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Morgan Smith was a reporter at the Tribune from 2009 to 2018, covering politics, public education and inequality. In 2013, she received a National Education Writers Association award for “Death of a District,” a series on school closures. After earning a bachelor’s degree in English from Wellesley College, she moved to Austin in 2008 to enter law school at the University of Texas. A San Antonio native, her work has also appeared in Slate, where she spent a year as an editorial intern in Washington D.C.
We'll be liveblogging throughout the weekend from The Texas Tribune Festival's public and higher education track — which includes panels on the role research should play at state universities and how to pay for public education. Full Story
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Despite more details from the Obama administration today about how it would exempt states from complying with the law's signature requirements, the Texas Education Agency has yet to decide whether it will apply for a waiver on federal accountability requirements under the 2001 act. Full Story
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Former Dallas Cowboys cornerback Deion Sanders' charter school application was among eight approved by the Texas State Board of Education today. Full Story
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Abstinence still rules on a state policy level, but from Midland to Spring Branch, a quiet message is spreading through Texas schools: It's time to start teaching students about contraception. Full Story
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Dripping Springs ISD avoided laying off teachers as a result of state budget cuts. But it has eliminated custodial positions, and that has left teachers there with new tasks once the school bell rings: sweeping classrooms and taking out the trash. Full Story
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Austin lawyer and anti-affirmative-action advocate Steven Wayne Smith is planning a return to the Texas Supreme Court. Full Story
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Gov. Rick Perry’s early opposition to the Obama administration’s education policies — whose bipartisan backers include former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush — make him something of an ideological outlier among Republicans. Full Story
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DAY 28 of our month-long series on the effects of new state laws and budget cuts: Under a new tort reform law, the Texas Supreme Court will make rules to expedite certain lawsuits and to allow judges to dismiss meritless ones early on. Full Story
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The Texas Supreme Court has unanimously ruled that a $5-per-patron tax on strips clubs does not violate the First Amendment, adding the latest chapter to a four-year legal battle. Full Story
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A state judge has declined to remove District Attorney John Bradley from continuing to investigate the case of Michael Morton, whose 1987 murder conviction has been called into question by new DNA evidence suggesting someone else killed his wife. Full Story
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