.jpg)
STATE CAPITAL HIGHLIGHTS
State officials began sending out the first notices to families awarded education vouchers last week, the Houston Chronicle reported. In the initial round, 42,644 qualified, mostly students with special needs who are considered the highest priority.
More than a quarter- million students have applied to the state’s voucher program, with a lottery determining who gets a spot. Initial funding for the program is $1 billion, and it is projected to support 100,000 students in its first year.
The program offers taxpayer money to help pay for private and homeschool education. The amount of each voucher awarded in the initial round varied, from $2,000 each for the 11,000 children applying for homeschool funding to an average of $15,585 for parents who documented their children’s special educational needs.
Appeals court rules for Ten Commandments in classrooms A federal appeals court last week ordered public school districts to place copies of the Ten Commandments in classrooms, the Austin America- Statesman reported.
Parents and a group of faith leaders in nine school districts sued over a 2025 state law that requires public schools to post donated posters of the Ten Commandments in classrooms.
By a split vote, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decided the law does not violate the U.S. Constitution, overturning a San Antonio federal judge’s ruling last
TEXAS PRESS ASSOCIATION
year. The case could be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
“Students are neither catechized on the Commandments nor taught to adopt them,” the judges wrote. “Nor are teachers commanded to proselytize students who ask about the displays or contradict students who disagree with them.”
Six judges on the appeals court dissented, with Judge Lesl ie H. Southwick writing that “(Texas Senate Bill) 10 is facially unconstitutional under the Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses.”
Smokable hemp ban temporarily blocked A ban on the sale of natural smokeable hemp products has been blocked, possibly unti l the end of April, by a Travis County district judge. A court hearing is set for this week.
The Texas Tribune reported lawyers for the hemp industry argue state agencies overstepped their constitutional authority by imposing new testing requirements that created a 0.3% total THC threshold.
The industry says that effectively eliminated smokeable products by essentially rewriting the statutory definitions of hemp created by legislators in 2019.
Whi le that 2019 law also limited THC levels to 0.3%, manufacturers got around it by cultivating hemp plants with another type of THC called THCA, which produces a high when ignited.
The newly written limits on any type of THC mirror those that will be imposed by the federal government in November.
STAAR ends after this spring After 15 years, this spring marks one of the final times Texas students will take the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness exams, according to the Houston Chronicle. Beginning with the 2027-28 school year, that end-ofyear assessment will be replaced by three shorter tests.
Backers of the change say it will reduce classroom time spent preparing for the test and be a more accurate measure of students’ progress. Critics say the changes will still place too much emphasis and classroom time preparing for the tests.
“The only evidence is that it will create more testing,” said state Rep. Gina Hinojosa, Gov. Greg Abbot t ’s Democrat ic challenger for governor. “We’re going from 15 tests to 51 tests by the time a kid’s done with eighth grade. It’s outrageous.”
The new Student Success Tool will provide three tests through the school year, instead of a single high-stakes test at the end of the year. Results will be available within 48 hours of each test, unl ike STAAR results, which are usually released in mid-June, months after students take the test.
Borders is a veteran award-winning Texas journalist. He published community newspapers in Texas during a 30-year span, including in Longview, Fort Stockton, Nacogdoches, Lufkin and Cedar Park. Email: gborders@texaspress.
