Merrill Hope

Texas has been in limbo on its No Child Left Behind (NCLB) waiver renewal since January when state and federal officials did not see eye-to-eye on a few of the finer points. Since then, the Texas Education Agency (TEA) was expected to resubmit its waiver request on March 31. However, in a letter on that day, Education Commissioner Michael Williams notified US Education Secretary Arne Duncan that Texas would instead submit its NCLB waiver request on June 1.

DALLAS, Texas — The US Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on Tuesday, March 31, that they opened an investigation of Dallas County Truancy Court and Juvenile District Courts. The investigation is being conducted through its Special Litigation Section of the Civil Rights Division.

In two back-to-back undercover operations conducted in neighboring Texas Gulf Coast counties, a total of 24 alleged child predators were arrested. These stings, carried out on back-to-back days this week, sought to identify and apprehend alleged perverts who surfed social media websites in search of vulnerable children for sex.

Teacher-student sexual misconduct in public schools is a serious matter. Last year, Texas landed at the unenviable top position on the list in a Drive West Communications study. A whopping 116 of the nation’s 781 recorded educator-student misconduct cases happened in the Lone Star State. This revelation came on the heels of the Texas Education Agency (TEA) experiencing a 27 percent increase in these kinds of inquiries which was was followed by 74 new cases under TEA investigation, as Breitbart Texas previously reported.

Pro-vaccination legislative fever is sweeping the nation faster than the recent measles and whooping cough outbreaks combined. Texas is no exception. A glut of proposed mandatory inoculation bills are moving through the 84th Legislative session. These are bills that would threaten existing vaccination exemptions.

A bill in the Texas House authored by State Rep. Jason Villalba (R-Dallas) would allow a school district to require mental health evaluations of students at the sole discretion of the school. This could lead to wrongful mental health determinations, and result in suspensions or alternative education placements of students, even creating an offense.

Parents at one North Texas middle school are outraged over an online book called Killing Children that graphically describes murderous rampages. The “kill list” of characters are the schoolmates of the eighth grade male author. Many of the parents see him as a threat to the safety and well-being of their children and, in response, at least 50 of them protested peacefully outside of Tidwell Middle School in Justin, on Monday morning, March 23.

On Thursday evening, March 19, the Irving City Council passed a resolution that expressed support for Texas House Bill 562, a proposed piece of legislation that is scheduled for its first public hearing in Austin next week. It is a bill that has been nicknamed American Laws for American Courts.

Teacher-student sexual misconduct cases are on the rise nationwide. It is a disturbing trend that is higher than ever and, in Texas public schools, it has increased by 41 percent in less than six months.

It seems like such an anomaly that Texas homeschoolers are still fighting for their rights in a state that ranks among the best in the nation to homeschool. Yet, last week, more than 250 homeschooled students and their parents convened in Austin for the Texas Home School Coalition’s (THSC) Capitol Days to lobby for legislation that will strengthen parental rights, if passed, during the 84th Legislative session.

Texas A&M may have compromised the personal records of approximately 5,000 graduate students and university faculty members by accidentally making their personal information public, including Social Security numbers.

An Orthodox Jewish Dallas rabbi was the victim of vandals who defaced his vehicle by spray painting it with the very emblem of hatred — a swastika. The incident happened In the early evening hours of Wednesday, March 11.

The House Committee for Juvenile Justice & Family Issues heard testimony at the state Capitol in Austin on bills that either eased or ended truancy as a juvenile crime in the state of Texas. More than 200 people signed up to speak before the committee to air their opinions on the hotly contested topic on Wednesday, March 11.

It was standing room only in a marathon meeting on the Texas House floor. Six proposed early childhood education bills were presented and debated before the House Committee on Public Education on Tuesday, March 10. The biggest issue of the day was half-day versus full-day of pre-Kindergarten (pre-K), although a frontrunner emerged in House Bill 4 (HB 4) authored by Rep. Dan Huberty (R-Houston).

If it was not enough that the mere display of the United States flag hurt students’ feelings at a University of California campus, the mere likeness to the flag was cause for controversy at a Texas public school where the Red, White and Blue offended the surrounding neighborhood’s sense of aesthetics. “The developer told us that he had one homeowner complain about the colors,” said Canutillo Independent School District (ISD) spokesman Rene Leon in a CBS4 interview.

The population of Texas could double by 2050, says a new report released by the Office of the State Demographer. This would be the result if migration patterns continue at the same pace they have been growing during the 2000-2010 decade.

An ongoing battle over whether or not red-light traffic cameras will continue to be installed or even remain in a North Texas city played out with a huge win for the people — and the people, they want those cameras

Lubbock Christian School (LCS) Superintendent Peter Dahlstrom has been named the 2015 recipient of the Vaughn Luster Award, as the outstanding administrator of a member school of the National Christian School Association (NCSA). LCS is the oldest private school in the greater Lubbock area.

A federal judge has granted a request from Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price (D-District 3) for taxpayer dollars to fund the legal defense attorney in his corruption trial.

CBS DFW reported that on Friday morning, March 6, US Magistrate Renee Toliver granted the request to Price who was arrested and indicted last summer as part of a corruption investigation. He has since pleaded not guilty and has maintained his innocence.

Today, Texas is only one of two states that still criminalizes truancy. Texas prosecutes children for truancy at more than double the rate of all forty-nine other states combined. Schoolchildren are prosecuted, punished and fined for cutting classes and missing school. Their futures are often jeopardized by criminal records over their unlawful absenteeism.

Senator Ted Cruz spoke out against Common Core during a speech to a Florida conservative organization.  “We should repeal every word of Common Core,” he said. “We should get the federal government out of the business of curriculum.” This was not

In the relative calm of an early morning where North Texas was bracing for a rare snow storm, the Dallas suburb of Irving got a wake-up call, literally, on Friday, February 27, when a small 3.1 magnitude earthquake struck at 6:18 AM, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS). This was the first temblor felt in a month.

A West Texas mother was furious and demanded an apology from a middle school assistant principal. The assistant principal used a black magic marker to fill in a perceived gap in the hair part on her son’s head. Apparently, the hairstyle