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Unpacking the 89th Legislature: Your Right to a Secure Retirement
Texas AFT members at our 2025 Public Education Advocacy Day at the Capitol. One Socorro AFT member holds a sign with one of the 10 essential rights in our Educator’s Bill of Rights: the right to secure retirement. Texas educators deserve better than broken promises and one-time checks. Despite a historic push for pension reform this legislative session, the 89th...
Read MoreMay 24, 2024: Never Back, Always Forward
Friday, May 24, 2024 Houston Federation of Teachers President Jackie Anderson, AFT Executive Vice President Evelyn DeJesus, and Texas AFT President Zeph Capo at a fundraiser for the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA) at HFT’s office on Wednesday. Never Back, Always Forward It was a remarkable week for...
Read MoreFact Check: Is everyone except Gov. Abbott to blame for public schools’ budget crises?
As the 2023-2024 academic year comes to a close, Texas public schools find themselves struggling with severe budget deficits that are jeopardizing their ability to deliver high-quality education to the state's 5.5 million public school students. In recent remarks quoted on Twitter/X, Gov. Greg Abbott sought to distance himself from...
Read MoreFortified Campuses, Fearful Classrooms: Texas Schools 2 Years After Uvalde
Two years have passed since the horrific shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, where 19 children and two teachers were tragically killed by a lone 18-year-old gunman armed with an AR-15 as hundreds of law enforcement officers waited nearby. As we mark this somber anniversary, it is disheartening that...
Read MoreEmpowering Educators: Spring AFT, Brownsville Educators Stand Together Officially Charter as Texas AFT Local Unions
Educators in Spring ISD and Brownsville ISD are celebrating a significant milestone, as Texas AFT organizing committees in each district officially voted to charter as full local unions. In the past week, both Spring AFT and Brownsville Educators Stand Together...
Read MoreTexas Ranks First in Nation for Food Insecurity
In a new report from the “Map the Meal” study from Feeding America, Texas has ranked No. 1 in the country for food insecurity. Furthermore, “the counties with the highest rates of food insecurity are disproportionately rural. Sometimes a free lunch at school may be the only meal a child...
Read MoreMay 17, 2024: Vote to Thrive
Friday, May 17, 2024 Vote to Thrive It has been a wild week in Texas education news, and we have lots of vital updates in this week’s Hotline. But before we dive in, a reminder: Early voting in primary election runoffs starts this coming Monday, May 20, and runs through...
Read MoreHouse Interim Charges Finally Released as School Funding Crisis Looms, Gaining Lawmakers’ Attention
As students, educators, and school employees across Texas wrap up the 2023-2024 school year, a high-stakes debate is brewing over the pressing challenges facing our public education system and the implications for our schools in the upcoming school year. On...
Read MoreTexas AFT Releases Vision for Thriving Public Schools in New White Paper
Imagine a Texas where every child, from the Panhandle to the Rio Grande Valley, had access to a fully funded, high-quality public education. A state where educators are respected and compensated fairly for their vital work, students' diverse needs are met, and schools serve as community hubs that support the...
Read MoreSpectrum News Exposes Texas Public School Dollars Being Sent to Mike Miles’ Former Colorado Charter Schools
On Wednesday, the Houston Federation of Teachers filed a lawsuit against state-installed Houston Independent School District Superintendent Mike Miles and the appointed board of managers for illegally developing and implementing a new teacher evaluation system, which determines teachers’ employment situation...
Read MoreSenate Higher Ed Subcommittee Convenes to Study DEI, Free Speech, & Antisemitism
Left: Texas AAUP-AFT President Brian Evans speaks to media Tuesday with allied groups and elected officials, including state Rep. Ron Reynolds (D-Houston) and state Sen. Jose Menendez (D-San Antonio). Right: Educators, students, and community allies march from the UT Austin campus to the Texas Capitol. This Tuesday, the Senate...
Read MoreCypress-Fairbanks ISD Board Votes to Censor Science Textbooks
It seems germane to preface the following bizarre installment in textbook censorship that Cy-Fair ISD is facing a $138 million budget shortfall for the 2024-2025 academic year. What should have been an innocuous item on textbook adoption after several hard budget decisions took an unexpected turn when a single board...
Read MoreFederal Probe Targets Katy ISD’s Gender Policy for Potential Discrimination
Photo Credit: Brett Coomer, Houston Chronicle The U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has launched an investigation into Katy Independent School District (Katy ISD) to determine if its recently enacted gender identity policy discriminates against students. This investigation follows reports that Katy ISD disclosed the gender identities...
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