Questions loom about former HISD Trustee who went on vacation after entering guilty plea for conspiracy tied to bribes
Former Houston Independent School District Board of Education president, Rhonda Skillern-Jones, entered a guilty plea back in Oct. 2021 for conspiracy tied to bribes within the district. Now, she's traveling overseas at her leisure. Experts question if she's not being held accountable.
San Francisco school board's latest crisis: Racist tweets
FILE - In this June 1, 2020, file photo, San Francisco Mayor London Breed speaks outside City Hall in San Francisco. Breed joined a chorus of officials who have denounced the tweets by the vice president of San Francisco's school board, Alison Collins, as racist and anti-Asian. The posts resurfaced last week amid a surge of violence and harassment against Asian Americans in the San Francisco Bay Area and around the country. They are the latest embarrassment for San Franciscoโs school board, which has prided itself on putting racial equity at the top of its agenda. Under a plan recently negotiated with its labor unions, San Francisco plans to phase-in the reopening of elementary school classrooms in mid-April.
After an indoor reception for Texas education officials, many attendees weren't told of COVID-19 diagnoses
The DoubleTree Suites in Austin was the site of a reception where dozens of people celebrated outgoing Texas Board of Education members. At one point, Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath made an appearance, said Todd Webster, a Hillco Partners lobbyist and former Texas education commissioner who attended. All Texas Education Agency staff members who stopped by wore masks and adhered to safety protocols while there, Anderson said. From left: Attorney Darrick Eugene and outgoing SBOE member Ken Mercer at the reception for Mercer and other departing State Board of Education members. She said she was not aware that attendees, other than board members, were not notified of the infections.
Texas education officials consider changing states sex education policy for first time in 23 years
State law requires that schools teaching sex ed stress abstinence. Pu Ying Huang for The Texas TribuneFor the first time since 1997, Texas education officials will consider a new statewide sexual education policy, and it could include teaching middle schoolers about birth control options beyond abstinence. That proposed revision to the states health education standards is expected to draw crowds of people albeit virtually to Mondays State Board of Education meeting, where members will take public comment and discuss the changes. Advocates for comprehensive sexual education consider the proposed change a win and will rally for the board to approve it. Texas Values is also urging board members to exclude health standards teaching students about gender identity or sexual orientation.
โNames are importantโ: Texas activists protest the renaming of โMexican-American Studiesโ course to โEthnic Studiesโ
Republican State Board of Education member David Bradley proposed the new course title in April, saying he found "hyphenated Americanism to be divisive.โ On Tuesday, another board member, Democrat Ruben Cortez, called Bradley โthe most mean-spiritedโ person on the board.
Texas education board approves course formerly known as Mexican-American studies
After years of debate, the State Board of Education voted preliminarily to create curriculum standards for a Mexican-American studies class. But thanks to the objections of one member, it'll now be called โEthnic Studies: An Overview of Americans of Mexican Descent.โ