Publish Date: August 24, 2025 5:28 pm Author: Texas AFT
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Friday, August 22, 2025
The Ten Commandments
There is never a back-to-school season without chaos, at least not lately. But this year, the number of policy changes and overall uncertainty that educators, parents, students, and districts are contending with is off the charts.
One source of that uncertainty has new developments. This week, a federal judge in San Antonio halted the implementation of Senate Bill 10, the Ten Commandments law, in some Texas school districts in response to a lawsuit brought by Texas parents and ACLU Texas.
Eleven school districts named in the suit are blocked from implementing the required posting of the Ten Commandments in classrooms. But as a reminder, no district is required to accept donated posters or display them until Sept. 1.
As Texas AFT President Zeph Capo said in his statement on the ruling, “This law is plainly unconstitutional, just like it was when they tried it in Louisiana. All lawmakers have accomplished here is mass confusion for schools and teachers right at the start of the school year.”
Our 2022 Texas Needs Teachers report highlighted a deep concern among Texas educators about the lack of teacher input into state-level policies such as testing, school funding, licensure (renewal), and evaluation. Additionally, educators have expressed how their voice on campus has been diminished even though there are state laws requiring teacher input on local policies.
That’s why the right to democratic (little “d”) representation was one of 10 essential rights our members included in our Educator’s Bill of Rights for this legislative session.
The Texas House this week approved a mid-decade redistricting plan that could significantly reshape the state’s congressional delegation. On Aug. 20, lawmakers passed House Bill 4 in an 88-52 vote, sending the measure to the Senate for final considerationthis afternoon, though Houston Senator Carol Alvarado indicatedshe intends to filibuster HB 4. Watch the Senate floor debate here.
Thecontroversial proposal would reconfigure several battleground districts across Texas, pairing fast-growing suburbs with rural counties and linking communities with little overlap in media or economic ties. Republican leaders say the map reflects recent voting trends and increases the number of Hispanic-majority districts. Democrats and civil-rights groups argue it is designed to secure as many as five additional Republican seats in the U.S. House by “cracking and packing” communities of color in metro areas like Houston and Dallas.
The Texas Education Agency dropped not one, but two years of A-F accountability ratings last week, marking the third release in just one calendar year. The results are based on STAAR exams now partly scored by artificial intelligence and under new, controversial standards rolled out by Commissioner Mike Morath. Texas AFT has long opposed this arbitrary system, which puts undue stress on students, penalizes teachers, and punishes schools instead of helping them grow.
Late last week, a U.S. district judge in Maryland ruled in favor of AFT and a coalition of associations, educators, and school districts, declaring that the Trump Administration’s efforts to eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs at schools, colleges, and universities is unconstitutional.
“Here, the government decided to put its thumb on the scale to chill teachers’ duty to create safe and welcoming classrooms where critical thinking is valued and history is presented in an open and honest way,” said AFT President Randi Weingarten in a statement celebrating the ruling.
Local leaders and members celebrating Labor Day in 2024 from Northeast Houston AFT, Spring AFT, Cy-Fair AFT, Houston Federation of Teachers, Socorro AFT, and Northside AFT.
Labor Day / Workers’ Day of Action – Find an Event Near You
In just over a week, union members, their families, and allies across the country will be gathering to celebrate the power we have when we come together and to build energy for the work that is before us.
📖HISD cut minimum requirement to meet with unions.Houston ISD scrapped language requiring state-appointed Superintendent Mike Miles to meet with unions to receive feedback at least four times per year, instead giving the superintendent discretion on the frequency of meetings. (Houston Chronicle, Aug. 15)
📖College students in limbo as nonprofits urge judge to reinstate Texas Dream Act. With college tuition payment deadlines only days away for the fall semester, lawyers seeking to restore enforcement of the Texas Dream Act are again asking a district judge to let them contest the ruling that overturned the law. (Austin American-Statesman, Aug. 12)
📖 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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