Teachers

The bill marks one of the largest education investments in state history. It includes $4.2 billion for teacher and staff pay raises. Nearly $2 billion is directed toward overhauling special education and funding full-day pre-K, early learning interventions and career and technical education. An additional $430 million is set aside for school safety measures.

The school board unanimously approved a partnership with developer Upward Communities to build 300 single-family homes offered to staff at rent below the market rate.

Hutto ISD doesn't want aspiring educators to have to choose between getting a degree and working. The fast-growing district north of Austin is launching an apprenticeship program that allows future teachers to "earn and learn" on the job.

The Austin ISD Board of Trustees unanimously voted last week to offer Segura the job. He is the first graduate of the district to serve as its superintendent.

The Texas State Board of Education is developing a process for vetting materials. Some advocacy groups are concerned the process will be politicized.

State lawmakers vowed to do right by teachers this session, as tens of thousands of educators have left the field in recent years. But the bills that still have a chance of passing include only modest raises that may not keep teachers in the classroom.

While there have been incremental salary increases in Texas and the U.S., the president of the National Education Association said, they're not keeping pace with inflation and not enough to address the nationwide teacher shortage.

The district sent the survey out to its more than 10,000 employees earlier this year. Many said high housing costs were pushing them to move farther away from Austin.

This year, as Nicole Ogburn prepares her classroom, her first priority is not the decorations she usually spends the summer picking out. Instead, it's buying things to make the classroom safer.

To help fill vacancies during a teacher shortage, a handful of teachers from Spain began working in Elgin ISD this month through a partnership with the Spanish Ministry of Education.