The latest state government news from The Texas Tribune.
Michael Marder, the co-director of the University of Texas' UTeach program, which trains secondary school math and science teachers, looks at public education data and explains the significance of poverty, why he thinks charter schools are not necessarily the answer and how public education is like a Boeing airplane. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/DSC_2674.jpg)
At last Thursday's TribLive conversation, I interviewed Bill Powers and Bowen Loftin, the presidents of the University of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M University, respectively, about the impact of higher ed budget cuts and the predicament of middling graduation rates. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/videos/TxTrib-LoftinPowers-JV018_3.jpg)
At last Thursday's TribLive conversation, I interviewed Bill Powers and Bowen Loftin, the presidents of the University of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M University, respectively, about the need for higher education reform, the impact of budget cuts, the predicament of middling graduation rates and more. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/videos/TxTrib-LoftinPowers-JV018_4.jpg)
At last Thursday's TribLive conversation, I interviewed Bill Powers and Bowen Loftin, the presidents of the University of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M University, respectively, about the need for higher education reform, the impact of budget cuts, the predicament of middling graduation rates and more. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/TxTrib-LoftinPowers-JV018.jpg)
At last Thursday's TribLive conversation, I interviewed Bill Powers and Bowen Loftin, the presidents of the University of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M University, respectively, about the need for higher education reform, the impact of budget cuts, the predicament of middling graduation rates and more. Full Story
Local-food advocates and small-farm owners are lobbying lawmakers to pass legislation that would make it easier for them to sell directly to consumers. Erika Aguilar of KUT News reports on the various food bills circulating at the Legislature. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/20101203-DSC_6951.jpg)
Despite some efforts to lessen the blow to pediatric health care providers, Texas’ proposed budget cuts will likely have a disproportionate effect on children’s hospitals, which treat the state’s youngest and poorest patients. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/TxTrib-ChildrensHospital-TS2-001.JPG)
For the latest installment of our unscientific survey of political and policy insiders, we asked whether the state should pay the costs if identities are stolen using state data, whether the state is can be trusted with data, and whether the comptroller will suffer politically for the latest data breach. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/inside_intelligence-logo_1.png){kind=logo}
It might not matter, in the end, whether the Senate wants to use some of the Rainy Day Fund to balance the budget. The House isn’t likely to go along unless the proposition is delivered on a tea cart pushed by Gov. Rick Perry and third-party conservative groups who have been hounding lawmakers to hold the line. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/e489b49386711717c1a213b564af0668/BD%20INC%20Ogden%2004%202011)
Aguilar and Weber on a subdued debate over homeland security, Galbraith on rising concern about natural gas drilling, Grissom on a controversial psychologist, Hamilton on the aftermath of the Rick O'Donnell episode, Philpott on the comptroller's apology, Ramshaw with more on the statewide database of child abusers, E. Smith interviews Lance Armstrong, M. Smith on what House budget cuts would mean for school districts, M. Stiles on how redistricting would change things for each House member, Tan on the Senate's wobbly attempts to approve a budget and my interview with David Dewhurst: The best of our best content from April 25 to 29, 2011. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/Tribweek_04_25_2011.jpg)
The Texas Senate, digging publicly for money while it battles quietly over a proposed budget, approved a "non-tax revenue" bill that would make $4.3 billion available for spending over the next two years. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/_KCA9014.jpg)
No time to follow every twist and turn of the Texas Legislature? We've made it easier for you with our weekly recaps of the action under the dome. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/videos/CapitolDome_1.jpg)
Anyone planning to email Gov. Rick Perry for the remainder of this session need not bother trying to reach him on his personal account. He won't be using it. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/PerryMakesAFace.jpg)
A bill authorizing a major rethink of teacher evaluation in Texas public schools has teachers organizations scuffling with Senate Education Committee Chairwoman Florence Shapiro, R-Plano. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/5d282e75fb141bd586220f059cef41f7/BD%20INC%20Shapiro%2001%202011)
Consider it a do-over. The House today tentatively approved the Texas Department of Transportation Sunset bill, the measure that last year sent lawmakers into a surprise special session. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/HarperBrown076CMS.jpg)
With fewer than five weeks left in the regular session, none of Gov. Rick Perry's emergency items — voter ID, sanctuary cities, sonograms for women getting abortions, a federal balanced budget amendment, and eminent domain protection — have made it to his desk. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/PerryStateofState.jpg)
The Senate today passed a bill that would make it illegal to make "bath salts," a drug that can have effects similar to cocaine or amphetamines and can be bought legally online or in smoke shops. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/drug_with_ruler_money.jpg)
Lawmakers are hoping nonprofit organizations can do a better job of recruiting organ donors and saving lives. HB 2904 would transfer management of the state-run organ-donation registry from an agency to a new collaboration of nonprofits, a shift supporters say will reduce the number of Texans who die while waiting on the list. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/OrganDonor2.jpg)
More than 2,000 people listed in a statewide database of people who mistreat children are caught in a backlog of cases waiting for appeals, many with their careers and families hanging in the balance. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/TxTrib-NoWayOff-TS001.JPG)
You wouldn't know it by the miniscule amount of debate Thursday, but the Senate approved what some lawmakers called the most significant piece of homeland security legislation filed this session, a measure civil liberty groups worry is a major encroachment on civil rights. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/_KCA5938.jpg)