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89th Legislature in Review: Your Right to Academic Freedom
Academic freedom: the pillar of higher education, and the target of the 89th legislative session. For the past two years, the Texas Legislature has fixated on our public colleges and universities, attempting to control every aspect of what makes our schools great: the freedom the teach and the freedom to learn. While Senate Bill (SB) 37 took center-stage in...
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,...
Read MoreUnmasking Vouchers: Abbott’s Out-of-State Fundraising Haul
The sources of a politician’s campaign donations say a lot about their priorities and the interests to which they are beholden. As we have covered previously, Texas is awash in outside money seeking to influence our politics, and Gov. Greg Abbott is a primary beneficiary. Abbott is known as one...
Read MoreFeb. 5 Voter Registration Deadline Quickly Approaching
The clock is ticking, Texas! Ensure your voice is heard by registering to vote or verifying your voter registration status before the crucial deadline on Feb. 5. The upcoming March 5 primary elections are a pivotal moment for public education, with hotly contested races across the state, and your participation...
Read MoreRoundup: Voucher Developments Across the United States
Thanks to Texas AFT member activism, taxpayer-funded private school vouchers did not pass in Texas, despite a push by Gov. Greg Abbott and monied special interest groups across five separate legislative sessions. While Texas avoided the voucher scam last year, Arizona, Georgia, Tennessee, and Indiana are in various stages of...
Read MoreTexas Book-Banning Bill Partially Blocked by Appeals Court in Unanimous Ruling
This Wednesday, the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a decision by a lower court to temporarily block the implementation of part of House Bill 900 by Rep. Jared Patterson (R-Frisco), a bill intended to ban certain materials from the shelves of public school libraries. This decision by the...
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