Past Contributions

• New in TribTalk: Aycock on School Finance

  By Robert Inks Oct. 11, 2016

  Texas' Constitution, courts and lawmakers have combined to make funding public education almost impossible, writes outgoing House Public Education Committee Chairman Jimmie Don Aycock. Full Story 

• New in TribTalk: From 1824 to 2016

  By Robert Inks Oct. 6, 2016

  How odd it would be if, after this grueling election season, neither one of our major candidates gets a majority of electoral votes? It's happened before, writes political consultant Mustafa Tameez. Full Story 

• New in TribTalk: Refugees in Texas

  By Robert Inks Oct. 5, 2016

  The thousands of compassionate Texans who have helped resettle refugees for over four decades in the Lone Star State will not abandon them in their hour of need, writes Aaron Rippenkroeger of Refugee Services of Texas. Full Story 

• New in TribTalk: Expanding Dual Credit

  By Robert Inks Oct. 4, 2016

  A collaborative, thoughtful approach to dual-credit expansion will better prepare students either for further academic work at higher education institutions or for the workforce, writes Texas Higher Education Commissioner Raymund Paredes. Full Story 

• New in TribTalk: Alternatives to Workers' Comp

  By Robert Inks Oct. 3, 2016

  Texas has become the nation's economic engine in large part by allowing competition to thrive in markets, even in such unlikely activities as providing benefits for injured workers, write Bill Peacock and Jennifer Minjarez of the Texas Public Policy Foundation. Full Story 

• New in TribTalk: STAAR and School Funding

  By Robert Inks Sept. 30, 2016

  If Texas uses STAAR testing as a basis for school funding, the state's slow creep toward a separate and unequal school system will turn into a sprint. Full Story 

• New in TribTalk: The Next Abortion Battlefront

  By Robert Inks Sept. 29, 2016

  While HB 2 is gone, one of the harshest barriers to abortion access for Texans — the Hyde Amendment — remains, write Amanda Williams and Laila Khalili of the Lilith Fund. Full Story 

• New in TribTalk: Police Shootings and the Whole Truth

  By Robert Inks Sept. 26, 2016

  While The Texas Tribune's "Unholstered" series contributes to a critical public discussion, too much detail is lost when reducing police-involved shootings to statistics, writes Randy Petersen of the Texas Public Policy Foundation's Right on Crime initiative. Full Story 

• New in TribTalk: Can Texas Values Transcend Politics?

  By Robert Inks Sept. 23, 2016

  With emotions particularly high this year, Texans from both ends of the political spectrum are spending a lot of time demonizing each other. But, Center for Public Policy Priorities Executive Director Ann Beeson asks, are we really so different than our neighbors? Full Story 

• New in TribTalk: Conservatives and the Constitution

  By Robert Inks Sept. 22, 2016

  Comparatively higher levels of support among liberals for amending the constitution might well reinforce conservative impulses to defend the status quo and defeat Gov. Greg Abbott's plan for a convention of states, write Jim Henson and Joshua Blank of the Texas Politics Project. Full Story