Topic: Government

SBOE approves ‘streamlined’ curriculum standards

Publish Date: November 17, 2018

Today, the SBOE unanimously approved “streamlined” Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS). These are the standards teachers must use for lesson planning and test preparation, and could eventually result in instructional materials changes. This streamlining effort was initiated to address the common compliant that there are too many TEKS standards and not enough time for teachers to provide the necessary...

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School Finance Commission hears state of education funding, expenditure recommendations

Publish Date: November 17, 2018

The Texas Commission on Public School Finance's Revenues Working Group met Tuesday to hear the current state of public education funding in Texas and review recommendations from the Commission's Expenditures Working Group--a group of commission members tasked with recommendations for changes on how public education money is spent. On the funding front, Education Commissioner Mike Morath outlined that education spending...

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TEA announces next round of charter “partnership” applications

Publish Date: October 29, 2018

The Texas Education Agency Friday announced the next round of applications for what it calls the “Texas Partnerships” program, but what really is in many cases an incentivized method of getting districts to turn over campuses to charter school operators. The program is a result of SB 1882, a bill passed last legislative session that allows districts to form in-district...

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State committee looks at how to pay for school safety

Publish Date: October 8, 2018

We will be monitoring tomorrow’s Texas House Committee on Appropriations meeting as lawmakers discuss how to pay for school safety proposals. Texas AFT believes creating safe communities and safe sanctuaries for our children to learn and grow requires a balanced approach, from measures to prevent gun violence to increased mental-health services and resources for schools. In addition to discussing how to pay for school...

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State board keeps CTE certification standards in place

Publish Date: October 8, 2018

Last month, the Texas State Board Of Education Subcommittee on School Initiatives unanimously rejected a rule approved by the State Board for Educator Certification that would have significantly reduced the number of pre-service training hours from 180 to 110 for those seeking to teach Career and Technical Education in the areas of Trade and Industrial Workforce, Marketing, or Health Sciences....

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School finance commission working group recommends allotments for dyslexia, early childhood ed

Publish Date: October 5, 2018

A welcomed improvement to the school finance system would be the creation of a dyslexia allotment to help districts properly serve students receiving “Section 504” service (a plan developed to ensure that a child who has a disability identified under the Rehabilitation Act receives services and accommodations needed to successfully learn). Currently, districts do not receive direct funding to support students...

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More on school finance bilingual funding recommendations

Publish Date: October 3, 2018

We’re continuing our deeper dive on the Texas Commission on Public School Finance Expenditures Working Group recommendations, which propose to increase the bilingual education weight within the school finance formulas from 0.10 to 0.15, at an annual cost to the state of $15 million to $50 million. (Weights are used to determine how much funding flows to districts for different...

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AFT president speaks out against problems with student loan forgiveness program

Publish Date: September 28, 2018

Eleven years ago, Congress created the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program to forgive the education debts of borrowers who dedicate a decade of their lives to jobs in the public sector--including teachers--and who make ongoing payments for those 10 years. Texas AFT and our national affiliate, the American Federation of Teachers, have included the program as one of the components...

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School funding highlighted in finance commission meetings, controversy over transfers to permanent school fund​

Publish Date: September 27, 2018

  The Texas School Finance Commission met Tuesday to continue its work developing recommendations for public education funding. Although a final report is due from the commission, discussion Tuesday noted that there will be several more meetings of the body and its working groups through November and December. So, it's likely that we won't see final recommendations in all areas until just...

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TRS Board declines to increase premiums, while Texas AFT retirees call for a ‘rollback’ of hikes and benefit cuts

Publish Date: September 21, 2018

Retiree Committee members from across the state hold a news conference at the Capitol Thursday. The Teacher Retirement System of Texas Benefits Committee met Thursday morning to discuss possible changes in benefits or premiums for TRS-Care Standard (retired plan members ineligible yet for Medicare). Although the committee could have approved a pre-scheduled $50-per-month premium increase, it chose to take no action, and...

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