Bill Zeeble
Bill Zeeble has been a full-time reporter at KERA since 1992, covering everything from medicine to the Mavericks and education to environmental issues. Heâââ
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Parents from Katy, Austin and Keller recently launched the Texas Freedom to Read Project. All were angry over growing book bans they say infringe on free speech and access to ideas.
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PEN America has tracked a nationwide growth of laws and bills that — since 2021 — have impinged on educational free speech rights. The organization says 2023 saw 22 state legislatures approve more than 100 bills it calls “educational gag orders."
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Former instructor Michael Phillips said Collin College's decision not to renew his contract last year was based, in part, on his political leanings and public criticism of the school.
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A version of the bill that would send public money to private schools passed through a Senate committee on Thursday. Gov. Greg Abbott made such legislation one of his top priorities in this fourth special legislative session.
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The proposal is now headed to the Texas House of Representatives, where similar legislation stalled in the last special session. At the same time, House lawmakers are also debating their own voucher proposal, which has some significant differences from the Senate's.
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The latest school choice bill adds teacher raises. But is it enough to pass in the Texas LegislatureAfter more than a year of campaigning by Gov. Greg Abbott and three special sessions, the newest bill for Education Savings Accounts adds teacher pay raises, greater per-student allotment, a preference to families with lower incomes, and accountability measures. It still may not be enough to for legislators to approve sending public dollars to private schools.
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Corporal punishment is still legal in public schools in 16 states. In Texas, a principal was arrested after hitting a child with a wooden paddle. He's now back on the job. The community supports him.
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At least 20 school districts across Texas are suing the state’s education commissioner to block changes to the rating system.
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For decades, Texas' recapture, or Robin Hood, law has redistributed money from property-wealthy districts to property-poor ones. It's intended to make education funding equitable, but some districts say the system is broken.
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A survey of more than 4,200 professors in conservative Southern states — Texas, Georgia, Florida and North Carolina — found about two-thirds would not recommend their state to colleagues looking for work.