We Educate. Texas educators and support professionals make a difference everyday in the lives of our students. Texas AFT provides our members with the resources, professional development, and support to help everyone be successful. We Vote. Our efforts in the recent election flipped 12 House seats and 2 Senate seats in the Texas Legislature, making it much more “pro-public education.” We changed the agenda in Austin by changing the politicians elected to office. Texas AFT members mobilize others to vote to get results. There is more work to be done to secure a strong voice for Texas public schools. We Advocate. We organize and exercise our power through collective action by fighting for changes at the local, state, and national levels. Our members won increased...
The principal author of the House budget bill, House Appropriations Committee chair Rep. Jim Pitts of Waxahachie, took questions about it on the House floor yesterday, and it’s fair to say House members generally were none too pleased with what they heard. Three Republican lawmakers from parts of the state...
The 2012-2013 Texas House budget plan is so awful it all but beggars description. It would cut $10 billion from public education funding for school districts over the coming two fiscal years. That is the equivalent of a $1,000-per-pupil annual funding cut, on average across the state. One of the...
Last week the annual Quality Counts ratings of states' efforts in education gave Texas an F for its low level of spending on public schools. This evening the leaders of the Texas House published a proposed budget for 2012-2013 that would take the underfunding of our public schools to a...
The State Board of Education meets next week in Austin with a number of new members likely to give deliberations a somewhat more moderate cast. One of them, Thomas Ratliff of Mount Pleasant, knocked out one of the leaders of the extreme-right faction on the Board in a hard-fought Republican...
Leaders of the Texas House and Senate tell us the first draft of the state’s 2012-2013 budget will be released next Tuesday. By some accounts the proposal will cut state funding overall by as much as 25 percent, with education funding suffering a large share of the losses. The budget...
The 2011 Quality Counts survey, from the research center associated with Education Week magazine, grades states on the caliber of their commitment to educational quality. The Texas report card this year is enough to hurt a Texan’s pride. Overall, by the charitable estimate of the Education Week researchers, Texas scores...
The Texas Senate apparently will not decide until next week whether to maintain the key “two-thirds” rule that allows any 11 senators out of 31 to keep a bill from being considered. When senators eventually decide on their rules for the session, they may also be asked by Sen. Kirk...
Budget Markers. Gov. Rick Perry put his stamp on the first day of the legislative session by coming out against any use of the $9.4 billion in the state’s Rainy Day Fund to help cover part of the shortfall in...
State Comptroller Susan Combs today officially estimated the state treasury will take in $77.3 billion in general revenue over the 2012-2013 budget cycle, but she also projected that more than $4 billion of that sum will be needed to cover...
If class size in public schools isn't important, “then why does every private school in America brag on 'we have a small class size?’” That question posed by former Texas Gov. Mark White leads off one of the best articles we’ve seen lately regarding the looming attack in the state...
Next Monday, on the eve of the new state legislative session, Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts Susan Combs will unveil her official estimate of how much revenue lawmakers can count on for the upcoming 2012-2013 budget. It’s only an estimate, but it’s binding on lawmakers unless and until the comptroller...
A new coalition of Texans today urged state lawmakers to avoid brutal cuts in essential public services and come up instead with a balanced response to the state’s revenue shortfall, including full use of the Rainy Day Fund, maximum use of available federal funds, and tapping new revenue sources that...
