- Texas Governor Greg Abbott has signed one of the largest public education funding bills in state history. As the Texas Newsroom’s Lucio Vasquez reports, the measure includes billions for teacher raises, special education and school safety.
House Bill 2 includes 4.2 billion dollars for teacher and staff raises. It also dedicates nearly 2-billion to revamp special education and expand access to full-day pre-K and early-learning programs. An additional 430-million is set aside for school safety. Governor Greg Abbott signed the bill at Salado High School north of Austin, alongside lawmakers and local educators. Abbott: Texas is number one in so many categories. Texas should be number one in educating our children. This comes just months after Abbott declared teacher pay as one of his top priorities during this year’s legislative session. Most of the law will take effect in September, though some parts will roll out next year. I’m Lucio Vasquez in Houston.
- Texas college students without legal status are no longer eligible for in-state tuition. Attorney General Ken Paxton announced Wednesday the state worked with the U.S. Department of Justice to ask a judge to permanently block the decades-old policy. It came after the Justice Department sued Texas over the law. Texas extended in-state tuition to eligible students without legal status in 2001. Nearly half of states have since adopted similar laws.
