By Joshua Benton Staff Writer Page 1B FORT WORTH – Hank Nava used to serve on the Fort Worth Police Department’s honor guard, the men and women who stand at perfect attention at the funerals of their fellow officers. “He always knew death was a possibility,” said his former partner on the force, Mike Montgomery. […]
By Holly K. Hacker and Joshua Benton Staff Writers Page 17A The mixed ruling from the Texas Supreme Court on Tuesday prompted equally mixed reactions from Dallas-area school districts. As to how the Texas Supreme Court’s ruling will affect classrooms, stay tuned. The court ruled that part of the state’s $30 billion-a-year school finance system […]
By Joshua Benton Staff Writer Page 1B The TAKS test is only three years old, so it may seem a bit young to be starting a family. But the state’s main standardized test is preparing to welcome three new tests into the world: TAKS-I, TAKS-M and TAKS-Alt. And you thought there were already enough acronyms […]
By Joshua Benton Staff Writer Page 1B More than 20,000 copies of state tests – supposedly kept under lock and key – disappeared from Texas schools this spring, according to state data. Dallas schools lost more than 7,000 test documents, more than any other district in the state. State officials say they are reconsidering their […]
By Joshua Benton Staff Writer Page 1B SHANGHAI – Bill Gates has a question he likes to ask when he talks about globalization: Twenty years ago, would you rather have been a B student in Poughkeepsie or a genius in Shanghai? And how about today? (Texans can substitute Mesquite or Waco for Poughkeepsie, if it […]
Read More… from Column: Doesn’t take a genius to see that China’s catching up
By Joshua Benton, Scott Farwell, and Kristen Holland Staff Writers Page 1B Students at Highland Park High School dressed as gang members, rap stars, maids and yard workers this month during homecoming week – a tradition one Dallas civil-rights leader says is racially insensitive. On senior Thug Day, students wore Afro wigs, fake gold teeth […]
Read More… from Students: Dress not offensive; Some say high school’s theme days crossed racial line
By Joshua Benton Staff Writer Page 1B Sometimes it takes an outsider. Something you’ve seen a thousand times may seem as normal as heat in a Texas summer – until someone new stops in and points out just how wrong it is. That’s how I felt when I read an academic paper by Jennifer Booher-Jennings, […]
By Joshua Benton Staff Writer Page 1B A baritone horn from a pawnshop. A $7,700 set of murals. A pizza crisper, cookie-dough scoops, and a Queen Anne love seat for the principal’s office. According to state auditors, those are some of the ways Wilmer-Hutchins officials spent more than $270,000 in federal education funds – money […]
Read More… from Funds misspent, school audit finds; Money for kids used for love seat, locksmith
By Joshua Benton Staff Writer Page 4B Wilmer-Hutchins officials on Tuesday approved a $74 million bond program and a new tax election – despite having no students and a state-imposed death sentence looming. And at least one official plans to ask the federal government to, in effect, give it a stay of execution. “If we […]
By Joshua Benton Staff Writer Page 4B Wilmer-Hutchins isn’t quite dead yet. At its meeting tonight, the district’s board of managers will consider asking voters to raise their taxes and spend millions on building new schools. That’s despite the fact that state officials have announced their intention to drive the school district out of legal […]