Most Recent in Politics:

1As Pete Sessions Tries to Revive his Political Career, He May Get Sucked into Ukraine

2Mac Thornberry’s Retirement Leaves the Defense Industry With One Less Close Friend

3Who Is John Cornyn Serving?

4Why a Texas Gun Control Activist is Optimistic About the Chances for Reform

5The Roots of Narendra Modi’s Divisiveness Are at Odds With the Idea of a Diverse Houston

6Trump’s USDA Lets Animal Abusers Off the Hook

Most Recent in Environment:

1Beautiful Ruins: ‘Anthropocene’ Is a Sobering Ecological Prophecy

2Tropical Storm Imelda Will Likely Be Southeast Texas’ Fifth 500-Year Flood in Five Years

3The Green New Deal Can Exist in Texas

4How BP Oil Spill Fines Could Help Protect the Texas Coast

5Climate Change Will Make Harmful Algae Blooms in Texas Waterways More Common

6The Large Ask

Most Recent in Border:

1Attacked in Mexico, Returned to Mexico: Trump Policy Ignores Danger to Asylum-Seekers

2Immigration Judge Slams ‘Remain in Mexico’ Tent Courts

3A Joyful El Paso Art Exhibit Imagines a World Ruled by Latinx People

4Migrants at Laredo Tent Court Tell Stories of Kidnappings and Violence While Pleading Not to Be Returned to Mexico

5The Trump Administration Blows Its Border Wall Budget in South Texas

6Journalists Blocked from Attending Secretive Immigration Tent Courts

Most Recent in Criminal Justice:

1Dallas Is What Happens When People Can’t Trust Police

2Death in Solitary

3The Private Prison Industry (Finally) Faces an Uncertain Future

4Video: ‘Traumatic, Unnecessary’ Arrest of Austin Woman Shows How Cops Can Worsen Mental Health Crises

5‘A Watershed Moment’ for Bail Reform in Harris County

6Ken Paxton Wants ‘Ultimate Home Field Advantage’ in Felony Case

Most Recent in Education:

1The Creature of Martin Creek Lake Won’t Die

2The Cost of Carve-Outs

3Texas Legislature Improves Suicide Prevention in Schools, but Makes Little Progress for Adults

4Texas House Considers Free College For Students Experiencing Homelessness

5‘The Wolf is in the Henhouse’

6‘We’re Not Stupid’: Texas Teachers Take on Dan Patrick and the Legislature over Dismal Education Funding

Most Recent in Health Care:

1The Supreme Court Taking Up Louisiana’s Abortion Case ‘Flies in the Face of Precedent’

2Some Small Texas Towns Are Declaring Themselves ‘Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn’

3American Health Care is Broken, Especially in Texas. What Can We Do About It?

4Thousands of Rape Kits in Texas Went Untested For Years. Lavinia Masters Is Ending That.

5‘My Congregation Trusts Women’: Progressive Faith Groups Counter Anti-Abortion Narratives

6A Texas Anti-Abortion Group Dramatically Missed its Family Planning Targets. Now its Founder is Suing the Federal Government for More Money.

Most Recent in The Interview:

1If a Glacier Melts in the Arctic, the Texas Coast Feels It

2Without Transmission Lines, Renewable Energy Still has a Long Way to Go — Literally

3The Dissenter

4The Interview: Mass Resistance

5Meet Jim Allison, Texas’ Newest Nobel Laureate (and Three-Time Cancer Survivor)

6Dolores Huerta is Still Knocking on Doors and Registering Voters at 88

Most Recent in Books:

1Short Story Contest Finalist: ‘The Prize’

2‘How the Gringos Stole Tequila’ Tells the Complex Story of Mexico’s Favorite Spirit

3What Does Our Fascination with True Crime Say About Us?

4Short Story Finalist: ‘The After Party’

5‘Big Wonderful Thing’ Valianty Fits Much of Texas History Into a Single Book

6In This Twisted Coming-of-Age Tale, the Monsters in the Closet Are Real

Most Recent in Features:

1Little Arthouse on the Prairie

2The Clothes that Make the Man

3Washington Crossing the Rio Grande

4Ghosts of the Baker Hotel

5At Home in the World

6Plight at the Museum

Most Recent in Essay:

1To Understand the El Paso Massacre, Look to the Long Legacy of Anti-Mexican Violence at the Border

2Lost in Limbo in the Hays County Jail

3The Trouble with Yoga

4Heads in the Mud

5The Day the Windows Shook

6Women’s Work

Most Recent in Eye on Texas:

1Eye on Texas: Spike Johnston

2Eye on Texas: Loren Elliott

3Eye on Texas: Charlotte Moore

4Eye on Texas: ‘My Joyful Dance’

5Eye on Texas: Ghosts of the City

6Eye on Texas: Fiesta Protesta

Most Recent in Poetry:

1Remembering W.S. Merwin, Honorary Texan

2Lost in Limbo in the Hays County Jail

3Houston Poet Analicia Sotelo’s Debut Smashes Latino Stereotypes

4Parallel Planes

5Options

6Poem: ‘Resistance’

State of Texas: How Truancy Is Turning Kids into Criminals

Source: Texas Appleseed — Source: Texas Appleseed Illustration by Joanna Wojtkowiak

Forrest Wilder Apr 24, 2015, 3:14 pm CST

Instead of addressing the underlying causes of kids missing school, Texas—almost alone among the states—is treating truancy as a criminal matter. But a growing body of research shows that using adult criminal courts to punish students and their parents is not just overly punitive and inequitable, but also ineffective.

Do you think free access to journalism like this is important?

The Texas Observer depends on support from its members to keep telling stories like the one you are reading now. This fall we're looking for 200 more sustaining members—people like you who can give us as little as $0.99 per month. Your membership means we can continue shedding light on issues that might otherwise go unreported. Can we count on you?

Forrest Wilder, a native of Wimberley, Texas, is the editor of the Observer.

You May Also Like:

Dallas Is What Happens When People Can’t Trust Police
Botham Jean’s death led to greater community oversight of the Dallas Police Department. Amber Guyger’s murder trial last month shows why that’s necessary. by Michael Barajas
Short Story Contest Finalist: ‘The Prize’
In this dreamlike tale, a struggling poet sabotages the contest he’s judging. by Adam Soto
Death in Solitary
Russell Johnson’s sister warned officials that nearly three years in solitary confinement had broken him. His suicide in isolation two months later points to compounded crises inside Texas prisons. by Michael Barajas

Top