Education

A federal appeals court has upheld a Texas law requiring the display of the Ten Commandments in every public-school classroom in the state. Houston Public Media’s Andrew Schneider reports the ruling has significant implications for long-established ideas of the separation of church and state. Meanwhile a federal grand jury in Lubbock has indicted 14 people from Texas and Eastern New Mexico under allegations of conspiracy to sell stolen crude oil across state lines.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the state can enforce its 2025 law requiring public schools to display donated posters of the Ten Commandments.

Early voting begins this week for municipal and school board elections, a number of city and school board positions in Lubbock County are on the ballot this year, including Lubbock’s mayor, proposed bond elections in Slaton ISD, and city council positions in several cities. Early voting runs April 20-28, find races and polling locations here.

Families in the first tier of the lottery -- low- and middle-income students with disabilities -- may be notified as early as next week if they’ve qualified for voucher funds, according to a spokesperson for the program, who says the majority of applicants will end up on a waitlist.

A cohort of students in the cities of Hurst, Euless and Bedford just wrapped up an immersive program guiding them through the nuts and bolts of local government.

Public universities across Texas have instituted sweeping changes to course teachings and offerings in recent months, in a bid to appease concerns from Republican lawmakers that they're indoctrinating students with what they consider to be liberal ideas.

At the end of 2024, the announcement that three Lubbock ISD schools were to be closed or consolidated led to many questions from Lubbock parents on policy and transparency, with the district saying more closures would be considered. Our reporter Brad Burt has more on how the school district is responding, including a dashboard with summarized data on performance metrics, staff experience and enrollment.

In January of this year, Lubbock ISD’s Board of Trustees approved a “District Optimization Plan," with criteria to determine which area schools will be considered for consolidation or closure in the future. A new dashboard on the LISD website shows which Lubbock schools are below the mark.

A former city council representative filed to run for District 4's council seat in March, shortly after sitting councilor Brayden Rose announced his resignation, but the application has since been denied on the grounds that he did not meet the residency requirements under state law. And as the Texas State Board of Education discusses plans for a new Social Studies curriculum, KUT’s Greta Díaz González Vázquez reports some educators have taken issue with the proposal.

Election Day for city offices and school districts is coming up on May 2. Our Samantha Larned reports on two proposed voter bonds from Slaton Independent School District. Texas outpaced the nation in job growth in January, according to numbers from the Texas Workforce Commission. But Houston Public Media's Andrew Schneider says unemployment ticked up from December.