Publish Date: July 28, 2025 2:56 pm Author: Texas AFT
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Friday, July 25, 2025
Don’t Agonize. Organize!
One of these years, we desperately hope we’ll have an uneventful – dare we hope, even boring – back-to-school season. But that is not going to be this year.
News breaks every day that has broad, often concerning, implications for our schools, colleges, and universities. We cover a lot of that news – both from the state and federal levels – in this week’s Hotline.
If you are overwhelmed, you’re not alone. If you are distraught, you’re not alone. If you want to crawl back under the covers for a few months, you’re not alone. And when you pick yourself up and head back to your worksite this year, guess what? You won’t be alone there, either.
We’re#Allin for public schools. If you are too, check out some of the new items in our online store. Everything is union-printed and made in the USA, and all purchases act as donations to our political action fund.
In this week’s Hotline:
Your right to safe working conditions
Federal funding freeze lawsuit
This week in the special session
HB 2 questions answered
— Texas Legislature
Texas AFT United members visit a lawmaker’s office during the 89th legislative session and discuss the need for our Educator’s Bill of Rights.
This plank in your Educator’s Bill of Rights states that “safety is a prerequisite for learning.” If our educators and students do not feel secure in their classrooms, then teaching and learning cannot take place effectively. But safety means much more than bulletproof glass and metal detectors. School safety is about reasonable class sizes, clean classrooms, and access to mental health resources, as well as transparency and communication. The 89th Legislature left much to be desired in policy that will keep our campuses safer so our schools can thrive.
A sign held by a member at our June rally outside of Sen. Ted Cruz’s office, protesting his support of defunding the Department of Education and adding a private voucher program to the federal budget bill. Photo by Brooke Jonsson, CCR Studios.
On Monday, Texas AFT joined school districts, parents, education unions, and nonprofit organizations in a lawsuit against the Trump Administration for unlawfully withholding nearly $6 billion in education funding.
Professional Development You Can Use: Did you know that Texas teachers spend more of their own money on classroom supplies than anyone else? A 2024 survey found that Texas teachers spend an average of $1,396 from their own pockets on basic stuff like pens, pencils, paper, cleaning supplies, and snacks.
We need a better, fully funded public education system. But we also need to take care of educators, right now, as they head back to school. Watch the recording of Texas AFT’s Bridges Institute webinar on Grant Writing for Teachers now. And check out the rest of our upcoming for-credit professional development sessionson our website or on ourMobilize page.
This special session of the 89th Legislature opened with no movement on STAAR reform or other priority education legislation. Instead, congressional redistricting has emerged as the dominant issue, fundamentally reshaping legislative priorities. Read more about the first week of the special session, plus learn about the opportunity to make your voice heard in the redistricting battle.
When lawmakers rolled out House Bill 2 in the 89th Legislature, they promised a historic investment in public education. As the bill worked its way through the legislative process, the contents of the bill changed repeatedly, and educators across Texas were left wondering what actually ended up in the final version.
Now that HB 2 has been signed into law, and with updated guidance from the Texas Education Agency, we’ve compiled answers to some of the most common questions you’ve submitted through our “Ask Me Anything” form.
Education news from around the state and nation that’s worth your time.
📖 New AAPI textbook uncovers untaught stories. After 50 years of organizing by educators and others to lift up less-told stories and expand the groups of people we celebrate in our country’s history, educators are not ready to go backward. This summer, the UCLA Asian American Studies Center is preparing for the release of Foundations and Futures, a multimedia textbook designed to ensure that every child can learn Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander history. (AFT, July 17)
📖 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)
📖 1.7 million Texans could lose health coverage under expiring tax credits, ACA changes in GOP megabill. 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 Texas Tribune, July 18)
📖 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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