February 1 marked the final day of National School Choice Week. Governor Abbott issued a proclamation that it was Texas School Choice Week as well. Friends of TCCRI like Randan Steinhauser of the Texas School Choice Coalition published thoughtful and compelling editorials calling for Texas to join the 30+ states that have private school choice programs...

AUSTIN, TX – The Texas Conservative Coalition Research Institute (TCCRI) is pleased to support the final version of House Bill 3, which provides the most substantive reform of the school finance system in decades.

Under the leadership of Governor Abbott, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, Speaker Dennis Bonnen, Chairman Larry Taylor, and Chairman Dan Hube...

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I. School Choice

A. Charter Public Schools

Texas has a robust public school choice program in the form of charter schools. Charter campuses are public schools. They are funded based on daily attendance, just like traditional public schools. They must comply with state and federal laws relating to things li...

Summary

The Senate Select Committee on Violence in Schools and School Security has a great responsibility in researching legislative options under today’s charge. The Texas Conservative Coalition Research Institute (TCCRI) also takes great interest in today’s charge. The Committee is correct to focus its efforts on the root causes of school shootings: g...

Introduction

This committee’s charge on funding for general academic teaching institutions is an important one. Once minimum operational obligations have been met with respect to government funding of education, there is a strong argument in favor of all additional funding being tied directly to student competency and performance. The second part of the...

Introduction

Today’s charge on campus free speech is one in which the Texas Conservative Coalition Research Institute (TCCRI) takes a particular level of interest. As TCCRI noted in a January 2017 White Paper entitled “Campus Free Speech Protection,” “the rights to speak freely and to freely associate on college campuses are in peril.” Indeed, the paper...

Executive Summary

Approximately 13 percent of children attending public schools in the U.S. are children diagnosed with special needs such as autism, speech delays, or vision or hearing impairments. e Texas Education Agency (TEA) reports the state is home to nearly a half-million such students, yet the Houston Chronicle’s investigative reporting indicat...

Introduction

" Our Constitution endows the people's elected representatives with vast discretion in fulfilling their constitutional duty to fashion a school system fit for our dynamic and fast-growing State's unique characteristics. We hope lawmakers will seize this urgent challenge and upend an ossified regime ill- suited for 21st century Texas. "

- Jus...

Executive Summary

Despite constitutional guarantees, the rights to speak freely and to freely associate on college campuses are in peril. At an increasing rate, campus speech codes impose burdens ranging from a chilling effect to outright censorship of communication. The Lone Star State is not immune from this troubling trend. The Legislature should re-...

Introduction

In September of 2015, a public school in Irving, Texas called the local police about a high school student perceived to be dangerous. Shortly thereafter, the student was arrested after authority figures mistook a clock the boy had engineered and brought to class for a possible bomb. Close to Irving, however, administrators failed to prevent...