Featured News
Austin ISD Enrollment Declines: What’s Really Driving the Drop and Why Public Education Must Be the Priority
Over the past several years, AISD has lost thousands of students, translating into tens of millions of dollars in lost state funding tied to per-pupil attendance formulas.
Read MorePrimary Election Recap: Voucher Money Won Some Races. Vouchers Themselves Did Not.
After facing decades of fierce bipartisan resistance to the idea of using taxpayer dollars to pay for private school tuition, school voucher supporters “in Texas” — more on that in a moment — emerged from the March 5 primary election claiming victory. But should they? Let’s dig deeper into the...
Read MoreComputers Scoring STAAR Essays: Is Texas Sacrificing Quality for Efficiency?
Texas has quietly implemented a major change to the scoring of the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) exams, a move that signals a concerning shift towards machine-driven evaluation and the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in education.
Read MoreCommunity Outrage Sparks Reversal of Keller ISD’s Cancellation of The Laramie Project
After weeks of student, parent, and community pushback, Timber Creek High School’s student performance of The Laramie Project will go on in Keller ISD. The decision, announced via email on Wednesday, was a swift reversal of the district’s decision in February to cancel the production, which garnered national media attention...
Read MoreTexas AFT Joins Poor People’s Campaign Rally to End ‘Death by Poverty’
This past Saturday, hundreds of Texans attended a rally and march hosted by the Texas Poor People’s Campaign at the state Capitol. The rally was held with rallies at 32 other state capitols and the nation's capital in Washington, D.C.
Read MoreFinally. After 9 Years of Scandals, TEA Commissioner Appoints 2 Conservators to Supervise IDEA Charter Schools.
It has taken years of documented financial scandals by IDEA charter schools to finally force the Texas Education Agency to act by appointing two conservators to supervise operations. The public allegations of improper spending and conflicts of interest at IDEA...
Read MoreTexas Schools Say “No” to Chaplain Counselors
Despite the passage of Senate Bill 763, which allows hiring religious chaplains as counselors, Texas school districts have overwhelmingly rejected implementing a new chaplain program. Texas public schools faced a March 1 deadline to decide whether to implement the controversial bill locally.
Read MoreAnti-Immigrant Texas Law SB 4 Heads to SCOTUS
The Supreme Court has signaled its intent to weigh in on the contentious legal battle between Texas and the Biden Administration over Senate Bill 4, a controversial new law that vastly expands state authority over immigration enforcement. SB 4 is “one of the most extreme anti-immigrant laws ever passed by...
Read MoreVoucher money won primary races. Voucher messaging didn’t.
Gov. Greg Abbott’s “voucher revenge” primary election managed to unseat a handful of Republicans who defied him. But what do the results actually tell us?
Read MoreMarch 1, 2024: Vote Vote Vote
Friday, March 1, 2024 Fund our fight for a thriving public education system at the ballot box this year. Shop new voting merch at store.texasaft.org. Every purchase is a donation to our Texas AFT COPE political fund. Educators don’t vote? Prove them wrong Tuesday. With Election Day coming this Tuesday,...
Read MoreTexas AFT releases dossiers exposing the billionaires bankrolling school privatization
Ahead of Election Day in the 2024 Republican primaries, where vouchers and public school privatization have been front and center, Texas AFT has released dossiers profiling the pro-voucher billionaires funneling obscene amounts of money into Texas elections.
Read MoreTexas AFT Membership Survey Results a “Disaster Declaration” for Public Education
As Texans vote in party primaries where public education and private school vouchers are front and center, Texas AFT has now released the results of our latest annual membership survey. The results — what you, our members, told us — are making headlines across the state.
Read MoreTexas Earns a ‘D’ Grade in New Public Schools Report, Barely Escaping Failure
This week, the Network for Public Education, a nonprofit dedicated to strengthening public schools across the country, published a report grading each state’s commitment to public education. This report, Public Schooling in America: Measuring Each State’s Commitment to Democratically Governed Schools, is the latest in a series assessing each state’s...
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