It’s Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026
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Happy Wednesday,
It’s a busy week here in North Texas. I’ve been covering President Donald Trump’s Republican Convention taking place here in Dallas, along with the launch of the Trump and Jeffrey Epstein Memorial Reading Room and Bookmobile. But—because this is Texas—we still have a lot of education news to tackle. Let’s get into it.
This week, you’ll hear from Fort Worth ISD parents who gathered ahead of last night’s school board meeting. You’ll also hear from a Dallas educator who joined Gina Hinojosa, the Democratic nominee for Texas governor, on the campaign trail last week.
We’ll also start a new book for the month of September and take a look at how much additional money the Texas Comptroller wants to infuse into the state’s private school voucher program.
If you missed last week’s edition, you can read it here.
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Texas teachers: Kids can’t afford another Greg Abbott term
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During a campaign stop in Dallas last Thursday, Democratic nominee for Texas governor Gina Hinojosa joined a bipartisan group of educators to highlight Gov. Greg Abbott’s history of hypocrisy around public education across Texas.
In June, Hinojosa launched her Team Texas Public Schools initiative, which is meant to combat schools that are closing, fight the state’s teacher shortage, and help parents advocate for their children who are in schools taken over by the state.
As governor, Hinojosa said she would fire Texas Education Agency Commissioner Mike Morath, pause the A-F accountability rating system, and audit the TEA.
Learn more about Hinojosa and Abbott here, and hear from 30-year Texas educator John Kuhn—who was a lifelong Republican but is breaking party lines for the first time to support Hinojosa—below:
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Fort Worth ISD parents call out ‘unacceptable’ leadership amid state takeover
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Photo by Noemi Castanon/Courier Texas
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Hundreds of parents showed up to a Fort Worth ISD listening session with state-appointed Superintendent Peter Licata at Arlington Heights High School last week.
Parents voiced their concerns about a new one-size-fits-all curriculum, teacher turnover, AI lesson plans, poor communication, and webcameras in classrooms.
The contentious meeting resulted in one parent getting ejected from the meeting over behaviour Licata called “unacceptable.” In response, over a dozen parents gathered yesterday evening ahead of the district’s school board meeting to call out the board of manager’s leadership.
The speakers all had a common theme: That they find Licata, his team, and the appointed-leadership’s behaviour “unacceptable”—several parents who were signed up to speak during the meeting wore t-shirts with the word printed across it—and believe their concerns are not being heard.
Parents said they believe the new leadership has created a “culture of fear” for students and teachers, and claim the district’s changes haven’t amounted to anything positive a month into the school year. Hear from the parents below:
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💰Texas’ chief financial officer wants to double school voucher funding to $2 billion: Texas Comptroller Don Huffines, who was recently appointed to the position by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott and is on the ballot this November, is asking lawmakers to increase private school voucher funding over the next two years, doubling the program’s current biennial allotment. (Courier Texas)
📚Texas A&M is removing more than 200 courses: The Texas A&M University System is removing more than 200 courses from the list of classes that can satisfy students’ general-education, or “core curriculum,” requirements at 11 of its universities including LGBTQ literature, Women’s and gender studies, Latinx literature, Race and ethnicity, and Black Americans. (The Texas Tribune)
📱Texas’ public school cell phone ban, one year in: Educators and psychologists are reflecting on how Texas classrooms have changed a year into the implementation of House Bill 1481—a statewide mandate restricting cell phone use in Texas public schools. (Audacy)
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Last week, I shared a breakdown of just a few books (out of over 2,000) that Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick wants to take off of Texas public school library shelves.
In (dis)honor of Patrick’s list, this month’s banned book is “Night” by Elie Wiesel. While not yet banned in Texas public schools, the memoir made headlines after being found on the lieutenant governor’s list—despite being approved by the Republican-dominated State Board of Education this summer as required reading for eighth graders starting in 2030.
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While it’s unclear whether Patrick knew “Night” was mandated by the SBOE a few months ago, he posted on social media that the book would be rated R if it were made into a movie.
“Night, which includes depictions of graphic violence and the machine-gunning of babies, should not be available to sixth graders in middle-school libraries. High school is more age-appropriate,” Patrick wrote on X.
The Holocaust autobiography by Auschwitz survivor Elie Wiesel details his survival, along with his father’s suffering, in the Nazi death camps. Here are a few questions to get you started:
1. What is Eliezer like at the beginning of the memoir, and what seems most important to him?
2. Why do you think Wiesel spends time describing ordinary life in Sighet before the deportation?
3. What changes when the Nazis begin imposing restrictions on the Jewish community?
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