Reporting on Texas schools, universities, and education policy -- funding fights, school choice, and university governance.
Three Texas House members prefiled bills Nov. 9 that would set aside part of the state's surplus revenue every two years to cut school district property taxes, and would bar districts from ever again levying their main operating tax once the state had bought it down to zero.
Crystal City Independent School District failed the Texas Education Agency's (TEA) financial accountability rating for the second year in a row, and its score fell from 68 to 48, according to TEA's final 2025-26 ratings records.
Houston Independent School District Superintendent Mike Miles told the Senate Education Committee on Oct. 6 that his three years running the state's largest district amount to "certainly largest turnaround in the history of Texas." Sen. José Menendez, D-San Antonio, pressed him on special education compliance and on the roughly 21,000 students who have left the district.
Texas students lose ground when their districts move to four-day school weeks, Education Commissioner Mike Morath told the Senate Education Committee on Oct. 6.
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality has opened its 2026 Take Care of Texas Art Contest and, for the first time, is accepting entries from students in kindergarten through 12th grade, according to an Oct. 5 agency news release.
Texas Comptroller Don Huffines has selected four school districts for a detailed review of how they spend taxpayer funds, the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts announced in an Oct. 5 news release.
Five Texas community colleges have earned U.S. Department of Education approval to offer Workforce Pell student aid for short-term programs, and a consortium led by the Alamo Colleges District has received a $10.4 million U.S. Department of Labor grant, Governor Greg Abbott announced Oct. 2 in a news release posted by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.
The Texas Education Agency says the 619 school districts that used its state-written Bluebonnet Learning lessons last school year posted bigger gains in reading and math than districts that did not.
The nine trustees who govern the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired meet Oct. 2 to adopt a policy barring diversity, equity and inclusion activities at the Austin campus and to certify to the state that the school follows the 2025 law behind it.
Parents at two Austin middle schools have until Oct. 15 to use the only formal say Texas law gives families when a school fails five years in a row, and as of Sept. 28 neither school community had formally begun collecting signatures, Austin Current reported.
The Texas Senate Committee on Education will gavel in at 8 a.m. Oct. 7 in Room E1.028 of the Capitol Extension to take invited and public testimony on three interim charges from Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick: the rollout of school choice, how public schools handle ties to hostile foreign actors, and implementation of four 2025 laws, according to the official hearing notice.
The Texas Senate Committee on Education will gavel in at 8 a.m. Oct. 6 in Room E1.028 of the Capitol Extension to take invited and public testimony on four interim charges from Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick: school calendars and instructional time, shrinking enrollment, the supply of school-turnaround talent and implementation of 2025 education laws, including teacher pay, according to the official hearing notice.
Texas divided $600,000 among 37 local providers Sept. 28 to pay for adults to take the high school equivalency exam — enough to carry roughly 3,550 people through the complete four-part GED.
The nine people who set policy for Texas's public colleges spend Sept. 29 in Waco at a retreat where they are barred from deciding anything — and one of the items on the agenda is a Sunset review that will not reach lawmakers until 2029.