Education
The Long, Winding Road that Led to the SBOE’s Decision for Texas Schools to Teach Abstinence-Plus Sex Education
For the first time in 23 years, the State Board of Education has updated the state’s health and sex education standards for middle schoolers. The board voted to expand what students learn about safe sex, but LGBTQ2+ issues and consent are still nowhere to be found.
Ann Thanh Phan says she’s tired of educating herself. She’s tired of having to dig up crucial information she didn’t know she needed. And she’s tire...Read More
Efforts to Save What’s Left of Mary Allen Seminary Reveal The Challenges of Preserving Black Placemaking in Texas
The Mary Allen Museum of African American History continues to race the clock to preserve what’s left of Texas’ first African American school for Black girls and women.
Opened in 1886, the Mary Allen Seminary in Crockett once taught Black Texans etiquette, discipline, home economics, and agriculture. Now, it’s barely standing...Read More
Texas Has the Widest Digital Divide in the Nation. What Does that Mean for the School Year?
As schools reopen, some families face potentially life-threatening options.
Before COVID-19, Jeanette Mathews was a single mother who relied on her son’s school schedule to help balance two jobs. In the mornings, the Mississippi trans...Read More
The New Ensemble
Texas’ best high school mariachi bands take the stage.
The New Ensemble Mariachi music is on the rise in Texas high schools. The state festival in Edinburg draws the best of the best. By Robyn Ross June 10, 2020 For...Read More
Raise a Glass to the Class of COVID-19
Maybe they will help build a post-pandemic world (or so I hope).
My senior year of high school was all about parties, prom, one last wild class camping trip, and midnight diner runs with friends before we all sped away to our...Read More
Tough Decisions Ahead for School Leaders in Rural Texas
With no edict from Governor Abbott, rural school officials must weigh the health of their students against the health of their communities.
Update: Governor Greg Abbott announced Thursday, March 19, that all Texas schools will be closed until April 3. If he’d arrived four hours sooner, he’d ha...Read More
‘Almost Akin to a Political Coup’: Houston Teachers Fight Back Against State Takeover of HISD
In a last-ditch effort to stop a state takeover of Texas’ largest school district, the Houston teachers union is suing the state for disenfranchising voters of color.
The fight over the future of Houston’s public school system escalated this week when the local teachers union joined a federal voting rights lawsuit against t...Read More
The Creature of Martin Creek Lake Won’t Die
The Martin Lake coal plant in East Texas is the biggest sulfur dioxide polluter in the nation. And unlike other regional super-polluters, this one is still chugging along.
From above, the Creature takes the shape of a spider: Its eyes are smokestacks, its legs spindly railways stretching from the semicircle of clearcut pines into ...Read More
The Cost of Carve-Outs
Lawmakers passed an omnibus school finance and property tax reform bill this session, but didn’t include a way to pay for it past 2021. One place to look: corporate tax breaks.
Just before Memorial Day weekend, lawmakers inked an $11.6 billion school finance and property tax reform package. The passage of House Bill 3, which includes a...Read More
Texas Legislature Improves Suicide Prevention in Schools, but Makes Little Progress for Adults
Suicide is quiet crisis in Texas, especially in rural communities. As the dust settles on the 86th Legislature, advocates say most initiatives to curb suicide deaths failed.
This year, the Texas Legislature had a chance to address suicide, an urgent public health problem that claimed the lives of 3,800 Texans in 2017. The crisis is ...Read More