This past fall, Common Cause Texas, the state affiliate of the national democracy watchdog group, released a report highlighting the outsized influence that a small group of monied donors have on Texas politics, including public education policy. The report, “ALEC-tioneering: Unmasking Money and Influence in Texas Politics,” primarily focuses on...
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Photo by Mariana Krueger, CCR Studios. It seems like we say this every year now, but 2023 has been an interesting year for Texas public schools, as well as for everyone who works and learns in them. We say “interesting” deliberately. While it seems like there’s a flood of bad...
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Since last week, a tremendous amount has happened in the Legislature — but also very little. In the final days of the third special session, the Texas House and Senate failed to pass border security and voucher legislation. In a desperate last-minute bid to push the passage of vouchers, Gov....
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Late last Thursday, after weeks of almost no action from the House on vouchers, Rep. Brad Buckley (R-Killeen), chairman of the House Public Education Committee, quietly filed House Bill 1, a voucher bill that includes some limited public education funding increases.
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In the first week of this 3rd special session, focused largely on private school vouchers pushed by the governor and his billionaire donors, each chamber of the Texas Legislature took drastically different approaches to the governor's call. The Texas House, of which a bipartisan majority has remained adamantly opposed to...
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Last week, it was announced that right-wing millionaire mega donors Alex and Cheryl Fairly would be donating $20 million dollars to create the Hill Institute, an on-campus academy dedicated to promoting a specific set of so-called “American values.” A flier advertising the new institute stated, “The mission of The Hill...
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Friday, September 22, 2023 Texas AFT Retiree Plus members at the Texas Tribune Festival on Thursday, engaging in conversations with members of the media, Texas voters, and elected officials like Rep. Vikki Goodwin. Nothing About Us Without Us This week, we’re at the Texas Tribune Festival in downtown Austin. While...
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This past weekend, the Texas Senate voted to acquit Attorney General Ken Paxton on all 16 articles of impeachment brought against him by the Texas House. Only two of 19 Republicans in the Senate voted to impeach Paxton on any of the articles. All 12 Democrats voted to impeach Paxton...
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This Tuesday, the long-awaited trial of Attorney General Ken Paxton began in the Texas Senate. Toward the end of the regular Legislature’s session, the Republican-controlled Texas House voted to impeach Paxton, a fellow Republican, after an investigation that was spurred by the Office of the Attorney General’s request to have...
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The Texas A&M University System has been accused of making politically motivated attacks on the employment of two highly respected university professors. These two separate cases of apparent political interference in the administration of one of Texas’ top public university systems comes in the wake of broad attacks against academic...
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It isn't enough for our public schools to survive. Our students in Killeen — and across Texas — deserve schools that help them thrive. It's Your Time to Thrive Our fight to thrive is about creating respectful working conditions with more planning time, fewer added duties and extra paperwork, resources...
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Friday, July 28, 2023 Education Austin, Houston Federation of Teachers Presidents Represent Texas at Nation’s Capitol Last week, two Texas AFT local union presidents traveled to Washington D.C. to represent Texas educators on the national stage. Jackie Anderson, president of the Houston Federation of Teachers, journeyed to D.C. to participate...
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