We took young Texans’ questions straight to the candidates. Here’s what they said.
Find out where Texas midterm candidates stand on student debt, DACA, school gun violence and more. Full Story
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![Austin, Texas March 6, 2018: UT student Kathleen Douiken urges people to vote on the West Mall of the UT campus during lunchtime as students line up at the Flawn Academic Center to vote on Primary Day, 2018.]()
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Federal officials tell Texas to go beyond plan for special education overhaul
In a letter Friday, federal officials said Texas should do more to monitor school districts' compliance with special education law and ensure parents have necessary information in their native languages. Full Story
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![Jean Gearhart gives a tearful statement with her husband Troy Gearhart to the panel about her special needs child. U.S. Department of Education officials held a meeting in Edinburg on their tour of Texas to hear community members' experiences with special education.]()
Credit: Eddie Seal for The Texas Tribune -
Watch our symposium on rural Texas, and include your community in the conversation
We're livestreaming our two-day event in College Station, diving into the most pressing issues facing rural communities across Texas. Tune in and include your community in the conversation. Full Story
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Texas and the feds square off over $33 million in special education funds
The legal battle played out at a federal appeals court Wednesday, with the two sides debating whether Texas' decreased spending on kids with disabilities years ago violated federal law. Full Story
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![Solicitor General Kyle Hawkins leaves the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans on Wednesday, Oct. 3, 2018.]()
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Texas wants schools to pay for ACT and SAT exams. Local districts say that’s unreasonable.
School districts say the state — not local districts — should pick up the estimated $5.45 million annual tab for the tests. Full Story
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Texas spent less on students with disabilities. But did it break the law?
Texas will argue Wednesday at a federal appeals court that its decision to decrease special education funding several years ago did not violate federal law. Full Story
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![Vanessa Tijerina addresses the panel about her 13-year-old special needs child who has been denied special education for four years on December 13, 2016. U.S. Department of Education officials held a meeting in Edinburg on their tour of Texas to hear community members' experiences with special education, continuing an investigation of whether Texas is capping services for students with disabilities.]()
Credit: Eddie Seal for The Texas Tribune -
Mayor Bill de Blasio says his "progressive vision" for New York City can be copied across the country
De Blasio, a two-term Democrat, answered questions about the subway, progressivism at the local and national levels and politics in an increasingly left-wing New York state. Full Story
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![New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is interviewed by Brian Rosenthal of the New York Times at the Texas Tribune Festival in Austin on Sept. 28, 2018.]()
Credit: Bob Daemmrich for The Texas Tribune -
Watch livestreams of the 2018 Texas Tribune Festival's featured events
Here's where you can find all the livestreams from the 2018 Texas Tribune Festival. Full Story
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![An audience watches the opening keynote with former Secretary of State John Kerry at The Texas Tribune Festival on Sept. 27, 2018.]()
Credit: Tamir Kalifa for The Texas Tribune -
Attorney General Ken Paxton defends Texas law requiring students to stand for Pledge of Allegiance
Students can be excused from the requirement if their parents give written permission. But a lawsuit claims the law violates students' free speech rights. Full Story
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![Ken Paxton speaks at the Texas State Rifle Association General Meeting in Round Rock on Feb. 25, 2017.]()
Credit: Shelby Knowles for The Texas Tribune -
Texas’ Teacher Retirement System will not raise health premiums for retired teachers
The decision means TRS will need to ask the state for $238 million to keep the health insurance program running through 2021. Full Story
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Texas Attorney General warns Austin ISD: Don’t stop churches from renting school facilities
Austin ISD is considering a policy change that would limit rental use of its facilities, including to a church that uses one building for Sunday sermons. Full Story
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![The Austin Independent School District's Performing Arts Center.]()
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Land Commissioner George P. Bush fighting with a Texas education board over allocations to fund schools
As each side argues over how to best manage the largest educational endowment in the country, their disagreement could affect funding for Texas schools. Full Story
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![Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush talks to the press at the Republican Party of Texas convention in San Antonio on June 15, 2018.]()
Credit: Bob Daemmrich for The Texas Tribune -
Faced with a teacher shortage, West Texas school district may be latest to go virtual
As an oil boom increases housing costs and lures staff away, the Ector County school board has struggled to recruit and retain enough teachers. Full Story
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Texas projects state funding for schools to drop as local revenue grows
In a preliminary budget request, the Texas Education Agency revealed it expects the state to put less money into public education next year because of fast-increasing local property values. Full Story
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![Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath.]()
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Texas education board workgroup changes course on "heroic" Alamo defenders
After submitting a recommendation to remove the word "heroic" from seventh-grade history textbooks, a Texas State Board of Education workgroup backed off its proposal after outcry from officials and the public. Full Story
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![Dan Chandler of Plano waits to testify on social studies language before the State Board of Education during a Committee of the Whole hearing on Sept. 11, 2018.]()
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In ads, Gov. Greg Abbott boasts of expanding pre-K. Advocates say that's misleading.
Early childhood education advocates say the governor created an "unfunded mandate" for higher-quality pre-K that Texas schools are unable to meet. Full Story
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Texas considering cutting high school cosmetology courses
The Texas Education Agency says cosmetologists don’t make enough to justify continuing high school cosmetology programs. Teachers and students say reported salaries don’t tell the whole story. Full Story
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![Elizabeth Ruvalcaba and Rahslyn Stallings practice styling techniques in a cosmetology class at Jack C. Hays High School in Buda on Sept. 7, 2018.]()
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Gov. Greg Abbott warns Texas education board of “political correctness” over Alamo history standards
An advisory committee has suggested eliminating a line in seventh-grade history standards about “all the heroic defenders who gave their lives” at the Alamo. Full Story
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![The Alamo in San Antonio on Feb. 23, 2018.]()
Credit: Marjorie Kamys Cotera for The Texas Tribune -
Texas won't pay to educate migrant kids in shelters. Now two charter schools are scrambling.
State education officials did not seem to be aware the two public schools were located in migrant shelters, despite approving their applications. Full Story
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![Immigrants who turned themselves in to border patrol agents after illegally crossing the border from Mexico into the U.S. wait to be transported for processing in the Rio Grande Valley sector, near McAllen, Texas, on April 2, 2018.]()
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Despite cost savings, retired teachers health care program still underwater
The Teacher Retirement System likely will not vote to increase premiums for retired teachers this month, as previously expected, an agency official said. Full Story
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![Yvonne Landin, a retired teacher from Corpus Christi, holds a sign as retired teachers gather at the Teacher Retirement System (TRS) building in Austin on July 26, 2018.]()
Credit: Bob Daemmrich for The Texas Tribune
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