INSIDER
Schools near the border say it’s hard to prepare for the unknown. Immigration advocates say they should help communities understand students’ rights.
Republicans accused Rep. Vicente Gonzalez of supporting gender transitions for children throughout the 2024 election cycle, which he said took a political toll.
From debating school vouchers and improving the state’s water supply to reining in property taxes, the GOP-led body will look to pass its conservative priorities amid fighting within the party.
After the state missed the Jan. 1 deadline, lawmakers still have time to approve administrative costs before applying for $400 million in federal summer meal assistance.
Our journalists brought life to the experiences of everyday Texans, held powerful institutions accountable and surfaced stories that went beyond the daily news cycles.
The request comes after an audit found Texas improperly billed the federal government for reimbursements related to Medicaid-eligible students.
Some voucher opponents are ready to compromise; others are hoping supporters will fumble over the program's size, eligibility and accountability.
The Texas Legislature has prioritized getting high school dropouts the skills they need to enter the workforce.
A majority of the panel voted to call on the Texas Legislature to pass a state law giving members the authority to determine age-appropriate books for students.
Tiffany Clark, who was elected to fill a vacant State Board of Education seat in January, said she would have voted against the curriculum.
Education officials say the materials were designed to be age appropriate but critics argue they repeatedly omit key context and oversimplify history.
School voucher supporters say they have the votes to get a bill across both the Texas Senate, led by Patrick, and the House, which has repeatedly blocked such proposals.
Last year, Abbott refused to give public schools a major raise without passing a voucher program. His tone was more conciliatory after Election Day.
Tom Maynard, Pam Little, Aaron Kinsey and Brandon Hall prevailed in contested races. The race for District 1 was still undetermined as of Wednesday morning.
Five people were charged in connection with the scheme. Investigators say aspiring teachers would pay for help cheating in the certification test.
School officials says the state decision to cut federal money likely will hurt their ability to recruit and retain critical staff for students with disabilities.
High school students that are getting a jump on college through dual credit now make up the majority of students at one East Texas community college.
Revising the social studies curriculum could be among the divisive issues the Texas State Board of Education tackles next year.
Despite the group’s strong participation, Hispanic students graduate college at a lower rate than peers in the program, according to a report.
The Texas Education Agency found that checks mailed to Miles’ charter school network in Colorado were eventually deposited into the network’s Texas account.
Texan voters will have significant influence in November, both within and outside the state. They will be electing a U.S. senator, 38 U.S. House members, 150 state House members, as well as various judges and local elected officials. Additionally, they will have influence over important questions.
Gov. Greg Abbott said the primary showed Texans want vouchers. In House District 18, an ad blitz and immigration fears may have played a larger role.
A 2019 state law requiring schools to offer full-day pre-K is capturing child care’s most profitable customer base: 3- and 4-year-olds.
Dozens of districts sued Texas saying the ratings painted an unfair picture of their schools. Others voluntarily have released their own.
The superintendents said they haven’t received enough support from the state or time to fix errors the system generated.
The first-term Republican defending her seat said a private school voucher program will help her community, especially students from low-income families.
The Texas Education Agency says there’s time to fix problems before officially reported data is used to determine how much money districts get.
Pete Arredondo’s lawyers tell the court that the shooter, not the police, was to blame for the school violence.
Schools are hiring instructors with different types of backgrounds to deal with critical staff shortages.
The request came from a local pastor who is part of a group that trains people to “defend their freedom and liberty.” Other faith leaders have pushed back.
The decision in the case brought by the Texas Attorney General preempts any future Title IX regulations that extend federal protections to LGBTQ students.
Students’ scores in a test that gauges their English skills have been low since a redesign introduced computer scoring.
The ruling marks the fifth consecutive year Texas families have not received a full picture of their schools’ ratings, which are used to determine how they are performing.
The city’s release ends a legal battle with news outlets, but other government agencies are withholding materials.
A national study found young children are faring worse academically than their peers before the pandemic. The problem’s scope in Texas is unclear.
The Ector County school district boosted student learning but now faces financial uncertainty. It closed schools and cut costs to stay afloat, but it won’t slash teacher jobs.
Educators say they’ll struggle to keep the programs they created with those funds, highlighting their precarious situation without more state help.
At a gathering for teachers in Houston, educators saw Harris as a potential ally at a time when conservatives push for changes in Texas classrooms.
At least one school district, Tolar ISD in North Texas, told the ACLU it would update its policies to comply with the CROWN Act.
Some secular groups and members of other faiths say the curriculum could give schools too much control over how children are taught religion.
The proposal comes as part of a larger effort by officials in Texas and across the country to inject Christianity into public life.
Judge Reed O’Connor said the Biden administration didn’t have the authority to make the changes, which would expand anti-discrimination protections.
Proposed lesson plans could improve student performance and help teachers, Texas education officials say. Not all district leaders and education advocates are convinced.
Gov. Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton crusaded against House Republicans who voted against school vouchers and in favor of impeachment, respectively.
Six of eight GOP incumbents lost their races. Gov. Greg Abbott declared he “now has enough votes to pass school choice.”
In a separate settlement, the city of Uvalde will pay $2 million to the families, create a permanent memorial to the victims and provide enhanced training for police officers.
A state lawmaker and Houston residents urge the Texas Education Agency to investigate whether the state-appointed superintendent improperly sent public funds to out-of-state charter schools.
Katy ISD’s board voted this past fall to require staff to notify parents if their child wants to use a different pronoun or identifies as a different gender.
Students can generally peacefully protest, regardless of their viewpoint, but colleges and authorities may enforce some restrictions and criminal laws to maintain peace and order.
A state-appointed board of managers overseeing the La Joya Independent School District is set to consider the policy this week.
The state will save more than $15 million by using technology similar to ChatGPT to give initial scores, reducing the number of human graders needed. The decision caught some educators by surprise.
A grand jury indicted the principals for allegedly using their school emails to encourage staff to vote for certain candidates in the March primary.
Many independent school districts, including the largest ones, do not allow chaplains to serve as counselors, which is now allowed under a new Texas law.
Some districts will close for the day expecting traffic jams and busy city services. Others will stay open for parents who can’t find child care.
The next opportunity for the board to review the course will not happen until its meeting in June.
Abbott called on supporters to push through the primary runoffs to deliver the final pro-voucher members needed to pass his legislation, plus some padding.
The results of Tuesday’s primary elections could foreshadow a further push to the right for the body that sets the state's educational standards.
The state had been investigating IDEA Public Schools since 2021 and raised questions on its spending on things like a luxury driver and private jet.
After a short trial, a Texas judge ruled that Barbers Hill school officials are not violating a new state law prohibiting hair discrimination.
The USDA estimates the families of 3.8 million children could have received $120 per child to cover summer lunches if the state participated in the new $2.5 billion program launching this summer. Texas is one of 15 states opting out.
In a test of Texas’ new CROWN Act prohibiting discrimination based on hairstyles, a judge said the Barbers Hill school district can limit the length of male students’ hair.
The transition at the Waco-area school district will shed light on how a democratically elected school board resumes control after a takeover.
Policy experts worry students will fall short of the state's future workforce needs. Educators hope the new curriculum will help them.
Despite all the hubbub about vouchers and the attorney general’s impeachment, it’s still about the border.
Local prosecutor Christina Mitchell last month convened a grand jury to investigate police officers’ delay in confronting the gunman at Robb Elementary School.
The complaint claims Bonham ISD and a city court discriminated against both Black students and disabled students by creating a hostile environment at school. The groups also filed a separate complaint against Corpus Christi ISD with the Texas Education Agency.
Georgia DeVries, an East Texas 17-year-old, shared her experience living in a car for one month last year on TikTok.
The TEA appointed a “board of managers” to replace the district’s school board trustees and named a new superintendent.
As promised, the governor is going after members of his own party after some of them tanked his top legislative priority.
The LaPoynor school district frequently flies a Christian flag, but may not be running afoul of the Constitution because it says students are choosing to raise it.
Lawmakers passed House Bill 3 last year to address some of the issues that led to the botched police response during the Uvalde school shooting.
Some relatives of the 21 people killed in Texas’ deadliest school shooting are demanding criminal charges after federal officials say delayed police response cost lives.
Plaintiffs claimed that the 2023 law, which required book vendors to rate the explicitness of sexual references in materials sold to schools, was unconstitutionally broad.
Dozens of school districts sued the Texas Education Agency last fall, claiming revisions to the state’s accountability system would hurt them.
After nearly a year’s worth of legislative sessions, several issues are poised to dominate Texas politics this year. Here’s a look at how things ended on several fronts last year — and where they’re headed next.
Other new laws make changes to the tax code, criminal justice and health care systems.
Across the state, people are looking for ways to make Texas a better place to live as they tackle hunger, rural “brain drain,” health care obstacles and other impediments.
Public schools got little help from lawmakers this year to address the state’s chronic teacher shortage, so they’ve turned to other creative solutions — like leaning on cultural exchange programs to recruit international teachers.
The course highlights Asian Americans’ contributions in U.S. history. It also seeks to offer an honest look at the mistreatment, like the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II.
A new law lets schools use safety funds to pay for unlicensed chaplains working in mental health roles. Supporters say it helps address student mental health while critics blast it as a Christian nationalist attempt to convert children to a specific form of faith.
The fourth special legislative session this year ended without any increased funding for school safety — even though public schools have complained for months they don’t have enough money to meet new safety mandates approved this year.
Abbott is promising to continue the fight for “school choice” but staying mum on whether that means he will call another special session as he has previously threatened.
The Texas House’s vote to block education savings accounts disappointed voucher advocates and likely spelled doom for additional public school funding. Both bands say they’ll keep pushing for their priorities during next year’s primary elections and the 2025 legislative session.
Senate Bill 5 would send an extra $800 million to public schools for security upgrades over the next two years. But the measure is at risk of becoming the latest casualty of the rift between the Texas House and Senate.
