Paxton issued formal warnings to Chinese companies he said are violating Texas’ privacy laws.  Attorney General Ken Paxton has issued formal warnings to several major Chinese-owned companies—including TP-Link, Alibaba, and CapCut—accusing them of violating the privacy rights of Texas residents. The companies, identified as being aligned with the Chinese Communist Party, have been given thirty days to comply with the Texas Data Privacy and Security Act view article

Dallas Superintendent Stephanie Elizalde told a theater full of educators on Tuesday that Texas could be “standing on the precipice” of eliminating the STAAR test. During her annual State of the District address, Elizalde lauded a legislative proposal to scrap the state’s much-derided standardized test and replace it with a series of shorter exams that would be given to students throughout the year. view article

Priority legislation that has already passed the Senate is up against the clock in the House.  While laying out a utility-related bill on the House floor, State Rep. Ken King (R–Canadian) faced pointed criticism from one of his colleagues over the fate of stalled Republican priorities.  During discussion of House Bill 4668, which allows the Public Utility Commission to retain outside experts to support utility rate cases, State Rep. Tony Tinderholt (R–Arlington) took the opportunity to confront King, who chairs the powerful State Affairs Committee, for holding up several key conservative proposals.  “Chairman King, does this bill have anything to do with women’s privacy?” Tinderholt asked, to which King answered, “No.”  “It doesn’t have anything to do with taxpayer-funded lobbying?” Tinderholt asked.  “No,” responded King.  “Does it have anything to do with E-Verify?” King once again said it did not.   “Those three bills are being locked up in your committee, and people want to see them on the floor,” said Tinderholt.  view article

The bill would overturn a two-decade-old law allowing some undocumented college students to pay in-state tuition.  A bill that would make college less affordable for undocumented students, including those who have called the state their home for most of their lives, is advancing in the Texas Senate.  The Senate’s K-16 committee voted 9-2 on Tuesday to bring Senate Bill 1798 to the chamber’s floor for a full vote. It would eliminate undocumented students’ eligibility for in-state tuition and require those previously deemed eligible to pay the difference between in- and out-of-state tuition.  State Sen. Mayes Middleton, who authored the bill, said taxpayers are subsidizing higher education for people in the country illegally, which he estimated cost $150 million in the 2024-2025 academic year. view article

The compromise includes $3 billion in required compression, $3 billion for a homestead exemption increase, and approximately $250 million for business property tax relief.  The compromise includes $3 billion in required compression, $3 billion for a homestead exemption increase, and approximately $250 million for business property tax relief. view article

The compromise includes $3 billion in required compression, $3 billion for a homestead exemption increase, and approximately $250 million for business property tax relief.  It appears Texas lawmakers have struck a deal on property tax relief—though critics say it doesn’t go far enough to return the state’s surplus to taxpayers.  During a meeting of the House Ways and Means Committee, Chairman Morgan Meyer (R–Dallas) announced that a compromise had been reached between the House and Senate, ending weeks of negotiations over competing tax cut proposals.  “We have reached an agreement with the Senate as it relates to tax relief,” Meyer told committee members. “I just wanted to thank the lieutenant governor, Chairman Bettencourt, the speaker, obviously the governor as well, for all of us working together to provide meaningful property tax relief. I’m glad we got this job done.  State Sen. Paul Bettencourt (R–Houston) simultaneously announced the deal during a hearing of the Senate Committee on Local Government.  The House’s original proposal included $3 billion in required tax rate “compression” under existing law, an additional $3 billion in new compression, and $500 million to raise the exemption for business personal property. The Senate, meanwhile, focused on using its additional $3 billion toward boosting the homestead exemption for homeowners. view article

Gov. Greg Abbott on Saturday signed legislation authorizing a private school voucher program into law, marking the grand finale of an oftentimes ugly conflict that has largely defined Texas politics this decade.Senate Bill 2 will allow families to use public taxpayer dollars to fund their children’s education at an accredited private school or to pay for a wide range of school-related expenses, like textbooks, transportation or therapy. The program will be one of the largest school voucher initiatives in the nation.  “When I ran for reelection in 2022, I promised school choice for the families of Texas. Today, we deliver on that promise,” said Abbott during the bill's signing before hundreds of applauding supporters gathered outside the Governor's Mansion.  view article

Advocates are focused on stronger laws to address the “epidemic” of physical and sexual abuse in schools.  While school choice captured much of the attention during the first half of the legislative session, a parent-driven advocacy group has been laser-focused on reforming the existing government education system, which will continue to receive the vast majority of Texas’ 5.5 million students and the largest share of the state’s budget.  With the session drawing to a close, time is now running short.  Texas Education 911, an independent group of parent advocates, first began promoting policy solutions to parent-identified problems within the public school system ahead of the 2023 legislative session. view article

State Rep. Brent Money says State Affairs Committee Chair Ken King won’t give the legislation a hearing. view article

Abbott tapped into a powerful national conservative movement and his own campaign war chest to turn turned legislative races into multimillion-dollar affairs.   view article

With just over a month remaining in the 2025 legislative session, a group of conservative Texas House members gathered for a press conference to issue a stark warning to their leadership: time is almost up to deliver on Republican priorities.“Today is day 107 of our 140-day legislative session,” said State Rep. Tony Tinderholt (R–Arlington). “In 12 days, every House bill that is going to pass must be reported by its committee. The clock is ticking, and our Republican voters are looking for the Republican majority they elected to the Texas House to deliver.” -  view article

Lawmakers discussed a bill Tuesday that would create new rules for school districts that want to split into smaller entities, months after a controversial, now-abandoned plan to break up Keller ISD raised questions about whether the district could do so without voters’ input. House Bill 5089, authored by Rep. Charlie Geren, R-Fort Worth, would set rules for how a school district could split off from an existing one. Under the bill, 20% of registered voters in each of the proposed new districts would have to sign a petition. If that threshold is met, an election would be held, and voters would decide whether to approve the split. The State Board of Education would oversee the election. view article

Stalled legislation would recognize June 24—the day the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe—as a state holiday. view article

A resolution to honor Cecile Richards, the former president of Planned Parenthood, was pulled from the Texas House floor Thursday following fierce backlash from a coalition of conservative lawmakers.  Richards led Planned Parenthood from 2006 to 2018, during which time the organization performed millions of abortions nationwide. She was later awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Joe Biden and remained a fixture in left-wing political organizing until her death earlier this year. view article

The Texas House gave final approval Thursday to a bill that would create a $1 billion private school voucher program, crossing a historic milestone and bringing Gov. Greg Abbott’s top legislative priority closer than ever to reaching his desk.The lower chamber signed off on its voucher proposal, Senate Bill 2, on an 86-61 vote. Every present Democrat voted against the bill. They were joined by two Republicans — far short of the bipartisan coalitions that in previous legislative sessions consistently blocked proposals to let Texans use taxpayer money to pay for their children’s private schooling. “This is an extraordinary victory for the thousands of parents who have advocated for more choices when it comes to the education of their children,” Abbott said in a statement, vowing that he would “swiftly sign this bill into law” when it reached his desk. view article

In another marathon effort that ended early Thursday, the Texas House debated and approved Senate Bill 2, which would create a $1 billion private school voucher program, one of the marquee education proposals this legislative session.  The House vote was the voucher bill’s biggest hurdle, and marked the first official test of whether Gov. Greg Abbott and his allies built enough support in the lower chamber for it since a coalition of House Democrats and rural Republicans sank the previous voucher proposal in 2023. view article

The budget for the Texas Lottery Commission, which brings about $2 billion a year to the state treasury, has been reduced to zero in the 2026-27 spending plan the Texas House approved last week. And the chamber on April 15 signaled it was serious about ending the 34-year-old agency.  The decision to defund the lottery, which for the much of this year has been a magnet for criticism in the Legislature on multiple fronts, was seen as legislative gamesmanship when the House in the wee hours of April 11 passed its version of the state budget.  That’s because several amendments were filed by some House Republicans that would have tapped into the lottery’s budget to fund other projects. Rather than opening the door to potentially protracted debates on those projects, budget managers quietly cut the lottery’s funding and transferred it to a special fund that is managed by the governor’s office, which was also eyed as a funding source for some members. view article

The vote will be the proposal’s biggest test yet and will show whether Gov. Greg Abbott has built enough support since a similar bill died in the lower chamber in 2023.  The Texas House is expected to vote Wednesday on bills to create a $1 billion private school voucher program and give public schools more funding per student, setting up what could be a dramatic floor showdown over the two marquee education proposals of the session.  The House vote is the voucher bill’s biggest hurdle, and it will mark the first official test of whether Gov. Greg Abbott and his allies have built enough support in the lower chamber since a coalition of House Democrats and rural Republicans sank the previous voucher proposal in 2023. view article

ODESSA — Texas is growing. People are moving to the state in droves. Companies want to build their facilities here. Sustaining the growth will require nearly double the electricity the grid deploys today. The state’s grid operator can meet the moment, Pablo Vegas, president and CEO of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, told a panel of lawmakers last week.So long as politics don't interfere.  “I think the market as structured today is very well suited to support the growth trajectories that we're seeing,” Vegas said. “And it's not just the government support functions. It's the fact that we have a very light regulatory environment that enables businesses to put their capital to work here with reasonable restrictions and reasonable requirements.” view article

A teenager is facing an aggravated assault mass shooting charge in connection with a shooting Tuesday afternoon at Wilmer-Hutchins High School.  Tracy Haynes, 17, was booked into Dallas County jail at 9:32 p.m. after turning himself in. His bail is set for $600,000 and it’s not immediately clear if he has an attorney. The arrest came hours after an on-campus shooting, which injured four students. view article

The state House Public Education Committee on Tuesday considered more than 30 bills aimed at making Texas public schools safer, including measures that would put more armed personnel on campuses and give districts money for sweeping security changes. The Legislature has made improving school safety a priority this session after 10 people, mostly students, were shot and killed at Santa Fe High School 10 months ago. The shooting spurred roundtable discussions and studies among policymakers, lawmakers and Gov. Greg Abbott in the immediate aftermath. “Out of that loss, we have an opportunity to devote ourselves and commit ourselves to seeing that their loss was not in vain and that future students, future teachers, future families in this state will, if at all possible, not have to experience what these individuals experienced,” said Rep. Greg Bonnen, R-Friendswood, during Tuesday’s hearing. view article

Property tax reform has been a top priority for Texas lawmakers from the start of the 86th legislative session. The early filing of identical, wide-reaching bills in the House and Senate in January—Senate Bill 2 and House Bill 2—sparked debate on the topic and earned pushback from many local entities that could be affected by the proposals. The twin bills propose to lower the cap for local entities’ annual tax revenue growth from 8 percent to 2.5 percent and to improve efficiency and transparency in the tax system. The proposals were fast-tracked for debate in both chambers after Gov. Greg Abbott declared property tax an emergency item in February, and dozens of related bills have been filed in their wake. view article

Hillary Clinton and Helen Keller are back on the lesson plan after a vote by the Texas State Board of Education. The committee voted 12-2, with one abstention, on Tuesday to continue teaching students about Clinton in high school history classes, according to State Board of Education Director Debbie Ratcliffe. The board also voted to keep Keller on the curriculum. The vote reverses a September preliminary decision to cut the women, along with 1964 Republican presidential nominee Barry Goldwater and several other historical figures, from the required curriculum. The board said then that the change was intended to streamline the curriculum for its 5.4 million students at the recommendation of volunteer work groups. view article

School finance was the big-ticket item this legislative session, said Emett Alvarez, Victoria Democrats Club president. "Education should be important to everyone," Alvarez said. "We are all taxpayers and are affected by it one way or the other." The Victoria County Democratic Party will host its club meeting Tuesday at VeraCruz Restaurant, 3110 N. Navarro St. Guest speakers will be Dwight Harris, former president of the Victoria chapter of the Texas American Federation of Teachers, and Ray Thomas, who is running for chief justice of the 13th Court of Appeals. view article

Will there ever come a day when our state leaders and lawmakers want to make Texas as good a place for children as it is for business? The 85th legislative session didn't seem often inclined in that direction, particularly in matters related to educating the state's schoolchildren. A massive funding failure for prekindergarten students. The state Senate's defeatist response to a solid House attempt at school finance reform. Out-of-proportion talk about vouchers for those attending private schools. But let's not overlook a couple of bright spots. Thanks to skillful work by three North Texas lawmakers, the state's youngest learners should eventually get the gift of better-prepared teachers. view article

Back in March, James Dickey, then the chairman of the Travis County Republican Party, showed up at the state Capitol to testify in support of House Bill 1911 — a proposal known as constitutional carry, or the ability to carry firearms without a license. It was a top legislative priority for the state GOP, and Dickey brought a message tailored for the Republicans on the House panel considering it: Don't forget the platform. "The plank which said we should have constitutional carry scored a 95 percent approval rate, outscoring over 80 percent of the other planks in the option," Dickey said, referring to the party platform — a 26-page document outlining the party's positions that is approved by delegates to its biennial conventions. Constitutional carry, Dickey added, "is something very clearly wanted by the most active members of the Republican Party in Texas." view article

Contention over where transgender people use the restroom has clouded much of the 2017 legislative session and has expanded to cover other issues such as property tax policy and school finance as lawmakers push to complete their work by Monday. After Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick served notice that the scaled-back version of the so-called bathroom bill recently approved by the Texas House was a non-starter in the Senate, the upper chamber in the predawn hours Wednesday made an end-run effort to save the stronger measure that fell victim to legislative deadlines. But by the time the sun rose over the Capitol, it was clear that the House would kill the measure again. view article

An effort to overhaul the state’s beleaguered school finance system has been declared dead after the Texas Senate Education Committee’s chairman said Wednesday that he would not appoint conferees to negotiate with the House. “That deal is dead,” Larry Taylor, R-Friendswood, said. Taylor’s remarks come after his counterpart in the House, Dan Huberty, R-Houston, gave a passionate speech in which he said he would not accept the Senate’s changes to House Bill 21 and would seek a conference committee with the Senate. view article

The Texas House has voted to allow concealed carry permit holders to have guns in their locked cars parked outside schools. Tentative approval came late Tuesday night as an amendment to an otherwise unrelated bill on school boards. Final House approval should come Wednesday. The state Senate already approved a full, bipartisan bill seeking to do virtually the same thing. A similar, full bill had died in the House without reaching a floor vote but now lives on as an amendment. view article

A standoff between the Texas House and Senate over vouchers killed a major school finance fix Wednesday. The House tried to pump $1.6 billion dollars more into public schools. The Senate didn't want that much and countered by tacking on their own priority. The author of the House Bill 21 rejected the changes made to it in the Senate, saying they don't go far enough. Last year, the Texas Supreme Court ruled that the system was barely constitutional. So the House approved pumping $1.6 billion additional dollars into it but that plan came out of the Senate reduced to $530 million. view article

Texas lawmakers have given final approval to a measure cracking down on inappropriate relationships between teachers and students. The bill requires principals and superintendents to report inappropriate teacher-student relationships or face jail time and fines up to $10,000. The teacher's family could also lose access to the teacher's pension. view article

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick declared a key school funding bill dead Wednesday, saying he was "appalled" the House would refuse to go along with the Senate's plan to create a school voucher program for students with disabilities.  "Although Texas House leaders have been obstinate and closed-minded on this issue throughout this session, I was hopeful when we put this package together last week that we had found an opening that would break the logjam," Patrick said in a statement. "I simply did not believe they would vote against both disabled children and a substantial funding increase for public schools." view article

 A state lawmaker is looking for donations to pay off debt Texas students rack up in school cafeterias. Partnered with Feeding Texas, Representative Helen Giddings, D-DeSoto, launched a statewide crowdfunding campaign Tuesday, in an effort to prevent what she calls “lunch shaming.” At some Texas schools, students with lunch debt or empty accounts are denied a hot lunch and given a cheese sandwich instead. “The cruelty and lack of compassion for children who suffer the humiliation, the labeling and not to mention the hunger pains of so-called lunch shaming, it is inconceivable,” Giddings said. view article

Texas lawmakers wrap up a very busy week at the Capitol today, and last night had a little bit of everything that you’ll find at the end of a legislative session. Bills as amendments With just over two weeks left in the legislative session, lawmakers are scrambling to get their bills to the governor’s desk. That scramble often has lawmakers looking for ways to add their bills to other legislation. That’s exactly what Sen. Larry Taylor (R-Friendswood) did Thursday morning when he added a provision to create a school voucher system onto a school finance bill.  “It establishes the educational savings account program administered by the comptroller, which provides parents with funds to pay for education needs of their child,” Taylor said as he added the amendment to the House bill in the Senate Education committee. But even this addition isn’t everything the Senate Education chair wanted. The addition only provides money for private school tuition or tutoring for children with disabilities. view article

Over the last two years, I’ve been working with students, teachers, parents and taxpayers to improve the way that we’re providing education to Texas students. During the current legislative session, some of those efforts are beginning to show results. The Texas House of Representatives where I serve, has passed three bills to improve the “Robin Hood” program, A-F rating system, and standardized testing. In overhauling the entire funding of our public education system, House Bill 21 will address a problem that has long plagued our West Texas districts. The “Robin Hood” scheme has been a detriment to school districts in our region, and under this bill we will be reducing the burden on our local school districts bear by allowing them to keep more of their hard-earned money.  view article