Texas Watchdog has original mp3 audio clips of candidates Bell and Huffman on some of the key issues and what’s important to them in the Dec. 16 election. Listen and see what they they have to say on campaign finance, education, transportation and other topics.
It sure piqued my curiosity a few weeks ago when I read that someone wanted a whole bunch of information about Texas A&M-Corpus Christi’s athletic programs, and the state attorney general’s office had to weigh in on whether those records were public. (You might remember that we included this request on our recent interactive map [...]
The Texas Faculty Association has sued the University of Texas’ regents, alleging that the board broke the state open meetings law when it voted to layoff scads of people at the university’s Medical Branch in Galveston, The Chronicle is reporting.
From the story by Harvey Rice:
“Important public decisions are being made in secret for reasons nobody [...]
A rural Texas school district with just 70 students in grades K-12 is facing permanent closure after the state yanked its funding, the Abilene Reporter-Newssays.
The school in question is the Star Independent School District in Mills County. The system will be looking to its neighbors to educate its students after 2010:
“It is heartbreaking because I [...]
Here at Thanksgiving, we’re certainly thankful for Texas’ open records law. But many of the exemptions to the law are real turkeys, including one that allows records to be held if they’re deemed “intimate or embarrassing” to the people involved. Texas Watchdog takes a look at some of the public records people have asked to see in Texas lately and what the state attorney general’s office has said about whether they can see them — and we’ve plotted them on a map.
The University of Texas regents had a closed-door session last week to talk about laying off 3,800 people at the UT-run Galveston medical center. The Texas Daily Newspaper Association has written them to complain that the meeting may have broken the state sunshine law, and the university’s faculty group says it may sue.
From the Houston [...]
From The Dallas Morning News:
AUSTIN – Two former inspectors for the Texas Education Agency sued the agency Thursday, alleging they were wrongfully fired for trying to investigate fraud and waste in the TEA and certain school districts – and then speaking out when their efforts were blocked.
The lawsuit by James Catazaro and Jim Lyde leveled [...]
Gail Lowe, Cynthia Dunbar et al talk evolution. Oh Lord.
Look for the bumper stickers coming soon: Our teraflops are bigger than your teraflops.
Even the Texas Education Agency can’t get access to some records from the Somerset ISD that could tell whether a teacher should lose their state-issued teaching certificate.
Cynthia Dunbar keeps talking. That’s a problem.
The Houston Chronicle has updated their investigation into royalties received by educators at the UT Health Science Center at Houston. From their story today:
An experiment to better prepare low-income youngsters for school has cost taxpayers more than three times the typical pre-K curriculum and raised questions about payments to educators who commercialized the program.
Staff members [...]
The financial mess in the Dallas school system cost 415 teachers their jobs this week, the local press reported. The front office was still trying to work out student schedules and other logistics on Friday, which was a regularly scheduled half-day for students. Meanwhile, the schools’ internal anti-corruption unit has been downsized by 50 percent, [...]
Comptroller Susan Combs has announced a new pre-pay tuition plan for Texas families. The plan, called the Texas Tuition Promise Fund, will replace the defunct Texas Tomorrow Fund, which was in operation 1996-2003.
The old fund ran out thanks to “a massive shortfall brought on by tuition deregulation,” reports The Dallas Morning News.
The Texas Tuition Promise [...]
Video: Texas Watchdog’s inaugural investigative piece detailed top Bush money-man Stephen Payne’s close relationship with the White House — a relationship the White House took pains to distance itself from. Here is the video of The Times of London sting, featuring Stephen Payne.
