Publish Date: August 5, 2025 3:00 pm Author: Texas AFT
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Friday, August 1, 2025
We fight. We win.
Last week, Texas AFT joined over a dozen school districts, parent groups, and educator unions in a lawsuit against the Trump Administration’s attempt to withhold $6 billion in funding set aside for our nation’s schools and students.
Our pushback paid off.The administration now says it will release those funds.
Just weeks away from a new school year, we’re relieved to know that these essential resources should be available for Texas learners. Though we’ll be keeping one eye open (as well as our lawsuit) to make sure the funds make it to our schools, as promised.
This shows that when we join forces with educators, parents, and districts, we can make the changes necessary for our shared goal: the success of our students.
This issue cut across party lines, with Republican Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska being particularly vocal for the release of funds. This is something we would enjoy seeing in our state, too …
Despite this good news, we’re keeping up the pressure. There are currently no plans to drop this suit until the funds are in the correct hands: our school districts, their employees, and our students.Read more details on our collective win here.
In this week’s Hotline:
Recapping bills about your professional development
One aspect of the Educator’s Bill of Rights that got far less attention during the regular session than it deserved was your right to meaningful training and professional development. Educators are lifelong learners, and high-quality training and development correlate to student outcomes. So, what did lawmakers have to say about it?
House Bill (HB) 2 (yes, dear readers, we have not yet gotten to the bottom of this one) made a few major changes related to educator training.
On Wednesday, the Houston Federation of Teachers (HFT) filed a lawsuit in Harris County district court against the Houston ISD Board of Managers and state-appointed Superintendent Mike Miles for mismanaging state funds and denying the district’s teachers state-funded pay raises as required by law.
As teacher and school staff shortages continue to deepen across the country, new federal legislation is offering a bold vision to rebuild the educator workforce, while a parallel political effort threatens to dismantle the very systems that support it.
Unveiled at AFT’s national TEACH conference last week, Sen. Bernie Sanders’ Pay Teachers Act proposes a transformative overhaul of public school educators’ compensation. The bill would guarantee every full-time public school teacher a minimum salary of $60,000 per year, scaled by experience and inflation. It also allocates at least $1,000 annually in classroom supply funds directly to teachers and triples Title I funding to assist high-need schools. The bill includes nearly $8 billion to create a national teacher career ladder, allowing educators to advance professionally without leaving the classroom.
The State Board for Educator Certification (SBEC) met in Austin on July 23 and 24 to discuss their pending work and take up a few action items.
Each July, the SBEC conducts a work session to preview their workstreams and rulemaking duties for the coming year. After a legislative session, this includes an update on new statute and any impacts the laws have on those duties. Thursday was spent discussing legislation that impacts SBEC rulemaking.
Education news from around the state and nation that’s worth your time.
📖 A fight to save an Austin middle school puts families at odds with Texas over how to rate schools. Dobie Middle School’s uncertain fate underscores a core issue brewing across the state: What happens when the state’s metrics used to measure success and failure in education are fundamentally at odds with how a community views their schools? The question comes as Gov. Greg Abbott has called state legislators back to the Texas Capitol with marching orders to eliminate STAAR. (The Texas Tribune, July 30)
📖 For America’s 250th birthday, Trump champions ‘patriotic education’ in schools again. President Donald Trump’s Education Department is taking away money from recipients of a Biden-era history and civics grant that sought to help children from low-income families and other underserved students. That work, the Trump administration now says, was “illegal DEI programming,” referring to diversity, equity, and inclusion. (Chalkbeat, July 28)
📖 7 Ways Community Colleges Can Boost Enrollment. Because community colleges serve such diverse types of students, we need to boost enrollment across all these populations to achieve sustained growth. Work-force development tracks have grown substantially, especially during and since the pandemic. But few others have. That can change. (The Chronicle of Higher Education, July 16)
📖 The Lege’s ‘Big Government Intrusion’ into University Academics. Expanding on last session’s anti-DEI campus crackdown, some Republicans in the Legislature are now going after gender and ethnic studies programs and faculty independence. (Texas Observer, April 24)
🎧 The Shocking Billionaire Plot to Dismantle Public Education. Texas is on the verge of passing a law that could defund public education. Vouchers send public taxpayer dollars to private schools. It could cost taxpayers $10 billion by 2030. And it could destroy Friday Night Lights. (More Perfect Union, April 22)
This Education Department Official Lost His Job. Here’s What He Says Is at Risk. Fewer teachers. Incomplete data. Delays in addressing problems and getting financial aid information. Those are just some of the impacts Jason Cottrell, who worked as a data collector at the Department of Education for nine and a half years before being laid off along with more than a thousand other agency employees, warns the Trump Administration’s massive cuts to the department’s funding and workforce could have on the country’s education system. (Time, July 18)
This Education Department Official Lost His Job. Here’s What He Says Is at Risk. Fewer teachers. Incomplete data. Delays in addressing problems and getting financial aid information. Those are just some of the impacts Jason Cottrell, who worked as a data collector at the Department of Education for nine and a half years before being laid off along with more than a thousand other agency employees, warns the Trump Administration’s massive cuts to the department’s funding and workforce could have on the country’s education system. (Time, July 18)
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