By Joshua Benton Staff Writer Page 1A “History repeats itself,” Karl Marx famously wrote. “First as tragedy, second as farce.” He might as well have added: Third as a high school textbook. Once a decade, Texas adopts new social studies texts for its schools. The politically charged process is upon us again, and the books […]
By Joshua Benton Staff Writer Page 1A “Whip Inflation Now.” “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.” Reaganomics. Spiro Agnew. Nicaragua, Libya and Grenada. If you’re above a certain age, memories from the ’70s and ’80s just came rushing back. If you’re a recent high school graduate, you might be drawing a blank, and it’s no […]
By Joshua Benton Staff Writer Page 1A Twenty years ago, four years of college in Texas cost less than a new Betamax. Now, the price tag is more like that of a new car. The cost of attending a public four-year university in Texas has shot up 63 percent in the last decade, even after […]
By Joshua Benton Staff Writer Page 1A Decades ago, when David Foerch was a young teacher in Dallas, principals had a ready threat for staff members who didn’t pull their weight. “They’d say, ‘If you folks don’t shape up, we’ll send you to Wilmer-Hutchins!’” For years, the Wilmer-Hutchins schools have been a symbol of bad […]
By Joshua Benton Staff Writer Page 1A Don’t put down those No. 2 pencils just yet. Many Texas students probably thought that last week’s Texas Assessment of Academic Skills was their last state test for a while. But sometime over the next three weeks, they’ll fill in one more bubble sheet. And this time, it’s […]
By Joshua Benton Staff Writer Page 23A Texas will soon have a “dropout czar” to oversee all of the state’s efforts to keep children in school, the new education commissioner said this week. Felipe Alanis, who took office on April 1, said the Texas Education Agency needed to do a better job of coordinating the […]
By Kim Horner and Nancy Calaway Staff Writers Page 1A FORT WORTH – A band of severe storms sliced through East Fort Worth during Tuesday afternoon’s rush hour, spawning at least one tornado and smashing homes but causing only minor injuries. Tornadoes touched down in at least three places in Tarrant County, officials reported, evoking […]
Read More… from Tornadoes hit area; Storms rip FW neighborhood, but no serious injuries reported
By Joshua Benton Staff Writer Page 25A Larry Faulkner, president of the University of Texas, had a blunt message for the students of South Oak Cliff High School. “Here’s my pitch: We want you,” he told an audience of juniors and seniors Monday. “We want to see you in Austin, and we’re going to stay […]
By Joshua Benton Staff Writer Page 1A As many as 2,400 people become teachers in Texas every year despite having unnoticed criminal records, according to a state agency that is recommending all new teachers be fingerprinted before being allowed into a classroom. “There’s no surefire way of protecting the children, but we want to do […]
By Joshua Benton Staff Writer Page 29A The long-troubled Wilmer-Hutchins school district has displayed “a pattern of disregard for law” and needs a full-time state master to oversee its activities, according to a withering report issued Thursday by the Texas comptroller’s office. “You can fix things our way, or you can fix it your way,” […]