TALAS Summer Leadership Summit will be in El Paso!
Call for Proposals Texas Association of Latino Administrators and Superintendents (TALAS)State Summer Leadership Summit Theme: “Elevating Your Voice Through ACTions and LEADership”Dates: Friday, May 16, 2025, and Saturday, May 17, […]
3.2.1: On getting what you deserve, the power of flexibility, and how good decisions are made
I.
“People frequently get what they deserve, but it doesn’t feel like it because the unspoken rule is that you only deserve it if you have (1) the courage to attempt it, (2) the guts to ask for it, and (3) the willingness try again when it doesn’t work out the first time.”
II.
“If you do not bend, you will break.
The adaptable prevail. Determined, but flexible.”
Education Department’s doors blocked to House Democrats
WASHINGTON — Democratic members of the House were blocked from entering the U.S. Department of Education’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., Friday after requesting a meeting with Acting Education Secretary Denise Carter to discuss their opposition to the Trump administration’s efforts to limit department programming.
About 18 members of Congress walked up to the visitor’s entrance asking to enter after holding a press conference about their concerns. A person who was not wearing a security uniform came outside and told the group they were not allowed to enter. For the next 30 minutes, lawmakers pleaded to be let in the building, with some holding up their congressional business cards and arguing they had a right to enter the federal building as legislators who oversee federal agencies.
Exclusive: 12 Education Chiefs Ask McMahon for More Control over Federal Funds
Some state education chiefs aren’t wasting any time letting the new administration know what they want.
A dozen state leaders, all from Republican-led states, wrote to Linda McMahon, President Donald Trump’s education secretary nominee, last week asking her to push for greater state control over federal education funds and to avoid issuing guidance they say is “not anchored in law.”
In the Jan. 28 letter, shared exclusively with The 74, they also want McMahon, former head of World Wrestling Entertainment, to send large buckets of funding for schools, like Title I money for low-income students, as a block grant. But they stopped short of stating support for abolishing the U.S. Department of Education — President Donald Trump’s top education policy goal.
With vouchers fast-tracked, other Texas public education issues to watch this session
It only took the Texas Senate 22 days from the start of this year’s legislative session to introduce, debate and pass its priority school voucher bill.
Senate Bill 2, which would allow families to use taxpayer dollars to fund their children’s private school tuition, now awaits a vote in the House where similar legislation repeatedly hit a dead end two years ago. But while the Senate has moved swiftly on vouchers, state officials and education advocates have expressed a need for significant investment in public schools, which the state has a constitutional requirement to fund and where 5.5 million children receive their education.
From declining enrollment, budget deficits and program cuts to student absences, teacher shortages and campus closures, public schools walked into the 2025 legislative session with major challenges.
Do Students Suffer When a Superintendent Leaves? A New Study Has an Answer
Despite their charge to set districts’ courses and priorities, superintendent turnover has minimal effect on students’ academic performance, but the impact is most acute in districts already most prone to turnover in the top position, according to a new study.
The research—conducted by Christopher Redding and Steven Carlo at the University of Florida— is the first to explore the topic of superintendent turnover and student achievement in a decade and comes as superintendent turnover has been on the upswing since the pandemic amid high-profile political clashes and mounting challenges to students’ academic recovery, staff morale, and school budgets.
