Education News

March 26, 2026

‘I can’t physically do it anymore’: Data shows nearly 8,000 student-caused injuries reported by Bexar County educators

The Texas Education Agency confirmed to KSAT it does not keep track of the number of student-caused injuries reported by educators.

KSAT Investigates has spent the last few years getting the data from districts, which are not kept consistently. We previously reported that several districts do not have data from several years ago.

Through an analysis of records from the last three full school years, KSAT Investigates found more nearly 8,000 reports of student-caused injuries.

March 25, 2026

Stephen Miller Asks Why Texas Pays to Teach Undocumented Children

Stephen Miller raised the idea of ending public education funding for undocumented children in a closed-door meeting with Texas lawmakers in Washington last week, a move that would challenge a decades-old U.S. Supreme Court precedent, according to two people who were in the meeting.

Mr. Miller, President Trump’s hard-line immigration adviser, cited gridlock in Congress as he encouraged the state lawmakers to pass conservative legislation on immigration and other issues that are crucial to Republicans, hoping such action would spur on other red states and federal lawmakers.

March 24, 2026

Texas Education Agency orders public schools to remove mentions of Cesar Chavez from lessons

The Texas Education Agency on Monday directed all public schools in the state to revise lesson plans to remove mentions of Cesar Chavez after sexual abuse allegations surfaced against the labor leader.

In written guidance, the agency also ordered school districts to cancel “or otherwise redirect” events and activities planned for Cesar Chavez Day on March 31, an extension of Gov. Greg Abbott’s state directive to not observe the optional state holiday.

Teachers and labor groups have been reckoning with the late civil rights leader’s legacy after a New York Times investigation revealed allegations that Chavez had sexually assaulted and abused women and girls. The activist had strong ties to Texas, where he supported striking farmworkers and led a rally at the state Capitol following a march from Rio Grande City to Austin in 1966.

March 23, 2026

University of North Texas to cut more than 70 programs and minors to trim $45 million deficit

The University of North Texas is cutting or consolidating more than 70 academic programs, minors and certificates as it works to close a projected $45 million budget shortfall, including phasing out its linguistics degrees and eliminating a women’s and gender studies master’s program.

The cuts are the first indication of how UNT plans to close the deficit, which it says was driven largely by a sharp decline in international enrollment — students who typically pay a significantly higher tuition — and reduced state funding. Last month, university leaders warned that program consolidations, faculty buyouts and higher teaching loads were likely.

In a message to faculty and staff Thursday, UNT President Harrison Keller and Provost Michael McPherson said the most significant change will be to phase out all linguistics degree programs and merge the department with the Department of World Languages, Literatures and Cultures.

March 22, 2026

There’s a record number of No Kings events; find one near you and join us on March 28

No Kings Day is almost here. We have seven days to go, 3000 events on the map, and an ever-growing list of reasons why it’s vital we take to the streets and make our voices heard.

Over the last few months, we’ve seen Trump plunge our country into illegal wars of choice. He’s using a secret police force to terrorize our communities and detain immigrants in squalid conditions. He’s threatening our freedom to vote and weaponizing the Justice Department to try to intimidate pro-democracy groups, including our own. He’s proving every day that he thinks he’s above the law — not a president, a king.

It’s past time to give Trump, and all the craven oligarchs enabling his fascist powergrabs, a reminder: This is the United States of America. And here, we don’t do kings.

March 21, 2026

Here’s how to vote in Texas’ May 26 primary runoff elections

Candidates in more than 30 state and federal races are expected to face off again in the May 26 runoff after failing to secure more than half of the votes cast in the March Republican and Democratic primaries. This includes Attorney General Ken Paxton’s challenge to U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, as well as several candidates for statewide or district-based elected offices in Texas.

In these undecided races, registered voters can choose their preferred candidate on May 26 or during the May 18-22 early voting period.

But remember, Texas doesn’t allow double dipping. Voters who already voted in the Republican or Democratic primary this year can only vote in that same party’s runoff elections. Voters who didn’t vote in March can choose to vote in either party’s runoff. (Texans don’t have to formally register with a party.)

March 20, 2026

What Texans need to know about upcoming SNAP restrictions

New food stamp restrictions prohibiting benefits to be used to purchase sweetened beverages and candy will affect millions of Texans starting April 1.

Senate Bill 379, one of three bills under Texas’ “Make America Healthy Again” initiative that Gov. Greg Abbott signed into law last year, prohibits the use of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, also informally called food stamps, to purchase those sugary items.

“Texas is leading the way in aligning SNAP benefits with healthier food options,” Abbott said in a news release this month. “By implementing these changes, we encourage better nutrition and ensure this program helps families access nutritional food. I thank the Trump Administration and the Texas Health and Human Services Commission for their work to strengthen this program and better serve Texans.”

While the bill passed with bipartisan support, some Democratic lawmakers raised concerns about its long-term effects. Sen. Borris Miles, D-Houston, supported the bill’s goal, but said there are people in urban and rural areas who don’t have access to nutritious foods and foods that are not as healthy may be the only options to fend off hunger. Sen. Nathan Johnson, D-Dallas, said if the Legislature is really concerned about Texans getting proper nutrition, it should double the value of food stamps for things like fresh produce so benefits could buy more of the health products and give retailers incentive to stock more of it.

March 19, 2026

The SAVE America Act would block 21 million people from voting

The Senate debate on S. 1383, the NEA-opposed voter suppression bill, has begun. On one hand, there’s no real need for it. Voting by noncitizens is already illegal. It is also exceedingly rare. Utah, for example, recently reviewed its entire voter registration list—2.1 million people—and found not a single instance of a noncitizen voting. Not one.

On the other hand, President Trump considers it so important he has vowed not to sign any legislation until Congress passes the so-called SAVE America Act.

The devil is in the details—starting with the name. The goal is not saving our country. It is suppressing the vote among certain groups, including voters of color, young voters, low-income voters, and voters with disabilities. It would also harm people who changed their name when they got married.

The provisions governing what types of ID are acceptable and where they can be submitted would block voting for more than 21 million people, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. States would be required to share voter records with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Amendments that are already in the works could end nearly all voting by mail, forbid gender-related surgery for minors, and bar the participation of transgender athletes in women’s sports.

Tell Congress what you think!

March 18, 2026

Make schools, churches, and hospitals protected spaces from ICE

This administration has launched a cowardly assault on the sacred spaces where we gather to worship, learn and heal by attacking key places of care and connection and abducting our loved ones from the most sacred spaces including churches, hospitals and schools.

ICE is abducting our community members from our schools, churches and hospitals, attacking our teachers and students, pastors and rabbis, doctors and nurses, and the patients they care for.

Urge your senators and representative to cosponsor the Protecting Sensitive Locations Act (S. 455/H.R. 1061) to speak out and protect our sacred spaces of care and connection from this regime by the bullies, for the billionaires.

March 16, 2026

In rural Central Texas, libraries are stepping up to offer mental health support

It’s just a regular Wednesday at the Smithville Public Library, and that means there’s a lot going on. Past the regular patrons in the main reading room, a back room bustles with activity: around a dozen women — some fairly young, some well into their golden years — are gathered on folding chairs, stretching their arms and legs into careful poses.

Smithville resident Cheryl McNeil says it was a game changer when the library started offering these free “chair yoga” classes. Without them, she might have to drive out to Bastrop to take a class like this.

“I just needed to get moving and stretching. I hadn’t been doing all that,” she said.

A second group of women sits behind the yogis, knitting hats for local veterans who are going through chemo. They call themselves “The Knitwits,” and they’ve been meeting for decades — but Library Director Judy Bergeron said she purposely co-scheduled the chair yoga class with the knitting circle earlier this year.

March 12, 2026

Texas students with disabilities struggle to qualify for extra school voucher funds

Henry Herzog struggles with ADHD, anxiety and hypersensitivity to crowds and noise. The 7-year-old has a physician’s note to prove it.

The medical diagnosis will give Henry priority when Texas decides which students may receive private school vouchers for the 2026-27 school year. In the first year of the voucher program, most students will qualify for roughly $10,500 to pay for private school. Henry is among the children with disabilities who could also qualify for nearly $20,000 more.

But Henry — and an unknown number of others — have already missed out on that additional money because voucher applications, which close Tuesday, require public schools to perform disability evaluations of students seeking the extra money. Districts have 15 school days to give parents an opportunity to provide written consent for the evaluation. After receiving consent, districts have 45 school days to complete the evaluations. They then have 30 calendar days for parents and educators to meet and develop a plan.

Many parents did not realize they needed the evaluation until they started the voucher application. And the window to apply for vouchers was only 41 calendar days.

March 11, 2026

76% of Texas voucher applicants are already enrolled in private schools or home-schooled

Texas’ new $1 billion voucher program allots about $10,000 per student to be used on private school tuition. It’s paid for by taxpayer dollars.

When Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s private school voucher program became law last year, proponents claimed it would give families who wouldn’t normally be able to afford private school tuition more options. That’s not who is applying , according to new data.

Around three in four of the over 150,000 applicants to the program are already enrolled in private schools or are home-schooled, according to data from the Texas Center for Voucher Transparency.

As of March 4, only around 36,000 families with students enrolled in Texas public schools submitted applications for the program. Texas has approximately 5.5 million students enrolled in public schools, which means that less than 1% of public school families have applied.

Texas is following in the footsteps of other states that have implemented a voucher program. In Arkansas, 95% of participants in the state’s program did not attend public schools in the previous school year. In Arizona, data shows the use of vouchers is highest in affluent school districts, and lowest in poorer school districts.

March 10, 2026

How Texas’ $1 billion voucher program is fueling a microschool boom

At Mindsprout Montessori outside Houston, children are encouraged to play with dirt in the outdoor mud kitchen, and each classroom cottage features its own pet. Most of its 90 students are homeschooled part-time and show up between one and four days per week.

“A Montessori setup is incredibly costly,” said founder Desiree Corbin. “Our goal was to do the heavy lifting for (parents) and to provide a Montessori experience that is more accessible.”

The school is part of an emerging trend of microschools, an umbrella term for schools that blur the lines between home education and traditional private schooling and that are poised for a huge boom in Texas under the state’s new $1 billion voucher program.

March 9, 2026

GOP-led fight over allegations of student indoctrination raises tensions at University of Houston

After two legislative sessions in which Republican lawmakers hammered universities as bastions of liberal indoctrination, campuses across Texas are restricting how race and gender can be taught and requiring instructors to present controversial subjects in a “balanced” way. At the University of Houston, some deans have taken the unusual step of requiring faculty to certify they “teach, not indoctrinate.”

Tensions on campus escalated when a five-page checklist instructing professors on how to review course materials was unveiled last month during a faculty council meeting.

Some professors say the checklist, coupled with the certification effort, reinforce what they see as a false premise: that indoctrination is widespread in university classrooms. They say the efforts pressure instructors to avoid controversial topics altogether.

March 6, 2026

Wichita Falls ISD avoids state takeover, will keep its elected school board

Texas declined Thursday to take over the Wichita Falls school district, which had been at risk of receiving the state’s most severe form of intervention over years of academic underperformance.

Kirby Middle School triggered the potential of a takeover. Under the state’s school accountability system, five consecutive years of unacceptable ratings at a single school allows the Texas Education Agency to replace a district’s locally elected school board with a state-selected board of managers or order the closure of the struggling campus.

The district near the Texas-Oklahoma border had already informally closed Kirby Middle School in 2024 and moved its students to Hirschi Middle School to provide them with better facilities. Facing continued pressure from the state to improve academic performance, the district adopted state math materials and outsourced operations at Hirschi to Third Future Schools, a charter school network that focuses on turning around struggling schools.

March 4, 2026

Texas primary voters smash recent midterm turnout records

Nearly one in four registered voters in Texas cast a ballot in Tuesday’s primaries, a high-water mark for midterm elections in the state’s recent history. The numbers were driven by electrifying momentum surrounding both parties’ races for U.S. Senate.

In all, some 4.3 million Texans voted across the Democratic and Republican primaries, according to unofficial numbers on the Texas Secretary of State’s Office as of 1 p.m. Wednesday. The turnout was divided between about 2.2 million ballots in the Democratic primary and more than 2 million on the Republican side — the first time Democratic turnout was higher since 2020, when voters flocked to weigh in on the party’s presidential primary.

March 3, 2026

The Cycle of disinvestment in public schools: How public school criticism drives policy and disinvestment

Critiques of public education have intensified in recent years. While public schools do indeed have real areas in need of growth and improvement, many of today’s attacks are generated and amplified by organizations seeking to manufacture crises. These narratives often ignore counterevidence, and they use deceptive language to portray the system as broadly failing, even hopeless.

To examine these destructive critiques, Huriya Jabbar and Daniel Espinoza of the University of Southern California authored a policy brief, The Cycle of Disinvestment in Public Schools: How Public School Criticism Drives Policy and Disinvestment, released today by NEPC. The brief identifies five core narratives used to portray a failing education system: claims of underachievement, inefficiency, inequality, lack of school choice, and indoctrination.

The brief warns that overstated crisis narratives fuel a cycle of disinvestment: Eroding public confidence leads to reduced funding and enrollment, which strains schools and invites further criticism. This cycle weakens the public system while advancing privatization of what has long been considered a public good.

March 2, 2026

School districts can set aside prayer time under a new Texas law; few have done so

Most Texas school districts appear to have declined an offer by the Texas Legislature to set aside time each day for students and staff to pray.

Senate Bill 11 required school boards to decide whether to provide a daily devotional period by March 1. The period would have allowed students to use noninstructional hours to pray and read the Bible or other religious text, most likely before school.

One of the key lawmakers who guided the bill through the Legislature found only 15 school districts that have opted into the prayer period. Many other rural, urban and suburban districts voted against the move.

SB 11 is a part of a slate of bills that was approved last legislative session aimed at promoting a conservative brand of Christianity in public education, testing the legal limits of church-state separation.

SB 11 requires the school districts that implement the prayer period to get signed consent forms from interested families. This waives parents’ right to sue for alleged violations of state or federal law and acknowledges students’ choice to attend the religious gatherings. The law bans schools from reading religious texts over a public address system and school leaders have to make sure the prayer period does not take place in the physical presence or within earshot of students who do not have parental consent.

Over 160 Texas faith leaders pleaded with districts to oppose the policy, pointing out the administrative burden, students’ existing rights to practice their religion and the potential harm to children who decide not to participate. Civil rights advocates also argued the law violates the separation between church and state.

February 26, 2026

Texas is correcting 4,200 errors in its controversial Bluebonnet public school curriculum

Texas will correct more than 4,200 errors in the controversial, state-written Bluebonnet curriculum, which was rolled out in public schools this year, the state board of education ruled on Wednesday.

The fixes, which range from missing commas and improperly licensed images to incorrect answer keys and factual errors, were submitted by the Texas Education Agency, which wrote and published the curriculum as part of Texas’ push for state-issued “high-quality” instructional materials.

Board members approved the changes, but not before expressing frustration about the “unprecedented” number of errors. Several raised concerns that they hadn’t been caught in the initial approval process and that taxpayers would be on the hook for the costs of reprinting the updated material.

February 25, 2026

Early vote turnout in Texas outpacing past elections, fueled by Democratic primary voters

More ballots have been cast in Texas through the first seven days of early voting for the 2026 midterms than any recent midterm or presidential election year, driven by high turnout in the Democratic primary.

The impact: That turnout is fueling optimism among Texas Democrats, who are once again trying to score their first election victory for a statewide office since 1994.

The numbers: Through Monday, 665,664 votes were cast in-person and by mail in the Democratic primary, compared to 593,692 cast in the Republican primary, according to unofficial data from the Texas Secretary of State. The 1,259,356 votes is higher than both the 2024 and 2020 primaries through seven days of early voting, despite turnout typically being higher in presidential election years.

February 23, 2026

Not all paths to college and career readiness pay off equally for Texas students, study finds

As Texas pushes more high schoolers to get ready for college and the workforce, new research suggests that some of the ways schools count students as ready don’t equally set them up for success after graduation.

The state rewards Texas school districts for preparing students for life after graduation, tying college and career readiness to more school funding and a higher school performance rating.

The Texas Education Agency has been increasingly strict on districts about college readiness. In the 2022-23 school year, state education officials raised the benchmark for schools to qualify for an A grade in the category of college and career readiness: Schools needed to get 88% of graduates ready for life after high school, up from 60% in prior years.

February 21, 2026

Three school districts temporarily blocked from complying with key parts of Texas’ DEI ban

A federal court has temporarily blocked the Houston, Katy and Plano school districts from enforcing key parts of a state law that bans diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in K-12 public schools.

U.S. District Judge Charles Eskridge ruled Feb. 20 that the three districts must avoid compliance with four major provisions of Senate Bill 12, including a ban on student clubs that focus on sexual orientation or gender identity and a mandate that schools design policies to discipline employees who engage in diversity-related efforts.

Eskridge’s ruling only applies to the three districts named in the lawsuit.

“To say that SB 12 is a complex law presenting complicated constitutional issues is a vast understatement. It proceeds over thirty-one sections directing detailed edits and additions in numerous respects to the Texas Education Code, which itself is sprawling, detailed, and, at times, arcane,” Eskridge wrote. “Houston, Katy, and Plano ISDs explain none of it. Nor do they address any facts or present any legal rationale opposing entry of the requested preliminary injunction.”

February 20, 2026

AI is supercharging cyberattacks. What schools need to know and do

Artificial intelligence has the potential to significantly improve schools’ ability to defend against cyberattacks by upgrading threat detection, building faster incident response, and automating tasks. However, hackers can also use AI to deliver more sophisticated attacks against schools, such as AI-powered malware, super-powered phishing campaigns, and automated exploitation of schools’ vulnerabilities. At the same time, some school district technology officials are concerned that use of AI tools to defend against cyberattacks could also open the doors for more AI-driven cyberattacks. That puts schools in a very difficult spot in figuring out how to deploy AI cyber defense tools in the safest and most effective ways possible.

February 19, 2026

AISD turns to land sales in response to budget gaps, fueling community pushback

Facing a budget deficit of nearly $20 million, Austin ISD leaders are turning to the sale of former school campuses for fast cash, a strategy that has triggered community backlash and reopened long-standing tensions over who benefits when public land is sold.

After the embattled sale of the former Rosedale Elementary site, Austin ISD board members voted in January to negotiate the sale of Brooke Elementary, which closed in 2019. Board members and Austin ISD leaders said selling both properties is key to preventing the nearly $20 million deficit from growing. Still, multiple trustees cited community concerns about the Brooke site’s future, the intentions of the developers and the fate of current tenants of Brooke, which has become a community hub since students left.

The East Austin campus houses the Native American Cultural Center and Vela, an organization dedicated to supporting families of children with disabilities.

February 18, 2026

TSTA endorses Hinojosa for governor

The Texas State Teachers Association today announced its endorsement of Democrat Gina Hinojosa for governor.

“Gina Hinojosa is the proven pro-public education champion in the governor’s race,” TSTA President Ovidia Molina said. “She has been a champion for our public schools, students and educators, beginning with her years on the Austin ISD school board and continuing in the Texas House.”

Read the full statement

February 13, 2026

Early voting in party primaries starts next Tuesday, February 17

Early voting will run through Friday, February 27, and Election Day will be Tuesday, March 3. This is the beginning of an important election year. The primaries are the first step in selecting state legislators, members of Congress and 18 statewide officials, including the governor, a U.S. senator and eight members of the State Board of Education. See our list of endorsed candidates here.

Vote Public Education First!

February 12, 2026

UT-Austin to consolidate race, ethnic and gender study programs

In a sweeping restructure, the University of Texas at Austin will consolidate four departments, including African and African Diaspora Studies and Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies, college leaders told department heads Thursday.

The departments, along with American Studies as well as Mexican American and Latino Studies, will be consolidated into a Social and Cultural Analysis department in a process that is expected to be complete by September 2027.

UT will separately consolidate Germanic Studies, Slavic and Eurasian Studies, and French and Italian into a new Department of European and Eurasian Studies.

February 11, 2026

With March 1 deadline approaching, Cy-Fair, Amarillo among districts opting out of school prayer periods

In addition to enacting the new Ten Commandments law, which is being challenged in the federal courts, the legislative majority last year also passed Senate Bill 11, which requires school boards to vote by March 1 on whether to set aside periods for prayer and religious study during the school day.

TSTA and leaders of many different religious groups and faiths oppose this law because it involves schools in making religious decisions, which we believe violates the separation of church and state principle. Students and educators of all faiths already are free to pray privately during the school day. Some pray, and others don’t. Politicians and school districts have no business telling anyone when or where to practice their religions.

With the March 1 deadline approaching, a number of school boards have recently voted against establishing the prayer periods. These include the Cypress-Fairbanks ISD board in Houston, which voted 4-3 against the option this week. The four winning votes were elected in November with the strong support of TSTA’s local, Cy-Fair TSTA/NEA. The local’s hard work flipped a 6-1 right-wing ideological board majority to 4-3 for public education, and the results are showing.

As local President Tanzanyika Reeves noted, “We organized and prayed for their victory.”

Hats off to Cy-Fair TSTA/NEA and to the Amarillo Education Association, whose school board also recently voted against establishing prayer periods.

We may be missing some other locals to congratulate. If we are, please tell us. We will continue monitoring this issue and make further reports as more school boards vote.

February 9, 2026

AASA guides ICE encounter response

The American Association of School Administrators (AASA) recently hosted a webinar titled “Operational Readiness: A Practical Playbook for ICE Encounters in Schools,” aimed at equipping school leaders with strategies to handle potential U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) encounters. The session emphasized that schools should act as “safe zones” and are not obligated to assist immigration enforcement without a valid judicial warrant.

Steve Smith, a former School Resource Officer, stressed the importance of prioritizing student safety and managing anxiety, stating: “Reaffirming someone’s rights under the Bill of Rights… isn’t incompatible with safety.” The playbook advises schools to secure their premises, maintain communication with parents, and prepare emergency contacts for families. It also warns against allowing ICE access without a judicial warrant, as this could lead to liability issues.

February 6, 2026

Religious Charter Schools Push New Cases Toward Supreme Court

New efforts to establish religious charter schools are accelerating in several states, as advocates hope to return to the U.S. Supreme Court and finally get an answer about whether such schools pass constitutional muster.

Last year, the justices deadlocked 4-4 in a case over the proposed St. Isidore of Seville Catholic virtual charter school in Oklahoma, with Justice Amy Coney Barrett recused. That outcome affirmed, without setting a nationwide precedent, a state supreme court decision that religious charter schools are barred in Oklahoma by the First Amendment’s prohibition against government establishment of religion.

Advocates for religious charter schools have regarded the lack of resolution as an opening to try again.

“The [U.S. Supreme] Court has made clear that once you start funding private entities, you cannot exclude participants because of their religion,” said Eric Baxter, vice president and senior counsel of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a non-partisan legal group that is representing a proposed Jewish charter school that has applied to operate in Oklahoma.

“We would ultimately go to the Supreme Court” if the application for the Jewish charter school is denied and lower courts rule against the effort, he said.

Alex J. Luchenitser, associate vice president of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, which has been working with the American Civil Liberties Union and other groups in the fight against such schools, said, “We think that the law here is on our side and that the Constitution clearly prohibits religious public charter schools.”

February 3, 2026

No Free Lunch: The Real Costs of the Federal Education Vouchers

Money doesn’t grow on trees. But some voucher advocates, including a handful of Democrats, are implying it might—at least metaphorically—for states that opt into the federal Scholarship Tax Credit Program that was part of Republicans’ so-called Big Beautiful Bill (the Reconciliation Act) that Congress approved in July 2025.

Under the program, taxpayers earning up to 300% of their area’s median income can receive 100% federal tax credits of up to $1,700 for donating to nonprofit “scholarship granting organizations” (SGOs). The SGOs then distribute scholarships for private school tuition and for other education-related services such as tutoring or transportation.

“The more Democratic governors learn about it, I fully expect that most will come around and participate,” Colorado Gov. Jared Polis told Politico. “Because from our perspective, it’s free money.” Polis is the only Democratic governor to opt in, but North Carolina’s overwhelmingly Republican legislature has pressured Gov. Josh Stein to say he intends to opt in “once the federal government issues sound guidance.”

But Polis is not completely alone. A few months before that Politico interview, Jorge Elorza, CEO of the advocacy group Democrats for Education Reform (DfER), told The New York Times: “This is literally free money that is broadly supported by the majority of voters who have steadily drifted away from the party. It just makes sense.” DfER is currently a shadow of its former size and importance, but Elorza has nonetheless been drawing considerable media attention to his views.

Polis and Elorza are, however, not correct. The new voucher policy has very real costs. NEPC Director Kevin Welner offers a concise explanation of these costs in a piece published by the National Coalition for Public Education, an organization that advocates on behalf of public schools.

Greg Abbott wants Austin school district investigated after students protest ICE during class

Republican Governor Greg Abbott is calling on Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath to investigate Austin Independent School District after students walked out of class to protest US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Friday.

The protests were part of a national day of action following the death of Alex Pretti and Renee Good, who were both shot and killed by ICE Agents in Minnesota in January.

Students from 14 campuses participated in the protest, with some staying on campus for demonstrations while others walked to the Texas Capitol.

“I have directed the Education Commissioner to investigate this,” Abbott said in a post on X Friday night. “AISD gets taxpayer dollars to teach the subjects required by the state, not to help students skip school to protest. Our schools are for educating our children, not political indoctrination. This is one of many reasons why AISD is losing so many students.”

In a letter to parents, Austin ISD Superintendent Matias Segura said the demonstrations were not sanctioned by the district, and any student who left campus to participate received an unexcused absence.

He also said that while the district wants to have students in class during school hours, they can’t stop students from participating or leaving campus, and had officers present to assist with safety and security.

“During the school day, our students are our responsibility and we’re committed to the safety of our students in our community, regardless if they are on our campus,” Segura said. “That is why our administrators and Austin ISD Police remain with our students during protest activities during school hours.”

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has also demanded information about the policies, security protocols, and internal communications at AISD, announcing his own investigation on Monday.

February 2, 2026

As families begin applying for private school vouchers, TSTA will continue working to kill this expensive and discriminatory program

Texas State Teachers Association President Ovidia Molina released the following statement:

Texas parents who want to send their children to private schools at every taxpayer’s expense can start applying for vouchers this week. TSTA is marking the occasion with a commitment to continue working to kill this expensive and discriminatory program.

Gov. Greg Abbott’s and his billionaire supporters’ success in forcing the creation of the voucher program last year does not change the fact that spending tax dollars on religious and other private schools is poor public policy, especially for a state like Texas that grossly underfunds public schools, where most Texas students are and will continue to be educated.

According to the National Education Association’s annual survey of state education spending, the average public school teacher salary in Texas trailed the national average by more than $10,000 in the 2024-25 school year. The average per-student expenditure in average daily attendance (ADA) was more than $5,500 less than the national average. Only three states – Utah, Oklahoma and Idaho – spent less per student. The new funding the Legislature set aside last year for public education, including teacher pay raises, wasn’t enough to close these gaps.

Meanwhile, the $1 billion lawmakers spent on the first year of the voucher program will increase to about $4 billion a year by 2030, the Legislative Budget Board has predicted – and who knows how much after that. If Texas follows the example of many other voucher states, spending on private schools will soon increase at a higher rate than per-student spending on public education.

Any family can apply for vouchers that will be $10,000-plus for most students, including pre-K kids, as much as $30,000 for special education children and $2,000 for home-schooled students. But many low-income families, even with vouchers, will be unable to afford private school tuition and related costs for their children. Most private schools don’t accept special education students.

Most of the religious schools that the state has approved for the program are Christian, many of which restrict admission or give preference to children of their own faith. Some of these schools refuse admission to LGBTQ students. These schools will use public tax dollars to discriminate against children whose families pay these tax dollars. Public schools do not discriminate. They accept every student who lives in their district, regardless of race, ethnicity, gender identity, religion, family income or whatever, and only public schools should receive our tax revenue. As the annual survey of state education spending shows us, they need more of it.

January 28, 2026

Proposed reading list for Texas students draws concern over religious themes, lack of diversity

The Texas State Board of Education delayed voting on a proposed list of required books for K-12 students Wednesday night after hours discussing the reading materials’ religious focus and hearing public concerns about a lack of racial, ethnic and gender diversity.

Voting 13-1, the board delayed consideration until its April meetings to allow members time to consider the list and solicit feedback. Brandon Hall, a North Texas Republican board member, opposed the decision.

A 2023 state law required the Texas Education Agency to create a list of reading materials for the board to consider, with schools required to teach the materials beginning in the 2030-31 school year. The agency recommended nearly 300 books for consideration, though the law only required at least one literary work in each grade.

January 27, 2026

Low test scores on one campus can trigger a state takeover in Texas, affecting Black, Hispanic and low-income students most

The Texas Education Agency last year launched plans to take over four school districts due to low academic performance, confiscating decision-making power from elected leaders based on state-issued F grades at six campuses.

All six trigger schools share notable similarities.

Between 80% and 97% of their students live in low-income households, far above the state average of 60%.

Black and Hispanic children make up the dominant majority of the student populations, from 88% at Marilyn Miller Language Academy near Lake Worth to almost every child at Fehl-Price Elementary School in Beaumont.

And nearly half of students at each school are on the fringes of dropping out — including 64% to 92% of kids on five of the six campuses.

Texas’ 2015 school accountability law places a momentous decision in the hands of the state’s education commissioner. When at least one school receives an F for five years in a row, the commissioner must order the campus closed or initiate a state takeover of the entire district, replacing elected school board members with leaders of the education chief’s choosing.

Abbott orders Texas universities, agencies to halt H-1B visa petitions

Gov. Greg Abbott on Tuesday directed all public universities and state agencies to freeze new H-1B visa applications, escalating his administration’s scrutiny of foreign workers employed at taxpayer-funded institutions.

Under the directive, public universities and state agencies may not initiate or file new H-1B visa petitions without written permission from the Texas Workforce Commission through the end of the next legislative session on May 31, 2027.

Abbott also ordered agencies and higher education institutions to submit detailed reports to the commission, including the number of new or renewed H-1B visa petitions filed in 2025, the number of H-1B visa holders currently sponsored, job titles, countries of origin and visa expiration dates. He also directed agencies and universities to provide documentation showing they made an effort to give qualified Texans a reasonable opportunity to apply for positions filled by H-1B visa holders.

January 26, 2026

Join MoveOn’s Know Your Rights training this evening

Thank you to all those who helped lift up our colleagues and allies in Minnesota on Friday and encouraged members to take action to raise their voices to Congress.

What we know is that students have been assaulted by federal agents, detained and separated from parents, causing untold trauma. What we know is that fellow educators have been detained without explanation and without due process. What we know is that Americans should be able to exercise their First Amendment rights to peacefully assemble and express themselves about what they want and don’t want in their communities without being met with lethal force.

MoveOn will lead Know Your Rights trainings and issue a national Call to Action on a call Monday night at 7 PM CT. They’ll cover the latest updates on ICE and CBP’s out-of-control and dangerous operations as well as your rights when documenting and recording law enforcement encounters.

January 23, 2026

TEA recommends that certain Bible passages be required reading in Texas public schools

The Bible passages would be part of statewide lists of required reading materials in English classes from kindergarten through senior year, the first of their kind in the United States, according to a report in the Houston Chronicle. The Texas Education Agency created the lists, which will be presented to the State Board of Education for a preliminary vote next week.

The reading genres vary from fairy tales and nursery rhymes for younger students to historical speeches and novels in high school. Dispersed throughout are excerpts from the Old and New Testament, including the Shepherd’s Psalm, the Beatitudes, the Golden Rule, the Parable of the Prodigal Son and the Road to Damascus.

There are no required readings from religious texts other than the Bible, the Chronicle reported.

Shannon Trejo, TEA’s deputy commissioner of school programs, said some of the religious passages were designed to provide greater historical and literary context for longer, substantial works. Seventh graders, for example, would be required to read Richard Adams’ Watership Down alongside the Shepherd’s Psalm and Ulysses S. Grant’s Civil War address to the U.S. Army.

The statewide literary lists, to which local districts and teachers could add other readings, were required by a state law enacted in 2023. If approved by the State Board of Education, they would be implemented in all Texas public schools beginning in the 2030-31 school year.

The state board can make changes to the lists. And public comments on the lists will be accepted Feb. 27th to March 30th.

Find more information about the lists here.

Texas could become first state to require Bible readings in all public schools

January 22, 2026

How Texans can prepare for this weekend’s winter weather

A major winter storm is expected to hit Texas, bringing freezing temperatures, sleet, rain, and snow, beginning Friday.

The areas most at risk for the wintry weather are north, northwest, and northeast Texas, while freezing rain and sleet are more likely in west, central, south-central, east and southeast Texas. Farther south in the Rio Grande Valley, cold rain is expected.

Gov. Greg Abbott said he has activated the state’s emergency response resources, warning that these weather forecasts could lead to hazardous travel conditions and potential damage to infrastructure. Power lines and water pipes are particularly vulnerable in winter weather.

This guide can help you prepare.

High winds, freezing rain or sleet, heavy snowfall and dangerously cold temperatures are the main hazards associated with winter storms, according to the National Weather Service.

These storms can cause an increased risk of car accidents, hypothermia and frostbite. They can also increase the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning caused by generators or other gas-powered heaters.

January 20, 2026

Texas to defend law requiring schools to post Ten Commandments — here’s what to know

The 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals is scheduled to hear arguments Tuesday over a Texas law requiring public schools to display posters of the Ten Commandments in classrooms.

All 17 active judges on the court will hear the case — Rabbi Nathan v. Alamo Heights Independent School District — alongside a similar challenge in Louisiana, the first state to pass a Ten Commandments requirement.

The case could play a central role in the national debate over whether the laws violate the First Amendment’s establishment clause, which prohibits governments from endorsing or promoting a particular religion.

January 19, 2026

Hunger will increase unless Congress reverses devastating cuts to America’s most successful anti-poverty program

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) has enjoyed wide bipartisan support over the years. But the budget reconciliation bill Republicans rammed through Congress this past summer—signed into law by the president—poses the greatest threat to the program in its history. The administration’s refusal to fully fund SNAP during the government shutdown only exacerbated the cruelty.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates the budget bill will cut food assistance by $187 billion over the next 10 years—all to provide tax breaks for the wealthy. This 20% cut will leave millions of children, senior citizens, veterans, workers, and people with disabilities and chronic health conditions without the benefits that help put food on the table.

The Restoring Food Security for American Families and Farmers Act of 2025 (S. 3281/H.R. 6088) would repeal these devastating cuts.

The drastic cuts planned for SNAP would leave many schools unable to continue providing healthy free school meals to all students. Schools in high-poverty areas can provide meals to all students through the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP), but eligibility is based on the proportion of students whose families receive SNAP benefits. Also, students’ automatic eligibility for school meals based on their families’ SNAP status may be in limbo if their families lose SNAP. Children who are hungry can’t focus on learning.

Repealing the Republican cuts will keep millions of Americans from suffering and also protect farmers, food retailers, local communities, and all others that participate in the food economy.

Ask your senators and representative to restore SNAP benefits to millions of Americans by cosponsoring and supporting the Restoring Food Security for American Families and Farmers Act of 2025.

January 15, 2026

University of North Texas to offer free tuition for some incoming freshmen

The University of North Texas announced Wednesday that it will cover full tuition and mandatory fees for incoming freshmen from Texas families earning $100,000 or less starting in fall 2026.

The move puts UNT among a growing number of Texas universities that have launched so-called promise programs, which aim to expand access to higher education by helping students limit debt to earn a degree.

UNT’s program will cover tuition and fees for freshmen pursuing their first bachelor’s degree at the Denton-based university. The benefit will apply for up to four years, or eight consecutive semesters. University officials said more than 3,500 incoming freshmen could be eligible for the program in its first year.

January 14, 2026

Texas taxpayers will fund dozens of private schools that openly discriminate

Upon signing school vouchers into law last May, Governor Greg Abbott pronounced that he had delivered “education freedom to every Texas family.” But the billion-dollar program, which opens to parents on February 4, has enrolled dozens of private schools that openly discriminate against Texas families on the basis of religion, sexual orientation, or gender identity, according to a Texas Observer analysis of information gathered from the schools’ websites and handbooks, and survey responses and phone calls with school leaders.

The Observer gathered information about all 291 schools selected by the state that offer education beyond the kindergarten level. More than 90 percent are affiliated with or owned by a religious or faith-based group, the analysis found. More than 100 of those schools require or prioritize for admission students of the same faith, and more than 60 have a written policy that discriminates against LGBTQ+ students, the schools’ own data shows.

The Texas Comptroller’s office announced December 22 that nearly 600 private K-12 and early pre-K schools had already been enrolled in the Texas Education Freedom Account (TEFA) program, as the state vouchers have been dubbed. But only about half that were listed on its website as of January 1 serve students beyond kindergarten. The comptroller’s office, which administers the voucher program, has not provided comment for this story.

About 70 percent of these schools are concentrated in the greater metropolitan areas of Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth, San Antonio, and Austin. Many rural Texas families will have no options; more than 180 of Texas’ 254 counties have no elementary, junior, or senior high schools enrolled so far.

Participating students in approved private schools will receive $10,474 for the 2026-27 school year—though students with special needs may receive up to $30,000 and homeschool students will receive $2,000. If applications for the voucher program exceed available funding, program rules state that the comptroller must prioritize applications of students with disabilities and lower incomes.
But these rules don’t guarantee student access to enrolled private schools.

The Observer’s analysis found that around a third of the schools enrolled in the program have a 2025-26 tuition that exceeds $10,474 and few offer special education services. Private schools generally increase rates every year, and the tuition excludes other fees and costs, such as registration, testing, sports, supplies, field trips, or uniforms.

January 13, 2026

NEPC Talks Education: Understanding School Finance as a Racial and Political Problem

In this month’s episode of NEPC Talks Education, Christopher Saldaña speaks with Roseann Liu and David Backer about their approaches to K-12 school finance research and why understanding the human dimensions of education funding is essential for achieving equity. Liu, a professor of educational studies and Asian American studies at Swarthmore College, is an anthropologist. Her recent book, Designed to Fail: Why Racial Equity in School Funding Is So Hard to Achieve, uses ethnographic methods to make visible what she calls the story behind the numbers. Backer, a professor of Education Policy at the College of Human Development, Culture and Media at Seton Hall University, draws on philosophy and critical theory in his new book, As Public As Possible, to offer a witty and provocative treatise on the financial policies we’ll need to make our public schools work for all children.

Listen to the podcast

January 12, 2026

The Effects of Teacher-Student Demographic Matching on Social-Emotional Learning

From Harvard’s Center for Education Policy Research: A growing body of research shows that students benefit when they demographically match their teachers. However, little is known about how matching affects social-emotional development. We use student-fixed effects to exploit changes over time in the proportion of teachers within a school grade who demographically match a student to estimate the effect on social-emotional measures, test scores, and behavioral outcomes. We find improvements in students’ grit and interpersonal self-management when matched to teachers of their race and gender. Black female students drive these effects. We also find that matching reduces absences and suspensions, especially for Black students. Our findings add to the emerging teacher diversity literature by showing its benefits for Black and female students during a critical stage of development.

January 8, 2026

About 200 Texas A&M courses could change due to new restrictions on teaching gender, race

Faculty at Texas A&M University were told this week that roughly 200 courses in the College of Arts and Sciences could be affected by a new system policy restricting classroom discussions of race and gender, the implementation of which has already led administrators to direct a philosophy professor to remove Plato readings from a core course.

The changes are being made days before the semester begins and after some students have registered to attend.

The Texas Tribune obtained emails sent by college administrators showing the policy has already led to courses being cancelled or renumbered to remove them from core curriculum credit, with professors directed to alter course content or teach different classes.

January 7, 2026

Here’s your Texas 2026 March primary ballot

Texas will hold its 2026 primary elections on March 3. Here are all of the candidates who have filed for the Democratic and Republican primary elections, according to the Secretary of State. Voters in each primary will choose which candidates they want to represent their party in the November general election.

On the ballot are many statewide seats, including governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, land commissioner, agriculture commissioner, comptroller and more. Republicans and Democrats will also choose candidates for congressional and legislative offices, the State Board of Education and judicial seats. Read more

January 5, 2026

From school vouchers to flood warning systems, these are the Texas developments to watch in 2026

On top of dozens of laws taking effect on Jan. 1 and the incoming midterm elections, the new year also comes with developments on numerous policy issues affecting the state. They range from criminal justice to education to international trade, setting up a year that could bring about sweeping changes for Texans.

Here are some important issues to watch in 2026.

January 4, 2026

First trial over law enforcement’s delayed response to Uvalde school shooting set to begin

Former Uvalde schools police Officer Adrian Gonzales was among the first officers to arrive at Robb Elementary in 2022 after a gunman opened fire on students and teachers. Gonzales’ criminal trial — the first over the delayed law enforcement response to one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history — is set to begin Monday.

Prosecutors allege that instead of rushing in to confront the shooter, Gonzales failed to take action to protect students. Many families of the 19 fourth-grade students and two teachers who were killed believe that if Gonzales and the nearly 400 officers who responded had confronted the gunman sooner instead of waiting more than an hour, lives might have been saved.

The trial in Corpus Christi is a rare case in which a police officer could be convicted for allegedly failing to act to stop a crime and protect lives.

January 2, 2026

Dallas County sues Trump administration over clawback of public health funds

Dallas County, buoyed by a recent Harris County court win, has filed a federal lawsuit against the Trump administration over the clawback of $70 million in public health funds.

Dallas County’s lawsuit, filed in Washington, D.C. on Dec. 5, claims the demand last spring that $11.4 billion in unspent pandemic-era funding be returned to federal coffers was an illegal one. The argument mirrors one made in a lawsuit filed by a coalition of 23 states — all led by Democratic governors — and the District of Columbia, that the rescinding of the unspent money awarded under one president cannot be seized under a different one. The states’ court battle is ongoing.

Texas did not join the states’ lawsuit, despite losing an estimated $700 million.

In Dallas County’s case, the public health department lost $70 million in federal funding funneled through the Texas Department of State Health Services and as a result, the county had to lay off nearly two dozen employees. The sudden loss in funding will cause “significant harm” to Dallas County, the lawsuit states.

December 30, 2025

Texas is overhauling what students will learn in social studies and history. Here’s what to know

A rewrite of Texas’ social studies curriculum is underway, with lawmakers, teachers and history enthusiasts at odds over exactly how to present the history of Texas and the United States to the state’s 5.5 million public school students.

State education officials regularly review and revamp standards for all subjects. But the social studies rewrite in particular has become a thorny political process, with lawmakers clashing over the portrayal of slavery, civil rights, Indigenous people, the Alamo and other subjects.

December 22, 2025

Texas comptroller questions whether some Islamic schools can be excluded from voucher program

Acting Texas Comptroller Kelly Hancock is asking the Texas Attorney General’s Office whether certain schools can be excluded from Texas’ new school voucher program based on connections to a U.S. Muslim advocacy group or alleged ties to the Chinese government.

In a request for opinion filed to state Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office on Dec. 12, Hancock asked whether schools could be excluded from the program if they were linked to a “foreign terrorist organization” or a “foreign adversary.” Hancock suggested schools that had hosted events for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil rights group which Gov. Greg Abbott recently designated as a terrorist organization, would be affected.

CAIR is suing Abbott over the terrorist designation, claiming it was defamatory and not based in law.

Hancock also alleged that one school in the state was owned or controlled by a group connected to an adviser for the Chinese government, which he wrote “appear to implicate newly enacted laws restricting property ownership, control, and financial influence by foreign adversary entities in Texas.” Senate Bill 17, which went into effect on Sept. 1, bans governments, companies and individuals who legally reside in China, Russia, Iran and North Korea from owning land and properties in the state.

December 19, 2025

More Texas students complete journey through college, but low-income students still left behind

Texas has long failed to get most of its students the higher education credentials the workforce increasingly demands. But recent laws that reward schools for helping students succeed later in life could help the state make up lost ground, experts say.

The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board regularly tracks if students enrolled in eighth grade eventually receive a degree or certificate at a two- or four- year institution within the state.

The proportion of students who have received a degree has climbed over the last 15 years, according to data the board released in December 2025.

Still, the state appears to be far short of meeting workforce demand. Nearly three-quarters of U.S. jobs will require education or training after high school by 2031, according to Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce. In Texas, 25% of students obtained such education or training within the state. (The coordinating board didn’t track students who went out of state for college every year.)

December 18, 2025

Texas tracks the long-term outcomes of public school students. See how your school district compares here.

While most of Texas’ eighth grade students graduated from a state public high school, only 1 in 4 eventually received an in-state higher education degree or certificate.

That’s according to new data from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, which followed 400,000 students enrolled in eighth grade in 2013-14 and tracked their outcomes over the course of a decade.

These outcomes varied significantly across demographic groups, most notably by income. Overall, 16% of students who are economically disadvantaged received a degree or certificate, compared to 36% of students who are not.

The Texas Tribune acquired student outcomes data from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to get a closer look at how they differ between school districts. Notably, districts with a greater proportion of economically disadvantaged students tended to have lower rates, regardless of whether they are urban, suburban or rural.

December 17, 2025

Texans can use school vouchers for pre-K, but the pool of families who qualify is limited

Final rules for Texas’ private school voucher program recently clarified that families interested in sending their children to private pre-K could receive an estimated $10,800 per year, the same amount designated for most other participants.

But the benefit may not radically transform Texas’ early childhood learning landscape, as the students eligible for private pre-K services through the program will be limited to those who already qualify for free public pre-K.

The state law that created the program earlier this year established that virtually any school-age child can apply for an education savings account, a form of vouchers that will allow families to access public taxpayers’ dollars to fund their children’s private or home-school education. But a lesser-known part of the law also granted certain families the option to use state funding to send their children to an accredited private pre-K provider as long as they do not simultaneously attend a public program.

That incentive only applies to 3- and 4-year-olds who meet at least one of several criteria to receive free public pre-K — including being an English learner, residing in a low-income household, or having a parent who is active in the military or teaches at a public school.

December 12, 2025

Northside ISD moving quickly to launch virtual high school

Under a new state law that encourages fully online and hybrid schooling options, the fourth-largest school district in Texas wants to join others in taking a “transformative approach,” Superintendent John Craft told trustees this week. The district plans to choose a vendor to run the school next week and present a proposal for board approval Jan. 13 for the online program, which will be billed as Northside Connect.

“This is a new frontier, a new journey, which we’re excited about,” Craft told trustees Tuesday night.

“I do believe that with branding and making this a truly Northside ISD virtual school, that it will garner interest and reach some of our students,” Craft said in an interview. “I don’t expect it to be a massive program right from the launch, but I do anticipate it will probably grow in the future.”

The proposal offers an opportunity to bring students not currently enrolled, including students who have to travel often or have been homeschooled, into the “Northside ecosystem,” Craft said. The district’s enrollment peaked to about 107,000 just before the pandemic in 2020, but has fallen to roughly 97,000 currently.

Under the virtual learning proposal, “the student is going to have to be incredibly self-motivated, and there’s going to have to be parental support, to be successful” Craft said.

The district has a short list of potential vendors with experience in online education and hopes to begin marketing and recruiting students in mid-January and registering them in February. Senate Bill 569, approved this year by the Legislature, streamlined the state’s regulations on K-12 virtual learning, replacing a complicated set of outdated rules with “a clear structure,” according to the bill’s author, Sen. Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston.

December 11, 2025

Texas Education Agency taking over Lake Worth, Connally and Beaumont school districts

The Texas Education Agency is replacing the elected school boards of the Beaumont, Connally and Lake Worth school districts, Education Commissioner Mike Morath announced Thursday.

The takeovers add to the growing list of districts subject to state interventions, which also includes two of the state’s largest: Fort Worth and Houston. The Fort Worth school board has said it plans to appeal the commissioner’s decision, which was announced in October.

December 10, 2025

Texas governor has a sweeping plan to abolish school property taxes

Texas lawmakers have gone big to rein in the state’s property taxes, spending tens of billions of dollars toward reducing the annual bill homeowners and businesses pay each year to help pay for schools. State lawmakers have also put tighter limits on how much local governments can increase taxes to pay for public safety, parks and other services.

Ahead of the 2026 election, Gov. Greg Abbott wants to go bigger. The three-term governor’s signature proposal is a sweeping property tax-cut platform, including:

Getting rid of school property taxes for homeowners
Putting tighter limits on how much property values can rise
Making it tougher for local governments to raise taxes even as their regions boom

So far, several Texas House lawmakers have signed on to the platform. And some prominent conservative groups like the Texas Public Policy Foundation and Americans for Prosperity have also embraced the plan.

However, tax policy experts spanning the political spectrum are skeptical that Abbott’s pitch is realistic — or would meaningfully bring down the state’s high tax bills.

Cutting property taxes has been tricky for state lawmakers. Texas doesn’t levy a statewide property tax. Nonetheless, Texans pay among the highest property taxes in the country, in part because the state doesn’t have an income tax and cities, counties and school districts rely heavily on property taxes to pay for public services like schools, police officers and firefighters.

Any of Abbott’s ideas would have to get the green light from lawmakers in the Texas Legislature, where similar ideas have failed. At the very least, tax-cut proponents are treating Abbott’s platform as a conversation starter around how to wrangle the state’s high property taxes.

December 9, 2025

Texas schools to host Turning Point chapters

Republican officials in Texas, led by Abbott, are partnering with Turning Point USA to establish chapters of the conservative youth organization in every high school across the state even though the organization has faced criticism for its controversial tactics, including a professor watchlist and accusations of fostering a hostile environment for educators. Abbott’s commitment includes $1m in campaign funds to support the project. Turning Point USA, founded by the late Charlie Kirk, aims to promote conservative values among students. Read more

December 8, 2025

Education Department recalls civil rights staff

The US Department of Education has ordered the temporary return of up to 247 Office for Civil Rights (OCR) employees, placed on administrative leave in March to resume work handling civil rights complaints from mid-December. “The Department remains committed to defending the RIF as the government-wide effort to reorient and right-size the federal workforce continues,” staff were told in an email on Friday. The agency said the move ensures those still on payroll contribute to enforcement efforts while awaiting a court decision on the legality of the RIFs. A judge’s recent ruling in a similar case at the State Department may influence the outcome. Read more

December 4, 2025

Supreme Court lets Texas keep new congressional map while legal battle continues

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that Texas can use its new, GOP-friendly congressional map while a legal challenge plays out, temporarily pausing a lower court ruling that had blocked the map from going into effect.

With the Dec. 8 candidate filing deadline fast approaching, the high court’s decision likely means Texas’ new map will be used for the 2026 midterm elections.

Justice Samuel Alito ruled that it was “indisputable” that Texas’ motivation for redistricting was “pure and simple” partisan advantage, which the court has previously ruled is permissible. A federal judge had previously ruled that the state likely engaged in racial gerrymandering, a claim Alito rejected. The three liberal justices dissented.

The ruling is a major win for Republicans in Texas and nationally. President Donald Trump had pushed Texas to redraw its map over the summer, hoping to secure five additional GOP seats to boost the party’s narrow majority in the U.S. House through the midterms.

On Nov. 18, two federal judges banned Texas from using the new map for 2026, saying there was evidence state lawmakers had racially gerrymandered in redrawing the lines. Galveston District Judge Jeffrey Brown, a Trump appointee, authored the opinion ordering Texas to return to its 2021 map, while 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Jerry Smith vociferously dissented.

The state asked the Supreme Court to overturn Brown’s ruling entirely, but that could take weeks or months to proceed through the court system, especially if the justices decide they want to hear arguments in Washington, D.C. With Thursday’s ruling, the justices have temporarily paused Brown’s ruling while that longer legal process can play out.

December 3, 2025

Communism, American Exceptionalism Become Flashpoints in History Standards

Battles over what children should learn in history class are alive and well as two large states revise and add to their social studies standards.

Texas is at the start of a periodic process to rework its standards for the subject, and its state board of education has already adopted a framework to guide it that critics argue overemphasizes Texas history. It also changes the sequence for when students learn about different topics.

The state board is leaning on social studies content advisers who favor teaching that the United States was founded as a Christian nation or have pushed for district curriculum overhauls that scrub references to diversity.

“We have kids that are questioning the incredible blessings that have come through the capitalist markets,” said Mandy Drogin of the Texas Public Policy Foundation, which advocated for the 2025 framework. “That was the impetus for us to start advocating for something better.”

And in Florida, the state board of education recently approved an addition to its social studies standards focused on communism. The standards instruct educators to teach about the “repackaging of Marxist ideology” in current political discourse, and the “dangers of propaganda” in modern media. Historians have said they present a skewed picture and minimize the consequences of McCarthyism.

The revisions in these two states could have implications elsewhere, as they’re some of the nation’s largest textbook markets.

December 2, 2025

New report questions the claimed success of New Orleans’ charter school reform

A new report published by the National Center for Charter School Accountability, a project of the nonprofit, Network for Public Education, critiques and adds context to a June 2025 policy brief that found that the transformation of New Orleans into an all-charter school district led to large improvements in test scores and graduation rates.

Authored by NEPC Fellow Kristen Buras of the New Orleans-based Urban South Grassroots Research Collective, the new report is entitled, The Stories Behind the Statistics: Why a Report on “Large Achievement Gains” in Charter Schools Harms New Orleans’ Black Students. It raises questions about the brief’s underlying data while also sharing additional qualitative research results.

“Two decades after Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans stands as a warning—not a model,” Buras concludes. The “firsthand testimony of students and parents on their charter school experiences, she writes, “reveals the inadequacies of statistical data presented in isolation from the lived realities of day-to-day life in New Orleans charter schools.” She points, for example, to the “punitive culture” in many of these schools, “that prioritizes discipline over students’ well-being and development.”

New Orleans was converted to an all-charter school system after Hurricane Katrina devastated the city in 2005.

Read the report

December 1, 2025

Even as SNAP resumes, new federal work rules threaten access for some Texans

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program helps feed 42 million low-income people in the country. Now, due to changes in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, recipients might soon have to prove to officials that they are working in order to keep food benefits.

Twenty-year-old Alejandro Santillan-Garcia, who lives in Austin, is worried about losing his benefits after he lost his last job for taking time off to go to the doctor for consistent stomach infections. Without a car, he’s applied to “any place you can think of” that he could walk or ride his bike to. But nobody has hired him.

Under the new federal budget law, more people are required to show they are working, volunteering or studying to be eligible for SNAP benefits. People who are “able-bodied” who don’t file their paperwork in time risk losing food aid for up to three years.

President Donald Trump signed the budget bill, which included new SNAP rules, into law on July 4. An expert who advises states on federal programs said states originally predicted they would need at least a year to implement the law’s significant changes.

The Congressional Budget Office expects the changes to kick at least 2.4 million people off SNAP within the next decade. Experts, who noted that it’s hard to work when hungry, say many people could start being dropped from SNAP early next year.

Before the new law, SNAP recipients under 55 already had to meet work requirements. For the first time, adults aged 55-64 and parents whose children are all 14 or older have to document 80 hours of work per month. The law also removes exemptions for veterans, homeless people, and foster care youths.

Republican policymakers say the new rules are part of a bigger effort to get rid of waste, fraud and abuse in public assistance programs.

November 30, 2025

Days before Texas’ “bathroom bill” becomes law, questions remain about how it will be enforced

Starting this Thursday, a new state law will add an extra layer of anxiety to the lives of trans Texans. They will have to worry — even more than usual — about going to the bathroom.

Senate Bill 8 is designed to prevent trans people from using certain state-owned facilities that match their identifying gender, including in public schools, city halls and state agencies. Commonly called the “bathroom bill,” SB8 will make Texas one of 19 other states that have some sort of restriction on restrooms in schools or public buildings.

Supporters of the law say it will make public bathrooms safer, mostly for women. But it’s not clear how it will be enforced when it goes into effect. The bill lacks specific guidance on what policies and practices to use. The bill includes vague guidance for agencies while simultaneously applying some of the highest fines in the country to those who fail to enforce the law.

Opponents of the law say the confusion is intentional, leaving trans Texans feeling frustrated and afraid as they navigate their daily lives.

The bill will allow the Attorney General’s office to investigate agencies that receive complaints for noncompliance. Attorney General Ken Paxton will have final say over whether fines will be enforced and how much they will cost. Agencies will be given just over two weeks to address the issues and avoid a one-time $25,000 fee. They will also lose that grace period in the future if a court finds them liable.

November 27, 2025

Happy Thanksgiving

The very happiest of Thanksgivings from the TSTA family to yours.

November 26, 2025

Cities, Workers, Civil Society Organizations Sue Trump-Vance Administration for Weaponizing Public Service Loan Forgiveness to Silence Critics and Stifle Dissent

The NEA has joined a coalition lawsuit challenging a new U.S. Department of Education rule that could limit which employers qualify for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program. The rule would allow the Secretary of Education to disqualify certain nonprofits and public employers based on their activities, undermining the intent of PSLF.

Read the press release

November 25, 2025

In school voucher rules, Texas lets families get more for pre-K but rejects stronger accountability

Texas’ chief financial officer on Tuesday finalized rules for the state’s private school voucher program, clearing up confusion about funding for pre-kindergarten students and setting official dates for schools and families to apply — but declining to change certain special education components or tack on additional accountability requirements.

Private schools and vendors who currently participate in an existing state initiative for students with disabilities can apply on Dec. 9, while applications for nonparticipants are set to open shortly after.

The state will then allow families to start applying on Feb. 4, the date Texas’ finance chief and Odyssey — the finance and technology company helping administer the program — had agreed upon in their contract. The application window would remain open until mid-March, according to the agreement. The state then aims to provide status updates for approved students in early May.

The program, which the Texas comptroller’s office oversees, will officially launch at the start of the 2026-27 school year.

November 24, 2025

Trump and McMahon move forward with dismantling the Department of Education

Days after SNAP recipients finally received money to shop for groceries, uncertainty returned for many students, parents, and educators.

Last Tuesday, Donald Trump and Education Secretary Linda McMahon unveiled plans to transfer many Department of Education programs to other agencies—an unprecedented and illegal move that would send class sizes soaring, gut job-training opportunities, and make post-secondary education even less attainable.

“Not only do they want to starve and steal from our students—they want to rob them of their futures,” NEA President Becky Pringle said.

Meanwhile, Congress has a lot to do and little time to get it done.

On Jan. 30, funding again runs out for most of the federal government. Nine of the 12 full-year funding bills are still outstanding, and the House and the Senate are far apart on topline spending figures.

Looming threats include the loss of access to affordable health care.

On Jan. 1, premiums are set to more than double, on average, for the 24 million Americans who buy health insurance on Affordable Care Act marketplaces. The continuing resolution that ended the shutdown promises a vote on the issue in the Senate, but not the House.

Thanksgiving is a time to celebrate community, fellowship, and family. Enjoy the holiday and keep telling Congress what you think!

November 22, 2025

Faculty panel: Texas A&M wrongly fired professor after gender lesson

Texas A&M University did not have good cause to fire Melissa McCoul, an English professor thrust into the spotlight after a video of her discussing gender identity circulated online and drew political backlash, a faculty committee unanimously found in a new report.

The university fired McCoul after a student secretly recorded her in a summer class teaching that there are more than two genders. The video was posted to X by state Rep. Brian Harrison, R-Midlothian, an Aggie who has used his social media to pressure universities to remove course content he finds offensive.

Texas A&M did not dismiss her until after Harrison’s post in September went viral. It said it did not fire her for teaching there are more than two genders, but for failing to change her course content to align with the catalog description. There is no state or federal law prohibiting instruction on gender identity in college classes. She appealed the termination through the university’s Committee on Academic Freedom, Tenure and Responsibility.

An eight-member panel from the committee held a full-day hearing on Nov. 3 and issued its findings to Interim President Tommy Williams on Nov. 18. Williams can accept the finding and reinstate McCoul or reject it and uphold her termination.

November 20, 2025

Federal appeals court will hear arguments in Texas’ and Louisiana’s Ten Commandments cases in January

A federal appeals court next year will hear Texas’ arguments against a ruling that blocked several school districts from displaying posters of the Ten Commandments.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on Jan. 20 will hear both the Texas case and a similar case happening in Louisiana, which was the first state to pass a requirement to post the Ten Commandments in classrooms.

The Texas lawsuit is one of several cases that families of various religious and nonreligious backgrounds have brought forward challenging the state’s Ten Commandments law. Two federal district judges have blocked more than two dozen Texas school districts from complying with the law, saying that the legislation is unconstitutional.

The rulings in both cases only apply to the 25 school districts named in the lawsuits. The attorney general’s office has sued the Round Rock, Leander and Galveston school districts for allegedly not complying with the law as arguments over its constitutionality proceed in federal court.

Attorneys representing the families and the attorney general’s office have argued in court over the role Founding Fathers like Thomas Jefferson and James Madison played in developing the Bill of Rights and the First Amendment, which protects people’s freedom of religion.

Both parties have debated the influence of the Ten Commandments on the country’s legal and educational systems, and whether the version of the Ten Commandments required to go up in schools belongs to a particular religious group. They have also sparred over whether the law reflects an attempt by Texas officials to coerce students into adhering to Judeo-Christian principles.

Texas’ Ten Commandments law was one of the latest measures passed by the Republican-controlled Legislature earlier this year. Critics say the law inappropriately injects religion into the state’s public schools, attended by roughly 5.5 million children.

November 18, 2025

Why some Texas teachers are being forced to “deadname” trans students under a new state law

A sweeping piece of legislation that went into effect Sept. 1, SB 12 bars public school employees from socially transitioning a student, which it defines as helping to change a student’s sex assigned at birth by using a different name, pronoun or other practice that denies the birth sex. Dubbed the “Parents’ Bill of Rights,” the law allows guardians to report school-supported social transitioning to the school board, among other powers.

The law also prohibits K-12 faculty from referencing LGBTQ+ identities in class instruction and casual conversations, and it bans school-sanctioned clubs that center sexual orientation or gender identity.

Several transgender students at Texas schools that enforce birth names told the Tribune the new policies have transformed school from a place of support to one that rejects who they are. Considered a derogatory practice in the LGBTQ+ community, dead-naming undermines the wishes of trans people and in some cases, forcibly reveals their trans identity, which can cause or worsen mental health problems among these children, studies have found.

November 17, 2025

UT-Austin silent on Trump compact as deadline approaches

The University of Texas at Austin hasn’t said whether it will sign an agreement with the Trump administration that would tie preferential access to federal funding to a series of campus policy changes, even as other universities have rejected the administration’s offer.

The proposal, known as the “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education,” would require UT-Austin to define sex as male or female based on reproductive function, cap international enrollment at 15%, freeze tuition for five years and ensure that academic departments include a mix of ideological perspectives among their faculty and programs.

Provost William Inboden said in an interview last month with The Chronicle of Higher Education that “we align with the principles of conduct that they want,” though he added that “some of the procedural enforcement of the compact would clash with state law and some of our other institutional prerogatives.”

UT System Board of Regents Chair Kevin Eltife, who initially expressed enthusiasm about the proposal, told The Texas Tribune last week that “nothing has changed. It’s a work in progress.”

UT-Austin is trying to navigate competing pressures from a White House seeking to reshape higher education in its image; from Texas elected officials who have already imposed limits on diversity, equity and inclusion and faculty governance; and from faculty and students who say the compact threatens their freedom to teach and learn.

The university is also staring down a deadline: The Trump administration has said it wants initial signatories by Nov. 21. UT-Austin and the White House did not respond to requests for comment.

The Trump administration sent the compact offer to nine universities last month, describing them as “good actors” that could help model reforms for the rest of higher education. The compact doesn’t promise more federal dollars, but it would give priority to participating schools for federal grants, contracts and other benefits.

November 15, 2025

Texas superintendents say school takeovers aren’t a sustainable way to boost student learning

Texas superintendents on Saturday said state takeovers of school districts — where democratically elected school boards are ousted and replaced with a state-appointed board of managers — is not a sustainable means to improve student learning.

Two of Texas’ largest school districts, Houston ISD, and most recently, Fort Worth ISD, are under a takeover, after five consecutive years of failing ratings at one of their campuses.

“Do I think that’s sustainable? Absolutely not. I don’t,” Martha Salazar-Zamora, the superintendent of Tomball ISD, said at The Texas Tribune Festival. “I don’t think that’s what local control is supposed to look like. I don’t actually think that’s what the public school experience is supposed to look like.”

About 40 miles north of Houston, Tomball ISD is a high-performing district with about 22,000 students. The district earned an A rating in 2025.

On the panel Saturday, school leaders from across the state — Salazar-Zamora, San Angelo ISD Superintendent Christopher Moran and Austin ISD Superintendent Matias Segura — warned state takeovers are threatening local control at a time districts are already cash-strapped because of budget deficits.

Since 2000, the Texas Education Agency has taken over 11 school districts around the state. State leaders have reasoned it is their last resort to improve academic performance, a responsibility public schools have to its communities.

Upheaval in the Houston school district has shown how contentious takeovers can get. While state-appointed superintendent Mike Miles touted no failing schools in 2025 because of his reforms, it came at the cost of a mass exodus of students and teachers.

The superintendents on Saturday said that they don’t shy away from accountability measures to ensure their students are on track with their learning. However, they added, decision-making power should remain with local school boards.

November 13, 2025

Texas lawmakers will hold first hearing Thursday to review college campus speech after Charlie Kirk killing

Texas lawmakers on Thursday will hold their first hearing to review speech on public universities. It comes after Republican leaders expressed outrage over some reactions on campuses celebrating or mocking the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

Kirk was killed on Sept. 10 while speaking at a college in Utah. Two days later, state leaders announced the formation of bipartisan committees to discuss campus speech and related policies.

The Senate and House Select Committee on Civil Discourse and Freedom of Speech in Higher Education will convene jointly on Thursday at 9:30 a.m. in Austin. They will only take invited testimony.

According to the agenda, lawmakers plan to hear testimony on “encouragement of civil discourse and freedom of speech on, and protection from undue administrative censorship by, the state’s college campuses.”

They will also take testimony on the implementation of Senate Bill 37, a new law that increases state oversight of university curriculum and operations, as well as campus safety measures related to public events.

New data suggests that many students are open to taking action against speech they disagree with.

November 11, 2025

The number of whooping cough cases in Texas is the highest it’s been in 11 years

More than 3,500 cases of pertussis, or whooping cough, cases have been reported in Texas so far this year, already reaching a 11-year high even though two more highly infectious months are left in the year, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services.

The uptick in whooping cough, which is especially contagious in children, has coincided with a decline in vaccination rates for the illness, according to disease experts who urge the best way to control the spread is to get vaccinated. They also say whooping cough tends to spike every few years and that there isn’t a way to completely wipe out the disease.

“We practitioners and public health professionals are concerned because we are seeing a year-after-year trend of a significant increase in cases when this is preventable,” said Hector Ocaranza, a pediatrician and member of the Texas Medical Association’s Council on Science and Health Promotion. “Especially a disease that can have such a severe effect on infants, older people, and those who have chronic conditions.”

The Texas Department of State Health Services reported more than 3,500 cases of whooping cough through October, quadruple the number of cases during the same period last year, which saw a total of 1,907 cases, according to provisional data. The total so far is also 10 times the number of cases for all of 2023. This is the second consecutive year the state’s health agency has had to issue a health alert.

November 10, 2025

Texas A&M faculty panel report says professor’s firing violated her academic freedom

A Texas A&M University faculty committee created in the wake of two high-profile controversies that raised concerns about political interference in academic and personnel decisions found that the recent firing of English professor Melissa McCoul violated her academic freedom.

McCoul was fired in September after a video of her discussing gender identity in class was recorded without her knowledge and circulated online, drawing intense political and social media criticism. The university said she was fired because the content of her course did not match its catalog description. McCoul is appealing her termination.

In a report dated Sept. 25 and obtained by The Texas Tribune on Monday, the Academic Freedom Council concluded McCoul’s dismissal appeared to be based on what she taught rather than any failure to follow the course catalog. The council compared the course catalog entry, course description and McCoul’s syllabus and said the materials were consistent with one another. The catalog describes the class broadly as covering “representative writers, genres, texts and movements.”

The council also found that former President Mark A. Welsh III did not follow university rules for dismissing her. Those rules require a department head to draft the written charges for dismissal, seek approval from the dean and give the faculty member a notice of intent to dismiss along with five business days to respond. Welsh said on Sept. 9 he directed McCoul’s removal “effective immediately.”

November 7, 2025

How Texas misses the mark in tracking kids withdrawn for absences

It took about a year for teachers and administrators at Ann Richards School for Young Women Leaders to see a “sharp decline” in one of their students. The high schooler had been “academically successful and engaged,” they said. Then she started missing school.

School officials would learn the girl’s mounting attendance problems reflected a chronic health condition. Ultimately, they withdrew her because of her absences.

The impact of that withdrawal – and the student’s struggle to reenroll the next year – had a profound effect on her life, according to her mother, who asked that KXAN not use their names because of the sensitive nature of the case.

“The cumulative result was a preventable gap in the student’s education — one that played out publicly, painfully, and without a clear path to resolution,” AISD officials wrote in an investigation report.

KXAN reported extensively on the teen’s situation and its unusually public fallout. Top school officials were threatened with termination and resigned after the district alleged they withdrew the student without parental notification.

But most withdrawals happen quietly.

Tens of thousands of students are withdrawn each year from Texas schools – severed from the public school system for myriad reasons with no public or media attention. But how often are Texas kids, like the Ann Richards student, withdrawn specifically over absences and truancy?

When KXAN sought records of how frequently that’s happening, we found there is no clear answer because the state isn’t tracking it. Additionally, Texas isn’t collecting exit data on students in 6th grade and below.

Education experts and a state lawmaker told KXAN those are blind spots that should be addressed.

November 6, 2025

Conservatives lose seats in Cy-Fair ISD’s hotly contested school board election

In the hotly contested Cy-Fair ISD school board election, a slate of candidates defeated the board’s conservative majority, preliminary election results show.

The challenging slate candidates — Lelsey Guilmart, Kendra Camarena and Cleveland Lane Jr. — won their respective races. In position 7, Camarena has 49% of the votes and George Edwards Jr., part of the slates endorsed by the Harris County Republican Party, received 38%.

In Position 6, the conservative vote split, costing both board vice president Natalie Blasingame and board president Scott Henry their seats. Challenger Lane Jr. won with 45%.

The opposing slate of candidates began organizing as early as January to oust Cy-Fair ISD’s current 6-1 conservative majority, which has veered the district in a far-right direction over the past two years. That slate included Guilmart, a school district staffing consultant and president of Cypress Families for Public Schools; Lane Jr., a professor of practice at Prarie View A&M University; and Camarena, director of partner engagement for Harris County Precinct 4. All have children in Cy-Fair ISD.

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November 5, 2025

Austin ISD to hold off on 3 school closures, delay boundary changes

The Austin ISD board of trustees will no longer vote to close Palm, Bryker Woods and Maplewood elementaries in November.

Additionally, the district will postpone any proposed attendance boundary changes until next year, excluding those related to intervention at failing schools, Superintendent Matias Segura announced in a letter to families on the evening of Nov. 4.

The announcement follows weeks of protesting from AISD parents, staff and students against the district’s initial plan to close 13 schools and rezone most campuses.

On Nov. 20, the AISD board will move forward with voting on the closure of 10 of the 13 campuses it initially proposed to close next school year.

Seven of these campuses have received three consecutive F ratings and require state-mandated intervention through turnaround plans. After closing these schools, the district will provide additional support at whichever campus the majority of students are reassigned to, which could include principals and teachers having to meet certain criteria.

The district plans to close Becker, Ridgetop and Sunset Valley elementaries to relocate their schoolwide dual language programs to Sánchez, Pickle and Odom elementaries, respectively.

In the spring, AISD will pick up its efforts to balance enrollment through a comprehensive boundary plan before taking a vote in the fall, according to the letter. Delaying the rezoning “will allow us to ensure all ideas from our community can be considered in our plan,” the letter states.

“It is extremely important that when we make generational changes, we take the time to ensure community voice is thoroughly considered and that the process is done with fidelity, transparency, and integrity,” Segura said in the letter.

November 4, 2025

It’s Election Day in Texas

If you already have voted, thank you. If you haven’t, please vote today, Nov. 4, in the state’s constitutional amendments election and any school district or other local elections affecting you.

The Legislature has put 17 proposed constitutional amendments on the statewide ballot, many offering tax relief. TSTA is neutral on all the propositions and urges our members to study them and vote. Some school districts also have elections for board members and/or revenue-raising proposals, and we urge you to vote for candidates or propositions endorsed by your locals.

One tax relief amendment (Proposition 13) would increase the general homestead exemption for school district taxes from the current $100,000 of the value of a house to $140,000. Propositions 7, 10 and 11 would provide additional homestead exemptions for the spouses of veterans who died of service-connected conditions or diseases, homeowners whose residences were destroyed by fire and elderly or disabled homeowners.

The Legislature has set aside $51 billion to reimburse school districts for their lost revenue for the next two years if some or all of these higher tax breaks pass.

Other amendments would increase funding for Texas State Technical College, restrict the use of bail in some felony cases, provide more bond funding for water projects, increase funding for dementia research, codify so-called “parental rights” and address other issues.

The League of Women Voters of Texas produced videos explaining each of the 17 proposed amendments in clear, easy-to-understand language that is unbiased and nonpartisan. Find those videos as well as written information about the amendments here.

Or read more about the amendments in this Texas Tribune article. Scroll to the bottom for a detailed list.

November 3, 2025

New data shows 1 in 4 ICE arrests happened in Texas under Trump’s immigration crackdown

In Texas, which has the second-largest population of undocumented immigrants in the country, the local criminal justice system has become the main funnel sending undocumented immigrants into ICE custody, according to a Texas Tribune analysis of federal government data.

Immigration enforcement has ramped up compared to President Donald Trump’s first term. The administration’s focus has now shifted to Democrat-led states such as California, Illinois and New York, where witnesses have recorded masked ICE agents using force to arrest people at worksites, immigration courts, commercial parking lots and their homes.

From Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20 to July 29, ICE made 138,068 arrests nationwide, and 24% of them were in Texas. That means every 1 in 4 ICE arrests happened in Texas.

The Tribune analyzed ICE’s enforcement data from September 2023 to late July 2025, comparing the last 18 months of the Biden administration with the first six months of the Trump administration’s second term.

November 1, 2025

Fort Worth ISD takeover was largely based on STAAR test, despite plans to replace it

The state takeover of the Fort Worth Independent School District is largely based on student performance on the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness — a testing system that came under scrutiny this year and led state lawmakers to replace it over concerns that it set students up for failure.

The widespread criticism of STAAR has prompted questions about the fairness of the takeover, including whether the state should replace an elected school board and a superintendent if the test driving the decision does not adequately capture student learning.

Texas’ accountability system assigns school districts a letter grade each year for how well they teach children, close academic achievement gaps and prepare students for life after high school graduation. If a campus receives five consecutive failing grades, state law requires the education commissioner to either order the closure of the school or replace the district’s board with a new group of leaders.

Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath announced his plans last week to replace the North Texas school district’s board and name a state-appointed superintendent, saying the district’s current leaders had “failed the students of Fort Worth ISD.”

In addition to low student performance at a now-closed sixth-grade campus, Morath pointed to data showing that only 34% of Fort Worth students are currently performing at grade level and that 20 campuses have produced “academically unacceptable” results for multiple years in a row.

October 31, 2025

Texas put its chief financial officer in charge of school vouchers

Governor Greg Abbott earlier this year signed a law authorizing a $1 billion private school voucher program, tapping the state comptroller’s office as the entity responsible for its creation.

The law grants Texas’ chief financial officer tremendous authority to build the infrastructure around education savings accounts, a type of voucher program that will allow families to receive taxpayer money to cover their children’s private school or home-schooling costs.

The agency’s responsibilities include choosing the companies that will receive millions of dollars to help administer the program, creating the rules that participating families must follow and producing annual reports on the program’s outcomes.

Former Texas Sen. Kelly Hancock currently serves as acting comptroller and will guide most of the program’s development before it launches next year. The North Richland Hills Republican filled the position after Glenn Hegar stepped down to lead the Texas A&M University System.

The comptroller is an elected position, and voters will decide next year who will occupy the role for the next four-year term. Hancock is running to keep the seat against Texas Railroad Commissioner Christi Craddick and former state Sen. Don Huffines, R-Dallas, the other two candidates in the Republican primary who plan to run for comptroller.

October 30, 2025

Texas Democrats urge Governor Greg Abbott to direct emergency funds to address the looming food crisis

Texas Democratic lawmakers have urged Governor Greg Abbott to use his executive authority to provide emergency state funding — a move he has done before — to offset the looming federal suspension of SNAP benefits this weekend for three and a half million low-income Texans.

More than 50 Texas House Democrats signed a letter sent to Abbott on Thursday urging the governor to tap the same authority he used during COVID-19, the Uvalde shooting, and border operations “to save millions of Texas families from going hungry until federal funding to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is restored.”

On Saturday, the federal government will halt all SNAP assistance, also known as food stamps, to more than 42 million Americans who depend on it monthly because of the federal shutdown prompted by a partisan divide over whether the American Care Act health insurance tax credits should be extended.

The halt means more than 3.4 million low-income Texans, including 1.7 million children, who depend on a monthly average of $400 in federal food aid, will go without it unless it’s replaced.

Of the estimated $8 billion in federal food assistance funding scheduled for distribution in November, $614 million would go to Texas SNAP recipients.

“We therefore respectfully request that you declare a state of emergency and authorize the temporary use of state funds to maintain SNAP benefits for Texas households until the federal government resumes normal operations,” the Texas Democrats’ letter stated.

State Rep. Armando Walle, D-Houston, said he and other lawmakers first reached out last week to Abbott’s office following news that the SNAP funds for November would be halted, asking whether the governor would declare an emergency and move funding from other agencies. “I haven’t gotten a response other than they’re going to look into it,” Walle said. “This is a human capital natural disaster.”

October 29, 2025

SNAP cutoff could hurt Texas grocers and the rest of the economy, experts say

The cutoff of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits to 3.5 million Texans that depend on the program could have ripple effects on the state economy beyond those directly affected.

Those who rely on SNAP to buy groceries for themselves and their families make up about 12% of all grocery sales nationwide, according to the National Grocers Association. Experts say the sudden loss of that income will mean SNAP recipients have less money to spend in Texas grocery stores.

“Once all those benefits are exhausted, it will be a significant impact on sales in the stores depending on the size of the store and the location of the store, then it will impact product, and then in the long term, it impacts employment,” said Gary Huddleston, the grocery industry consultant for the Texas Retailers Association, a trade association that represents retailers and grocery stores in the state.

October 28, 2025

The federal shutdown will halt November SNAP benefits; here’s what you need to know

Supplemental Nutrition and Assistance Program (SNAP) payments will pause on November 1, the result of the second-longest government shutdown in US history. It will be the first time the benefit has been interrupted since it began more than six decades ago.

What is SNAP? Commonly referred to as the food stamp program, SNAP offers food assistance to low-income citizens across the nation. Every state offers it to qualifying residents; undocumented immigrants are not eligible.
How many Texans use SNAP? Over 3.5 million Texans, including 1.7 million children, are among the more than 40 million Americans who receive SNAP payments each month.

How does SNAP work? Payments are determined by a household’s income level and the number of people in a household. Funds are distributed to Texas participants through a debit-like card called a Lone Star card, which they can use to purchase groceries. In Texas, an average of about $400 a month is paid to qualifying individuals.

Can this be stopped? Without ending the shutdown, Congress could pass a standalone bill to fund SNAP. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, has introduced a bill to do so, but Senate Republican leadership has not scheduled a vote on it.

How long will this last? SNAP benefits will remain paused until the government shutdown ends. It is unclear when that will happen as Democrats and Republicans in Congress remain gridlocked on Affordable Care Act tax credits. Once the shutdown ends, SNAP recipients will receive any missed payments retroactively.

October 27, 2025

More first-generation students in Texas are applying for college

In recent years, Texas has received national attention for being one of the first states to ban all diversity, equity and inclusion programs in colleges and for ending in-state tuition rates for undocumented students. At the same time, the state has seen the number of first-generation college applicants more than triple in the last five years. Many of them are Hispanic.

After a 2023 state law banned DEI initiatives, providing tailored services to first-generation students became one of the few legal ways that colleges can offer special support to students from marginalized groups.

College enrollment dropped in the years after the pandemic amid worries from young people about high tuition rates, housing costs and student debt. But in Texas, the ranks of first-gen college applicants are steadily increasing because of concerted state efforts to get them to see college as an affordable possibility, experts say.

The number of children living in households where the head of household has not earned a college degree has actually decreased slightly over the past five years. Yet the number of high school graduates applying to college as the first in their families to do so has grown rapidly in Texas, from about 13,000 in the 2020-21 academic year to about 43,000 in the 2024-25 year, according to data from Common App, a nonprofit that offers a uniform application form used at more than 1,1000 colleges and universities.

October 26, 2025

Senate Democrats press Education secretary on immigration enforcement near schools

A group of Senate Democrats sent a letter Friday to Education Secretary Linda McMahon demanding the Trump administration make efforts to ensure Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers don’t conduct operations close to schools.

The letter, led by Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) and signed by seven colleagues, says ICE has increased its presence around Chicago Public Schools and other educational institutions, which “disrupt[s] learning and school operations.”

The letter describes an incident of ICE throwing canisters of tear gas 700 feet away from an elementary school during lunch and recess time. Another incident cited in the letter involved two women getting dragged out of their car by ICE in front of a Chicago school building with students around.

The Democrats in their letter Friday are demanding ICE operations be at least 1,000 feet away from school property.

“Federal agents continue to use unwarranted, excessive levels of force around Chicago, demonstrating an alarming lack of care or regard for the health and wellbeing of children, particularly by conducting unfocused, inflammatory operations within close proximity of school grounds,” the letter states.

October 23, 2025

Texas Education Agency takes over Fort Worth ISD, replacing its elected school board

The Texas Education Agency will remove the Fort Worth Independent School District’s elected board members and may appoint a new superintendent to oversee its operations, Commissioner Mike Morath announced Thursday morning.

The decision to assume control of the North Texas district — the second-largest takeover in Texas history — follows months of speculation about how the state would respond to one of the Fort Worth campuses not meeting academic accountability standards for five consecutive years. The district closed the campus, Leadership Academy at Forest Oak Sixth Grade, at the end of the 2023-24 school year, but Morath indicated in the spring that state law still required him to intervene.

Dallas’ local news station WFAA first reported news about the takeover Wednesday evening.

In a letter sent to the district Thursday, Morath said that through “action and inaction,” the current school board has “failed the students of Fort Worth ISD.” The commissioner pointed to data showing that roughly 34% of students across all grades and subjects are not performing at grade level on Texas’ standardized exams and that 20 campuses have been considered “academically unacceptable for multiple years in a row.”

“The inability of the district to implement effective changes to improve the performance of students in the district or at the campus necessitates the interventions announced by this letter,” Morath wrote. “Furthermore, the interventions are in the public interest as the failure of governance is demonstrated by the continual academic deficiencies at the campus and across the district.”

The commissioner said he plans to appoint a new school board that will “consist of Fort Worth community members who are committed to governing effectively to support positive change for the students of the district.”

Morath will appoint a new superintendent, though he said the district’s current leader, Karen Molinar, will be considered for the position. The agency will also name a conservator responsible for ensuring “the district supports its low-performing campuses and implements the district’s turnaround plans.”

In response to the agency’s decision, the Fort Worth school district’s board of trustees said in a statement that it is “disappointed by the decision and hopes the matter will be reconsidered.”

October 22, 2025

Texas Republicans are redefining higher ed. It’s creating confusion about free speech on campuses.

At colleges across Texas last month, a series of viral campus videos, abrupt professor firings, confusing teaching restrictions and sudden course audits came in such rapid-fire succession that before the fallout was over at one public university, another scandal was upending norms at a school hundreds of miles away.

Many students and professors say the ground has shifted on speech and scholarship, creating confusion about what they can say, study and teach in the very places they once saw as centers of open inquiry.

But those changes didn’t happen overnight. The events merely sped up the political transformation of higher education that was already underway in the state — Texas Republicans have been building toward it for years.

Long before the Trump administration began targeting institutions of higher learning, Texas officials passed laws, threatened universities with funding cuts and waged social media warfare aimed at combating what they described as bias against conservative opinions.

The pressure prompted regents at systems across the state to install top school administrators more aligned with state leaders.

Now, students who aren’t white, straight and cisgender say their identities are being erased. Many professors worry that fear, not inquiry, is starting to define campus life.

Others say the shift was overdue and is creating space for conservative voices that were once dismissed or mocked. They support new limits on classroom instruction about trans and nonbinary identities and argue that the ongoing changes have allowed students and faculty to talk more freely.

October 21, 2025

Trans Texas college students bearing more hostility as officials push binary gender definitions

The Texas Tribune spoke to over a dozen transgender and nonbinary Texas students about how their lives on campuses have changed in recent years. Many told us that state and federal policies have emboldened their peers to disregard their gender identities and empowered administrators to slash campus support services and dilute their quality of education.

College campuses — long considered safe havens to meet people with varied experiences and explore identity — have become hostile environments that invalidate their sense of self, and where they fear for their safety and mental well-being, students told the Tribune.

It all ramped up in September when a video of a Texas A&M University student confronting a professor for discussing transgender identities went viral, kicking off a domino effect. The professor was fired, and the university’s president was replaced.

Hundreds of miles away, Angelo State University officials quietly unveiled limits to discussing transgender identities in class. Days later, the school’s parent system, Texas Tech, issued its own restrictions to faculty.

And most recently, on Oct. 2, the University of Texas at Austin said it was “enthusiastically” reviewing an offer from President Donald Trump to receive federal funding advantages if, among other things, it agrees to adopt a binary definition of gender.

Now, many students face an internal debate: remain at universities that they feel cast them aside or leave the state they call home.

October 20, 2025

Early voting for Texas’ 17 statewide propositions is under way

Texas voters will get the final say on 17 constitutional amendments — usually listed as statewide propositions at the top of the ballot — including billions of dollars in property tax cuts for homeowners and businesses.

Early voting begins Monday and runs through Oct. 31. Election Day is Nov. 4.

Earlier this year, a two-thirds majority of the state Legislature passed the joint resolutions calling for the constitutional amendment elections, along with the state’s budget for the next two years, which includes $51 billion for property tax cuts.

Texas lawmakers have used multibillion-dollar budget surpluses, the result of inflation and temporary federal stimulus dollars during the COVID-19 pandemic, to pay for tax cuts in recent years. Proponents of tax cuts and bans, including Gov. Greg Abbott, have said they will maintain Texas as a competitive, business-friendly state and contribute to economic growth.

But some lawmakers and budget analysts have raised concerns that passing more tax cuts, especially on school district taxes which the state helps pay for, could be unsustainable.

“We always have to kind of balance giving folks tax relief versus making sure that we still preserve revenue for those public services,” said Shannon Halbrook, a fiscal policy director for the left-leaning Every Texan.

October 17, 2025

3.5 million Texans will see food assistance halted if government shutdown continues

Texas officials began notifying the state’s poorest residents on Friday that their food benefits via the Supplemental Food Assistance and Nutrition Program, or SNAP, will be cut off in November if the federal shutdown continues past Oct. 27.

In Texas, that would mean a halt to more than $614 million to the 3.5 million who rely each month on SNAP, also known as food stamps. Of those who could be impacted, 1.7 million are children.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service, which oversees the SNAP program, notified state agencies a week ago that if the shut down persists, November payments to participants would be halted.

“SNAP has funding available for benefits and operations through the month of October,” according to a letter written by the FNS office to state agencies. “However, if the current lapse in appropriations continues, there will be insufficient funds to pay full November SNAP benefits for approximately 42 million individuals across the Nation.”

SNAP benefits are transmitted to Lone Star Card users each month for use at grocery retailers. The payments can range from $200 to $400, depending on a household size with the average amount issued at $379, according to August statistics.

The federal government officially shut down at midnight Oct. 1 as lawmakers blew past their deadline to preserve funding for federal agencies, resulting in disrupted services to Texans. The last government shutdown — a partial stoppage in 2018 into 2019 — lasted 35 days.

The Texas Health and Human Services, which administers the SNAP program in Texas is directing Lone Star Card users to their website for more information.

Currently, other assistance programs — the Temporary Assistance to Need Families or TANF, the Women, Infants, and Children, or WIC, Medicaid and the Children Health Insurance Program or CHIP — are not impacted by the shutdown.

October 16, 2025

Federal judge temporarily halts Trump shutdown layoffs

US District Judge Susan Illston has blocked the Trump administration from laying off thousands of federal workers during the government shutdown, including thousands of staff at the Department of Education.

The temporary stay, under which the administration cannot issue any additional reduction-in-force notices, or enforce those already sent, follows a lawsuit filed by the American Federation of Government Employees and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees against the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for violating the law when OMB Director Russ Vought threatened a mass firing of federal workers during a shutdown.

Illston said: “The evidence suggests that the Office of Management and Budget and the Office of Personnel Management have taken advantage of the lapse in government spending, in government functioning, to assume all bets are off, the laws don’t apply to them anymore.”

A Justice Department attorney said a temporary restraining order is not warranted, and argued that the temporary restraining order will not stop dismissals that won’t take effect for two months anyway.

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October 15, 2025

Voter system switch leaves thousands of Texas residents unverified ahead of early voting

Elections officials across Texas are scrambling to register voters after the near-collapse of a voter registration company led counties across the state to transfer to a system provided through the Texas Secretary of State’s office.

Votec, a California-based company that has run voter registration everywhere from Harris County to Travis County, warned officials in August that a grim fiscal outlook had cast doubt on their ability to register voters ahead of the November election.

The scare sparked a mass exodus of counties from Votec to the Texas Elections Management System, a statewide database that has been used by the Secretary of State’s Office to manage voter registration information since the early 2000s. But the transition to TEAM has been bumpy, and came just as the state rolled out a major update to the system. All told, the switch has left as many as 17,000 voters in Harris County and 400 in Fort Bend County in limbo with just days before early voting is scheduled to begin.

“Our system does interface with TEAM, and we have had issues since July with that functionality,” said John Oldham, elections administrator in Fort Bend County, adding that TEAM had never been the county’s primary voter registration system. “We seem to be working through that, and our unprocessed voters have dropped from around 40,000 to something in the neighborhood of 400. This happened just this week. We had been unable to send out new voter certificates, but (we) will hopefully begin doing so in the next few days.”

Votec did not fully shut down, according to reporting from the Texas Tribune, but the company’s dire financial position and the abrupt departure of several key executives have caused many counties to turn toward TEAM and other sources for voter registration services, including those in Fort Bend County.

Texans could begin applying for school vouchers in February

Texas families wanting to participate in the state’s upcoming school voucher program could apply as soon as February, while the application process for private schools hoping to join is set to launch before the end of the year.

Those details were revealed in the state’s $52 million contract with New York-based finance and technology company Odyssey, which Texas’ chief financial officer recently hired to help design and manage the voucher program. The Texas Tribune and ProPublica reviewed the contract after filing an open records request following Odyssey’s appointment.

Odyssey agreed to a “project work plan” that sets a tentative date of Dec. 2, 2025, for schools to register to become one of the options where families can spend funds awarded by the state. The agreement also set Feb. 4, 2026, as the date when it will start receiving parent applications; that window would remain open until mid-March. The company will design those processes, as well as the system parents will use to shop for educational products and pay tuition.

October 14, 2025

Federal judge temporarily blocks key parts of state law that limits campus protests

A federal judge in Austin has temporarily blocked key parts of Texas’ new law limiting expression on campuses, halting the University of Texas System’s enforcement of a ban on overnight expression and limits on speakers, amplified sounds and drums during the last two weeks of the semester.

U.S. District Judge David A. Ezra on Oct. 14 said the student groups who brought the case are likely to succeed on their claims that Senate Bill 2972 violates their First Amendment rights and would be irreparably harmed without relief. He wrote that the clause added to the law by the Legislature instructing universities to uphold the First Amendment “does not change the fact that the statute then requires universities to adopt policies that violate those very constitutional protections.”

“The Court cannot trust the universities to enforce their policies in a constitutional way while Plaintiffs are left in a state of uncertainty, chilling their speech for fear that their expressive conduct may violate the law or university policies,” Ezra wrote.

UT System spokesperson Ben Wright said in a statement the system cannot comment on the lawsuit but added that it “complies with the law and court orders.” Brandon Creighton, SB 2972’s author, said in a statement that his legislation strengthens free speech protections on college campuses by fostering a culture of openness while also protecting students, faculty and campus property from disruption by outside groups.

“The ruling represents only a temporary stay by one judge, and I’m confident the law will ultimately be upheld,” said Creighton, who resigned from the Texas Senate on Oct. 2 to become Texas Tech University System’s chancellor.

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression sued the University of Texas System in federal court on Sept. 3 to block SB 2972, which creates rules for campus protests and gives university systems’ governing boards the power to limit where they can take place.

Harrison v higher ed: How one lawmaker is weaponizing social media to eradicate LGBTQ+ curriculum

A few days after Charlie Kirk was assassinated, a video was posted on social media of a Texas State University student mockingly re-enacting the conservative activist’s death.

Rep. Brian Harrison saw the video and got to work.

He pulled up the university’s online course catalog and found a class called LGBTQ+ Communication Studies, where students were to learn about how “communication sustains both discrimination against LGBTQ+ people and their resistance,” according to the course description.

Within the hour, Harrison shared the video of the student on his X account alongside the image of the offending course description.

“Despicable!” the Midlothian Republican wrote in his post to his 86,000 followers. “WORSE… I just found out that Texas State University is literally indoctrinating students in TRANSGENDER ‘RESISTANCE’ and TRANSGENDER ‘JUSTICE!’ Why are @GregAbbott_TX’s Regents at @txst allowing this!!??”

After sparking the online outrage with his post, Harrison appeared on Steve Bannon’s show later that day to fan the flames, railing against the San Marcos-based university for offering the course. Shortly after, Texas Scorecard, a conservative website followed by many state legislators, wrote about Harrison’s efforts, naming the professor and further dissecting her syllabus.

Texas State removed the course from its catalog the day after Harrison’s post. It’s unclear if the course is permanently removed. The university refused to explain its decision and the professor did not respond to requests for comment.

This chain of events has become a standard playbook for the North Texas lawmaker, who is increasingly seeking to make an impact through his prolific social media posts over his work in the Legislature.

October 13, 2025

Amid shutdown, Trump administration guts department overseeing special education

Sweeping layoffs announced Friday by the Trump administration landed another body blow to the US Department of Education, this time gutting the office responsible for overseeing special education, according to multiple sources within the department.

The reduction-in-force, or RIF, affects the dozens of staff responsible for roughly $15 billion dollars in special education funding, and for making sure states provide special education services to the nation’s 7.5 million children with disabilities.

“This is decimating the office responsible for safeguarding the rights of infants, toddlers, children and youth with disabilities,” said one department employee, who, like the others NPR spoke with, requested anonymity for fear of retribution.

According to sources, all staff in the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS), with the exception of a handful of top officials and support staff, were cut in Friday’s RIF. The office is the central nervous system for programs that support students with disabilities, not only offering guidance to families but providing monitoring and oversight of states to make sure they’re complying with the landmark Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).

The layoffs at the Education Department, 466 in total, were part of broader cuts – some 4,200 jobs – announced by government lawyers in a court filing on Friday as the shutdown continues.

At the Education Department, it’s not clear precisely how many workers in the special education office were cut. Department officials did not respond to NPR’s requests for clarity or comment.

“Based on multiple reports from staff and their managers, we believe that all remaining staff in the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS), including the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) and the Rehabilitative Services Administration (RSA), have been illegally fired,” said Rachel Gittleman, president of AFGE Local 252, a union that represents many Education Department employees.

“The harm these cuts will cause for the 7.5 million students with disabilities across the country is only beginning,” Gittelman added.

Employees who received a notice Friday were told they would remain employed until Dec. 9.

October 12, 2025

More Texas kindergarteners are coming to school without measles vaccination proof or exemptions

Before the pandemic helped fuel the growth of vaccine politicization across the country, less than 1% of Austin school district’s kindergarteners in the fall of 2019 failed to comply with the state’s vaccine reporting requirements.

Five years later, Austin ISD had some of the state’s highest number of kindergarteners who neglected those state requirements — about 1 in 5 kindergarteners had not proven they were fully vaccinated against measles and did not file an exemption.

A Texas Tribune analysis has found that this explosion of vaccine non-compliance has played out across many school districts in the state in recent years, helping to push Texas’ measles vaccine coverage to the lowest it’s been since at least 2011.

“We definitely were on a better trajectory [before the pandemic],” said Alana Bejarano, executive director of health services and nursing for the Austin school district, which reported a 23% delinquency rate for the measles vaccines among their kindergarteners.

October 9, 2025

Some Texas community colleges remove course materials amid broader push to limit gender identity discussions

Some Texas community colleges have ordered thorough course reviews and put restrictions on what faculty can teach, with at least two schools pointing to state laws they believe apply to high schoolers in their fast-growing dual credit programs.

Why the course reviews? They’re part of a political firestorm rippling through higher education institutions across the state. University systems began ordering their own reviews after a viral video of a gender identity discussion in a Texas A&M class led to a professor’s firing and the university president’s resignation last month. Angelo State University banned its professors from mentioning transgender and nonbinary identities, citing a need to align with a federal executive order, a gubernatorial letter and a state law that recognizes only two sexes.

Where else is this playing out? The Texas Tribune spoke with several faculty at three community colleges — Alvin Community College, Blinn College and San Jacinto College — who said their schools’ orders have led them to pull content from their courses.

At Alvin, located south of Houston, school officials told instructors not to discuss gender identity or homosexuality in their dual credit courses and not to use transgender or nonbinary students’ preferred pronouns or names.

Blinn College in Central Texas ordered faculty to review their courses to ensure their dual credit material complies with a state law that bans “obscene” material for minors. But professors say school officials have not given them guidance on what is considered “obscene” or whether they expect them to limit discussions of gender identity.

At San Jacinto College near Houston, deans held small, private meetings to inform departments that course content could not refer to gender beyond the male and female binary.

How have colleges been impacted? Lack of guidance has left faculty at some colleges confused and fearful of what they can and can’t say. And with the number of high school students enrolling in college-level classes ballooning in recent years, faculty members at Alvin and Blinn said it’s difficult to identify which of their classes have minors. That means faculty have had to conduct course reviews for nearly all their courses, they said.

October 8, 2025

One third of Texas school districts ordered Bible-infused lesson plans; is your school on the list?

Just under one-third of all Texas school districts have ordered the controversial Bible-infused Bluebonnet materials, according to the Texas Education Agency.

Twenty of those 367 districts are in the Houston area, and 30 more are in the Huntsville and Beaumont area, although the majority of the districts that ordered the materials are located in the Tyler area, with 35 districts in that area opting in. Amarillo and Victoria were next after Kilgore. In the Dallas-Forth Worth region, however, only 10 traditional and charter districts purchased the materials. While not included on the list for this year, Fort Worth ISD’s board recently voted to approve the reading materials for use in the next school year, according to news reports.

Bluebonnet Reading and Language Arts materials are part of the Texas Education Agency’s program of open education resource materials, which the agency was tasked to create by the legislature in 2023.

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October 7, 2025

UT students say ‘Campus Protection Act’ continues to limit free speech

A new state law that regulates who can speak at public universities is changing how UT student organizations operate, and it’s raising concerns about free speech.

The law, dubbed the “Campus Protection Act,” requires student groups to get permission from university officials before inviting guest speakers to campus.

Members of the University Democrats, or UDems, said the policy disrupts practices that have been in place for years. UDems President Ally Flores said the group has hosted State Representative James Talarico, former Congressman Beto O’Rourke and other local politicians in recent years without having to go through UT officials. Under the new law, Flores said they need to request permission from the Dean of Students office two weeks in advance, and the approval process has led to delays.

“It just felt like the goal post was kind of ever moving, and we weren’t able to figure out how they were choosing to implement this bill,” Flores said.

She said the new law also affects UDem’s voter registration efforts. The group has been inviting volunteer deputy voter registrars to campus for years. Last election cycle, Flores said UDems helped register 8,000 students to vote. Under the new law, volunteer registrars must be approved in advance and are only allowed in designated areas.

“And those places that they’ve designated are pretty low-traffic areas, so we wouldn’t be able to register many people anyway,” Flores said.

Guests who arrive on UT’s campus without permission could be charged with criminal trespassing.

Joe Jaworski, a Democratic candidate for Texas attorney general and a recent speaker at UDems, said UT’s interpretation of the new law imposes on free speech rights.

“To allow administrators to accept or reject, and I emphasize reject, an application for a speaker, is a prior restraint,” Jaworski said.

UT did not agree to an interview for this story. KUT also reached out to UT’s College Republicans chapter but did not hear back before publication time.

In addition to speaker restrictions, the law prohibits students from engaging in disruptive activities between the hours of 10 p.m. and 8 a.m. and prohibits using a device to amplify sound during the last two weeks of a semester.

The measure reverses a bill Texas legislators passed in 2019 that expanded free speech protections on public university campuses.

Several student organizations have filed a lawsuit against UT Austin President Jim Davis, UT Dallas President Prabhas V. Moghe, the UT Board of Regents and UT System Chancellor Dr. John Zerwas over the new law. They’re calling on the U.S. District Court in Austin to issue a preliminary injunction, which would prevent enforcement of the law until a final ruling in the case.

That litigation is ongoing.

Texas Tech system’s vague guidelines on gender identity spur more questions than answers

As a viral video of a Texas A&M student and professor debating the legality of discussing gender identity roiled the College Station university and spurred a political firestorm, deans hundreds of miles away at the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in Lubbock quietly rolled out new instructions for faculty.

Teaching doctors were told to remove words like “transgender,” “DEI” and “affirmative action” from their curricula, a professor told The Texas Tribune. Simulated patient exams that included scenarios with transgender patients were suddenly in question.

Professors decided to delay lessons that contained those terms, in part because “there isn’t a synonym for transgender.” But they were concerned: Removing such instruction would undercut the school’s mission to prepare health workers for underserved West Texas communities, the professor said.

“The Hippocratic Oath is ‘first do no harm,’ right? But if students aren’t prepared, then they are going to do harm,” the professor said.

October 6, 2025

Governors Beware: The Voucher Advocates in DC Are Not Serious About Returning Education to the States

The 2025 Reconciliation Act, or “One Big Beautiful Bill,” creates a federal school choice program offering tax credits for donations to Scholarship Granting Organizations that fund private-school tuition. Though promoted as flexible for states, forthcoming Treasury Department regulations are expected to limit state control and expand largely unregulated voucher programs. This policy memo warns that such programs have historically led to academic declines, inequities, and weakened public schools. It urges governors to either reject participation or condition their involvement on guarantees of state-level control, transparency, and non-discrimination protections.

October 5, 2025

Texas L.G.B.T.Q. Teenagers and Families Navigate a Public School Clampdown

The day before summer break ended in August, Kenneth and Amelia Smith learned their 13-year-old child would not be addressed at school by her preferred name. So they decided the eighth grader, who had said she was transgender a few months earlier, would learn in their home in Katy, Texas, a conservative suburb west of Houston.

The Katy school district’s decision to tell teachers not to call certain students by names that do not match their birth certificates came after Gov. Greg Abbott signed a Republican-led education bill that prohibits employees at K-12 public and charter schools from “assisting” students with socially transitioning genders, including through name or pronoun changes.

Also banned were authorized student clubs based on gender identity or expression, such as L.G.B.T.Q. Pride clubs, or gender and sexuality alliances.

“We just couldn’t send her to school in that harmful environment,” Ms. Smith, 41, said.

The Texas measure is among the most far-reaching anti-diversity laws in the country and the first to explicitly ban such clubs, part of a broader backlash on gender issues in the state that has already affected higher education. At Texas A&M, a professor was fired and the university president resigned last month after a lecture recognizing more than two genders came under fire. Texas Tech University directed faculty to comply with President Trump’s executive order recognizing only male and female genders.
Supporters of the K-12 law argue that gender and sexuality are topics too contentious for school and that conservative victories in the 2024 Republican primaries, fought specifically on education issues, showed the Legislature was reflecting the will of voters.

“Suggesting that Texas parents are ‘OK’ with what was happening in public schools before Governor Abbott passed these protections is completely absurd,” said Andrew Mahaleris, the governor’s spokesman, in a statement.

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October 3, 2025

UT-Austin considering offer to adopt Trump priorities for funding advantages

The Trump administration has asked the University of Texas at Austin to agree to a “set of operating principles” — which reportedly include adopting a stricter definition of gender, a five-year tuition freeze and a cap on international student enrollment — in exchange for preferential access to federal funding, the University of Texas System confirmed on Thursday.

Background: The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times reported that the Trump administration sent a letter to UT-Austin and eight other universities asking them to join a “compact” that would qualify them for the benefit.

Conditions: The schools would have to:

Adopt a stricter definition of gender
Issue a five-year tuition freeze
Ban the use of race and sex considerations in admissions and hiring
Cap enrollment of international undergraduate students at 15%
Require applicants to take the SAT or a similar test
Stay politically neutral
Restructure academic programs the Trump administration says sideline conservative viewpoints
Crack down on disruptive protests
Refund tuition to students who drop out within the first year
Commit to grading standards that “only rigorously reflect the demonstrated mastery of a subject that the grade purports to represent”

Support: In a statement to the Tribune, UT System Board of Regents Chair Kevin Eltife said the system was honored UT-Austin was selected to be part of the Trump administration’s proposal.

Opposition: Faculty leaders voiced alarm. Pauline Strong, who heads the UT-Austin chapter of the American Association of University Professors, urged Eltife and UT-Austin President Jim Davis to reject the deal.

October 2, 2025

TSTA urges comptroller to tighten voucher rules to prevent out-of-state virtual schools from cashing in on new program

The state comptroller’s office is adopting rules to administer the state’s new education savings account, or voucher, program, which next year will spend about $1 billion in tax funds to help as many as 90,000 Texas students attend private school or be homeschooled.

TSTA submitted comments at a public hearing this week asking the comptroller to prohibit out-of-state, virtual private school operators from sharing in the tax giveaway. We pointed out that the agency’s proposed rules lack any requirement for an educational entity receiving voucher funds to have a physical presence in Texas or employ people living in Texas.

The rules also could allow out-of-state, for-profit charter management operators to share in the voucher funds by providing virtual educational services to Texas students. Charter operators who already receive tax funds from Texas must operate as non-profits.

Unless these deficiencies in the proposed rules are changed, we warned, large amounts of voucher tax dollars may be spent on out-of-state entities.

We also asked that the rules be revised to make it clear that providers and vendors receiving voucher funds are required to obey state and federal non-discrimination laws. And we said the rules must be tightened to guard against inflated payments to the Certified Educational Assistance Organizations that will review voucher applications and help students find approved vendors.

The voucher law provides that the Certified Educational Assistance Organizations can receive no more than five percent of the total funds appropriated for the ESA, or voucher, program. But the proposed rules don’t provide guidance to the comptroller for determining the cost of services to be provided by these organizations, perhaps allowing them to inflate costs to receive the full five percent.

Other witnesses asked the comptroller’s office to address a discrepancy in voucher funding for pre-K students, ensure fairness for children with disabilities who participate in the program and provide the public with comprehensive data on student outcomes.
Read all our comments.

Texans ask for eligibility fixes, stronger accountability in school voucher program

October 1, 2025

The federal government has shut down; here’s what it means for Texas

The federal government officially shut down at midnight as lawmakers blew their deadline to preserve funding for federal agencies, a lapse that could disrupt services many Texans rely on and slow the flow of certain benefits if the shutdown drags out.

What does the shutdown mean for Texans? Thousands of federal workers in the state will head to work Wednesday without the promise of a paycheck until both parties in Congress can cut a deal to restore funding. Other federal civilian employees will be furloughed if their jobs are not deemed essential. Texas is home to more federal civilian employees than all but three other states, counting over 130,000 workers as of September 2024. Including uniformed personnel, the Defense Department employed more than 200,000 Texans last year.

What about nonessential employees? The funding gap means a likely work stoppage for personnel who have been considered nonessential during past shutdowns, including custodial staff at Big Bend National Park, certain employees at the Veterans Benefits Administration regional offices in Houston and Waco and Department of Agriculture service center officers across the state.

Who is required to continue working? Workers who perform critical functions, including air traffic controllers and Transportation Security Administration agents at Texas airports, are almost always required to work without pay during shutdowns. Since 2019, those employees — along with furloughed workers — have been guaranteed back pay once federal funding is restored.

How will people know for certain if they’re essential? In the days leading up to an expected shutdown, federal agencies typically release shutdown plans laying out which employees will be furloughed, but not all have done so this year — creating confusion about who exactly is considered essential. Further compounding federal workers’ stress, the White House put out a memo to federal agencies threatening mass layoffs in the event of a shutdown.

How long could this last? The standoff could go on for weeks, with Senate Republicans needing to secure Democratic support to reach the 60 votes required to pass a spending bill through the upper chamber. The last government shutdown — a partial stoppage in 2018 — lasted 35 days.

September 30, 2025

Texas’ guidance on end of in-state tuition for undocumented students doesn’t clear confusion, advocates say

Student advocates say highly anticipated state guidance on how schools should follow a recent court ruling ending in-state tuition for undocumented students still doesn’t offer meaningful clarity on how to determine who still qualifies for the benefit.

Those advocates say clear guidance from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board is urgently needed at a time when schools across the state, in a scramble to comply with the court ruling, have incorrectly told some students they can no longer pay in-state tuition.

“The rules don’t help at all. They create even more confusion…You’re just going to have, again, more people getting wrongly denied,” said Julieta Garibay, co-founder of United We Dream, a national immigrant advocacy group.

On top of perpetuating confusion, advocates worry the coordinating board’s proposed rules will put undocumented students at risk.

September 29, 2025

Anti-DEI crusader Sid Miller urged UT to enroll student emphasizing her race and socioeconomic status

In January, Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller declared “war on DEI,” directing his agency to stop working with businesses that embrace policies that give advantages to people based on “race, color, sex, sexual preference, religion, or national origin.”

He condemned the Biden Administration for allowing “unfair” diversity, equity, and inclusion policies “to infect all aspects of our federal government, major corporations, financial institutions, the medical industry, and institutions of higher education,” Miller said in a press release.

But in May 2023, he wrote a letter to leaders of the University of Texas at San Antonio and the University of Texas at Austin emphasizing a student’s ethnicity and socioeconomic status as he urged the schools to reconsider her enrollment.

He said the student was a “biracial Latina,” whose father had “retreated” to Argentina a decade ago, leaving her mother to raise the student and her brother by herself. The student, he said, had been accepted but missed the enrollment deadline earlier that month. She did not have a computer, and did not know to look for the acceptance letter online, Miller wrote.

September 28, 2025

Families crave answers as changes near for 12 F-rated Austin schools

Stephanie Bogany’s teachers go above and beyond for her first-grade son, she told other parents and staff gathered in the cafeteria of Widén Elementary School on Monday.

“In two years that he’s been here, he’s thrived,” Bogany said of the school in Southeast Austin. “He has thrived and he doesn’t adapt to change well.”

That’s why she and other families at the meeting worried about the changes that Austin school district leadership said were required for Widén and 11 other campuses that have failed state academic standards for three years in a row.

District officials presented three options: close the school, hand the campus to a charter operator or create a “turnaround” plan to bolster academics, including new requirements for principals and teachers. The third option would likely include at least some turnover of staff at the campus.

The scene has been repeated at 12 campuses across the district over the past two weeks as parents ask district leaders for answers and stability. For many families, the uncertainty has been underscored by already planned monumental changes for Austin schools, including a highly anticipated Oct. 3 announcement of campus closures for budgetary reasons and attendance boundary updates. The school board will vote on those plans by Nov. 20.

The state rates schools and districts on an A-F letter grade system, which is largely based on scores and growth on the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness tests.

September 27, 2025

Texas State University professor reinstated by court after being fired for “inciting violence”

A Texas State University professor who was fired after being accused of inciting violence will be reinstated after a judge on Friday granted an injunction in his lawsuit against the university.

Thomas Alter was fired on Sept. 10 after a video of him at an online socialist conference was posted online depicting him talking about political organization, which university administration said allegedly “advocate[d] for inciting violence.” Alter, whose tenure officially began on Sept. 1, subsequently sued the university, alleging they violated due process by terminating him abruptly.

Hays County District Judge Alicia Key granted an injunction Friday that allows Alter to be reinstated. The university will now review Alter’s case through its standard faculty investigative process alongside the suit, Alter’s lawyer said.

Alter will not be allowed to teach classes but will be reinstated with pay, according to a statement from Texas State University.

September 26, 2025

Angelo State University bans classroom discussions of transgender topics, stirring criticism and confusion

Angelo State University officials have banned professors from discussing transgender and nonbinary identities in their courses, according to interviews with faculty members and several emails a professor provided to The Texas Tribune.

The move makes ASU the first known public Texas university to largely restrict classroom acknowledgement of such gender identities, heightening concerns about threats to academic freedom across the state.

Brittney Miller, spokesperson for the San Angelo school that is part of the Texas Tech University System, declined to discuss details of the directives or provide a written policy.

The new restrictions originated in a Friday meeting with President Ronnie D. Hawkins and academic leaders. They were then communicated to professors through emails or in-person meetings, according to English professor Linda Kornasky and multiple faculty members who would only speak to the Tribune on the condition of anonymity. The professors said a written policy doesn’t exist.

Without confirming or denying the guidance, Miller only said in a statement that the university is following President Donald Trump’s executive order recognizing only male and female genders as assigned at birth, Gov. Greg Abbott’s letter directing state agencies to “reject woke gender ideologies” and House Bill 229 — a state law that requires a strict binary definition of gender for the collection of vital statistics but doesn’t mention academic discussions.

Academic freedom and civil rights groups have pushed back against the justification for ASU’s restrictions, saying the federal executive order and the governor’s directive don’t constitute law, and HB 229 does not explicitly mention higher education. They called the directives overreach that undermines academic freedom and erases trans campus members.

September 25, 2025

Christian activist David Barton will advise Texas State Board of Education during social studies overhaul

Before finalizing changes to Texas’ social studies standards next summer, the Republican-dominated State Board of Education will consider input from a conservative Christian activist who views church-state separation as a myth and the Ten Commandments as foundational to American education.

Announced by Republican members Brandon Hall and Julie Pickren last week, David Barton will serve as one of several expert content advisers to the board as it develops a new social studies agenda that will dedicate more time across school grades to Texas and U.S. history while placing less attention on world history and cultures.

Board members can nominate content advisers to review and provide feedback during the revision process. Barton served in a similar role when the board revised its social studies standards in 2010.

His appointment comes ahead of what are expected to be intense debates about Texas’ social studies framework, specifically how and what students should learn about history. Those discussions will take place as Texas’ Republican leaders increasingly push to inject Christian beliefs and values into public school classrooms.

September 24, 2025

Texas teachers, parents fear STAAR overhaul won’t take testing pressure off kids

Texas public school administrators, parents and education experts worry that a new law to replace the state’s standardized test, STAAR, could potentially increase student stress and the amount of time they spend taking tests, instead of reducing it.

Why replace it? The new law comes amid criticism that the STAAR test creates too much stress for students and takes up too much instructional time. The new system aims to ease the pressure of a single exam by replacing STAAR with three shorter tests, which will be administered at the beginning, middle and end of the year starting in the 2027-28 school year. It will also ban practice tests, which officials said can take up weeks of instruction time and aren’t proven to help students do better.

How will it impact school ratings? The law calls for the TEA to study how to reduce the weight testing carries on the state’s annual school accountability ratings — which STAAR critics say is one reason why the test is so stressful and absorbs so much learning time — and create a way for the results of the three new tests to be factored into the ratings. That report is not due until the 2029-30 school year, and the TEA is not required to implement those findings.

What are the concerns with the new system? Some parents and teachers worry the changes won’t go far enough and that three tests will triple the pressure. And some worry the new law will mean schools’ ratings will continue to heavily depend on the results from the end-of-year test, while requiring students to start taking three exams. In other words: same pressure, more testing.

September 23, 2025

More Texas school districts sued over display of Ten Commandments in classrooms

The American Civil Liberties Union and Americans United for Separation of Church and State, along with other civil rights groups, filed a second lawsuit in federal court Monday to stop more Texas public school districts from displaying the Ten Commandments in classrooms.

Earlier this summer, Gov. Greg Abbott signed Senate Bill 10 into law, requiring every public school classroom in the state to include a poster with the Ten Commandments.

Last month, the groups — who are representing Texas families of varying religious and nonreligious backgrounds — successfully argued for a preliminary injunction against 11 school districts in Texas’ largest metropolitan areas. While issuing the injunction, U.S. Judge Fred Biery wrote the new law “likely violates both the Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses of the First Amendment” to the U.S. Constitution.

“This (new) lawsuit is a continuation of our work to defend the First Amendment and ensure that government officials stay out of personal family decisions,” said Chloe Kempf, a staff attorney at the ACLU Texas. “All students — regardless of their race or religious background — should feel accepted and free to be themselves in Texas public schools.”

The new lawsuit, filed in the same San Antonio district court as the initial lawsuit, names another 14 districts as defendants. They are located in the Austin, Corpus Christi, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston and San Antonio areas as well as the Rio Grande Valley.

September 22, 2025

Major statewide propositions will be on the November ballot; here are your voting rights in Texas

Texans next opportunity to use their vote to shape state policies and their communities will be during the November 4 elections.

On the ballot are 17 constitutional amendments, including billions of dollars in property tax cuts for homeowners and businesses.

Some Texans may also see local elections for elected officials or for measures to raise property taxes or issue bonds to pay for projects and services.

Some notable local elections across the state include:

A special election for Texas’ 18th Congressional District in Harris County.
Special election for Houston City Council’s At-Large Position Four in Harris County.
Three Houston ISD school board seats in Harris County.
Richardson ISD bond election in Dallas County.
Several bond propositions from North East ISD in Bexar County.
City of Austin tax rate increase proposition in Travis County.

You can check your county’s elections website to see if there are any local elections where you live.

Voters across Texas will get the final say on 17 constitutional amendments, which will appear at the top of ballots. To learn more about those propositions, read The Texas Tribune’s guide.

Texas voters need to be registered to vote by Oct. 6 and early voting begins Oct. 20.

September 21, 2025

ASU to Put New Transgender Policies in Place

Transgender discussions in class, and transgender language in course material will be hounded off college campuses in Texas, following orders from Pres. Donald Trump, and Gov. Greg Abbott, according to news reports, and information from a meeting with the leadership of Angelo State University.

The Concho Observer was furnished with the following information regarding new Transgender policies at the school.

According to our understanding of new policy:

There is to be no discussion of transgender topics or any topics that suggest there are more than two genders as determined by one’s biological sex at birth.
Information in syllibi about transgender topics must be removed.
Instructors must refer to students by their given names and not their preferred names.
Safe-space stickers, LGBTQ flags, etc. are not allowed and must be removed.
All employees are to remove pronouns from email signatures.

The university will not back up or defend faculty who teach these topics or discuss them in class.

According to a statement from ASU Director of Communications and Marketing Brittney Miller “Angelo State University is a public institute of higher education and is therefore subject to both state and federal law, executive orders and directives from the President of the United States, and executive orders and directives from the Governor of Texas. As such, Angelo State fully complies with the letter of the law.”

Update September 21, 2025 at 5:30 p.m.

The Concho Observer has confirmed that ASU will be holding mandatory meetings for all faculty and staff starting tomorrow Monday September 22, 2025. There are at least three meetings scheduled in various rooms on campus and all employees are required to attend one of them. Apparently legal staff will be present at the meetings to explain the new policies. According to our sources faculty have been told that if they make any statement implying that there are more than two sexes or genders (male and female) they will be fired.

September 18, 2025

White House review of Smithsonian content could reach into classrooms nationwide

High school history teacher Katharina Matro often pulls materials from the Smithsonian Institution website as she assembles her lessons. She trusts its materials and uses documents and other primary sources it curates for discussions of topics such as genocide and slavery.

As the White House presses for changes at the Smithsonian, she’s worried she may not be able to rely on it in the same way.

“We don’t want a partisan history,” said Matro, a teacher in Bethesda, Md. “We want the history that’s produced by real historians.”

Far beyond museums in Washington, President Trump’s review at the Smithsonian could influence how history is taught in classrooms around the country. The institution is a leading provider of curriculum and other educational materials, which are subject to the sweeping new assessment of all its public-facing content.

Trump is moving to bring the Smithsonian into alignment with his vision of American history. In a letter last month to the Smithsonian Institution, the White House said its review is meant to “assess tone, historical framing, and alignment with American ideals.” It’s part of Trump’s agenda to “celebrate American exceptionalism” by removing “divisive or partisan narratives,” it said.

Those opposed to the changes fear they will promote a more sanitized version of American history.

In celebration of the country’s 250th anniversary next year, the Education Department recently launched the White House’s Founders Museum in partnership with PragerU, a conservative nonprofit that produces videos on politics and history. Visitors to the museum in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, as well as the White House website, can read biographies on the signers of the Declaration of Independence and watch videos that depict them speaking.

The project mentions some signers favoring abolition and includes Phillis Wheatley, an enslaved woman who became the first published Black female poet in the U.S. But critics say it brushes over some of the nation’s darker past.

“Those are the kinds of things that teachers are really leery of because they don’t see partisanship in the sources that we’re using as being good educational practice,” said Tina Ellsworth, president of the National Council for the Social Studies.

September 15, 2025

State Board of Education OKs Texas-heavy social studies plan, setting stage for clash over history lessons

The State Board of Education on Friday approved a social studies teaching plan that will dedicate more time across school grades to Texas and US history while placing less attention on world history and cultures.

The Republican-dominated board voted 8-7 in favor of the proposal, which marks only one step in a longer effort by the group to revise Texas’ social studies standards and set new guidelines for what students should learn before they graduate. Republicans Evelyn Brooks and Pam Little joined Democrats in opposition to the plan.

The final tally was a reversal from a preliminary vote on Wednesday, when a board majority signaled support for a different teaching plan that included what educators considered a more inclusive approach.

Some members who voted Friday for the new plan, which was championed by conservative groups, did not participate in the preliminary vote on Wednesday. Will Hickman, a Houston Republican board member, voted with the majority Friday after having supported the former plan earlier in the week, telling his colleagues that he did not think there was “one right answer.”

September 12, 2025

Texas legislative committees will study freedom of speech on college campuses in wake of Charlie Kirk killing

Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick on Friday announced the formation of committees to study bias and free speech at universities amid a firestorm of criticism from conservative lawmakers on statements made by university faculty and students.

The House and Senate Select Committees on Civil Discourse & Freedom of Speech in Higher Education were formed “honoring the life and legacy of Charlie Kirk,” according to a press release. Kirk, a Christian conservative activist who frequently traveled to college campuses to discuss controversial politics, was shot and killed on Wednesday at Utah Valley University during one of his events.

In the wake of Kirk’s death, Republican lawmakers and activists in Texas and across the state have harshly criticized online commentary mocking Kirk and his killing. Several lawmakers have called for the removal of school teachers, professors and public officials who criticized Kirk, which Burrows said highlighted the necessity of the committee.

“The political assassination of Charlie Kirk — and the national reaction it has sparked, including the public celebration of his murder by some in higher education — is appalling and reveals a deeper, systemic problem worth examining,” Burrows said in the press release.

September 11, 2025

Providing basic care to students does not violate Texas’ parental consent law, state guidance to schools says

Texas’ new parental consent law does not prevent nurses from administering basic health-related services like providing Band-Aids or checking a student’s temperature, according to updated state guidance sent to school district administrators on Thursday.

The Texas Education Agency’s revised guidance came in response to widespread confusion about Senate Bill 12, a sweeping state law that includes a requirement for schools to obtain written approval from parents before offering to students routine health assistance and medication or conducting medical procedures.

School districts are required to take disciplinary action against any employees who provide such services to students without parental consent. Some districts had interpreted the law as requiring consent for every non-emergency, health-related circumstance. SB 12’s authors last week urged education officials to clarify that the extreme levels of caution exercised by some districts were not necessary for what the lawmakers consider “common sense” practices.

The new guidance, which may undergo further changes, attempts to make a clear distinction between health care services and health-related services.

September 10, 2025

Some Texas charter schools have high superintendent pay, low student achievement, report shows

Three charter school superintendents who are among the highest paid in Texas are overseeing some of the lowest-performing districts in the state, newly released records show. One of them is at risk of closure by school year’s end.

An investigation by ProPublica and The Texas Tribune previously revealed that board members at Valere Public Schools had paid Superintendent Salvador Cavazos up to $870,000 annually in recent years, roughly triple what it reported publicly to the state and on its website. Two other districts the newsrooms covered, Faith Family Academy and Gateway Charter Academy, also substantially underreported the compensation paid to their top leaders.

The state determined that all three of those districts have had failing or near-failing levels of performance in recent years. The ratings, released last month by the Texas Education Agency, also show that charter schools make up the majority of the districts that have repeatedly had “unacceptable” performance, though they account for a small portion of public schools across Texas. The agency published two years’ worth of accountability ratings for the state’s public and charter schools that were previously undisclosed due to litigation.

September 9, 2025

Texas educators praise new school cellphone ban

School officials say that in the wake of Texas’ new cellphone ban in public K-12 schools, students have become more engaged in and outside of classrooms. The ban on cellphones, laptops and tablets — which took effect on Sept. 1 — has prompted Texas’ more than 1,200 school districts to adopt policies ranging from secure device pouches to increased monitoring.

While some officials were concerned that schools would face pushback from students and parents, administrators across the state said that hasn’t happened. Instead, school officials say they’re seeing signs of positive change after years of concerns that cellphones and addictive social media apps distracted students during instructional time.

“At one of our campuses, for example, they had to get some Uno cards and other things for students to do during lunch because they wanted that engagement, so there’s a lot more face-to-face conversation going on,” said Abilene ISD superintendent John Khun. “I’ve had teachers telling me they’ve noticed students are doing a better job making eye contact and just engaging in conversation than they were before.”

More than 30 states have passed similar legislation after Florida became the first to codify a ban two years ago. Every state that doesn’t have a cellphone ban on the books has a bill in the works that would enact one.

September 8, 2025

Video of clash over gender-identity content in Texas A&M children’s lit class leads to firing, removals

Facing growing political pressure, Texas A&M University President Mark A. Welsh III announced Tuesday evening that a professor teaching a children’s literature course at the center of a viral recording was fired and that the university would conduct a full audit of its courses.

The announcement came after a video circulated online Monday showing a student confronting a professor over LGBTQ-related content in the class, sparking backlash from Republican lawmakers and calls for investigations, a response from the U.S. Department of Justice, and a statement from the Texas A&M System chancellor pledging to discipline the professor. A university spokesperson on Tuesday confirmed the professor was senior lecturer Melissa McCoul.

In his statement Tuesday, Welsh said changes were made over the summer to ensure that content not aligned within “reasonable expectation” of curriculum would not be taught after issues with the course were raised to university officials. Welsh later learned Monday night another course was continuing to teach material inconsistent with the published course description, resulting in the teacher’s removal.

“This isn’t about academic freedom; it’s about academic responsibility,” Welsh said. “Our degree programs and courses go through extensive approval processes, and we must ensure that what we ultimately deliver to students is consistent with what was approved.”

September 7, 2025

Austin ISD to host meetings on closures as 12 more schools are flagged for failing grades

A dozen schools in the Austin Independent School District will need to close or make significant changes after receiving three consecutive failing grades from the state.

The Texas Education Agency ratings were released last month. Austin ISD saw some improvements from last year, but roughly one third of the district’s 116 campuses still had unacceptable ratings.

In a letter sent to Austin ISD officials, the TEA said dozens of schools will need to submit plans to the state detailing how they will improve student outcomes. Twelve schools are required to submit plans by mid-November and implement them as soon as they are approved. Those plans could include major staffing changes and an infusion of new programs.

The 12 schools are Winn Montessori School, Barrington, Dawson, Linder, Oak Springs, Pecan Springs, Sanchez, Widen and Wooldridge elementary schools and Bedichek, Martin and Paredes middle schools.

“The data reflects that the district’s current approach is not working, and urgent transformational change is necessary to improve outcomes for all Austin ISD students,” TEA Commissioner Mike Morath said in the letter.

Three Austin ISD schools — Webb, Dobie and Burnet — are already on improvement plans after receiving a fourth consecutive “F” from the state. Those plans cost the district $1.7 million per campus. If the schools receive another failing grade next year, the entire district could be taken over by the state.

In a letter to parents, Austin ISD Superintendent Matias Segura said the district could choose to close some of the 12 schools the TEA said need to go on improvement plans or turn them over to a charter operator. The district is already in the process of deciding which schools need to be closed or consolidated to fix its nearly $20 million budget deficit.

September 6, 2025

Texas’ new parental consent law leaves school nurses confused about which services they can provide to students

A new state law requiring schools to obtain parental consent before administering health care services to students has triggered confusion among campus nurses who worry they could face punishment for routine acts like offering bandages or handing out ice packs.

The confusion is in response to Senate Bill 12, a sweeping law banning diversity, equity and inclusion practices; instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity; and LGBTQ+ student clubs. SB 12 comes as part of a larger effort by Texas Republicans to shape how public schools engage with students and their families on topics like race, racism, gender and sex.

Incorporated into the law are what Republican lawmakers call “parental rights” provisions, which include a requirement for Texas schools to get written approval from parents before offering routine health assistance and medication or conducting medical procedures. School districts are required to take disciplinary action against any employees who provide such services without consent.

In response, enforcement of the legislation has varied widely across the state’s more than 1,200 school districts. Some have interpreted the law as still allowing for regular care, like first-aid treatment and injury evaluation. Others have indicated they will not assess or treat a student except in life-threatening emergencies.

September 5, 2025

Texas launches downloadable form to exempt kids from school-required vaccines

Texas parents will no longer have to wait weeks for a vaccine exemption form to be mailed to them if they want their children opted out of state-required immunizations to attend school.

This week, the state health agency quietly unveiled the new downloadable vaccine exemption form, the result of state Rep. Lacey Hull’s House Bill 1586 which went into effect on Monday. Along with the form, the Texas Department of State Health Services also published a document listing the benefits and risks of immunization.

The new law does nothing to change the childhood vaccine schedule. Instead, it would allow parents to download at home a form that allows children to be exempted from being vaccinated in order to attend public schools. The parents can show the same filled out form for two years before having to fill out a new one.

Before the new law, parents had to contact the state health agency and request the exemption form be mailed to them.

September 4, 2025

Texas student groups sue to block state law that limits campus protests

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression sued the University of Texas System in federal court on Wednesday to block a new state law that creates rules for campus protests and gives university systems’ governing boards the power to limit where they can take place.

In the 59-page lawsuit, attorneys from FIRE argue that Senate Bill 2972 violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments because it prohibits protected expression and speech. According to the law, expressive activity is banned on campuses from 10 p.m. to 8 a.m., a rule that applies to students, campus groups and university employees.

“The First Amendment doesn’t set when the sun goes down,” said FIRE attorney JT Morris. “University students have expressive freedom whether it’s midnight or midday, and Texas can’t just legislate those constitutional protections out of existence.”

Lawmakers passed SB 2972 during this year’s regular legislative session largely in response to last year’s pro-Palestinian protests on university campuses. Republicans who support the law say it will prevent disruption and unsafe behavior seen during those demonstrations. Critics say it contradicts previous conservative efforts to protect free speech rights on Texas campuses.

September 3, 2025

The Texas House is due to consider HB 8, the STAAR replacement tests, TODAY

This is our LAST CHANCE to stop even more testing for our students! Please reach out to your House Rep NOW! HB 8 strips local control, increases testing and unfairly privileges charter schools over neighborhood public schools.

Say NO to more high-stakes testing! Tell your representative that you oppose HB 8!

September 2, 2025

More than 800 new laws went into effect in Texas on September 1; Here are some of the significant ones

More than 800 new laws are about to take effect in Texas, and they are set to bring sweeping changes to the state’s education systems, water infrastructure and more.

Gov. Greg Abbott signed 1,155 bills that came out of the regular legislative session, including over 200 laws that went into effect immediately such as the school cellphone ban, the abortion ban clarification, property tax cut and increased oversight over the energy grid. Meanwhile, some won’t activate until next year or until voters approve constitutional amendments in November, such as stricter bail policies and a $3 billion dementia research fund. In addition, there are 140 bills that the governor didn’t take action on, including 34 that took effect immediately.

Most, however, will start on Sept. 1, the traditional date for laws passed during the regular session. Here are some notable measures that will soon take effect:

Senate Bill 1 lays out the state’s new $338 billion two-year spending plan, with over 70% of the budget being reserved for education and health and human services. Some notable parts include spending to maintain and provide property tax cuts, a new school voucher program, additional funding for public schools, as well as investments in the state’s energy, water and broadband infrastructure.

September 1, 2025

ACLU, other groups sue to block Texas’ DEI ban on K-12 public schools

The American Civil Liberties Union of Texas and a group of LGBTQ+ and student rights organizations are suing to block a new state law that would ban diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in K-12 public schools.

In a lawsuit filed Thursday in federal court, attorneys from the ACLU of Texas and Transgender Law Center argue that Senate Bill 12 violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments as well as the Equal Access Act. Gov. Greg Abbott signed the legislation last June, and it will go into effect Sept. 1 alongside an array of other transformative laws for public education in Texas.

“Senate Bill 12 is a blatant attempt to erase students’ identities and silence the stories that make Texas strong,” said Brian Klosterboer, senior staff attorney at the ACLU of Texas. “Every student — no matter their race, gender, or background — deserves to feel seen, safe, and supported in school.”

Supporters of SB 12 say DEI programs use class time and public funds to promote political agendas, while opponents believe banning those initiatives will disproportionately harm marginalized students by removing spaces where they can find support.

August 29, 2025

“Bathroom bill” aimed at trans people approved by Texas House after decade of failed attempts

Texas House members clashed over a bill that would restrict which restrooms transgender people can use in government buildings and schools, but ultimately approved it late Thursday.

Representatives approved Senate Bill 8 on a 86-45 vote after several hours of tense debate that was at times interrupted by people in the gallery shouting insults at lawmakers who supported the bill. The House gallery, where visitors can watch proceedings, was emptied out by staff and Department of Public Safety officers after the disruptions continued.

SB 8 would restrict bathroom use in government-owned buildings, public schools and universities based of sex assigned at birth and would not allow exceptions for transgender inmates’ housing in prisons and jails. It would also bar those assigned male at birth from accessing women’s domestic violence shelters, unless they are under 17 and the child of a woman also receiving services.

Bathroom bills proposing civil or criminal penalties for entering restrooms not matching biological sex have been proposed in Texas for more than a decade, and 19 other states have successfully passed their own proposals. The Texas House, however, has largely failed to garner traction for bathroom bills after a tense battle over one proposal in 2017. The Texas Senate has passed six different bathroom bills since 2017.

August 28, 2025

1 in 4 Texas school districts sign up for new Bible-infused curriculum

More than 300 Texas school districts and charter schools have signaled plans to use a state-developed reading and language arts curriculum that attracted national attention last year for its heavy references to the Bible and Christianity, according to data obtained by The Texas Tribune.

Is that a lot? That number represents about a quarter of Texas’ 1,207 districts and charters and could still grow before the state publishes official data in the early fall. But the preliminary numbers offer an early glimpse into demand for the elementary school materials narrowly approved by the Republican-dominated State Board of Education in November.

Where do the numbers come from? The Texas Education Agency asks schools to submit information on the instructional materials they plan to use each year to ensure their compliance with state learning standards. The Tribune obtained data through an open records request on the schools planning to use the TEA’s new Bluebonnet curriculum, which includes religion-infused reading lessons as well as phonics and math materials.

Why are districts adopting Bluebonnet? The Tribune reached out to over a dozen district officials and school board members to ask them about their decision to adopt the curriculum or not. Of the districts that do plan to use the reading materials, many said the religious components did not factor into their choice. Their reasons included:

Getting the additional funding districts qualify for if they adopt the curriculum
Better aligning their instruction with what the state expects children to learn
Avoiding punitive measures from the state if students do not perform up to par on Texas’ standardized exams, which could include removal of a district’s superintendent and elected board members

August 26, 2025

House Democrats’ frustration with STAAR bill highlights divide over how new test should look

Standing across from House Democrats on the chamber floor Tuesday, Representative Brad Buckley defended his bill to replace STAAR, the state’s widely unpopular standardized test. Just months ago, they had been standing behind him.

The House voted to approve the measure in the end, despite Democrats’ opposition. The 82-56 vote was a far cry from the broad support an earlier House proposal received earlier this year. It also put a spotlight on what the new test could look like, which will determine whether the replacement for STAAR will ease the pressures of testing on students or exacerbate them.

Lawmakers say changes to the test are urgently needed as they use this year’s second special session to try for the third time to find an alternative. STAAR test results have an outsized impact on the accountability rating system the state uses to evaluate how well schools are educating Texas students.

House Bill 8 and its counterpart in the upper chamber, Senate Bill 9, would swap STAAR for three shorter tests to be administered at the beginning, middle and end of the school year. The similar language in both bills is a result of negotiations between Buckley and Sen. Paul Bettencourt, SB 9’s author, after the chambers failed to agree on how to revamp STAAR during the regular session.

August 25, 2025

The Texas House is due to consider HB 8, the STAAR replacement tests, soon

TSTA has several concerns about the proposed changes to the STAAR testing scheme and urges legislators to vote NO on HB 8.

Please reach out to your House Rep today! HB 8 strips local control, increases testing and unfairly privileges charter schools over neighborhood public schools.

Say NO to more high-stakes testing! Tell your representative that you oppose HB 8!

August 22, 2025

Tensions flare as Texas House panel hears a “bathroom bill” for first time in eight years

Tensions between Texans flared at the Capitol on Friday during public testimony over a legislative proposal limiting transgender peoples’ use of bathrooms in government buildings.

CJ Grisham spoke in favor of the restrictions in Senate Bill 8, one of the items Gov. Greg Abbott asked legislators to pass during this year’s special legislative sessions. After Grishman spoke, several people attending the House State Affairs meeting booed and hurled expletives at him, saying he should be ashamed. Grisham responded with his own expletives before being ushered to the back of the room by a House staff member.

A Department Public Safety officer eventually removed Grisham from the room after a woman in the audience said she felt threatened. In an interview, Grisham said he felt threatened and that he would file a complaint with DPS for being unfairly removed based on his speech.

August 21, 2025

Texas Public Schools Explorer

Use the Texas Tribune’s public schools database to learn more about the state’s 1,207 districts and 9,082 public schools, including hundreds of charter schools and alternative campuses. You can easily navigate through information on demographics, academic performance, college readiness and average teacher salaries for each school or district.

Last updated August 2025.

August 19, 2025

Debates over redistricting, THC, abortion pills and more resume as Democrats end walkout, return for second special session

Texas House Democrats returned to Austin on Monday, allowing the chamber to resume business with a quorum for the first time in two weeks. Over 50 Democrats left the state to prevent Republicans from passing new congressional maps aimed at increasing their influence in Congress. Now, with the Legislature in its second special session, the rare mid-decade redistricting plan can continue to be heard and voted on. But given that Democrats are outnumbered, it’s nearly certain Republicans will get their way.

Nevertheless, they framed their protest as a victory for sinking the first special session and encouraging leaders of blue states to push their own partisan redistricting plans in retaliation to Texas’ plan. As a result of their efforts, California unveiled a new congressional map on Friday that would give Democrats up to five new U.S. House seats. Texas Democrats also said that the end of the walkout marked the next phase of their plan to fight the map in court.

Meanwhile, House Speaker Dustin Burrows was quick to rain on their parade. He said those who participated in the walkout and returned to the Legislature would receive an around-the-clock police escort from the Texas Department of Public Safety once the House adjourned Monday. And he added that lawmakers will be responsible for any costs incurred in trying to get them back in attendance.

August 18, 2025

From a cell phone ban to Ten Commandments posters, new state laws bring big changes to Texas schools

Starting Sept. 1, public education in Texas will see some big changes thanks to the 2025 legislative session. They include teacher pay raises, more oversight on library materials, classroom posters with the Ten Commandments, bans on cell phones and DEI programs, and more.
Here are the highlights:

$8.5 billion boost will pay for teacher raises and more: House Bill 2 sets up a long-term teacher pay raise system, among other things. Teachers will get raises based on their experience and the size of the district they work in. The law also expands the Teacher Incentive Allotment, which rewards teachers who can show they’ve improved academic performance.
Students will be banned from using their cell phones: House Bill 1481 will limit students from using personal wireless devices during school hours. Districts will have to implement disciplinary measures for students who don’t follow the policy. Students will be able to use their phones outside of school hours.
Ten Commandments law pushes religion in public schools: Senate Bill 10 requires classrooms to display poster-sized copies of the Ten Commandments. Schools must accept and hang the posters if they are privately donated, but don’t require districts to buy the materials.
Lawmakers extend DEI ban to K-12 grades: Senate Bill 12 blocks schools from considering race, ethnicity, gender identity or sexual orientation in hiring or training practices. Critics argue that the legislation disproportionately targets marginalized groups, especially LGBTQ+ students, and could limit students’ sense of belonging and harm their mental health. They also worry the legislation could lead teachers to self-censor. This comes after Senate Bill 17 passed two years ago, which got rid of DEI offices, programs and training at public Texas universities.
School boards and parents will have more oversight on library materials: Senate Bill 13 will allow parents and school boards to challenge any school library material. It will also ban schools from keeping materials that have “indecent content or profane content.
Schools will have more flexibility with disciplinary actions: House Bill 6 expands when schools can employ out-of-school suspensions for Texas’ youngest and homeless students. The legislation undoes state laws from 2017 and 2019 that put restrictions on how and when those students can be disciplined. Schools can also teach students in alternative education programs remotely — a mode of instruction that was shown to contribute to learning loss during the COVID-19 pandemic. The law also extends how long students can face in-school suspensions — from three days to as long as schools see fit, as long as the placement is reviewed every 10 days.

August 17, 2025

Vaccine exemption requests in Texas spike in July, as some experts fear more families will opt out

The new school year is starting with an increasing number of Texas parents asking for vaccine exemption forms, and a new law will make those documents even easier to get a hold of.

Funding cuts to public vaccination programs, the chilling effects of immigration policies on health care and the tired battle by school nurses to balance parental consent with public health all mean school districts are on track to have the lowest vaccination rates in decades if those exemptions keep climbing.

Requests for vaccine exemption forms to the Texas Department of State Health Services have doubled from 45,900 in 2018 to 93,000 in 2024.

This July, Texas received 17,197 requests for a vaccine exemption form, 36% higher than the number reported in July 2023. Each requestor can fill out forms for up to eight people, so the number of children those forms covered also soared: from 23,231 in 2023 to 30,596 in 2025.

Vaccine experts fear herd immunity will be tougher to achieve once a new Sept. 1 law makes the vaccine exemption form downloadable instead of being mailed. Some public health departments also say the number of poor children who get vaccinated drops during the summer months.

But some people say fears are being overblown. Rebecca Hardy, president of Texans for Vaccine Choice, who successfully lobbied for the easier exemption process, said she hasn’t seen an increase in interest in the exemption forms.

Yearly, many of Texas’ school-age children who have no health insurance or who are covered by Medicaid turn to public health departments for their vaccinations. Dallas and Austin public health officials have reported some decreases in visits to summer vaccination clinics. Experts believe threats of ICE arrests and deportations are pushing more undocumented children and their parents to stay away from getting vaccinated.

August 15, 2025

Texas students’ STAAR scores for this year are out. Here’s how your school or district did.

New scores on the state’s standardized test released on Friday show a slight improvement in both students’ reading and math scores over last year when math scores slipped.

The share of students meeting grade-level standards rose this year from 53% to 54% in reading and from 41% to 43% in math.

Students’ performance on the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness exam is a window into their proficiency in math and reading skills — skills they’ll need to succeed after high school.

Early literacy can be a strong predictor of educational attainment and academic performance later in life. And having solid math skills early on sets up a pipeline to high-paying, in-demand STEM jobs.

August 14, 2025

Abbott ready to call another special session, plan to attend Saturday’s rally at the state Capitol against Trump’s power grab

With dozens of Democratic legislators remaining out of state to prevent the Texas House from passing the Republican congressional redistricting bill for President Trump, House and Senate leaders planned to end the first special session tomorrow, a few days before its mandatory adjournment date next Tuesday.

Gov. Abbott said he would immediately call another 30-day special session to try again to redraw Texas congressional districts to give Republicans five more seats at the expense of five Democratic incumbents. The goal of the election-rigging effort is to help Trump keep the Republican majority in the U.S. House — and support for his hurtful, anti-education, anti-democratic policies — during next year’s midterm elections.

Abbott said he also would include legislation addressing the July 4 floods, replacing the STAAR test, the controversy over THC products and other issues that were in the first special session’s call on the new session’s agenda. The Senate passed the redistricting bill and a bill replacing STAAR during the first special session, but they died in the House, which couldn’t conduct business after the Democrats left the state.

Plan to attend a rally against the Trump-Abbott takeover attempt at the state Capitol at 11 a.m. Saturday.

August 13, 2025

Trump vowed to end “wasteful” federal spending; beloved Texas school programs got caught in the middle

From the start, Na’Siah Martin and H’Sanii Blankenship’s July trip to Washington, D.C., was destined to be a riveting stop on the teenagers’ passage to adulthood. There were the scheduled meetings with lawmakers, the monuments, the reflecting pool near where Martin Luther King Jr. broadcast his dream for racial equality 62 summers ago.

For years, the pair have been involved in the Boys and Girls Clubs of the Austin Area, the revered summer and after-school program that was now making it possible for the two blossoming leaders to meet with Texans in Congress and present their game plan for tackling mental health challenges among student-athletes, a struggle both were deeply familiar with.

But two weeks before their arrival on Capitol Hill, President Donald Trump’s administration threw one of many curveballs lobbed during the first months of his second term. The U.S. Department of Education notified state education officials on the last day of June that it would pause the disbursement of nearly $7 billion in funds for teacher development, support for students learning English, and before- and after-school programs predominantly serving low-income families, pending a review of how schools had put the money to use. That notice went out a day before states expected to begin receiving the money.

August 12, 2025

Senate passes bill to replace STAAR, but measure will die in House as first special session ends

House and Senate leaders are expected to end the first special session Friday as Democratic House members continue to boycott the session to prevent passage of Trump’s congressional redistricting bill. Gov. Abbott has said he will immediately call another special session, and a STAAR replacement was expected to be on the agenda for the new session.

SB 8, approved by the Senate this week, would replace STAAR with three shorter tests to be administered at the beginning, the middle and the end of the school year. This would give teachers the opportunity to diagnose and work on addressing student weaknesses before the final test is taken, but as we reported last week TSTA has some concerns about it. A significant concern is that it would give too much power to the appointed education commissioner over the creation and administration of the new testing system.

The Senate bill also would allow writing portions of the tests to be graded by Artificial Intelligence, despite serious questions that have been raised about AI’s effectiveness. And it would restrict school districts’ ability to challenge what they consider inaccurate A-F accountability grades.

August 11, 2025

After local agencies release Uvalde shooting records, calls continue for Texas DPS to follow suit

Records released this week provide more details about campus safety concerns raised before the deadly 2022 Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde and include some surviving teachers’ accounts that school leaders didn’t check on them after they were injured and traumatized.

The documents from Uvalde County and the school district also indicate that the 18-year-old shooter had behavioral and attendance issues before he dropped out of high school, and that his mother had told sheriff’s deputies that she was scared of him.

The county and Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District released the materials — nearly 12 gigabytes — as part of a settlement agreement in a yearslong lawsuit that news organizations, including ProPublica and The Texas Tribune, brought against state and local governments.

August 8, 2025

Texas State System dissolves faculty senates, eroding professors’ influence on campuses

Professors across the Texas State University System are about to lose their formal voice in campus decision-making — at least temporarily.

The system is allowing faculty senates — bodies made up of professors who approve and advise university leaders on curricula, faculty hiring and other academic issues — to be abolished under a new state law, creating a gap in faculty representation that other public university systems are actively trying to avoid.

The law, Senate Bill 37, is part of a broader effort by Republican lawmakers to assert more control over public universities following years of clashes with faculty over issues like tenure, diversity initiatives and academic freedom. It requires boards of regents to either authorize significantly restructured faculty senates or allow existing ones to be abolished on Sept. 1.

On Friday, the system’s board of regents updated its rules to comply with the legislation and gave university presidents the authority to develop new faculty advisory groups. The board did not authorize any existing senates, which means they will lapse on Sept. 1.

August 7, 2025

STAAR test repeal approved by Senate Education Committee

The Senate Committee on Education K-16 heard invited and public testimony Wednesday on Senate Bill 8, which would eliminate the State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness (STAAR) test, replacing it with more frequent exams to measure student growth. The committee voted unanimously to send the bill to the Senate floor.

The STAAR test was first implemented in 2012 and is a once yearly standardized test offered to students starting in 3rd grade and continuing through high school in certain subjects. The legislature considered a bill during the 2025 regular session to eliminate the test, with proponents of the bill arguing that the test puts pressure on students and prevents districts from consistently measuring outcomes.

SB 8 would eliminate the STAAR test and maintain the existing Beginning of Year (BOY), Middle of Year (MOY) and End of Year (EOY) tests, which will measure student growth across the year as opposed to just pass or failure.

The BOY and MOY tests would also be adaptive, meaning the questions change depending on if the question before it is answered correctly or not. This format allows the tests to produce more data with fewer questions. The tests also deliver results more quickly, within as few as two days, which proponents say allows parents to have more time to discuss results with teachers and improve their child’s learning.

August 5, 2025

Texas lawmakers propose replacing STAAR exam with three shorter tests

Lawmakers in the Texas House and Senate introduced Monday similar bills to scrap the state’s standardized test, signaling newfound agreement between chamber leaders to finish a task they left incomplete earlier this year.

This year’s special legislative session is legislators’ second chance to revamp the test after negotiations between chambers on STAAR broke down in the final hours of the regular session.

But whether they’ll succeed remains uncertain. The proposal — like every other bill under consideration during the special session — is in limbo after Texas House Democrats fled the state over redistricting, depriving the chamber of the number of members required to advance any legislation.

Getting rid of STAAR is a popular idea among legislators. Many of their constituents have criticized the pressures students face taking the hours-long, end-of-the-year test, which is used to grade their school’s performance. The Texas Education Agency has insisted the test is a reliable tool to measure academic achievement.

August 4, 2025

Senate panel OKs latest bill restricting use of government and school bathrooms by transgender people

The Texas Senate State Affairs committee on Monday again approved a “bathroom bill” proposal that would restrict transgender people from using bathrooms in government and school buildings that match their identifying gender.

Senate Bill 7 is one of two bills currently filed in the Texas Legislature after Gov. Greg Abbott put the provisions on the special session agenda. The bill would mandate that people only use restrooms in government buildings and schools that match their sex assigned at birth. Similar restrictions would also be placed on prisons and women’s violence shelters based on biological sex, which the bill also defines.

Supporters of SB 7 and similar legislation have framed the bill as a way to protect women from discomfort and predation in private spaces. The bill’s author, Sen. Mayes Middleton, R-Galveston, said the bill was common sense that upheld “biological and biblical truths.” To do this, Middleton said the bill has greater enforcement capabilities than previous bills: SB 7 institutes a $5,000 first-time fine for agencies or schools where violations occur, which increases to a $25,000 fine for subsequent violations.

A committee substitute that was filed Monday contained a provision mandating that the 15th Court of Appeals have exclusive jurisdiction to any civil action brought from the bill, and added its own definitions of male and female.

July 30, 2025

A fight to save an Austin middle school puts families at odds with Texas over how to rate schools

Julieta Crispín Castro arrived early for her first day of summer camp, ready to prepare for the state’s standardized test, when the 13-year-old learned that one of her favorite people at Dobie Middle School would not be around next fall.

“I’m not qualified to come back,” English language arts teacher Tatiana Brown-Gomez told Crispín, borrowing language the Austin school district used to explain why she was laid off as part of a sweeping staff shakeup.

Crispín’s face deflated.

“What? That doesn’t make any sense,” she said.

The Austin Independent School District fired Brown-Gomez, a handful of other teachers and the principal after Texas gave Dobie two consecutive F ratings under its accountability system, a state tool largely based on scores from STAAR, the state’s standardized test.

Five Fs at a single campus is all it takes for the state to oust democratically elected school trustees and take over an entire district, like the Texas Education Agency did with the Houston school district.

For months, an initial threat to close Dobie and the staffing changes that followed, all to avoid a state takeover, have roiled the Rundberg neighborhood Dobie anchors in northeast Austin. Parents and advocates say the school is the heartbeat of a community made up of working-class immigrants and refugees.

“The school has been there for 50 years. It’s a part of the community,” said Irma Castanon, who runs a Girl Scout troop on campus for Dobie students, many of whom are her daughter’s friends. “That’s where all our kids go to school.”

July 29, 2025

Texas House Democrats are fundraising to potentially leave the state to block GOP-backed redistricting

As Republicans in Texas move ahead with a plan to redraw the state’s congressional districts, Democrats are privately considering their options, including an expensive and legally dicey quorum break.

What’s a quorum break? It’s the act of fleeing the state to deprive the Legislature of enough members to function.

What are the consequences? Democrats would each incur a fine of $500 per day and face the threat of arrest.

Is there a way around the fines? If they go that route, it appears deep-pocketed donors within the party are ready to cover these expenses, according to three people involved in the discussions. The donors’ willingness to foot the bill eliminates a major deterrent to walking out — the personal financial cost — and could embolden Democrats who might otherwise hesitate.

Are there other obstacles? Donors and members planning to flee will also need to figure out how to skirt a Texas House rule prohibiting lawmakers from dipping into their campaign funds to pay the fines. Two people involved in the latest fundraising strategy sessions, who were granted anonymity to discuss private conversations, claim their legal teams have found a way to disburse the funds to the members but declined to provide any additional details.

July 28, 2025

5 Tips for Teachers to Save on Classroom Supplies This Year

“How can I use this in my classroom?”

That’s a mindset shared by Robin Palomares, an elementary English-for-speakers-of-other-languages teacher at the Commodore John Rodgers School in Baltimore, and one that she says resonates with many educators as they try to stock their classrooms without spending a fortune.

Teachers have long provided their classrooms with essential supplies and decorations, typically spending more than $655 each year, to create a space where students can thrive.

But this year, with the threat of new tariffs increasing the cost of many imported goods, back-to-school shopping could push educators to spend even more.

In early April, President Donald Trump announced a 10% baseline tariff on imports from nearly every nation, with even higher rates for certain countries. Days later, he delayed the higher tariffs for targeted countries by 90 days, before pushing the effective date to Aug. 1.

The Consumer Price Index, which measures the average price of daily expenses, grew to 2.7% in June after rising to 2.4% in May, as some economists say the slight price hike can be attributed to potential tariffs. Despite the tariffs not yet being in effect and ongoing trade negotiations, some companies have already announced plans to raise their prices, citing the looming tariffs.

A recent CNBC analysis found that prices for supplies like lead pencils and art materials rose about four percentage points since the start of 2024. Marking tools increased by more than six percentage points.

To help ease the financial burden, here are five tips educators can use to save money this back-to-school season… Read more

July 26, 2025

Undocumented Youth Barred From Head Start, Early College

A new Trump administration policy has barred undocumented students from accessing a variety of federally funded services. Those include Head Start—the preschool program for children from families living in poverty—and dual enrollment and early college programs.

The notice has left school districts and Head Start programs uncertain about how to proceed. They’re not sure how they will logistically collect immigration status, and many are worried about declining enrollment among families still eligible for the program, such as immigrant families here with legal residency. Those declines could impact overall program budgets.

Meanwhile, 21 Democratic attorneys general have sued the Trump administration, asking a judge to halt the new policy.

July 25, 2025

Trump Releases Some Funds, But Schools Remain in Limbo

The Trump administration released $1.4 billion in federal funding for before- and after-school programs on Monday—with the condition that states now certify compliance with federal civil rights laws.

The fate of the remaining $5 billion in frozen federal funds remains unclear. And school district leaders say they may have to cut staff to make ends meet if the money doesn’t arrive, according to a new survey by AASA, the School Superintendents Association. Large majorities of survey respondents said they will likely have to cut academic supports for students (like literacy and math coaches) and professional development for staff.

“Without this support, our progress in closing achievement gaps and promoting academic success is at serious risk,” said Sharlene McDonald, the superintendent of the Tarrant City schools in Alabama.

Meanwhile, Education Week asked 271 members of Congress—everyone who voted for the March spending package that included these federal funds—whether they thought the Trump administration has the legal authority to withhold the money. Just six members, five Republicans and one Democrat, answered the request.

July 24, 2025

Texas again trying to restrict the bathrooms transgender people can use

Legislation identical to two failed regular session bills seeking to restrict what bathrooms transgender people can use in government and school buildings have been filed in the Texas House and Senate after Gov. Greg Abbott outlined the restrictions as a special session priority.

State Sen. Mayes Middleton filed Senate Bill 7 on Thursday, days after Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick indicated the Galveston Republican would carry the special session’s “bathroom bill.” The bill is identical to House Bill 32, filed by Rep. Valoree Swanson, R-Spring, as well as Senate Bill 240 filed by Middleton during the regular session. Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, is also listed as a coauthor for SB 7.

SB 7 and HB 32 would mandate that multiuse bathrooms at K-12 schools, public universities and state and municipal government buildings only be used by people of one sex or another, as indicated on their birth certificate. Violating the provision would carry a $5,000 first-time fine and $25,000 for any subsequent violations.

The bills also would disallow trans people from being housed in jails and prisons matching their identifying gender and would turn away trans women from women’s violence shelters. Attorney General Ken Paxton would be given oversight to investigate complaints about alleged violations, according to the bill.

Legislation restricting bathroom usage was placed on the special session agenda by Abbott, with the goal of “protecting women’s privacy in sex-segregated spaces.” SB 7 and HB 32 aim to uphold that ideal, as both are dubbed the “Texas Women’s Privacy Act.”

During the regular session this year, SB 240 passed along party lines and was sent to the House, where neither it nor its House equivalent, House Bill 239, received a hearing. But representatives in the lower chamber had hinted at their appetite for the proposal in March, when a majority of the House signed on as co-authors to HB 239. HB 32 currently has Swanson listed as the sole author of the legislation.

Middleton, R-Galveston, was not immediately available for a request for comment, according to a spokesperson with his office.

Efforts to pass a bathroom bill have risen and fallen since 2017, when similar legislation was also placed on a special session agenda before failing to garner enough support. The new bills are more robust than their 2017 counterparts, however, as the proposed $5,000 fine is higher than Senate Bill 6’s $1,000 proposal and have provisions that may insulate the bill from legal challenges, should it be passed.

July 23, 2025

How the Texas DEI ban will change public schools

When Texas public school students return for classes this fall, their clubs and classrooms will be subject to a new DEI ban.

Senate Bill 12 — signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott — prohibits diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in K-12 schools. It builds on a previous law that bans DEI work in higher education.

“Our schools should be about teaching history and reading, writing and math and civic responsibility,” Rep. Jeff Leach, R-Allen, said as he advocated for the bill in the Legislature. “We need to get away from some of the more toxic social issues.”

The law’s Sept. 1 implementation date has already triggered changes in Dallas ISD and other districts across the state.

Groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas have threatened to sue based on the new requirements, calling elements of the law unconstitutional.

ACLU of Texas attorney Brian Klosterboer said in a statement that it sends a “false message” that students of color and LGBTQ children don’t belong in the classroom.

Read more ($)

July 21, 2025

The Texas Legislature is back for a special session

It’s day one of the 2025 special legislative session. Texas lawmakers have 30 days to work through a crowded agenda set by Gov. Greg Abbott — largely focusing on two items: the response to Central Texas floods that killed more than 100 people, including dozens of children, and a redrawing of the state’s congressional districts, as ordered by President Donald Trump.

Legislators seem to be in agreement that they must pass laws aimed at preventing another disaster like the one that hit Hill Country, which has become one of the deadliest floods in modern Texas history and raised questions about emergency preparedness for the millions of Texans who live in flood-prone areas.

Another top issue: addressing consumable hemp-derived products that offer a similar high to cannabis and are widely available in Texas due to a loophole in an older law.
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, the Senate’s top brass, and Abbott disagree on how to address regulation. Patrick is championing a total ban on the products, drawing rare criticism from the Republican party and an even more rare veto from the governor.

Texas Republicans are heading into an overtime session after already scoring a number of wins over the regular 140-day session. Abbott is looking to add to that victory streak on his conservative agenda, like requiring people to use bathrooms that align with the sex they were assigned at birth and cracking down on the manufacturing and distribution of abortion pills — that failed in the regular session.

Democrats and Republicans are both waiting to see how aggressive the redistricting effort will be. Trump is pushing for a five-seat pickup, but it is not entirely clear whose seats will be targeted — or a map could be drawn without endangering GOP incumbents.

July 18, 2025

Nearly 2 million Texans could lose health coverage under expiring tax credits, ACA changes in GOP megabill

Nearly 4 million Texans signed up for ACA health plans this year, a high-water mark in the marketplace’s 12-year history. But between the looming expiration of Biden-era enhanced premium tax credits — which lower out-of-pocket costs for people with marketplace coverage — and changes in the recently passed GOP megabill, the state’s uninsured population is expected to spike.

Up to 1.7 million Texans are expected to lose their health insurance through coming changes to the Affordable Care Act marketplace under Republicans’ tax and spending megabill, according to an analysis by health policy experts — a serious blow to a state health care system already strained by the highest uninsured rate in the nation.

The effects could reverberate across the health care landscape, with higher premiums, more financial strain on hospitals and destabilized insurance marketplaces, experts said.

Because Texas never expanded Medicaid to people earning above the federal poverty level — as 40 other states have done — the ACA marketplace has been an enormous driver of coverage, particularly among lower-income people. Texas’ uninsured rate fell from 23.7 percent in 2010 to 17.4 percent by 2023, with ACA enrollment contributing significantly.

July 17, 2025

Nearly 600 National, State, and Local Groups Urge Immediate Release of Withheld Federal Education Funds, Warn of Widespread Harm to Schools, Students, and Communities

Today, a broad coalition of nearly 600 nonpartisan organizations representing educators, families, and learners in every state and the District of Columbia issued a united call to the
U.S. Department of Education and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to immediately disburse over $6.8 billion in legally obligated federal education funds that remain unjustifiably withheld from states.

The letter, signed by national groups representing parents, teachers, principals, superintendents, summer and afterschool programs, literacy groups, music and the arts groups, and adult education organizations, along with hundreds of state and local organizations, underscores the severe disruption caused by the Department’s failure to release critical funding under multiple federal education programs.

“These programs serve more than 95,000 K-12 schools and 55 million students, as well as 1.2 million adult learners. The delays are forcing schools to lay off staff, cancel professional development, eliminate afterschool and summer programs, and scramble to prepare for the upcoming school year without the resources they were promised,” the coalition warned.

Read the statement

July 16, 2025

The Latest on the $6.8 Billion School Funding Freeze

It’s been nearly three weeks since states and school districts learned they wouldn’t be getting an expected $6.8 billion in federal funding. The money, which had been allocated by Congress, was frozen by the Trump administration as part of an “ongoing programmatic review” to root out spending related to a “radical left-wing agenda.” The frozen funds were meant for teacher professional development, before- and after-school programs, academic enrichment, English-learner services, migrant education, and adult education.

Here are the week’s big developments:

Two dozen Democratic states sued the Trump administration on Monday, arguing that it violated federal laws and the U.S. Constitution by withholding the funds. Then, on Wednesday, 10 Republican senators called for the Trump administration to unfreeze the money, arguing that withholding it “denies states and communities the opportunity to pursue localized initiatives to support students and their families.”

Are you worried about the withheld funding? Here are five tips on how to advocate for the money’s release.

July 14, 2025

Mental health programs could bear the brunt of $600M federal cuts to Texas schools

Multiple mental health programs, particularly those that were put in place in response to the pandemic and mass shootings, are at risk of losing funding as Texas schools face at least $600 million in federal funding cuts.

On the chopping block are school programs like those focused on chronic absenteeism, mental wellness and crisis services that were created in response to the Uvalde school shooting, as well as social workers and counselors for students.

Data shows two federal programs that are at risk of being cut or strictly regulated account for 86% of the school mental health funding for more than 2,500 campuses statewide, according to Mental Health America of Greater Houston. Texas schools rely heavily on federal funding to support their mental health programs.

During this legislative session, school districts and advocacy groups pushed for more money through dedicated sources as they braced for the expiration of COVID-19 relief funding. But lawmakers didn’t approve it.

Right now, school receive some mental health money as part of school safety funding they receive, but school districts usually spend that allotment on school security.

“I don’t want to get into a situation where I am asking, do I hire a police officer or do I hire a counselor? I want them both,” said Adrian Johnson, superintendent for the Hearne school district.

The downward spiral of putting mental health on the back burner until tragedy hits is unsustainable, according to education advocates, who say it’s time for funding dedicated to school mental health.

July 10, 2025

Abbott orders special session on Hill Country flooding, redistricting, THC and unfinished GOP priorities

Greg Abbott on Wednesday unveiled a jam-packed agenda for the upcoming special legislative session, calling on lawmakers to redraw Texas’ congressional maps and address several unfinished conservative priorities from earlier this year.

The governor, who controls the agenda for overtime legislative sessions, also included four items related to the deadly Hill Country floods over the July Fourth weekend, directing legislators to look at flood warning systems, emergency communications, natural disaster preparation and relief funding for impacted areas.

The flooding has killed more than 100 people, with more than 160 still missing in Kerr County alone.

Abbott’s call also includes redrawing the state’s congressional districts — following through on a demand from President Donald Trump’s advisers, who want to fortify Republicans’ slim majority in the U.S. House by carving out more GOP seats in Texas. Republicans in Texas’ congressional delegation have expressed unease about the idea, worrying it could jeopardize control of their current districts.

July 9, 2025

Texas Education Agency to release schools’ 2024 performance ratings after court ruling

A state appeals court has ruled the Texas Education Agency can release its 2024 ratings of the state’s school districts, overturning a previous ruling in a legal battle that has stretched nearly two years.

Several Texas school districts had sued against the release of last year’s accountability scores over concerns about education officials rolling out an automated computer system to grade the state’s standardized tests.

On July 3, the 15th Court of Appeals — all Republicans appointed by Gov. Greg Abbott — granted the state approval to release the 2024 scores after doing the same for 2023 ratings in April. Previously, it ruled that TEA Commissioner Mike Morath did not overstep his authority when he changed the college readiness metrics that help determine schools’ performance ratings.

This time, the court similarly found “no evidence” supporting claims that issuing the 2024 ratings went beyond the commissioner’s authority. In a written opinion, Chief Justice Scott Brister declared that “it is time for local courts to stop obstructing those policies,” while acknowledging how Texans rely on the accountability system to assess public school performance. Read more

July 7, 2025

Hill Country flooding: Here’s how to give and receive help

The Texas Hill Country is reeling after a devastating flood with a confirmed death toll of at least 68 people were killed by the flooding in Kerr County, Sheriff Larry Leitha said. At least 11 additional deaths were confirmed in surrounding counties, pushing the storm’s overall toll to 79.

Rescue efforts are still underway as authorities search for 10 girls who went missing from Camp Mystic, a long-running Christian camp. With families turning to social media for answers, officials warn the full scope of the disaster may not be known yet.

As rescue efforts continue in Kerrville, questions are arising about how to assist those affected by the flood. Here is a guide on how you can help those in need, along with safety tips for dealing with flood warnings and what to do when you encounter flood waters.

July 5, 2025

Number of El Paso children drops by 12,000 in four years

The number of El Paso County children age 17 and younger fell by more than 12,000 between 2020 and 2024, according to recently released estimates by the U.S. Census Bureau.

The population estimates reinforce trends seen in county schools, which have struggled with declining enrollment. The new estimates, released last week, also show El Paso’s population aging, though still younger than state and Texas averages.

El Paso is seeing declines in children, little change in young adults, slight growth in adults 25-44, a flat trend for adults approaching retirement, and strong growth among seniors, the estimates show.

Previously released census data has shown strong migration away from El Paso – where average private sector wages are less than two-thirds of state and national levels. The census figures show a net loss for El Paso of just under 18,000 people over the past four years in movement to and from other U.S. counties.

July 4, 2025

Texas’ public ed funding boost brings some relief but erodes districts’ independence, school leaders say

A funding boost to the tune of $8.5 billion would usually be a cause for widespread celebration among Texas public schools. But in the wake of the 2025 legislative session, the mood of district leaders and educators is more lukewarm than triumphant.

Not because they aren’t grateful for new money to raise teacher salaries, improve special education services and make schools safer. It is because Texas lawmakers imposed stricter guardrails on how the state’s more than 1,200 school systems can use the dollars.

The new funding setup marked a drastic departure from the spending flexibility schools have long enjoyed, and for many, the change was the latest indication that state leaders do not trust districts to govern themselves effectively.

“We are a very independent state. The people are very independent. … And yet, that’s not the approach they’re taking with public education,” said Casey Adams, superintendent of the 170-student Woodson Independent School District, a rural community near Abilene. “Why call us independent school districts if you’re not going to give us the local control and ability to do what we need to do? I think everybody I’ve talked to feels strongly that way.”

July 3, 2025

Wealthy families are buying homes to get in-state tuition at Texas universities

This was not a luxury apartment. The place had popcorn ceilings, laminate countertops and faux marble bathroom sinks. The vinyl flooring was warped in places.

Two recent graduates from UT Austin had moved out weeks before. Hired cleaners hadn’t come yet, so there was a layer of scum on the bathroom mirror and a damp smell the realtor blamed on old ventilation, but which he later deemed West Campus’ signature scent: beer, vomit and shoddy attempts to clean up both.

“You’ll smell it,” said Miller Gill, the realtor tasked with selling the 750-square-foot condo last month.

But Gill wasn’t worried about his bottom line. The week before, a family from New Jersey agreed to buy the place. To them, and to many others across the country, this 1980s condo was worth more than its parts; it was a ticket to a cheaper college education.

June 28, 2025

Texas education board approves Native Studies course, skirting concerns about state’s K-12 DEI ban

The Texas State Board of Education on Friday renewed an elective course that teaches high school students about the history and cultures of Indigenous peoples, overcoming criticism from some Republican members about potentially violating a state ban on diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.

The American Indian/Native Studies course gained reapproval on a bipartisan 9-5 vote, a long-awaited decision that will allow Texas public schools to offer the class for state credits. Republicans LJ Francis, Brandon Hall, Tom Maynard, Julie Pickren and Audrey Young voted against it.

Advocates for the ethnic studies course have repeatedly shown up to quarterly state board meetings throughout the last year, pleading for Republican board chair Aaron Kinsey, who did not cast a vote, to put it on the panel’s agenda. The Grand Prairie Independent School District, near Dallas, is the only district to have piloted the class. Friday’s vote opens it up to the rest of the state.

The move still falls short of calls to make the class’ teachings an official component of the state standards for what students are expected to learn. But the decision to keep it as an elective course that school districts can offer marks a noteworthy development in a state that has clamped down on efforts to make public education more inclusive.

June 27, 2025

Proposed Pell Grant cuts threaten college access for nearly 500,000 Texas college students

Nearly half a million Texas students stand to get less help paying for college because of aggressive cuts federal lawmakers are considering to a critical financial aid program.

The country’s lowest-income students depend on the Pell Grant to get through college. It is the largest source of grant aid in Texas.

But a U.S. House proposal in the massive budget package President Donald Trump is dubbing the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” would take significant chunks out of Pell. The Senate is facing pressure from the White House to vote on the bill this weekend.

If it becomes law, the maximum Pell Grant award would drop by about $1,500 and be restricted to students who complete 30 credits per year, a stricter requirement than the current 24 credits. It would also eliminate eligibility for Pell for students who are enrolled less than half-time.

June 26, 2025

Christian parents sue to stop Ten Commandments requirement in Texas schools

A group of faith leaders and parents from North Texas this week sued to stop a new state law that will require public schools to display the Ten Commandments in classrooms, arguing it violates their First Amendment and parental rights.

The plaintiffs filed the suit Tuesday in a Dallas federal court on behalf of their 10 children who attend schools in the Dallas, DeSoto and Lancaster Independent School Districts, whose boards are all named as defendants.

The suit challenges one of the latest measures that state lawmakers have passed that critics say inject religion into the state’s public schools, attended by roughly 5.5 million children.

Senate Bill 10, by Republican Sen. Phil King of Weatherford, would require the Ten Commandments be displayed on a poster sized at least 16 by 20 inches come September when most new state laws go into effect. Gov. Greg Abbott signed it last week.

June 25, 2025

Houston ISD Superintendent Mike Miles receives $82,000 raise with 5-year contract extension

Houston ISD Superintendent Mike Miles, a state-appointed leader who has become a polarizing figure among district stakeholders, will receive a raise of $82,000 per year under a five-year contract extension approved by the board of managers last Thursday.

The approval of the new contract — which increases Miles’ annual salary from $380,000 to $462,000 — comes less than a month after Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath replaced four of the nine members on the board of managers and said the state’s ongoing takeover of HISD would last until at least 2027. The revamped board also unanimously approved a $2.1 billion budget for the 2025-26 school year at last week’s meeting.

In a statement, board president Ric Campo said Miles’ contract was extended to ensure the district’s continued transformation.

“The new contract also maintains rigorous evaluation criteria and compensation that aligns the HISD superintendent position with comparable school districts in Texas,” Campo said. “The HISD Board is proud of the incredible success of HISD students, and with Superintendent Miles’ ongoing leadership, we look forward to continued progress.”

Miles’ new base salary will make him among the highest-paid superintendents in the state, according to Texas Education Agency data for the 2024-25 school year. With his previous salary, Miles was ranked 14th statewide.

According to the TEA, the highest-paid superintendent during the 2024-25 school year was Randall Meyer from Victoria ISD, near Corpus Christi, with a base salary of $565,047. The highest-paid superintendent in the Houston area last year was Barbers Hill ISD’s Greg Poole with a base salary of $489,143. In Harris County, the highest-paid superintendent last year was Martha Salazar-Zamora of Tomball ISD with a base salary of $469,638.

June 24, 2025

Greg Abbott vetoes funding for federal summer lunch program

Governor Greg Abbott has vetoed a $60 million budget measure that would have allowed Texas to enter a federal summer lunch program for low-income children.

The Summer Electronic Benefits Transfer, or Summer EBT program would have given qualifying families $120 per child to pay for lunches during the summer months in 2027. An estimated 3.75 million children statewide would have qualified.

The provision to join the program was tucked inside the state’s budget bill, Senate Bill 1. Texas would have had to pay part of the administration costs to tap into at least $400 million in federal support that would have paid for the lunch subsidies. But Abbott struck the provision in a list of vetoes released on Sunday.

“… There is significant uncertainty regarding federal matching rates for this and other similar programs,” the governor stated as his reason to reject the budget rider. “Once there is more clarity about the long-term fiscal ramifications for creating such a program, the Legislature can reconsider funding this item.”

June 23, 2025

These child care advocates say Texas lawmakers didn’t do enough for children with disabilities

Texas lawmakers this year added $100 million to a scholarship fund to help families across the state pay for early child care, an extraordinary investment that may ease a waitlist to help thousands of children.

However, advocates say legislators fell short in creating more opportunities for the state’s youngest living with disabilities.

“Most families with children with disabilities are really struggling in one area, if not multiple,” said Bethany Edwards, director for research and evaluation at the Center for Transforming Lives, a North Texas nonprofit that helps single mothers. Edwards is also a parent of a child with disabilities.

“And there’s a lot that can happen from a policy standpoint to change these systems, but change seems to happen very slowly,” she said. Read more

June 22, 2025

SCOTUS Allows States to Ban Gender-Affirming Care for Minors

On June 18th, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Tennessee’s law banning gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors in a 6-3 decision.

The majority ruled that the Tennessee law does not draw classifications on the basis of sex, but on the basis of age and medical use. This reasoning, as dubious as it is, meant that the majority did not reach the issue of whether transgender individuals are a protected suspect or quasi-suspect class. The ruling, therefore, does not preclude litigants in other cases from continuing to challenge laws targeting transgender individuals as unconstitutional. However, the impact of the ruling will be devastating for the ability of transgender youth and their families to seek and obtain gender-affirming medical care. Twenty-seven states now ban such care, although two court orders (Arkansas and Montana) have prevented the bans from going into effect. Litigation in these and other states over the issue will certainly continue. Read more

June 21, 2025

Texas will require public school classrooms to display Ten Commandments under bill signed by governor

Come September, every public school classroom will be required to display the Ten Commandments — part of a larger push in Texas and beyond to increase the role of religion in schools.

On Saturday, Gov. Greg Abbott signed Senate Bill 10, despite a federal court ruling that a similar Louisiana law violated a constitutionally required separation of church and state. In May, the proposal passed the Senate 28-3.

The bill preliminarily passed the House 88-49 on the Jewish Sabbath day. The Ten Commandments forbids work on that day, Rep. James Talarico noted in an effort to highlight legislative hypocrisy. The lower chamber’s initial approval came after more than two hours of debate and despite last-ditch Democratic efforts to water down the law, including giving school districts the opportunity to vote on the policy, and adding codes of ethics from different faiths into the bill.

The House passed the bill 82-46, but clarified in it that the state would be responsible for any legal fees if a school district were to be sued over the policy.

Sponsored by Sen. Phil King, a Republican from Weatherford, the bill requires every classroom to visibly display a poster sized at least 16 by 20 inches. The poster can’t include any text other than the language laid out in the bill, and no other similar posters may be displayed. Read more

June 20, 2025

Sign up to testify against charters

Six charter applicants move forward to the State Board of Education for a final vote on Friday, June 27. Public comments are scheduled for Wednesday, June 25. Please sign up to testify by Friday, June 20, TODAY, by 5pm CT.

Late registration is available on-site up to 30 minutes prior to the start of the meeting (by 8:30 AM on Wed, June 25).

Can’t make it to the hearing? Email members of the State Board of Education to express your concerns: https://osod.org/sboe-member-emails/

June 19, 2025

Once again targeting higher ed, Texas lawmakers limited faculty influence, campus speech this session

Texas Republican lawmakers continued their carrot-and-stick approach to higher education during this year’s legislative session, pressuring public universities into abandoning what they view as progressive policies.

As in 2023, they opened with threats to withhold hundreds of millions in funding unless universities aligned more closely with their conservative vision of higher education. In the end, lawmakers left that pool of money alone, but the pressure may help explain why university leaders held back from commenting publicly on some of the most controversial proposals brought forward this session.

One new law will shift power away from faculty — who have often resisted GOP leaders’ recent efforts to push schools to the right — by giving governor-appointed university regents more control over curriculum and hiring. It will also create an office to monitor schools’ compliance with the new law and the existing ban on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, which could lead to funding cuts for schools found in violation.

Lawmakers also responded to pro-Palestinian protests with bills that limit how students can express themselves on campus and require schools to use a definition of antisemitism in disciplinary proceedings.

June 18, 2025

Join the National Day of Action and call your Senators today

The “Big Brutal Budget”—the one that means 16 million people will lose health coverage and will mean millions of families will lose SNAP benefits while some states could effectively end SNAP altogether. Most voters (53%) oppose this bill, according to recent polling from Quinnipiac University.

Call your Senators at 202-224-3121 and tell them to defend Medicaid, SNAP, and clean energy credits!

June 17, 2025

Texas students make gains in reading but struggle with math, STAAR scores show

Texas’ students saw some wins in reading but continued to struggle to bounce back from pandemic-related learning losses in math, state testing results released Tuesday showed.

Elementary students who took the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness exam this year made the biggest gains in reading across grade levels. Third graders saw a three percentage point increase in reading, a milestone because early literacy is a strong indicator of future academic success. Progress among middle students in the subject, meanwhile, slowed. Read more

June 16, 2025

Tell Congress to protect immigrant communities and our right to protest

The Trump administration has escalated aggressive raids in immigrant communities in the Los Angeles area, inciting fear and panic over the condition of loved ones who have been detained in these U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids.

In response to protests, President Trump on June 7 deployed the California National Guard, claiming the protests met the definition of a rebellion. He sent in about 700 U.S. Marines on June 9.

Protesters are subjected to rough handling, tear gas, and flash bang grenades. Some, including labor leader David Huerta, have been injured and hospitalized. After being discharged from the hospital, Huerta, president of the Service Employees International Union California (SEIU) and SEIU-United Service Workers West, was placed in federal custody simply for peacefully observing the raids. He has since been released.

No president has federalized the Guard without that state’s consent in 60 years. But Trump promises to “have troops everywhere” in response to even nonviolent demonstrations.

Military-style raids in workplaces and communities. Over-the-top responses to protesters who dare to stand up for American values. And promises of more to come.

Tell your senators and representative that these dangerous immigration raids and deplorable attempts to silence protest must be stopped.

June 15, 2025

Urge the Senate to Reject the House-Passed Budget Bill that Will Harm Students and Working Families

The bill the House GOP just passed is calling for trillions in tax cuts that heavily benefit billionaires—“paid for” with devastating cuts in education, health, and nutrition programs for students, working families, seniors, people with disabilities, veterans, and more.

Urge your Senators to reject these drastic policies that will devastate students and working class families.

June 13, 2025

Texas parents and teachers worry bills to root out liberal sway from public schools pave the way for conservative bias

Halcyon Ramsey, a mother of three children in the McKinney school district, is active in her kids’ elementary and middle schools. She knows how to reach administrators and has many teachers’ cellphone numbers. Ramsey values having a voice in what her children will be taught, especially when schools are preparing to discuss complex topics like sexuality.

“I get a permission slip, and then I have an opportunity to preview and see what they’re going to show to determine if I give my permission,” she said. “So as a parent, I feel like my rights are being acknowledged, because I have the option to opt out.”

During this year’s legislative session, Republican lawmakers championed several proposals advocating for parents’ right to guide their children’s education in public schools, a sentiment Ramsey agrees with. Supporters of the legislation say it will give parents more control over their children’s learning and push back against what they criticize as liberal bias in instruction.

But Ramsey worries that some new laws might do more harm than good.

Some teachers and parents note that Texas schools already have ways to take in feedback from families, and many work closely with parents in determining school activities and teaching plans. They say efforts to eliminate ideological bias in the classroom are contradicted by other conservative proposals approved this year that seek to push schools to the right. Ultimately, they warn, the proposals will further fan the flames of culture wars in schools, strain the trust between parents and teachers, and make it more difficult to navigate classroom instruction.

“I think when you have too many opinions and too many things involved, it muddies the water, then we don’t get anything done,” Ramsey said. Read more

June 12, 2025

Greg Abbott sends Texas National Guard to sites of planned immigration protests

Greg Abbott announced late Tuesday that he would deploy Texas National Guard troops across the state in anticipation of protests against federal deportation raids.

In a social media post, Abbott said the troop deployments were intended to “ensure peace & order.”

The news comes amid demonstrations against immigration raids that started in Los Angeles last week and have spread across the country, including to Texas. On Monday evening, hundreds of protesters gathered in downtown Austin for a march that ended in the arrest of thirteen people and police firing tear gas into a portion of the crowd that refused to leave.

Over the weekend, President Donald Trump deployed 2,000 California National Guard troops to Los Angeles in response to protests there, doing so without permission from Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat who appointed the state guard’s adjutant general. Newsom responded by accusing Trump of choosing “theatrics over public safety” and blaming him for escalating the “chaos and violence” that unfolded.

California officials on Monday sued the Trump administration in a bid to halt the deployment, calling it an “unprecedented usurpation of state authority and resources.”

Andrew Mahaleris, an Abbott spokesperson, confirmed Wednesday that Texas National Guard soldiers “are on standby in areas where mass demonstrations are planned in case they are needed.”

How to stay safe if you protest — or counterprotest — in Texas on “no kings day.”

June 11, 2025

Trans Texans brace for life under strict sex definition law

House Bill 229, which the governor is expected to sign into law, enforces a definition of sex based on the reproductive system someone was born with — women produce ova, men fertilize them. This definition could now be applied across state statute, leaving trans people and lawyers rushing to understand what exactly will change as a result of this law.

Compared to past legislative sessions, where battles over bathrooms, drag shows and gender-affirming care sparked dramatic showdowns between lawmakers and community members, the 2025 session was remarkably quiet.

But HB 229 and the handful of other bills that passed may end up having even more significant consequences for LGBTQ people than many people realize, said Sarah Corning, a legal fellow at the ACLU of Texas. The ripple effect will likely take years to sort out.

“The question of the hour is how will [HB] 229 be enforced and applied,” Corning said. “What we do know is that it’s incredibly disrespectful to so many Texans the Legislature represents, and completely disregards their identity.” Read more

June 9, 2025

Swift end of in-state tuition for undocumented students raises questions

It happened fast.

On Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Justice sued Texas over its long-standing state law allowing undocumented students to get in-state tuition. The lawsuit was barely on the books before Texas surrendered without a fight, asking a judge to strike down the law — which he did.

The whole lawsuit was closed out within hours, with both the U.S. attorney general and the Texas attorney general taking credit for the ruling.

It’s unusual to see a state work so closely with the federal government to use the courts to overturn a state law the Legislature had allowed to stand, legal experts say. It’s particularly surprising in Texas, a state with a proud history of battling the federal government and staking out aggressive positions on the limited role the feds should have within its borders. Read more

June 8, 2025

Houston No Kings protest planned to counter massive military parade on Trump’s birthday

Houston-area protesters are set to take to the streets Saturday as part of a planned nationwide No Kings protest to counter President Donald Trump’s multimillion dollar military parade in Washington, D.C.

Final preparations for the No Kings event follow violent protests of immigration raids in Los Angeles. To quell the uprising, Trump deployed the National Guard to subdue demonstrators with tear gas, flash-bang explosives and pepper balls, the Associated Press reported.

The No Kings rally will start at 10:00 a.m. Saturday at Houston City Hall, 901 Bagby, followed by a March at 11:00 a.m., according to the No Kings website.
Additional Houston-area protests are planned in Cypress, Sugar Land, Kingwood, League City and Katy, according to the No Kings website.

The No Kings event Saturday is part of a nationwide protest of Trump’s planned military parade in honor of the U.S. Army’s 250th anniversary. The date also marks Trump’s 79th birthday. To join the protest, visit the No Kings website to find a rally near you.

June 7, 2025

Successful Teacher Residencies: What Matters and What Works

Across the country, districts and schools struggle with persistent teacher shortages. Many states have attempted to bolster the supply of teachers by loosening credentialing requirements or implementing fast-track programs that quickly bring new teachers into the classroom, often without student teaching or robust coursework about how to teach. However, underprepared teachers are not only less effective on average but also leave teaching at significantly higher rates than fully prepared teachers. The resulting teacher turnover, which is disproportionately experienced by underresourced schools, undermines student achievement and carries high costs for the schools and districts that need to replace the teachers who leave.

Read the full study

June 6, 2025

Education Department misses key deadline for delivering statistics report

For nearly 160 years, the federal government has been producing a statistical report on the condition and progress of education. In 2002, as part of the Education Sciences Reform Act, Congress gave the Education Department an annual deadline for that report: June 1. But no “Report on the Condition of Education” was delivered by June 1 of this year, the first time the Education Department has failed to meet this statutory obligation. Read more

June 5, 2025

Texas’ undocumented college students no longer qualify for in-state tuition

Undocumented students in Texas are no longer eligible for in-state tuition after Texas agreed Wednesday with the federal government’s demand to stop the practice.

The abrupt end to Texas’ 24-year-old law came hours after the U.S. Department of Justice announced it was suing Texas over its policy of letting undocumented students qualify for lower tuition rates at public universities. Texas quickly asked the court to side with the feds and find that the law was unconstitutional and should be blocked, which U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor did.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton claimed credit for the outcome, saying in a statement Wednesday evening that “ending this discriminatory and un-American provision is a major victory for Texas,” echoing the argument made by Trump administration officials.

“Under federal law, schools cannot provide benefits to illegal aliens that they do not provide to U.S. citizens,” U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement Wednesday.

The federal government filed its lawsuit in the Wichita Falls division of the Northern District of Texas, where O’Connor hears all cases. O’Connor has long been a favored judge for the Texas attorney general’s office and conservative litigants.

Texas began granting in-state tuition to undocumented students in 2001, becoming the first state to extend eligibility. A bill to end this practice advanced out of a Senate committee for the first time in a decade this year but stalled before reaching the floor.

Before Wednesday’s ruling, Texas was one of 24 states, including the District of Columbia, to offer in-state tuition to undocumented students, according to the Higher Ed Immigration Portal. Read more

June 4, 2025

Texas public schools are set to get an $8.5 billion funding boost

Gov. Greg Abbott on Wednesday signed into law a bill providing roughly $8.5 billion in new funding for Texas public schools, offering relief to districts for teacher and support staff pay, operational expenses, special education, educator preparation, early childhood learning and campus safety.

House Bill 2, which lawmakers have dubbed “historic” because it marks the largest one-time public education investment in recent memory, will arrive after years of stagnant funding. It will largely go into effect on Sept. 1

Here’s a breakdown of what the bill includes.

Teachers will receive long-term pay raises based on their years of experience and the size of their school district. Districts will also be given $45 per student to be used to increase the salaries of support staff.
Lawmakers expanded Texas’ Teacher Incentive Allotment, a state program that awards raises to teachers who demonstrate that they have improved their students’ academic performance.
School districts will not see a significant increase to their base funding per student, but will receive $106 per student in targeted funding for costs like transportation and utilities.
Special education funding will shift to a more equitable approach, with schools receiving dollars based on the individual needs of students with disabilities rather than the classroom setting where they receive instruction.
School districts must finalize plans to ensure that no educators without formal classroom training teach children in core subjects by the 2029-30 school year.
Texas’ youngest students’ reading and math skills will be assessed throughout the school year in hopes of providing targeted support to those falling behind.
Changes will be made to the state’s funding system for early learning that could help some schools fund full-day pre-K.
More funding will go toward helping districts fulfill safety mandates enacted by the Legislature after the Uvalde mass school shooting in 2022.

June 3, 2025

Republican-led 140-day legislative session pushes Texas to the right

Texas lawmakers gaveled out of their 140-day legislative session on Monday after passing a raft of conservative policies, from private school vouchers to tighter bail laws, that furthered the state’s march to the right.

The Legislature wrapped up without the same drama that defined the end of the last two sessions, when Democratic walkouts, a last-minute impeachment and unfinished priorities prompted overtime rounds of lawmaking.

This time, Gov. Greg Abbott checked off every item on his main to-do list. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, the powerful hardline GOP Senate leader, accomplished the vast majority of his own priorities.

Democrats, on the other hand, had scattered wins. They were able to block a handful of Republican priorities and they pushed several major bipartisan measures — from funding for public schools to water infrastructure — that made it across the finish line. Read more

June 1, 2025

Bill to scrap STAAR test dies in the Texas Legislature

A legislative effort to scrap the STAAR test to respond to concerns that the test puts unnecessary pressure on students died in the last days of the legislative session.

House Bill 4, authored by state Rep. Brad Buckley, would have swapped the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness test for three shorter tests given throughout the school year.

The Senate and House failed to come out of closed-door negotiations with a compromise in time, missing a key legislative deadline this weekend.

Legislators in the House and Senate agreed that Texas schools needed to do away with the STAAR test. But in the end, the two chambers could not close the gulf over what they wanted to see out of the new test and from the A-F ratings system, which uses standardized test results to grade schools’ performance. Read more

May 31, 2025

Congress returns from the Memorial Day recess with a full agenda

Just before the recess, the House passed H.R. 1, its version of the reconciliation bill that will harm students and working families with deep cuts in Medicaid, food aid, and diminishing access to higher education.

The Senate process for action on H.R. 1 begins this week. Changes in the House bill are expected, but their nature and scope is not yet clear. What is clear: the administration is pushing for fast action—before the July 4 recess, if possible.

On the House side, the focus is shifting to the FY2026 budget process. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon has proposed cutting K-12 funding by 15% and replacing 25 existing programs with no-strings-attached block grants. Further details have not yet been revealed.

Urge the Senate to Reject the House-Passed Budget Bill that Will Harm Students and Working Families

Don’t Slash Medicaid and Children’s Health Care

Fair Pay and Benefits for Education Support Professionals

May 30, 2025

Democrats lash out as Legislature bans school clubs that support gay teens

Democrats took to the floor of the Texas House on Saturday to label a ban on clubs that support gay teens the work of “monsters” and to say the ban endangers children and strips them of their dignity.

The Democratic representatives grew emotional in opposition to a bill that would ban K-12 student clubs focused on sexuality and gender identity.

Senate Bill 12, authored by Sen. Brandon Creighton, won final legislative passage Saturday after lawmakers in both chambers adopted the conference committee reports that specifically clarified that schools will be banned from authorizing or sponsoring student clubs based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

Backers proclaimed that the bill enshrines a parent’s rights and puts the parent not just at the table, but at the head of the table where the child’s best interests are decided. They also targeted diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies, claiming that they project ideologies on students and put too much focus on race, sexuality and gender identity instead of the quality of education. Read more

May 29, 2025

Texas poised to add $100 million to child care scholarship program

Texas lawmakers are providing an extra $100 million in child care scholarships and giving regional workforce development boards more freedom to allocate money to key providers.

Nearly 95,000 Texas children are on a waitlist for child care scholarships. Meanwhile, brick and mortar facilities are closing and the cost of child care in Texas is making it difficult for working parents to make ends meet.

“Because of this funding, thousands more parents will be able to go to work while their children thrive in high-quality child care,” said David Feigen, the director of early learning policy for the child care advocacy group Texans Care for Children. ”This is a huge step, and we are grateful and energized to help get these funds to the families who are counting on them.”

Feigen’s group is one of several that have put pressure on Texas lawmakers this session to address critical issues affecting child care centers. Read more

May 28, 2025

Texas to expand how schools discipline students

Texas schools will be able to use harsher punishments to discipline students after the Texas Legislature passed a sweeping package on Wednesday — part of their efforts to stem student violence after the pandemic.

“Disruptions are impeding both the ability of teachers to teach and the ability of students to learn,” said state Sen. Charles Perry, R-Lubbock.

House Bill 6 would extend how long schools can place students in in-school suspensions from three days to as long as they see appropriate. Principals would need to review the placement every 10 days. Students facing in-school suspension still complete schoolwork in a different classroom on school grounds.

Because the bill would allow schools to use out-of-school suspensions to discipline all students when they engage in “repeated and significant” classroom disruption or threaten the health and safety of other children, it would make it easier for schools to discipline students experiencing homelessness and the state’s youngest students. That’s because the bill would reverse state laws from 2017 and 2019 that put limitations on when and how those students could be disciplined. When schools do out an out-of-school suspension to students in kindergarten through third grade, they’ll need to provide documentation of the students’ disruptive behavior. Read more

May 27, 2025

TSTA urges House to reject Senate version of HB 4 because it would create a worse testing and accountability system than we have now

The Texas State Teachers Association urges the House to reject the Senate’s substitute for House Bill 4 and ask for a conference committee. The House version of HB 4 was a significant improvement over the current STAAR test and state accountability system. The Senate’s rewrite of the House bill, if enacted, would make the current system worse. If HB 4 were to die in conference, schools, educators and students would be better off with the current flawed accountability system than with what the Senate would create. Read our full release

May 26, 2025

An East Texas community grapples with school closures as education options shift

Schools are more than brick and mortar in Deep East Texas. They are the places where students experienced historic events with their peers. They are a common ground for generations of families who walked their halls. They are evenings spent performing plays and days spent taking tests and playing tag at recess.

That made the decision to close the decade-old schools that much harder, school leaders said. Read more

May 24, 2025

Texas will require public school classrooms to display Ten Commandments under bill nearing passage

Come September, every public school classroom in Texas could be required to display the Ten Commandments under a requirement that passed a key vote in the Texas legislature Sunday — part of a larger push in Texas and beyond to increase the role of religion in schools.

Senate Bill 10 moved forward despite a federal court ruling that a similar Louisiana law violated a constitutionally required separation of church and state.

The bill preliminarily passed the House 88-49 on Saturday — the Jewish Sabbath day, which the Ten Commandments forbids, as Rep. James Talarico said in an effort to highlight legislative hypocrisy. The lower chamber’s initial approval came after more than two hours of debate and despite last-ditch Democratic efforts to water down the law, including giving school districts the opportunity to vote on the policy, and adding codes of ethics from different faiths into the bill.

May 23, 2025

Deadlocked Supreme Court Rejects Bid for Religious Charter School in Oklahoma

An evenly divided Supreme Court rejected a plan on Thursday to allow Oklahoma to use government money to run the nation’s first religious charter school, which would teach a curriculum infused by Catholic doctrine.

In a tie, the court split 4 to 4 over the Oklahoma plan, with Justice Amy Coney Barrett recusing herself from the case, and the decision provided no reasoning.

That deadlock means that an earlier ruling by the Oklahoma Supreme Court will be allowed to stand. The state court blocked a proposal for the Oklahoma school, St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School, which was to be operated by the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and the Diocese of Tulsa, and aimed to incorporate Catholic teachings into every aspect of its activities.

Because there was no majority in the case, the court’s decision sets no nationwide precedent on the larger question of whether the First Amendment permits states to sponsor and finance religious charter schools.

The decision did not include a tally of how each justice voted, stating only that the lower court ruling was “affirmed by an equally divided court.” Justice Barrett did not explain her recusal, though she is close friends with an adviser to the school.

Across the country, charter schools are public schools that are run independently, sometimes by nonprofits. St. Isidore had sought to challenge their status as public schools, arguing that it would instead be a private school, in contract with the government.

May 22, 2025

Fort Worth ISD board approves plan to close 18 schools over four years

The Fort Worth Independent School District’s board voted Tuesday to approve a plan to close 16 more schools over the next four years. The closures the board approved Tuesday are in addition to two others the board had already approved. District officials say the cuts will allow them to redirect millions of dollars toward academic priorities.

The board approved the plan by an 8-0 vote, with board member Wallace Bridges absent. The closures are a part of Fort Worth ISD’s facilities master plan, which has been months in the making. The plan is intended to help the district manage revenue losses from declining enrollment. Fort Worth ISD has seen its enrollment drop by 15% since the 2019-20 school year, and officials project the district will lose another 6% of its enrollment by 2029-30. Read more

May 21, 2025

Northwest ISD joins multi-district lawsuit aimed at social media companies

The Northwest ISD board voted unanimously May 19 to join several school districts across the state in litigation efforts to recover expenses sustained by the district related to youth social media usage and addiction.

According to district documents, on Oct. 11, 2022, the Federal Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation created MDL No. 3047 involving defendants Meta Platforms, Inc., Instagram LLC, Snap, Inc., TikTok, Inc., ByteDance, Inc., YouTube LLC, Google LLC, and Alphabet Inc. The plaintiffs allege:
The defendants’ social media platforms are defective products that, in turn, cause various damages
The tech firms knew their product was having a negative effect on the mental health of the nation’s youth
The firms proceeded to reap large profits in conscious disregard for the harms occurring
School districts are suing to recoup expenses for implementing student technology separation measures, increased mental health counseling and educating students with limitations resulting from social media use, according to district documents. Read more

May 20, 2025

Texas Students Use Their Voice to Combat Student Paper Censorship

High school student journalists from North Texas and across the state have joined forces to advocate for legislation that would mitigate the impact of a 1988 Supreme Court case on student expression. The coalition, named New Voices Texas, is a student-led group advocating for the passage of a state law that will protect student journalists from censorship and clarify the role of school administrators in the school newspaper publication process.

Rep. Gina Hinojosa (D-Austin) introduced House Bill 4821 this session with the goal of amending the Texas Education Code to more clearly define the authority given to high school administrators over student newspapers while limiting the impact of the 1988 Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier ruling. The ruling declared that high schools did not have to affirmatively promote specific types of speech, such as school newspapers, and that educators did not infringe on a student’s free speech by exercising editorial control for “legitimate pedagogical concerns.” Read more

May 19, 2025

Huge funding cuts are coming to our communities — unless we stop them

Last week, House GOP leadership and committees finally put pen to paper and spelled out key elements of their budget bill. The winners: billionaires and corporations. The losers: students and families.

As a whole, the bill represents a historic transfer of wealth from working families to the ultra-rich. To “pay for” tax cuts for billionaires, GOP-led committees repeatedly voted to slash education, health, and nutrition programs for ordinary people: students, seniors, individuals with disabilities, veterans, and more.

The next step is combining the provisions approved last week—and more—in a single bill that the entire House will vote on. GOP leadership acknowledges it will continue to make changes until the bill actually hits the floor, but is adamant—for now—that the vote will be held later this week. Problematic provisions include:

A $20 billion tax-credit voucher scheme to weaken public education which hits rural areas especially hard
$715 billion in Medicaid and Affordable Care Act cuts that cause 7 million people to lose health care coverage
$290 billion in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) cuts and eligibility restrictions that also put access to school meals at risk
Slashing and restructuring student aid programs to make higher education less affordable and accessible
Steep increases in work and sponsorship fees that turn legal immigration into a luxury only the wealthy can afford

Now, more than ever, it is important to tell Congress what you think! PLEASE email your representative and urge them to vote against the GOP budget bill.

May 16, 2025

Texas lawmakers push to enforce election transparency law after newsrooms found school districts failed to comply

Texas lawmakers are pushing to impose steep penalties on local governments that don’t post campaign finance reports online, after an investigation by ProPublica and The Texas Tribune found some school districts weren’t doing so.

The initial posting requirements, designed to make election spending more transparent, went into effect nearly two years ago. Most of the school district leaders said they had no idea they were out of compliance until the newsrooms contacted them. Even after many districts uploaded whatever documentation they had on file for their trustee elections, reports were still missing because candidates hadn’t turned them in or the schools lost them.

“I was surprised and disappointed,” said Republican state Rep. Carl Tepper, who authored the online posting requirement. “I did realize that we didn’t really put any teeth into the bill.”

Tepper is aiming to correct that with a new bill this legislative session. He cited the newsrooms’ findings in a written explanation of why the state needs to implement greater enforcement. Read more

May 15, 2025

It is time to increase funding for public schools

With time running out on the legislative session, Texas public schools are still waiting for a vital increase in funding from lawmakers. As of this morning, the Senate version of HB 2, a funding bill that includes a nominal, but insufficient, increase to the basic allotment, is 225 pages long. TSTA’s policy experts are unpacking the language of this substitution.

The Texas Senate Committee on Education K-16 will reconvene upon adjournment of the full Senate session. Watch the hearing later today: https://senate.texas.gov/av-live.php

Contact your Texas Senator today and urge them to invest in Texas public education! Click the “Call Me” button on this action to be connected to your Senator’s office.

May 14, 2025

Texas bill to overhaul STAAR test clears the House but faces a skeptical Senate

The Texas House gave preliminary approval Monday to a bill that would eliminate STAAR, the high-stakes standardized test that the state and school districts use to monitor student learning and teacher performance.

The STAAR test “leads to anxiety in our classroom with our teachers, and it leads to absolutely no information that a parent can understand,” Rep. Brad Buckley, R-Salado, said on the House floor Monday. “Assessment should be instructionally relevant and actionable.”

House Bill 4 got a near unanimous vote in the House on Monday, but faces a tough road in the Senate. The upper chamber has its own idea for what an overhaul of the state standardized test, and the school rating system largely based on that test’s outcomes, should look like. The gulf between the proposals is wide — one lawmakers will need to close in the final weeks of this year’s legislative session.

Both the House and Senate versions of the legislation would swap the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, or STAAR, with a shorter test to free up time for more instruction. Students would be tested at the beginning, middle and end of the school year so teachers could use test results to identify areas for improvement and shape their lesson plans. The proposals also weigh in on how the state should calculate its school and district ratings.

Read TSTA’s analysis

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May 13, 2025

It’s not just about vouchers and school funding: here are other Texas public education bills you should track

Private school vouchers, public school finance and teacher pay have been the focus of heated debates during this year’s legislative session over how to direct taxpayer dollars to support Texas children’s education. But those haven’t been the only education-related issues up for discussion.

Many other bills aim to reshape public education in Texas. Some offer additional resources, while others introduce new restrictions. Proposed legislation would boost funding for campus safety, support students who are falling behind in math and reading, and prohibit the use of cellphones during school hours.

Other measures have drawn more controversy. These include bills that would extend the state’s higher ed ban on diversity, equity and inclusion programs to K-12 schools, require the Ten Commandments to be displayed in public school classrooms, and expand teachers’ authority to discipline students. Supporters say these changes will improve classroom environments, while critics warn they could harm the state’s most vulnerable children.

Here’s a look at some of the most significant education bills under consideration and where they stand in the legislative process.

See our Bills on the Move

May 12, 2025

How Money Matters: Education Funding and Student Outcomes

A large and growing body of evidence shows that money, when spent equitably and effectively on key school resources, improves student outcomes and closes achievement and opportunity gaps. Research consistently shows that when more money is spent on education, especially for students from low-income families, achievement and graduation rates improve, along with life outcomes such as employment and wages. Read the study

May 11, 2025

‘This law does not make any sense’: What you had to say about school vouchers | Q&A with Lisa Gray

Last week, I asked your thoughts on Texas’ new $1 billion school-voucher program. More than 90% of your responses were opposed to the program — many vehemently so. Here (lightly edited) is some of what you had to say. — Lisa Gray

May 10, 2025

As Texas targets DEI and curriculum, even women’s universities like TWU feel the pressure

Texas Woman’s University, founded in 1901 by the state to advance women’s education, is now feeling pressured to downplay its women and gender studies program.

The push from Texas lawmakers and the threats of federal funding cuts over special programs aimed at women, Black history, Hispanic heritage and gay studies have caused fear and anxiety for those in higher education, educators said.

TWU hasn’t been immune to the effects as a public university but has stayed under the radar as new laws against diversity, equity and inclusion efforts have been enacted since 2023. Although it was opened to advance women’s education and is the largest women-focused university system in the U.S., TWU has been open to men since 1972. The campus in Denton has a total enrollment of over 12,000 students. TWU also has campuses in Dallas and Houston.

Numerous professors in North Texas who head gender, multicultural and LGBT+ programs declined to be interviewed for this story, citing fear of calling attention to their studies. Read more

May 9, 2025

Brownsville ISD looks to bring back students amid declining enrollment

Faced with declining enrollments and schools needing renovation, the Brownsville Independent School District Budget Committee considered strategies Thursday to stop losing students and start bringing them back.

BISD has been losing students to the charter schools since 2013, mainly because district boundaries haven’t changed since 1915 while the city has grown, but also due to declining birth rates, and recently, the pandemic, information presented the meeting confirmed.

With the exception of adding the El Jardin school district in 1953, BISD’s boundaries haven’t changed in more than 100 years, district demographer Lee Garcia said.

While Brownsville can move the city limits outward on its own, BISD cannot do the same except by legislative action, Garcia and Finance Director Mary Garza explained.

As a result, parts of Brownsville are not part of BISD, notably, The Woods, Westlake and other subdivisions on the city’s northern edge. Brownsville is growing, but outside of BISD boundaries, Garcia said. Read more

May 8, 2025

After immigration crackdown, international students in Texas self-censor to protect their education

The fear on Texas college campuses spread fast after the Trump administration abruptly revoked the legal status and visas of more than 250 international students.

Even foreign-born students who weren’t identified for removal began worrying about getting on the radar of a White House that has fervently sought to supercharge the nation’s deportation apparatus.

They canceled summer trips home. They stopped venturing out of their homes alone. They deleted social media accounts.

The Trump administration originally said its nationwide reclassification of international students was aimed at those who led pro-Palestinian demonstrations last year or had committed serious crimes while in the U.S. But in legal challenges filed across the country, lawyers for affected students argued their clients had not protested and that some had only been previously charged with minor offenses, like traffic infractions. Federal authorities restored many students’ legal status late last month — but also said they would develop a new policy to pursue future revocations. Read more

May 7, 2025

Texas’ youngest learners are behind in math and reading. A pair of bills aims to get them back on track.

Texas lawmakers want to help young learners who are lagging behind in math and reading, an early setback that threatens to derail their path to high school graduation.

More than half of third graders in the state are not at grade level in reading or math, meaning they lack the key foundational skills they need to thrive as learners.

Students who are behind in third grade rarely catch up, which can lead to serious consequences later in life. Research shows students who struggle to read by third grade are more likely to drop out of high school. Math proficiency is tied to economic mobility as an adult.

The Texas House gave final approval Wednesday to House Bill 123, which aims to provide struggling students extra learning support as early as kindergarten, before learning gaps compound. Read more

May 6, 2025

Texas Senate panel advances bill that would no longer allow undocumented students to pay in-state tuition

A bill that would make college less affordable for undocumented students, including those who have called the state their home for most of their lives, is advancing in the Texas Senate.

The Senate’s K-16 committee voted 9-2 on Tuesday to bring Senate Bill 1798 to the chamber’s floor for a full vote. It would eliminate undocumented students’ eligibility for in-state tuition and require those previously deemed eligible to pay the difference between in- and out-of-state tuition.

State Sen. Mayes Middleton, who authored the bill, said taxpayers are subsidizing higher education for people in the country illegally, which he estimated cost $150 million in the 2024-2025 academic year.

“These are funds that could have been used for lawful residents, perhaps even to lower tuition and fees,” Middleton said during an April 22 Senate education hearing when the bill was discussed. Read more

May 5, 2025

Texas House Republicans poised to scale back legislation that targets state’s universities

The Texas House on Tuesday proposed changes to dramatically limit the scope of a wide-ranging Senate bill that could transform how the state’s universities function and teach students.

As written, Senate Bill 37 would prohibit professors from teaching students to adopt the idea that any race, sex, ethnicity, or social, political or religious belief is superior to another. It would also set up a system by which degree programs could be eliminated if the state determines they do not provide a return on investment for students. The bill would give the governor-appointed regents who oversee each university system in the state the authority to approve every job posting for tenured faculty in liberal arts, communications, education and social work. Finally, it would allow anyone to report schools for violation of the law. The bill already cleared the state Senate.

In the House, state Rep. Matt Shaheen, a Plano Republican, proposed removing references to social and political beliefs and the rating system. His version also only allows regents to overturn the hirings of provosts, vice presidents and deans, and limits who can report violations of the law to students and those involved with the university.

The bill is part of an effort by Republicans to address what they see as a liberal bias in higher education. They are pushing back on professors who, in recent years, not only asserted their authority to teach topics like critical race theory, but also criticized their universities for sending police to arrest pro-Palestinian protesters on campus. It follows a 2023 ban on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. Read more

May 1, 2025

A 20-hour wait to speak: A pre-dawn House panel takes up Ten Commandments bill

At 2 am, they napped on benches in the Capitol corridors, blankets in tow and armed with snacks in anticipation of the long wait. At 5 am they ordered coffee and hot chocolate — to stay awake, and to stay warm in the frigid hearing room.

Early Wednesday, a couple of dozen Texans who had waited nearly 20 hours to testify on a bill to require classrooms to post the Ten Commandments gathered in the hearing room to share their views. Most were there in opposition to the bill, Senate Bill 10, which requires every public K-12 classroom to display a poster or framed copy of the Biblical code of ethics that’s at least 16 inches wide and 20 inches tall.

As dawn broke, Alexander Shawver — one of the last people to testify — implored committee members to vote against the bill.

“I have to question the faith and motivation of anyone who wants to use the full power of the state to force a chunk of King James’ text to hang over every public school student’s head in every classroom across the state,” he said. “And when our last opportunity to testify against it is at 6 a.m., it doesn’t feel like democracy is out in the open, as it should be.” Read more

April 30, 2025

Lawmakers want clear rules on how to divide districts

Lawmakers discussed a bill Tuesday that would create new rules for school districts that want to split into smaller entities, months after a controversial, now-abandoned plan to break up Keller ISD raised questions about whether the district could do so without voters’ input.

House Bill 5089, authored by Rep. Charlie Geren, R-Fort Worth, would set rules for how a school district could split off from an existing one. Under the bill, 20% of registered voters in each of the proposed new districts would have to sign a petition. If that threshold is met, an election would be held, and voters would decide whether to approve the split. The State Board of Education would oversee the election.

The Texas House’s public education committee held a hearing Tuesday to gather public testimony but didn’t decide whether to advance the bill for a full vote on the House floor.

Much of Tuesday’s discussion focused on Keller ISD, which sparked a controversy when news broke earlier this year that some board trustees were considering splitting up the district as a way to respond to their financial challenges. An initial proposal was drafted without any public input, sparking concerns that the split would unfairly favor one of the new districts. In March, Keller ISD leaders ultimately dropped the plans. Read more

April 29, 2025

Average teacher pay in Texas falls more than $10,000 below national average, Texas scraping the bottom in per-student funding

The average teacher salary in Texas is now more than $10,000 less than the national average, while per-pupil funding in the state’s public schools has slipped so far behind the national effort that only three other states now spend less than Texas to educate a child. These findings are from the National Education Association’s latest annual survey of state financial commitments to public education.

Using data from the Texas Education Agency, NEA estimated that during the current 2024-25 school year, the average teacher in Texas is earning $63,749, compared to a national average of $74,177. That’s a gap of $10,428, as Texas teachers continue to lose ground. Last year, their average pay was $9,567 less, on average, than their peers across the country. Adjusted for inflation, Texas teacher salaries are worth 8.12 percent less than they were in 2016.

Also using state financial data, NEA estimated that Texas’ per-pupil spending based on average daily attendance (ADA) for the current school year is $13,189, which is $5,664 less than the national average of $18,853, ranking Texas 47th among the states. Only Utah, Oklahoma and Idaho spend less per student. Read the full release

Texas students say K-12 DEI ban and other anti-LGBTQ+ bills threaten their safety, voice and mental health

When Marshall Romero came out as a trans male in 2021, he didn’t think his identity would become a political issue.

But in the years since, the 16-year-old sophomore at Alief Early College High School in Houston said he has watched the Republican Party increasingly target LGBTQ+ people, and he became more politically active in response.

“In today’s world, simply existing as a trans person has become an act of resistance,” Romero said while speaking about LGBTQ+ rights during a rally at the Texas Capitol earlier this month. “And in a society that politicizes my existence, just living authentically becomes an act of defiance.” Read more

April 25, 2025

Texas universities say Trump administration restored immigration status of some international students

The Trump administration announced Friday it will restore the immigration status of thousands of international students for now — including more than 250 in Texas — weeks after many found out the federal government had revoked their ability to stay legally in the country.

It is unclear how many of the affected international students in Texas will have their status restored. In the days since the Trump administration’s announcement, Texas A&M University, Texas Woman’s University, the University of Texas at El Paso, Texas Tech University, Texas State University, the University of Houston and the University of North Texas — the latter of which enrolls the most international students in the state — have reported that some of their students’ legal statuses had changed back to active.

Students at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley also had their status restored Friday, the students’ attorney said.

The Texas Tribune first learned that international students at Texas A&M were finding out, often without notification from the federal government, that their status had been marked as terminated in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, a federal immigration database maintained by the Department of Homeland Security. University officials said they had to refresh the database regularly to find out which students may be at risk for deportation. Read more

April 23, 2025

Dallas school board to consider “due process” rights for district support staff

The Dallas ISD school board on Thursday is expected to add a “due process” clause to its employment policy for at-will employees, including thousands of teacher aides, cafeteria workers, bus drivers, custodians and other support staffers essential to the school district’s operations.

Members of NEA-Dallas, the local affiliate of the Texas State Teachers Association, worked with district administrators on the new language for presentation to the board. Read the full press release

April 21, 2025

“It’s what’s best for a very select few”: Some Texans are skeptical about vouchers as they near the finish line

During last Thursday’s earliest hours, and under intense political pressure from Gov. Greg Abbott, the Texas House voted 86-61 to approve a bill that will spend $1 billion to create education savings accounts — a type of voucher that families can use to pay for their children’s private schooling.

The House’s longstanding push against vouchers, led for years by a coalition of Republicans from rural and industrial communities and Texas Democrats, finally cracked on Thursday — partly because many opponents were booted from office last year as part of a multimillion–dollar campaign championed by Abbott and largely funded by wealthy donors.

The Texas Senate’s leader, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, proposed adopting the House bill to eliminate the need to reconcile the difference between each chamber’s voucher proposals to speed things along and bring the program closer to becoming law.

Residents across Texas are worried the proposal will take away money that could have gone to deficit-plagued public school districts needing help with rising operational expenses. Read more

April 18, 2025

Texas measles cases rise to 597. Here is what you need to know.

The number of cases reported in Texas’ historic measles outbreak has risen to 597, an increase of 36 cases since Friday, according to state officials on Friday. Of those, 62 patients have been hospitalized since the outbreak began in January.

There are now 25 counties with at least one measles case, with Parmer and Potter counties reporting their first cases Friday. They each had one case.

There have been two deaths involving school-aged children who lived in the outbreak area. Neither child was vaccinated, nor did they have any underlying conditions, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services. So far, the outbreak has cost taxpayers $4.5 million, which have gone toward immunization and testing efforts, the agency said.

As of Friday, most measles cases reported since January — 371 — were centered in Gaines County, about 90 minutes southwest of Lubbock on the New Mexico border. Read more

April 17, 2025

Voucher bill a slap in the face for millions of Texas children

Texas State Teachers Association President Ovidia Molina released the following statement:

We are deeply disappointed that the House majority voted for a voucher bill that is an attack on public schools and a slap in the face for millions of Texas students. This bill will make it more difficult for these children and their educators to get the resources they need for classroom success and do real damage to the public education system that is the backbone of our state’s future.

It is absurd for Gov. Abbott and his pro-voucher allies to claim that a diversion of $1 billion in tax funds to private schools over the next budget cycle will not hurt our underfunded public schools, where the vast majority of our students will remain. That voucher drain will increase to $3 billion by 2028 and more than $4 billion by 2030 if this voucher bill becomes law, the Legislative Budget Board projects.

Texas already spends more than $5,000 less per student than the national average, ranking Texas 46th among the states and the District of Columbia. Many public schools already are cutting programs and increasing class sizes, and the school finance bill also approved by the House will not come close to ending the state’s financial neglect of public education. The House’s $395 increase in the basic allotment, which hasn’t been increased in six years, will provide only a third of what is needed to cover districts’ losses from inflation alone.

Meanwhile, most of Texas’ poorest families, even with vouchers, will not be able to afford the tuition and fees of Texas’ most popular private schools or the related transportation costs for their children. Many vouchers instead will become tax subsidies for upper income parents whose children already attend private school.

For many years, the Texas House stood as a strong defender of public education against the threat of private school vouchers, but it finally was overcome by lies and threats from Gov. Abbott and his billionaire school privatization supporters. For Abbott and his allies, our public schools — and the children who depend upon them — are, at best, an afterthought.

April 16, 2025

The Mounting Trouble with Education Savings Accounts

Education Savings Accounts (ESAs), launched in Arizona in 2011, allow public funds to cover a wide range of educational expenses beyond private school tuition. Originally for students with disabilities, ESAs have expanded—most notably in Arizona and West Virginia in 2022—to become universal vouchers. Now adopted by several states, ESAs promote educational outsourcing and align with libertarian, market-driven ideals. However, they raise accountability concerns, create new taxpayer burdens, and may inflate private school tuition. Public schools, especially in rural areas, suffer funding losses, leading to staff cuts and school closures. ESAs can also worsen inequities and allow discrimination in private and religious schools. This policy brief provides recommendations for mitigating damage from ESAs, including implementing stronger oversight, limiting expansion, enforcing equity protections, documenting local impacts, and pursuing repeal where possible. Read the publication here

April 15, 2025

House Ed Chair Won’t Post Runs for School Finance Bill Online

The chair of the House Public Education Committee won’t publicly release online copies of financial impact summaries for the House’s flagship school finance bill, according to the Quorum Report.

House Bill 2 would increase funding for Texas’s public schools and expand the state’s teacher performance bonus program, among other changes.

Though Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has hailed the bill as the largest school funding bill in the state’s history, the bill would not restore school funding to prepandemic levels when controlling for inflation. Doing so would require about $21 billion in investment, compared to the $7.7 billion included in the bill.

In past sessions, those analyses — or “runs,” in the legislative parlance — would have been available online for superintendents, who would be able to see how much funding their districts would receive under the new plan, according to the Quorum Report.

Instead, the chair of the public education committee, Rep. Brad Buckley, R-Salado, “invites members to pick up copies in person tonight at the Capitol,” per QR.

A staffer from Buckley’s office said that copies of the runs will be available at about 7 p.m.

Monday’s announcement is the second time this session that Buckley has made the legislative process for the school funding bill more opaque. Read more

Texas lawmakers consider a variety of bills to loosen restrictions around firearms

State lawmakers in both the Texas House and Senate considered several bills Monday that would loosen regulations around firearms in Texas.

A panel of House lawmakers heard testimony on more than a dozen proposals addressing everything from expanding where Texans could lawfully carry handguns to returning the right of gun ownership to individuals convicted of serious felonies.

Survivors of gun violence, including the 2018 shooting at Santa Fe High School, testified during the hearing of the House Committee on Homeland Security, Public Safety & Veterans’ Affairs. Read more

April 14, 2025

The Texas Legislature is having big battles over gender and sexuality; Track them here

Fundamental questions about gender and sexuality are dominating Republican priorities throughout all levels of government. In Texas, the Legislature is considering a record number of anti-trans bills this session.

Lawmakers in the Capitol have quietly pushed proposals to continue restricting the lives of trans people, including what bathrooms they can use, what government documents they can get and what services public schools and mental health providers can give to young people.

It is not clear if the proposals will survive the legislative process. This year’s session is focusing on school vouchers, property tax cuts, immigration enforcement and a THC ban, relegating those proposals to the back burner. But with executive actions, lawsuits and opinions from anti-trans politicians, many of their measures already are impacting trans Texans’ lives, whether the Legislature takes a vote on them or not. Read more

April 13, 2025

‘What did I say in class today?’: Teachers feel watched under Trump’s anti-DEI push

Soon after President Trump returned to office, he signed an executive order titled “Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling,” which seeks to restrict how schools discuss race, gender and “equity ideology” in the classroom. The order grants the Education Department the power to rescind federal funds from schools that violate the directive. To help enforce the new rules, the Education Department also launched an End DEI portal, where students or parents can report on teachers for diversity, equity and inclusivity lessons taught in class. All of it is raising questions about who has the right to exercise free speech in public education—

The effort to root out DEI lessons is a victory for groups like Moms for Liberty, which is described by supporters as a parental rights organization. It endorsed the creation of the portal as many public school teachers say they’re being closely watched and ultimately silenced. Read more

April 12, 2025

Protect Federal Funding for Public Schools

Most Americans believe every student deserves opportunity, resources, and support to reach their full potential no matter where they live, the color of their skin, or how much their family earns.

Federal funding for our public schools helps fill in the gap where state and local funding sometimes falls short. It helps:

Hire more educators to lower class sizes
Give extra support for students with ADHD, dyslexia, and other disabilities
Feed hungry students so they can learn
Lower the out-of-pocket cost for career technical programs and 2- and 4-year colleges.

Medicaid not only helps 38 million children access health care, it also helps pay for school-based services that benefit the entire student population—including nurses, psychologists, and audiologists.

But some politicians in Congress, led by Elon Musk and his billionaire friends, want to raid the U.S. Department of Education and Medicaid to fund their tax cuts.

They also want to allow states to turn federal support into private school vouchers, without any strings attached.

Tell your representatives in Congress to oppose the Republican budget resolution that would take federal funding away from our public schools and Medicaid. Take action

April 11, 2025

More than 100 international students’ immigration statuses revoked across Texas universities

At least 122 international students at Texas universities have had their legal status changed in a wave of removals from a federal database that have swept across the state and the nation, according to university officials and media reports.

The students learned in recent days their visas were revoked or their immigration status was marked as terminated in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, or SEVIS database.

Visa revocations prevent re-entering the U.S. but do not immediately end an individual’s status. SEVIS removals do, limiting students’ options and causing a much more immediate effect.

As of Thursday, the following universities have confirmed the number of international students who have been affected:

University of North Texas: 27
University of Texas at Arlington: 27
Texas A&M University: 23
University of Texas at Dallas: 19
University of Texas Rio Grande Valley: 9
Texas Woman’s University: 4
Texas Tech University: 3
The University of Texas at Austin, where police arrested dozens for protesting the Israel-Hamas war, and the University of Houston told the Houston Chronicle on Wednesday that some of their international students had a change in their immigration status. Both declined to say how many.

KFOX14 also reported on Wednesday that 10 University of Texas at El Paso students had their visas revoked.

Robert Hoffman, an immigration lawyer with offices in Houston and Bryan, said SEVIS removal also can affect employment eligibility and the status of dependents like spouses and children, whose ability to stay in the U.S. depends on the primary status holder.

“Unfortunately, these kinds of terminations kind of short-circuit due process by not allowing the student the opportunity to hear the specifics of their charges or defend themselves,” Hoffman said. Read more

April 10, 2025

Voucher debate heats up in Texas

Texas lawmakers are preparing to debate Senate Bill 2 (SB 2) which passed out of the House Public Education Committee on party lines. This sets aside $1 billion for the first two years and could grow to $4.4 billion annually by 2030. Meanwhile, a separate bill, HB 2, increases the basic per-student funding for public schools and ties future increases to property value growth. Opponents of SB 2, including teachers, parents, and lawmakers, rallied at the Capitol, urging lawmakers to boost public education funding and reject vouchers. Read more

April 3, 2025

A Texas school leader says material about diversity in state-approved textbooks violated the law

In 2022, conservative groups celebrated a “great victory” over “wokeified” curriculum when the Texas State Board of Education squashed proposed social studies requirements for schools that included teaching kindergartners how Rosa Parks and Cesar Chavez “advocated for positive change.”

Another win came a year later as the state board rejected several textbooks that some Republicans argued could promote a “radical environmental agenda” because they linked climate change to human behavior or presented what conservatives perceived to be a negative portrayal of fossil fuels.

By the time the state board approved science and career-focused textbooks for use in Texas classrooms at the end of 2023, it appeared to be comfortably in sync with conservatives who had won control of local school boards across the state in recent years.

But the Republican-led state education board had not gone far enough for the conservative majority on the school board for Texas’ third-largest school district. Read more

April 2, 2025

Private school voucher bill clears first test in Texas House

The Texas House Public Education Committee on Thursday voted in favor of a $1 billion spending cap for the first two years of a potential school voucher program and increasing by $395 the base amount of money public school districts receive for each student.

The changes to House Bill 2, the public school funding bill, and Senate Bill 2, the voucher proposal, will now go to the full House for further consideration. All Democrats on the committee voted against the voucher legislation.

Lawmakers revealed updated versions of both bills Monday, after days of public testimony last month. The committee was slated to discuss them Tuesday, but the panel rescheduled the meeting to Thursday, hours after the release of the new versions. Rep. Brad Buckley, the Republican chair of the committee, said he postponed it to give members additional time to review how the proposed school funding changes would affect their local districts.

While several TV stations broadcast the meeting, the committee did not stream it, drawing criticism from House Democrats. House rules this session require the streaming of public hearings but not formal meetings, which generally do not include public testimony. Read more

April 1, 2025

Ken Paxton wants Dallas school officials under oath on transgender athlete policy

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton wants to question Dallas Independent School District officials under oath as part of his investigation into the district’s policy on transgender athletes.

Paxton on Monday announced his office has filed a legal petition to do so. Earlier this year, Paxton’s office launched an investigation of the district’s “unwritten policy” that allegedly encouraged parents of transgender students to alter their childs’ birth certificates in other states.

Paxton initially requested several records regarding the district’s compliance with a 2021 state law that bans transgender students from competing in sports matching their identifying gender. The request came after the district’s LGBT Youth Program Coordinator, Mahoganie Gaston, suggested in a video published by Accuracy in Media, a Washington-based nonprofit that students could play in sports matching updated birth certificates.

In a statement, Dallas ISD said it was following state law and is cooperating with Paxton’s information requests. Read more