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Texas Parent PAC poll shows Gov. Greg Abbott on the wrong side of Texas parents, voters, and teachers
Austin, TX – Today, Texas Parent PAC released a public education poll by Change Research of Likely Texas Voters showing how Governor Greg Abbott is on the wrong side of Texas parents, teachers, and voters. The Texas Parent PAC poll found that 53% of Texas likely voters are against taxpayer-funded private school vouchers when hearing vouchers mean less money for...
Read MoreThe Governor, Not the State Constitution, Stands in the Way of Federal Education Aid
Gov. Rick Perry is still claiming the federal education-jobs law sets conditions that make it impossible for Texas to receive $830 million earmarked for the state’s school districts. He says the state constitution bars him from making federally required assurances of ongoing state education spending. Perry and his appointee as...
Read MoreTexas AFT Testifies Against Education Cuts in State Budget Plan
Traditionally ahead of the biennial legislative session the staffs of the Legislative Budget Board and the governor’s budget office get together to review spending requests from state agencies. This year agencies have been directed by the governor and legislative leaders to chop 10 percent from their already lean baseline budget...
Read MorePresidential Back-to-School Address Sounds Traditional Themes
President Barack Obama’s annual back-to-school speech, delivered in Philadelphia and made available for showing in schools nationwide, must have disappointed anyone who expected a partisan approach. The president exhorted students to "dream big," "work hard," and "stay focused on your education." Do those things, he said, and "your future is...
Read MoreState Senators Urge Governor to Ask Anew for Federal Aid, Sooner Rather Than Later
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...
Read MoreBudget, School Finance, Accountability Issues of 2011 Session Foreshadowed in Upcoming Hearings
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...
Read MoreGovernor’s Ploy Triggers Rejection of State Application for Education-Jobs Funding–Not the Last Word
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...
Read MoreTexas AFT Joins in Coalition Effort for a Balanced Approach to Balancing the State Budget–Check Out the “Texas Forward” Web Site
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...
Read MoreCompliance With Class-Size Requirements
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,...
Read MoreTapping Into the Texas Share of the Federal Education Jobs Fund
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....
Read MoreGov. Perry, Feeling the Heat, Applies for State Education-Jobs Funding
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...
Read MoreDeadline Nears for Governor to Accept Federal Education-Jobs Aid: Do It Already!
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...
Read MoreState Senator Blasts TEA for Hitting the Brakes on Seat-Belt-Equipped School Buses
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...
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