Every week, Texas AFT compiles important news, updates, and information on public education policy in Texas. The Hotline covers a wide range of topics, including statewide education news, updates from the legislative session, and our current union campaigns.
Friday, December 5, 2025 A Great IDEA turns 50 IDEA, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, celebrated its 50th anniversary this November. The act, signed into law by President Gerald Ford as the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (renamed in 1990), transformed the educational experiences of millions of children with disabilities in this country, and it remains an indispensable part of equity and justice in our schools. Historically, children with...
Read More
Friday, November 21, 2025 The Strange Place We Find Ourselves There is perhaps nothing more emblematic of the hot-and-cold nature of the politics of Texas public education than this week’s contrasting updates on Senate Bill 10 (the Ten Commandments bill). On Tuesday, a federal judge ruled that SB 10...
Read MoreFriday, November 14, 2025 See you at TribFest For the third year, Texas AFT is a proud sponsor of The Texas Tribune Festival, the breakout ideas and politics event that has brought 300+ local, state, and national leaders and change-makers to downtown Austin this weekend. Among the 100+...
Read More
Friday, November 7, 2025 We Take Care of Us Across Texas and the rest of the nation, federal workers are missing paychecks, and millions are waiting to see if they’ll receive any SNAP benefits at all amid the government shutdown. The fate of those benefits remains up in the...
Read MoreFriday, October 31, 2025 (Happy Halloween!) Beyond the Shutdown As we brace for the deliberate lapse in SNAP benefits for millions of Americans, and as Head Start programs prepare to close from shutdown defunding, it’s important to remember what led us here: a proposed budget that would devastate the health and well-being of working Americans and vulnerable...
Read More
Friday, October 24, 2025 Members, have you shared your thoughts yet? As many of you know, the state of Texas doesn’t gather enough data on our schools, and especially not on the working lives of educators. Each year, Texas AFT takes on this task because we know how vital...
Read More
Friday, October 17, 2025 No Kings Tomorrow, millions of Americans will show up for rallies and events in more than 2,000 cities and towns for the second No Kings Day of Action. There are events planned across Texas, in communities large and small, all with the goal of peacefully...
Read More
Friday, October 10, 2025 Read the full story from ProPublica ‘Empty School Buildings’ If you’re a regular reader of this newsletter – even if you’re not a member of our union – there is one thing we know about you: you care about Texas public schools. (If you don’t,...
Read More
Friday, October 3, 2025 What the shutdown means for Texas The federal government has shut down, and that is bad news for Texas. As the Texas AFL-CIO notes, our state is home to the third-most federal workers in the country and the highest number of American Federation of Government Employees...
Read More
Friday, September 26, 2025 Hands Off! Texas politicians can’t help themselves but meddle in our public school classrooms (and our college and university classrooms too). The past two weeks of needless hysteria — firing professors for doing their job or launching a witch hunt for teachers and faculty who...
Read More
Friday, September 19, 2025 Freedom of Speech The headlines this week have been jaw-dropping. Educators in K-12 and higher education were subjected to baseless online smear campaigns, one university president resigned, and the Texas Education Agency (TEA) now keeps a list of educators reported for their social media posts. Within...
Read More
Friday, September 12, 2025 Nickels and dimes Every back-to-school season, public school teachers and staff across the country spend hundreds of dollars out-of-pocket on food and classroom supplies for their students. This year is no exception — and the burden has been made more acute by recent federal cuts. ...
Read More
Friday, September 5, 2025 The No STAAR State On Wednesday, the Texas Legislature closed out its second special session by passing a bill that will replace STAAR with a through-year testing regimen that will mean more but (allegedly) shorter tests for students. Lawmakers have begun their celebratory pronouncements. Rep. Brad...
Read More