Business
July 29, 2020
How Tesla Was Lured to Austin
Travis County offered the electric car giant a package of tax incentives worth about $1,200 a year for each of the five thousand jobs it promises to create at its new factory.
Public Schools
News & Politics
March 25, 2019
New Study Reaffirms That STAAR Reading Tests Are Not on Grade Level
Eight different readability formulas showed the test's reading portions are at a higher level of difficulty than appropriate for the grades they’re assessing.
Politics & Policy
February 15, 2017
Are Your Property Taxes Too High? Thank a Legislator.
Property taxpayers will cover sixty percent of school costs. How did it come to this?
Politics & Policy
January 9, 2017
The Legislature of the Children
Can lawmakers invest in the future of Texas children with $2.8 billion less to spend?
News & Politics
September 17, 2013
“It’s Not a School Problem”
Diane Ravitch’s scorched-earth critique of high-stakes testing and education reform.
The Culture
May 7, 2013
Hispanics Now Majority In Texas Schools, Politicians Take Note
Hispanics now comprise nearly 51 percent of the state's student body.
Politics & Policy
April 10, 2013
The Difficult Question on Vouchers
The main bill up for discussion was Dan Patrick’s SB 23, which would establish the Texas Equal Opportunity Scholarship Program. It would allow certain organizations to award scholarships to pay educational expenses for eligible students in public elementary or secondary schools to attend private or parochial schools. To
Politics & Policy
April 10, 2013
Crash Test
Over the past two decades a movement to increase the importance of standardized testing in public schools has swept across the country. It was born in Texas. Is Texas also where it might die?
Politics & Policy
January 23, 2013
How Texas Public Schools Teach the Bible
With a largely Protestant bias, according to examples culled by the Texas Freedom Network.
News & Politics
January 21, 2013
A Q&A With Mimi Swartz
The executive editor on the controversial superintendent of the Houston Independent School District, the politics involved in public education, and how parents need to be more vocal and vigilant.
News & Politics
January 21, 2013
Super Collider
Terry Grier is the hard-charging, reform-minded, optimistic superintendent of the largest school district in the state. He’s also the most divisive, embattled, and despised man in Houston. Did it have to be this way?
Politics & Policy
February 23, 2012
Perry: We Don’t Need No Education Special Session
The governor rejected calls to revisit school finance issues during his Tuesday media blitz, but his critics say he also overstated current funding levels.
News & Politics
August 31, 2010
The Super
After a year on the job, the superintendent of the largest school district in Texas is loathed and loved in equal measure. Does that mean he’s doing his job?
Cojones
September 30, 2006
William Wayne Justice
A tip of the hat to risk-taking, barrier-breaking, establishment-tweaking Texans.
Feature
November 1, 1996
Our Best Schools
A report card on more than three thousand public elementary schools from Abernathy to Zavalla. Does yours make the grade? Plus: How Richardson’s Brentfield, Beaumont’s Pietzsch, and Mission’s Carl C. Waitz got to the head of the class.
Behind the Lines
November 1, 1996
Principals, Not Heels
Why good schools have clean bathrooms and principals who don’t wear high heels.