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This Week in the Legislature: Is This ‘Teacher Appreciation?’
On Saturday, surrounded by many of the Republican lawmakers he threatened along the way, Gov. Greg Abbott signed into law his long-sought private school voucher program.
Read MoreRecap: 2024 Texas AFL-CIO COPE Convention
Texas AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Leonard Aguilar and Texas AFT President Zeph Capo on stage at the convention. Courtesy of Texas AFL-CIO. This past Sunday and Monday, hundreds of delegates representing local unions affiliated with the AFL-CIO from across Texas convened in Austin for the 2024 Texas AFL-CIO COPE Convention. COPE, the...
Read MoreTexas AFT Political Committee Announces 1st Round of Primary Election Endorsements
Texas AFT's Committee on Political Education (COPE), our union’s political arm, is proud to announce its first round of endorsements ahead of the March 5 primary. Our union’s political advocacy is funded solely by voluntary donations from our members across Texas and purchases from our online store. Your children’s teachers,...
Read MoreTexas AFT Joins Coalition Partners with Guidance for Districts on HB 900, Book Bans
This week, Texas AFT joined the Children’s Defense Fund-Texas and other public education and civil rights groups in sending an advisory letter to all Texas public school superintendents regarding book-banning bill HB 900. In the letter, our coalition provides updates and legal guidance on how to best comply with the...
Read MoreRepublican Representative Calls out ‘Dangerous Bureaucracy’ at Texas Education Agency
Texas state Rep. Glenn Rogers stirred up controversy this week when he announced his intention to file legislation for the 2025 legislative session that would eliminate the Texas Education Agency (TEA). His argument took aim at TEA, suggesting that the agency had become a breeding ground for wasteful spending and...
Read MoreWest Texas A&M Institute Intended to Promote ‘Thought about Traditional Conservative Value(s),’ Reporting Reveals
This past week, reporting from the Texas Tribune revealed more details of the undue right-wing influence of wealthy donors over a new program at West Texas A&M University. As previously reported in the Hotline, the Hill Institute, funded by a...
Read MoreJan. 26, 2024: This is Just the Beginning
Friday, Jan. 26, 2024 Your Union, Your Voice After a turbulent and shamefully unproductive legislative session(s) in 2023, Texas politicians are gearing up for this year's general election, and public education will be a top issue. Your voice helps your union bring facts about the state of public education to...
Read MoreSBOE Preview: New Year, New Chair
Readers of the Hotline will remember that in December, the governor appointed Aaron Kinsey, who represents District 15, as the new State Board of Education (SBOE) chair, replacing Dr. Keven Ellis, who has served as chair since 2019. Next week’s regular meeting of the board will be Kinsey’s first in...
Read MoreNew National Report Reveals Inadequacy of Texas School Funding
Earlier this month, researchers with the Albert Shanker Institute, the University of Miami, and Rutgers University released a report that evaluated school funding levels across all 50 states and Washington, D.C., and found, yet again, that Texas schools are direly underfunded. The Adequacy and Fairness of State School Finance Systems,...
Read MoreJustice Department Report on Uvalde Massacre Lambasts Law Enforcement Response
A new report released by the Department of Justice charges law enforcement agencies with “cascading failures of leadership, decision-making, tactics, policy and training” in their response to the 2022 shooting at Robb Elementary in Uvalde ISD. The long-awaited Critical Incident Review states that law enforcement “demonstrated no urgency” in their...
Read More$300M Special Ed Funding Cut: Texas Loses Final Appeal of Federal Audit
In December, shortly before most school districts closed for winter break, the Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) that Texas school districts are expected to face a cut of $300 million in special education funding under a recent federal administrative decision. This cut in special education funding is the culmination of...
Read MoreNew Report Finds Texas One of Worst Funded States for Public Education
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Jan. 24, 2024 CONTACT: Nicole Hill, press@texasaft.org Governor Abbott is pushing further defunding of public schools with money from the richest man in Pennsylvania while Texas public schools rank 41st in the nation for fiscal health. AUSTIN, Texas – In a new report, researchers at the Albert Shanker...
Read MoreJan. 19, 2024: The Budget Surplus Remains
Friday, Jan. 19, 2024 Back to Basics Texas has the ninth-largest economy in the world and a $32.7 billion budget surplus, but our schools are starved for resources. How did this happen? What can we do to fix it? Can it be fixed? Educating Texas: The Levers of Power Tuesday,...
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