Public education

The Texas House voted Tuesday to swallow a bitter pill and accept a version of a school finance bill that had $1.5 billion less in funding for schools than the lower chamber initially approved. 

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House and Senate negotiators will have the next two days remaining in the current special legislative session to hammer out their differences on legislation tackling property taxes, school finance and other items still in play.

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The Texas House and Senate tentatively passed each other’s priority school finance bills Monday, preparing to discuss potential compromises with two days left in the special session.

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Legislation that would extend the life of a state task force studying Texas’ high maternal morbidity rates is headed to Gov. Greg Abbott's desk.

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The Senate Education Committee drastically altered the House's primary piece of school finance legislation Friday but suggested compromise with the House was possible with less than a week left in the special session.

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In a letter sent to Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick Thursday, nearly 1,500 local school superintendents and trustees urged the head of the Senate to support the House's primary piece of school finance legislation, House Bill 21.

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With a little more than a week left for this special session of the Texas Legislature, lawmakers are preparing closing arguments — and obituaries — for their pet issues.

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Senate Education Committee Chairman Larry Taylor said he would not accept the House's proposal to put $1.8 billion into public schools, comparing it to driving a broken car into the ground.

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Mark White, who served as the governor of Texas from 1983 to 1987, has died at 77. Among his notable achievements was the legislation he signed that included the famous "no-pass, no play" law. 

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The Texas House voted to approve a package of bills that would put $1.8 billion into public schools, increase funding for certain student groups and help out struggling small, rural schools. 

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In East Texas, 86-year-old Clara Crawford shuttles kids to a summer meal program at the local community center. In the Panhandle, Kay Calvert and a group of volunteers want to revive a similar program in tiny Quitaque. 

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After peaking in 2013, the number of students who received free summer meals at Texas schools dropped last summer. No one seems to know exactly why, but one possible reason is lack of transportation.

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Texas legislators would love to lower your property taxes, but none of the proposals they're considering in the special session would do that. 

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The Texas House voted Tuesday to use $212 million from the Rainy Day Fund, a savings account largely fed by oil and gas production taxes, to decrease premiums and deductibles for retired teachers in the state-run health insurance program.

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The governor put a number of public education proposals on the Legislature's plate for the current special session. Getting more than one or two into law would defy the odds.

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The Texas Senate passed a bill that would provide funding for teacher bonuses and retirement benefits, slashing a controversial provision that would require school districts to increase teacher salaries without additional state money.

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The Texas Senate backed bills that would subsidize private school tuition and study the state's school finance system.

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The Texas Senate Finance Committee approved a bill Saturday that would put one-time influxes of money toward the Teacher Retirement System and teacher bonuses, and require districts to fund $1,000 in teacher pay raises.

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The Texas Senate Education Committee passed a bill that would create a "private school choice" program to subsidize private school tuition for kids with special needs, and a bill to study the school finance system.

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In what seems to be an overture to the House, Gov. Greg Abbott added two new education-related issues to his special session call Thursday: school finance reform and increased benefits for retired teachers.

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