School Vouchers Take Center Stage in Texas’ Most Flippable State House District
On San Antonio’s South Side, a progressive Democrat faces off with an architect of the new private school voucher program.
Texas Legislature
Texas Foresees Strong Revenue, Full Rainy Day Fund. Who Will Benefit?
In his biennial budget projection, Comptroller Glenn Hegar says the state will have a healthy surplus, plus a full economic stabilization fund for the first time in history.
This Aspiring Social Worker Should Not Be Blacklisted
Imposing permanent punishments for old mistakes backfires by reducing the talent pool to address Texas’ social worker shortage.
Texas House Dems Trip Over Their Own Low Bar
On Tuesday, the most modest of boasts became famous last words for the lower chamber’s dwindling Ds.
‘This Weird, Messy State We All Love in Spite of Ourselves’
Abby Rapoport continued a family tradition of making the Texas Observer possible—by filling just about every role the organization has.
Bipartisan Legislators Join Calls for Clemency for Robert Roberson
The condemned Texas man was convicted of killing his daughter in 2003 based on an outdated ‘shaken baby syndrome’ diagnostic process.
The Company You Keep
Ken and Angela Paxton have ties to a jet-setting lobbyist-turned-CEO caught in a tangled web of alleged fraud involving a powerful business clan and a commercial shipping giant.
Texas’ Plantation Prisons: Inside a 200-Year History of Forced Labor Shrouded in Secrecy
Punishments, injuries, and deaths—including from heat—on TDCJ farms are more hidden than they were in the years following convict leasing.
Ex-Legislator Faces Investigation for Possible Violation of Lobbying Law He Co-Sponsored
Chris Paddie is fighting back in court against a state ethics commission probe into his allegedly illegal lobbying.
Two Years Later, I’ll Never Stop Fighting for Lexi
A mother who lost her daughter, and a photographer who embedded in the southwest Texas town, reflect on the Uvalde tragedy.