Texas Tech Public Media collaborated with several community partners to put on a Public Education Panel on September 9. Our news team has created a list of resources to provide further context for attendees and anyone interested in the current state of public education in Texas.
Panelists
- Beth Bridges: Lubbock ISD School Board Trustee
- Reverend Charles Foster Johnson: Founder and Executive Director of Pastors for Texas Children
- Dr. Patricia Maloney: Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work at Texas Tech University
- Senator Charles Perry: Texas State Senator, District 28
- Bob Popinski: Senior Director of Policy for Raise Your Hand Texas
- Representative James Talarico: Texas State Representative, District 50
Budgets and vouchers
- Basic Allotment: The amount of funding a school district gets per student in average daily attendance. It is set by the Texas Education Code, which includes all laws and rules passed by the state legislature. The basic allotment has been $6,160 since 2019.
- 2024 Texas Association of School Business Officials School Finance Survey: A survey of more than 300 districts regarding their finances and challenges, published in May 2024.
- Lubbock-area superintendents talk budget struggles, state and local support: Coverage from our KTTZ newsroom about the budget struggles faced by local districts this school year.
- School Vouchers: Also known as Education Savings Accounts, or ESAs, are a program which would provide financial assistance from the state government for students to attend private schools or to be homeschooled. Universal private school vouchers have been passed in other states, such as Arizona and Florida.
- Here’s everything you need to know about school vouchers in Texas: Published February 2023. A collaboration between our KTTZ newsroom and Houston Public Media breaking down how vouchers work, the arguments for and against, and the perspective of rural school districts.
- Texas lawmakers kick off a new season of heated debate over school vouchers: Published August 2024. An article from KUT Public Media giving a brief history of vouchers in the state and what Texas can expect to see when the next legislative session begins in January.
- Texas Tribune vouchers coverage:
- Gov. Greg Abbott says he’ll add teacher pay to the special session — but only if lawmakers pass school voucher bill: Published October 2023
- Texas House votes to remove school vouchers from massive education bill: Published November 2023
- After decades of lobbying by Christian conservative donors, school voucher legislation may finally have the votes: Published June 2024
- How Texas funds special education: An explainer published by Fort Worth Report in 2023 on how the Texas Education Agency allocates special education funding. According to the TEA, many districts spend more on special education expenses than they receive from the state.
- Texas school districts lose $300 million in federal special education funding: A 2024 article shared from Texas Public Radio about the loss of Medicaid reimbursements for special education students and the impact on district budgets and the programs themselves.
- Texas doesn't fund special education enough — and it's hurting districts' pockets: An article from KERA, North Texas’ public media station, about special education needs, lack of funding, and what it means for schools and students to take on children with unique educational needs.
Teacher shortages, retention, certification
- Teacher Employment, Attrition, and Hiring: Data provided by the Texas Education Agency shows that the student-to-teacher ratio in Texas is lower in 2024 than it was pre-COVID in 2019 and 2020. Texas had a historic high in uncertified teachers, though the data reflects that these teachers are often short-term solutions, who contribute to the overall retention problems according to the TEA.
- Employed Teacher Attrition and New Hires 2011-12 through 2022-23: Data sets from the TEA reflecting attrition, new hires, and certification status of Texas teachers.
- Teacher Retention by Preparation Route 2011-12 through 2021-22: Further data from the TEA breaks down teacher retention by academic year based on preparation route.
- Concerns grow over potential learning loss for students of new, uncertified teachers: An article from the Texas Standard, about how uncertified teachers have been linked to learning losses, lower test scores, and struggles with recognizing specific student needs.
- Texas schools are hiring more teachers without traditional training. They hope the state will pay to prepare them.: Being uncertified means that teachers do not have formal classroom training, this path was opened up by Texas lawmakers in 2015 in order to hire more teachers. This article from the Texas Tribune details districts’ reliance on uncertified teachers, the impact it has on students and the budget, and emerging methods to prepare more teachers for the classroom.
- With no new funding from the state, Texas schools are breaking the bank to pay for teacher raises: Texas Tribune article explaining that many school districts have to dip into their savings to give teachers raises, in hopes to keep them in the classroom. The average teacher salary in Texas has stagnated for the past decade and has not kept up with inflation.
- Texas teachers demand better pay, working conditions in ‘Educator’s Bill of Rights’: A recent article about calls from statewide teachers’ union Texas AFT for lawmakers to pass legislation to improve working conditions and prevent further exodus of educators from the field or the state.
Curriculum
- Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills: State standards as set by the State Board of Education.
- Academic Accountability: Academic accountability ratings are based on standardized test scores; graduation rates; and college, career, and military readiness outcomes.
- Judge temporarily blocks Texas Education Agency from releasing A-F accountability ratings again: An article from Texas Public Radio detailing why the TEA was blocked from releasing academic accountability ratings for the second year in a row. Last year’s lawsuit was based on the timeline and measurements. This year’s lawsuit is about standardized tests and how they are graded.
- Judge blocks Texas from releasing this year’s school accountability ratings: A breakdown of the past two years’ accountability lawsuits from the Texas Tribune.
- Texas students’ STAAR scores decline in math and science: Data released from the TEA this summer showed that STAAR test scores have dropped, particularly in math and science, a breakdown from the Texas Tribune.
- Ethnic Studies: American Indian/Native Studies: Description and breakdown of the elective course from the TEA.
- Daily Newscast June 11th, 2024: An audio story from our KTTZ news team about a press conference in Lubbock, calling on the Texas State Board of Education to renew the American Indian/Native Studies innovative course.
Religion in public schools
- ICYMI: The 74 Reveals New Biblical Content in State’s ‘High-Quality Instructional Materials’: A release from Texas AFT, a statewide teachers’ union, expressing concern over Christian religious materials included in House Bill 1605’s Open Education Resources. The material is not required, but comes with a potential incentive of $60 per student.
- Texas’ Christian-influenced curriculum spurs worries about bullying, church-state separation: An article from the Texas Tribune regarding some of the lessons and references included in the materials, and the concerns it has sparked from Texans of various religions.
- How will Louisiana's Ten Commandments classroom requirement be funded and enforced?: An Associated Press article on Louisiana's law requiring the Ten Commandments be displayed in all public school classrooms.
- Ten Commandments won’t go in some Louisiana classrooms until at least November as lawsuit plays out: An Associated Press article providing an update on the hold to Louisiana's Ten Commandments requirement.
- Bill requiring Ten Commandments in Texas classrooms fails in House after missing crucial deadline: An article from the Texas Tribune about a similar bill in Texas, Senate Bill 1515, which did not pass.
Safety on campus
- Safe and Supportive Schools Program: A multi-tiered support system from the Texas Education Agency designed to address various aspects of school safety through collaboration, prevention, and preparedness.
- School Safety Resources: Further safety resources and releases collected by the Texas Education Agency.
- Texas School Safety Center: Texas State University research center dedicated to research, training, and support in K-12 school safety.
- TxSSC Toolkits: Resource guides for parents and educators in many areas of school safety, including emergency communication, active threats, social media, and firearm storage.
- Behavioral Threat Assessment and Management: A systematic process of identifying, managing, and intervening in potential threats.
- House Bill 3: An act from the Texas Legislature mandating safety measures for all Texas public school districts, including a requirement of at least one armed security officer on every campus during regular school hours.
- What you need to know about Texas’ school safety policies: A guide to district requirements and protocols from the Texas Tribune.
- New school safety laws seek to add armed guards, chaplains and mental health training. Here’s what you need to know.: Further context on safety mandates from the Texas Tribune.
Bullying and mental health
- Texas School Mental Health: A mental health resource website from the Texas Education Agency.
- Teens are losing interest in school, and say they hear about college 'a lot': An NPR article analyzing a survey from Gallup and the Walton Family Foundation, which shows that school engagement is down.
- Bullying and Harassment: Definitions, requirements, and guidance regarding bullying from the Texas School Safety Center.
- Reporting Bullying, Cyberbullying, and Harassment: Definitions and advice provided by the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas.
- The State of Mental & Behavioral Health in Young Texans: A data brief from nonpartisan nonprofit Every Texas, published in December 2023. It shows that more than 17% of Texans under 18 years old report having a mental, emotional, behavioral, or developmental problem.
- Texas schools say it’s time to stop tying mental health funding to school safety money: An article from the Texas Tribune about the difficult financial decisions public school districts have to make when it comes to safety measures and mental health programs.
- Here are the ways Fort Worth schools provide mental health care to students: Various approaches to mental health care from schools in the Fort-Worth area and the struggles they face.
- Lubbock-area parents sue schools over racism: A Texas Tribune article regarding four 2022 incidents dealing with racism and antisemitism in Lubbock schools.
Equity in education
- 'We got better because of it.' Lubbock-area district responds to CROWN Act compliance: An article from our KTTZ newsroom after the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas sent letters to school districts across the state that appeared to be in violation of the CROWN Act, a law which prohibits race-based hair discrimination in schools.
- A call for action: Parents demand accountability as concerns grow over racism in area schools: A 2023 article from the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal of local community members calling on Lubbock-Cooper ISD and Slaton ISD to address racism in the districts.
- Rural Schools Task Force: According to the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics, more rural schools than any other state.
- Closing the Digital Divide for Students in Texas: The hurdles that lack of internet access creates in education, from the Texas State Teacher Association.
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