Texas

School vouchers continue momentum in state legislatures

2023 was considered a landmark year for school choice. It’s a trend that is showing no sign of slowing down, as lawmakers push proposals with fewer restrictions and costly price tags.

  • By Daniel C. Vock

A transparent, open-source vision for U.S. elections

Voting technology in the U.S. is secretive and often expensive. Can an open-source alternative take its place?

  • By Spenser Mestel, Undark

10 lessons learned from the Justice Department's review of the Uvalde school shooting

COMMENTARY | The critical review of the Uvalde, Texas, school shooting offers key takeaways to help policymakers, practitioners and schools avoid the same failures if faced with a similar situation.

  • By Jaclyn Schildkraut, Rockefeller Institute of Government

San Antonio plans to tackle violence with a public health approach. Here’s what that looks like.

Several cities use the "beyond-policing" approach that aims to reduce gun-related violence, sexual assaults and other crimes against people.

  • By Alejandro Serrano, The Texas Tribune

Mental health funding is fast becoming “the bipartisan issue of our time”

States from California to Texas are increasingly investing in mental health as a recognition takes hold that the status quo isn’t working.

  • By Katherine Barrett & Richard Greene

Texas quietly moves to formalize acceptable cancer risk from industrial air pollution. Public health officials say it’s not strict enough.

Without public hearings, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality is proposing to adopt its 17-year-old standard that scientists and public health officials say fails to account for cumulative air pollution.

  • By Dylan Baddour, The Texas Tribune

Supreme Court to take up two state laws on social media

The high court will hear challenges to Florida and Texas laws that seek to control how social media platforms “censor” disfavored political views.

  • By Michael Moline, Florida Phoenix

Printing a place to live: In Central Texas, homes are being built with emerging 3D technology

3D homes can eventually help lessen the housing crisis, and do it in a climate-friendly way.

  • By Noah Alcala Bach, The Texas Tribune

Gulf Coast carbon capture gets $1 billion boost from Biden administration

Texas and Louisiana are slated for largest-ever investment in direct air capture as part of an initiative that aims to build a nationwide network of large-scale carbon removal sites to mitigate the climate crisis.

  • By Lyric Aquino, Grist

With $1.4B Investment, Texas Hopes to Sprint to the Front of the Microchip Manufacturing Race

The state will pump the money into microchip research and manufacturing initiatives in an effort to attract new investments, secure lucrative federal grants and create thousands of high-paying jobs over the next decade.

  • By Francisco Uranga, The Texas Tribune

A New Texas Law Erodes the Power of City Councils

The long-sought bill stops the state’s bluer urban areas from enacting laws that exceed state law on a number of fronts. Republicans say the patchwork of local laws were hurting businesses.

  • By Joshua Fechter, The Texas Tribune

GOP Governors Respond to Texas' Call for Troops at Border

Four more governors have joined a growing list of Republican-led states sending personnel to the U.S.-Mexico border. But is it effective? Plus, more news to use from around the country in this week's State and Local Roundup.

  • By Elizabeth Daigneau
Featured eBooks
The State of Trust in Government
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Building Data Literacy in the State and Local Workforce

An Outdated Tracking System Is a Key Factor in Texas’ Foster Care Shortcomings

The decades-old system foster care officials use to track and monitor the health records of the nearly 20,000 children in their custody is both outdated and unreliable—so much so, advocates say, that children have been harmed or put at risk.

  • By Colleen DeGuzman, KFF Health News

As Title 42 Comes to an End, El Paso Declares State of Emergency

El Paso Mayor Oscar Leeser said asylum-seekers are camping out on the sidewalks and staying at shelters in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, under the false notion that they will be allowed to enter the U.S. once Title 42 expires.

  • By Sneha Dey, The Texas Tribune

Texas Governor Hires 'Border Czar' to Accelerate Wall Construction

Mike Banks, a recently retired Border Patrol agent, will work with the Texas National Guard and state troopers to find ways to deter people from crossing the border illegally.

  • By Uriel J. García, The Texas Tribune

Election Administrators Are Under Attack. Here’s What That Means for the Upcoming Midterms.

Harassment and threats have driven election officials to resign at unprecedented rates since the 2020 presidential election. David Becker, the founder of The Center for Election Innovation & Research, talked with ProPublica and The Texas Tribune about what that means for the future of our democracy.

  • By Jeremy Schwartz, ProPublica

Conspiracy Theorists and 16-hour Days: Inside the Stress Elections Officials Face Ahead of the Midterms

Running elections in Texas has never been easy. But since 2020, the scrutiny elections administrators face has grown — even in small Republican-controlled counties that former President Donald Trump carried.

  • By Pooja Salhotra

How Hurricane Ian and Other Disasters Are Becoming a Growing Source of Inequality

COMMENTARY | It's an issue even among the middle class, experts say.

  • By Anna Rhodes and Max Besbris, The Conversation

Texas AG Says Counties Can Spend Covid Relief Funds on Extra Pay for Elected Officials Without Public Notice

The nonbinding legal opinion states local elected and appointed officials can receive up to $25,000 for work done during the Covid-19 pandemic on top of their regular salaries. Unlike other pay raises, these “premium pay” bonuses don’t need to be declared to the public ahead of time.

  • By Trent Brown, The Texas Tribune

Texas has Banned More Books Than Any Other State, New Report Shows

Across the country, more books have been challenged and removed as religious and conservative groups target LGBTQ and race issues.

  • By Brian Lopez, The Texas Tribune

The Fighting Over Online Sales Taxes Isn’t Finished

Deals worked out between local governments and companies before the Supreme Court cleared the way for taxing e-commerce are drawing increased scrutiny. If the agreements fall apart, it could blow a hole in some city budgets.

  • By Liz Farmer