Aug. 23, 2024: We know who’s to blame
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Topic: Hotline
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Educators at the Democratic National Convention: Is hope making a comeback?
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Parents of Santa Fe School Shooter Found Not Negligent in Civil Trial
On Aug. 19, following a three-week civil trial, the parents of the accused shooter in the 2018 school shooting at Santa Fe High School in Santa Fe, Texas, were found not financially liable for the deaths of 10 people, including eight students and two teachers. The lawsuit alleged the parents, Antonios Pagourtzis and Rose Marie Kosmetatos, failed to provide necessary...
Read MoreElection 2024 Spotlight: Winning Back an Anti-Voucher Vote in HD 112
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ACLU Launches Student Rights Hub Amid Rising Discriminatory Policies in Texas Schools
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We May Have Setbacks in Texas, But We Can Fight Charter Schools Federally
As the State Board of Education continues to approve new charter schools and the Texas Legislature abdicates its responsibility to fully fund a free public education, national Democrats are taking action to hold charter schools accountable. Last month, Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the ranking member on the Education Appropriations Subcommittee, and Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, introduced the Championing Honest and Responsible Transparency...
Read MoreAug. 16, 2024: Welcome Back
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House Public Education Committee Hears Interim Charges
Legislative “Interim Charges”: What Are They and Why Do They Matter? The Texas Legislature meets once every two years for 140 days for its regular legislative session, during which the only bill it is required to pass and send to the governor’s desk to be signed into law is the budget for the next biennium. We became all too familiar...
Read MoreInjunction Issued to Halt Controversial A-F labels
This week, as the Texas House Committee on Public Education met to discuss private school vouchers that would syphon tax dollars from our public schools, a Travis County district court issued a temporary injunction to halt the release of the controversial A-F school ratings determined by the governor-appointed commissioner of education. Five public school districts petitioned the court to stop...
Read MoreTEA Rolls Out New School Safety System: Sentinel
On July 25, Governor Greg Abbott announced the launch of a new school safety system called Sentinel. This new platform-- designed to collect, process, store, and distribute school safety and security information-- is housed within the Texas Education Agency (TEA) and is a part of ongoing school safety and security improvement measures. We have written extensively about House Bill 3...
Read MoreThe Flaws in Texas’ English Proficiency Testing Hurt Our Students
English-learning students across Texas have faced an uphill battle with the Texas English Language Proficiency Assessment System (TELPAS). In 2018, the test was redesigned, and the shift to automated computer scoring has led to a troubling trend — drastically lower scores that don’t seem to reflect students' true abilities, according to a Texas Tribune analysis. For years, TELPAS was a...
Read MoreTexas ACLU Finds Dress Codes of 51 School Districts Violate CROWN Act
In 2023, Greg Abbott signed HB 567, also known as the Crown Act, into law to ban hair discrimination in schools and workplaces. Since then, many school districts have altered their dress codes to adjust to the new regulations put in place by the CROWN Act. However, the ACLU of Texas found that, still, many districts in Texas have not...
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