Texas teachers grapple with their raises caught up in voucher fight
As a special session starts with a focus on “school choice” but no mention of public school funding, some teachers said they are even considering leaving the profession. Full Story
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![Members of the crowd hold signs and chant during a rally against school vouchers at the Texas Capitol on Oct. 7, 2023. Hundreds gathered to protest two days before a special session was slated to begin on Oct. 9, 2023.]()
Credit: Julius Shieh/The Texas Tribune -
School voucher supporters and opponents debate public school funding, private school accountability
Voucher opponents took issue with taxpayer dollars going to less regulated private schools, while proponents said parents can best choose which schools meet their needs and values at a Texas Tribune event. Full Story
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Vouchers return this special session — and school funding might be left out. Here’s what you need to know.
Gov. Greg Abbott called lawmakers back to Austin to try again to pass education savings accounts, which would let families use state funds to pay for their children’s private schooling. Teacher pay was not part of his agenda. Full Story
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![Chyrece Campbell holds Pierce Campbell as he looks up at the rotunda at the state capitol. Chyrece and her children, also pictured, Madison, Gregory and Kennedy, are visiting the capitol on the first day of the 86th legislative session. Miguel Gutierrez Jr.]()
Credit: Miguel Gutierrez Jr./The Texas Tribune -
Amid anti-LGBTQ+ legislation, a North Texas college town hosts its third annual trans pride event
Home to the University of North Texas, organizers say Denton acts as a liberal enclave in the sprawling conservative suburbs in the Dallas-Fort Worth region. Full Story
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![Lead singer of Nip Slip Bowie Brae, right, dances while rehearsing a song Oct. 4, 2023 in Denton. The band Nip Slip will headline Denton’s third annual Trans Pride festival.]()
Credit: Matt Iaia for The Texas Tribune -
Texas will have an $18.6 billion surplus and avoid a recession, comptroller projects
The updated comptroller’s report raises the amount of revenue available to the state over the 2024-25 cycle to $194.6 billion. Full Story
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![Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar discusses the biennial revenue estimate with audience members at Texas Tribune’s Studio 919 in Austin on Jan. 9, 2023.]()
Credit: Pu Ying Huang/The Texas Tribune -
Updated COVID-19 shot slowly rolls out in Texas, but access is spotty
Doses aren’t arriving at providers’ offices at uniform, predictable intervals. Shipments are largely dependent on individual providers’ ability to work out the logistics of ordering, stocking, training and paperwork. Full Story
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![Linda Murphy pulls up doses of the Pfizer vaccine into syringes at a clinic organized by the Travis County Mobile Vaccine Collaborative at Rodriguez Elementary School on July 28, 2021.]()
Credit: Sophie Park/The Texas Tribune -
A generation of Texas farmers are retiring. It’s not clear who will replace them.
After 70 years on the farm, Jimmy Drake retired from the cotton business. With no family stepping up to take over the farm, he turned to a young neighbor. Full Story
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![From left, Tanner Heffington talks to Jimmy Drake next to Drake’s truck outside of their shop. Drake passed on his farm and equipment to long time neighbor Heffington last year making this the first time in 71 years that a member of the Drake family didn’t harvest the land.]()
Credit: Mark Rogers for The Texas Tribune -
Driverless cars are multiplying on Texas roads. Here’s what you should know.
Autonomous vehicles, or AVs, are here. Tribune journalists took a ride in one recently and answer the biggest questions about who’s driving the driverless trend and how the state regulates them. Full Story
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![A Cruise car drives down the street in downtown Austin on Sept. 26, 2023. Cruise, a San Francisco-based autonomous car company, is one of several autonomous driving companies that test vehicles in Austin.]()
Credit: Julius Shieh/The Texas Tribune -
Colony Ridge developer defends Houston-area community as state leaders vow action against it
GOP leaders claim the development markets to undocumented people and is plagued by crime. One of its owners refutes the allegations and says he’s ready to show lawmakers that Colony Ridge isn’t different than any other rural Texas community. Full Story
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![The Terrenos Houston building Monday, Oct. 2, 2023, in New Caney. Terrenos Houston is one of the major developers in the Colony Ridge area.]()
Credit: Joe Robles IV for The Texas Tribune -
Oilfield companies helped to craft Texas’ new waste rules for 2 years before the public got to see them
The effort to update the state’s oilfield waste disposal rules was initiated by Railroad Commissioner Jim Wright, one of the state’s top oil and gas regulators who has investments in the industry. Full Story
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![Christi Craddick, Commissioner of the Texas Railroad Commission, Chairman Wayne Christian, and Commissioner Jim Wright listen during an RRC hearing in the William B. Travis Building in Austin on Nov. 30, 2021.]()
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Support for Houston ISD’s Spanish speakers has dwindled under new state-appointed leader, parents say
For one reading class, Superintendent Mike Miles said instruction would focus on English, even if it meant risking state funding for dual-language programs. Parents say it goes further than that, adding that their kids are receiving no assistance in Spanish at all. Full Story
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![Celina Manzano takes her children to school at Pugh Elementary School in East Houston on October 2, 2023.]()
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Can John Sharp protect his maroon empire?
The savvy ex-lawmaker has expanded the Texas A&M University System and mollified state leaders. Some faculty, alumni and students say that accommodation has come at a cost. Full Story
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![Texas A&M Chancellor John Sharp poses for a portrait in his office on Monday, March 27, 2023 in College Station, TX.]()
Credit: Sergio Flores for The Texas Tribune -
Gov. Greg Abbott says special lawmaking session will begin on Oct. 9, likely on school vouchers
The session comes as a rift between the Texas House and the Senate grew following Attorney General Ken Paxton’s impeachment trial, raising questions about the chambers’ ability to compromise on education issues. The governor has threatened to call for more special sessions if lawmakers fail to pass a “school choice” proposal. Full Story
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![Gov. Greg Abbott speaks about the recent 88th Legislative Session to an audience at the Texas Public Policy Foundation offices in Austin, on June 2, 2023. Abbott recounted policy victories in regards to fentanyl and the border crisis, as well as limiting gender affirming care and banning DEI practices in higher education. Abbott ended the event by promising to call a special session for school choice, after the current special session for property tax resolves.]()
Credit: Evan L'Roy/The Texas Tribune -
Houston-area development has become a right-wing lightning rod on immigration
After conservative media portrayed the Colony Ridge development north of Houston as a haven for illegal immigrants, Gov. Greg Abbott said the upcoming special legislative session will look into the issue. Full Story
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![Governor Greg Abbott remarks on the property tax cut bill for Texas Wednesday, Aug. 9, 2023, in New Caney.]()
Credit: Douglas Sweet Jr. for The Texas Tribune -
Lawsuit by Attorney General Ken Paxton’s accusers can continue, Texas Supreme Court rules
The whistleblower lawsuit, which argues that four senior staffers were improperly fired in retaliation for reporting Paxton to the FBI, returns to a Travis County trial court for action. Full Story
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![Suspended Attorney General Ken Paxton, left, walks back to his seat after speaking privately with defense attorney Dan Cogdell before starting the ninth day of his impeachment trial on the Senate floor on Sept. 15, 2023.]()
Credit: Sam Owens/Pool via San Antonio Express-News -
U.S. Supreme Court to rule on Texas law limiting social media content removal
The high court previously blocked the state law from going into effect while the case plays out. It will also consider a similar Florida case that revolves around the First Amendment Full Story
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![The Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. on March 10, 2022.]()
Credit: Eric Lee for the Texas Tribune -
No water, roads or emergency services: How climate change left a rural neighborhood nearly uninhabitable
In Liberty County, one neighborhood has been slowly abandoned as years of flooding and intense rains prompted a spiral of decline. A struggling buyout program shows the complexities and limitations of “managed retreat” from disaster-prone areas. Full Story
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![Fred Boyum stands outside of his home at the entrance of Sam Houston Lake Estates on August 22, 2023. Boyum helps fellow neighbors transport necessities like food and water to their homes when the roads are bad.]()
Credit: Annie Mulligan for The Texas Tribune -
Texas’ open records law is 50 years old — and routinely flouted
At the annual conference of the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas, two Republican lawmakers described how government officials fail to meet transparency requirements. Full Story
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![Kathy and Robert Dyer, of Paris, Texas, at the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas conference on Sept. 28. 2023. After their teenage son Graham died following an arrest, they fought for years to repeal the so-called dead-suspect loophole that had allowed state and local officials to withhold records of their son's death.]()
Credit: Sewell Chan/The Texas Tribune -
U.S. Sen. John Cornyn accepts Paxton impeachment acquittal, notes pending legal issues
With the attorney general mentioned as a possible primary opponent, the senator says of his fellow Republican: “I don’t think the story is over yet.” Full Story
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![U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., in November of 2020.]()
Credit: Walsh Susan/Pool via REUTERS -
‘An understaffed and broken system’: 900,000 Texans have lost Medicaid as others struggle to access SNAP benefits
Texas Democrats in Congress are urging the federal government to audit the state’s Medicaid eligibility system Full Story
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![Yesenia Alvarado holds her daughter, Medicaid patient Melanie Almaraz, 2, while waiting to see Dr. Alberto Vasquez for treatment of a fever at Su Clinica Familiar in Harlingen, Texas on Jul. 9, 2013.]()
Credit: Eddie Seal for The Texas Tribune