News Roundup

The Houston Chronicle's Erin Mulvaney posted this blog entry on how proceeds from the recent Mega Millions lottery drawing will affect Texas schools...in a nutshell, not very much. "Even though a Texan didn't win the $640 million jackpot after Friday's Mega Million drawing,  Texas Lottery officials said Wednesday that $37.5 million in ticket sale proceeds will go toward the Texas Foundation School Program -- the main source of funding for public schools in the state." Mulvaney notes that The Washington Post recently reported that many state legislatures, including Texas, use lottery money to pay for their basic education budgets, instead of using the cash as additional funding. The money that would have been used, had there been no lottery, is spent on other budget items.

Morgan Smith of The Texas Tribune is kicked off a five-part series on the concerns facing struggling school districts with this article. "It's rare for the state to revoke the accreditation of an entire school district. Since 1995, it has only happened four times. The two districts marked for closure last summer, Premont ISD in South Texas and North Forest ISD in northeast Houston, challenged the decisions. And for the first time in TEA history, both of the districts, which are in the midst of sweeping reforms, have received one-year reprieves to make financial and academic turnarounds."

The Texas Tribune has also created graphs that illustrate how school district demographics correlate to accountability ratings.

 
   
 
 

P.O. Box 400, Austin, Texas 78767-0400 • 512-467-0222
© Copyright 1995- All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy. Terms & Conditions of Use. Disclaimer.