Alliance-AFT members in Dallas hear from John Turner, elected as state rep in HD 114 (North Dallas) Yesterday's Hotline outlined how public education was a winner on Election Day, with significant gains made in electing candidates to Congress and the Texas Legislature who will support our schools. Here's a bit more detail on some of the big wins for the state Legislature, and a few of the defeats. First, let's take a look at the good news in the state House. Democrat allies picked up 12 seats in the House, which means they reduced the Republican advantage in members from 95-55 to 83-67. (And we didn't lose any supportive Republican incumbents.) Since the House has been considerably more favorable toward funding public education and resisting...
Five Democratic state senators have asked Gov. Rick Perry to renew efforts to secure $830 million in aid earmarked for Texas public schools under the recent emergency education-jobs bill passed by Congress. In a letter delivered to the governor today, Sens. Leticia Van de Putte of San Antonio, Rodney Ellis...
Some noteworthy hearings in the next couple of weeks will preview issues sure to preoccupy lawmakers when the legislature meets for its next regular session in January. For example: September 14–The state’s budget for public education for 2012-2013 comes up for a public hearing next Tuesday in front of staffers...
Perry’s Ploy Triggers Rejection of State’s Education-Jobs Funding Application, For Now: Today we learned that the U.S. Department of Education has turned down Gov. Rick Perry’s September 3 application for $830 million in federal job-saving aid, because of conditions he...
We are pleased to announce that Texas AFT and a score of other organizations are launching a coalition effort to fight for a balanced approach to balancing the state budget. Everybody knows that Texas faces serious budget shortfalls, partly because...
The Texas Education Agency on September 3 sent out its annual notice to school superintendents on compliance with class-size requirements under Texas Education Code Section 25.112. That section of state law says that as a general rule "a school district may not enroll more than 22 students in a kindergarten,...
First things first: Thanks are due to all of you who joined in our Texas AFT campaign of e-mail letters and phone calls urging Gov. Rick Perry to apply for $830 million in federal aid reserved for Texas school districts in the Education Jobs Fund enacted by Congress August 10....
One day after Gov. Rick Perry issued a letter to Texas school administrators simultaneously denouncing the federal education-jobs funding bill and announcing that he would ask for the money, the Texas application for the funding was formally submitted to the U.S. Department of Education today by Texas Commissioner of Education...
School boards, school administrators, rank-and-file education employees, and educator organizations across Texas continue to call on Gov. Rick Perry to accept $830 million earmarked for Texas school districts by the recently enacted federal emergency-aid bill to save education jobs. As a September 9 deadline for requesting the funds from the...
Sen. Eddie Lucio, Democrat of Brownsville, is more than a little displeased with the Texas Education Agency, which has decided that a law Lucio wrote requiring new school buses to be equipped with seat belts cannot be implemented immediately and will not be backed by the full $10 million the...
Texas AFT Responds to Shortsighted Budget Cuts: Texas AFT President Linda Bridges put out a statement to the media today in response to the Texas Education Agency's just-released 2012-2013 budget request, which reflects instructions from Gov. Rick Perry and top legislative officials to cut 10 percent of all TEA spending...
During visits to two Dallas schools by American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten yesterday, the theme was school-community teamwork–the need to take shared responsibility for strengthening public schools and ensuring all children get a high-quality education. School, community, and business and labor leaders–including AFT President Randi Weingarten, Dallas ISD...
Today marks the retirement of Texas AFT Secretary-Treasurer John O’Sullivan, who has helped Texas AFT grow to become the largest union in the state labor federation, the Texas AFL-CIO. O’Sullivan has effectively taught and exemplified the meaning of solidarity, knitting together diverse coalitions of school employees, community and parent activists,...
