The first studies of the effects of early school start times on adolescent health and learning were released over 25 years ago. Is it acceptable for school districts to disregard an unquestionable body of research?
Distrust leads families to not send children to school, to volunteer or to interact with educators. Immigration enforcement in schools ultimately affects both citizen and undocumented families alike, as the increased likelihood of deportation and family separation forces an especially vulnerable population of children to deal with pervasive fear and uncertainty.
The health and welfare of public school students ought surely to be a nonpartisan issue. Yet the various responses to the terrible events at Santa Fe High School indicate deeply divided opinions about the appropriate response.
When the state over-emphasizes the importance of a test by attaching high stakes to its results, then schools and the general public are encouraged to attach significance to the data that is not appropriate.
When we incarcerate mothers, we incarcerate their families, their dreams and their aspirations for a better life. Detention is not the solution, and we have taken it upon ourselves to help more people understand that.
A poem.
Not every criminal is mentally ill, and not every person who suffers from a mental health issue is a criminal. However, one woman I know had a mental illness and became a criminal in the eyes of the law. Would she have become a criminal if adequate mental health services existed? Probably not.
As child welfare administrators try to enhance their efforts to provide more effective sex education to foster youth, it is critical that they seek to address the unique experiences, vulnerabilities, identities and resourcefulness of young people in care.
If you really appreciate teachers, please send us personal notes, because we really do treasure and save them, but also support us in our efforts. Happy, well-compensated teachers with reasonable class sizes and schedules make for better educational outcomes and a better future for all Texans.
While there may be merit in having the National Guard provide systems of support for Customs and Border Protection, the premises under which the troops were deployed were based on falsehoods about unauthorized persons and the immigrant community.
Real progress in education will require a critical reexamination of school funding. Just as we adjusted from funding “telephones” to funding “communications,” through the telecommunications industry, we must shift from just funding schools to actually funding education in the education industry.
If your student is identified through the STAAR test as having weaknesses in one or more areas, keep in mind that is not an attack on your student, nor is it an attack on you as a parent. Rather, it is a challenge to you, your student, the teachers and school to find additional ways to grasp the concepts the child does not understand.
On March 28, 2017, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (CCA) violated the U.S. Constitution in rejecting Bobby Moore’s claim that he is intellectually disabled and thus ineligible for the death penalty. Yet today, more than a year later, Moore remains under a death sentence and is still on death row.
I wish more moms experienced this type of tired inspiration that has become such a part of my life on the campaign trail. There aren’t nearly enough women like me running for office. There aren’t nearly enough women like me writing legislation for women like me in office.
Texas reduces citizen voter participation by turning voting into a chore with multiple elections, including costly, low turnout runoffs. Thankfully, there are voting systems like instant runoff voting that can eliminate the cost and burden of runoff elections.
As a professor, researcher, and volunteer, I have met with hundreds of forced migrants from Central America and Mexico over the past decade. What I have learned is that they do not see that they had a choice in the matter; their survival and family well-being depended on getting away from cities like San Pedro Sula and Tegucigalpa, Honduras or San Salvador, El Salvador.
Given the opportunity to dramatically change the course of a young person’s life for the better, most people would pursue it. Unfortunately, many young people experiencing early episodes of psychosis in Texas aren’t able to access the treatment and care that could give them that opportunity.
As many voters in our state slide towards silence and civic apathy, we must mute the screech of partisan conflict emanating from the national stage and reengage with the politics of city halls and backyards, the politics that has a tangible impact on citizens and their day-to-day lives.
Perhaps the reason Millennials (not to mention Generation X and post-Millennials) care about climate change is that no one born after 1964 has experienced a cooler-than-average year. Given that we are likely to be saddled with the ramifications, we don’t wish to inherit a crushing public debt nor a crippling environmental debt. We understand the need to reduce human-generated greenhouse gas emissions. Now.
As Lupe Valdez and Andrew White take to the debate stage, heated past Democratic gubernatorial primaries from 1972 and 1990 highlight how the nastiest battles are often fought within a political family. Vicious runoffs resulted in political divides that didn’t heal for decades.
