The speech by education commissioner Robert Scott to the Texas Association of School Administrators on Monday will inevitably spawn considerable speculation about Rick Perry’s future involvement in education policy issues. The remarkable thing about the speech is that Scott sounded a lot more like a policy maker than a bureaucrat. He apologized for the $4 [...]

I was talking to an attorney for the plaintiffs in the upcoming Supreme Court case, when he said that conservatives may intervene in the school finance lawsuit. Their contention, the attorney said, is that an efficient system could be achieved with school choice and vouchers. A school finance lobbyist told me about a law review [...]

About 40 protesters clad in black with duct tape over their mouths lined the intersection at Congress Ave. and 11th Street in front of the State Capitol in opposition of the National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2012. The protesters were not alone in disputing the law. Former Solicitor General Ted Cruz did not attend [...]

 Candid comments from two state agency leaders earlier this week about budget realities reinforce a view of some that Texas has no choice but to reform its tax structure to create a more stable system to meet needs of a growing population. But a hard pushback against any new revenue from some quarters will mean [...]