Keri Heath

1 week ago | yahoo.com | Keri Heath

The Texas House gave initial approval to a $7.7 billion education finance package Wednesday that would give public schools, many of which are grappling with massive deficits, the largest increase in state funding since 2019.

1 week ago | yahoo.com | Alexis Simmerman |Keri Heath

On Wednesday, lawmakers in the Texas House are expected to hear and debate bills that would create a private school voucher program. Senate Bill 2 has already been passed in the upper chamber and has the support of Gov. Greg Abbott, who pushed a similar proposal in 2023. That year, a coalition of rural Republicans and Democrats banded together to defeat similar legislation.

1 week ago | statesman.com | Keri Heath

When Megan Close’s daughter, Lilly, started school, the concerned mother looked everywhere for a school that would best serve the child. Lilly, who has Down syndrome, needs several therapies, test modifications and a variety of other help. In Close’s Austin-area school district, she didn’t feel like her daughter was getting the services she needed and staffing for the high-demand specialists was always a struggle. One of Lilly’s occupational therapists quit halfway through the year.

1 week ago | statesman.com | John C. Moritz |Bayliss Wagner |Keri Heath

The Texas House early Friday morning passed its version of the state's biennial budget, which would allocate $4 billion more for public education and an additional $1 billion for health and human services compared with the Senate's spending plan. Totaling $333.7 billion, and including more than $50 billion in property tax relief, the House budget proposal would allocate about $4.4 billion more than lawmakers appropriated in 2023.

2 weeks ago | yahoo.com | Keri Heath

Teacher Jessica Meza got up on her Saturday off from her third year teaching math at Northeast Early College High School and drove to Kealing Middle School to meet with other educators. She and about 100 members of Education Austin – a union representing Austin school district employees – marched from the middle school to the Texas Capitol to join hundreds of people gathered to demand increased funding for Texas schools and to voice opposition to a proposed school voucher program.