Camille Phillips

Camille Phillips covers education for Texas Public Radio.

She previously worked at St. Louis Public Radio, where she reported on the racial unrest in Ferguson, the impact of the opioid crisis and, most recently, education.

Camille was part of the news team that won a national Edward R. Murrow and a Peabody Award for One Year in Ferguson, a multi-media reporting project. She also won a regional Murrow for contributing to St. Louis Public Radio’s continuing coverage on the winter floods of 2016.

Her work has aired on NPR’s "Morning Edition" and national newscasts, as well as public radio stations in Missouri, Illinois, Kansas, Iowa and Nebraska.

Camille grew up in southwest Missouri and moved to New York City after college. She taught middle school Spanish in the Bronx before beginning her journalism career.

She has an undergraduate degree from Truman State University and a master’s degree from the Missouri School of Journalism at the University of Missouri-Columbia.

These Students Speak Perfect Spanglish — And Now They're Learning To Own It

By • Nov 29, 2019

Porfa please. Pero like. Janguear (to hang out).

These Spanglish phrases are all the results of contact between Spanish and English. In a Texas college classroom, students are learning that Spanglish — a version of Spanish that's influenced by English — is just as valid as any other Spanish dialect.

‘¿Qué Es Una Lengua Pura?': College Class Challenges Negative Perceptions of Spanglish

By • Oct 28, 2019

College freshman Angie Bravo’s first language is Spanish, but she wishes she were better at it.

The 18-year-old grew up in Laredo, Texas, just across the border from Mexico. Like many of her neighbors, she speaks a version of Spanish influenced by English.

Odessa Residents Try To Understand How A Shooting Could Happen In A 'Utopia In The Desert'

By • Sep 5, 2019

A line of white crosses dotted an empty lot on an otherwise busy road in south Odessa. The memorial went up several days after a shooting rampage killed seven people and wounded about 25 more in Odessa.

Somber groups of visitors trickled in to pay their respects. They quietly left flowers and balloons and wrote words of encouragement on the crosses in permanent marker. 


Are The STAAR Tests Too Hard? Critics Rally For A Closer Look

By • Apr 8, 2019

As the first wave of Texas students sit down to take the state standardized test this week, many parents, educators and lawmakers are wondering whether those tests are fair. Some are convinced the answer to that question is no.


More Than 30 Percent Of Texas School Districts Allow Educators To Carry Guns

By • Jan 14, 2019
Jorge Sanhueza-Lyon / KUT

The number of Texas school districts with policies allowing teachers and other staff to carry guns has increased almost 50 percent since a gunman killed 10 people at Santa Fe High School in May.

Texas Students Will Soon Learn Slavery Played A Central Role In The Civil War

By • Nov 16, 2018

Texas' Board of Education voted Friday to change the way its students learn about the Civil War. Beginning in the 2019-2020 school year, students will be taught that slavery played a "central role" in the war.

The state's previous social studies standards listed three causes for the Civil War: sectionalism, states' rights and slavery, in that order. In September, the board's Democrats proposed listing slavery as the only cause.