Lawmakers this year didn’t approve extra money to help schools pay for raises despite having an unprecedented $32 billion surplus — even after Gov. Greg Abbott commissioned a task force last year to improve teacher pay and retention.

The TEA recommended the move, citing the district’s failures serving special education students. The announcement comes two weeks after the agency appointed a board of managers to oversee Houston ISD.

As the omicron surge dwindles, school district officials move to lift mask mandates.

School officials are putting a greater emphasis on testing, vaccinations and masking to combat the variant’s spread.

As state officials pressure schools on books and coronavirus measures, Stephanie Elizalde says her district will do what’s in students’ “best interests.”

The problems are concentrated among students trying to learn from home, more than 3 million of the state’s 5.5 million public school students, according to administrators’ accounts. According to KVUE-TV, about 11,700 Austin ISD students are failing at least one class this year, a 70% increase from last year. San Antonio’s Northside ISD has not changed its expectations for virtual students, despite seeing higher failure rates, said Superintendent Brian Woods. Since many students learning from home are low income, Black and Hispanic, lowering academic standards for those students could end up deepening existing inequities, he said. Bizuayehu has dyslexia and dysgraphia, which impacts his ability to write clearly by hand, and he’s found virtual learning much easier.

Houston ISD will re-open on Sept. 8 and offer online learning for six weeks. How does that plan compare to other area districts and some of the larger ones across Texas? Area districtsThe majority of area school districts will start school between Aug. 17 and Aug. 24. Goose Creek ISD is the only other school district so far with a start date of Sept. 8 and students there will begin the year virtually for three weeks. Alief ISD, the first school district in the area to announce they will be starting the year virtually, will be the earliest to start off the 2020-2021 school year on Aug. 6.

Teachers like Jennifer Boyer have become the rope in a political tug of war over reopening Texas schools. Black and Hispanic Texans, who are disproportionately susceptible to the virus, were more likely than white Texans to say in-person instruction was unsafe. “Student and teacher safety is number one.”When Texas unveiled its final plan for reopening schools this fall, the Texas Pediatric Society praised Gov. Across the state, local health authorities and teachers are refusing to comply with the state’s orders, arguing it’s not safe to go back as cases rise. By Thursday, Laredo’s local health authority mandated local schools close their buildings until cases subside.