Topic: Policy

Senate committees set, and a bill takes aim at the STAAR test

Publish Date: January 18, 2019

The Legislature is still getting organized this month, and one of the key pieces of the puzzle for how bills become laws is committee assignments. While House assignments are still pending, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick today named committee members and chairs on the Senate side. Of note are the Senate Education Committee, where Sen. Larry Taylor (R-Friendswood) retained his chair,...

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Texas House releases initial look at budget with billions of new money for public education

Publish Date: January 15, 2019

Both chambers of the Texas Legislature signaled this week their serious intent to increase state funding for public education. This auspicious, yet preliminary, start reflects the public’s strong statement at the ballot box that Texas must do more to fund our public schools. In today’s Hotline, we’ll focus on the House proposal, with information about Senate in tomorrow’s edition. A...

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School Finance Commission report finalized

Publish Date: January 3, 2019

The Texas Commission on Public School Finance submitted its final report to the Legislature on New Year's Eve, meeting its deadline for recommendations for fixes to public education funding after nearly a year of meetings and hearings. The result is recommendations for detailed tweaks mixed with stressed policy goals focusing on "student outcomes" and a proposal that aims to increase...

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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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Virtual schools face investigation after reports on poor performance, companies profiting

Publish Date: October 24, 2018

Two U.S. Senators, Democratic Sens. Patty Murray (Washington) and Sherrod Brown (Ohio), have recently called on the Government Accountability Office to launch an investigation into the practices and policies of virtual charter schools. The request came on the same day the Center for American Progress released Profit Before Kids: An Analysis of the Performance and Financial Practices of For-Profit, Virtual Charter Schools,...

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