to hire chaplains as counselors. So far, only one school has opted into the program.
Many independent school districts, including the largest ones, do not allow chaplains to serve as counselors, which is now allowed under a new Texas law.
Posted in
Environment
To close or stay open? Ahead of the eclipse, Texas schools weighed logistical hurdles versus learning opportunities
Some districts will close for the day expecting traffic jams and busy city services. Others will stay open for parents who can’t find child care.