EL PASO – The race to represent one of the poorest areas in Texas has now been infused with big money from outside the district as a former lawmaker tries to take back the seat in The Legislature he surrendered several years ago to run unsuccessfully for county commissioner. That cash from a third-party group […]
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El Paso House race turns nasty as Quintanilla teams with TER in bid to unseat Rep. González
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Speaker Straus Hints at What’s to Come in Texas Legislative Session
Texas House Speaker Joe Straus said this past week that he is “personally” against repealing in-state tuition for undocumented students, he wants to work with Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick on border security, and that The Legislature should avoid “gimmicks” when deciding how to pay for critical infrastructure like roads. In a […]
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Texas Education Reforms are Key in Promoting the Middle Skills
Sweeping education reforms passed by the Texas Legislature in 2013 will be a great help to business leaders in Houston as they embark on an unprecedented push to promote “middle skills” jobs. Those are well-paying jobs that, as the Construction Citizen team has been telling you, require more than a high school diploma but less […]
The Austin School District Should Follow Houston ISD’s Progress on Construction Jobs
The Austin School Board recently voted to adopt Davis-Bacon federal wage rates on construction of facilities under the district’s new $490 million bond package. While some have hailed this as a historic step, it is seen by many as merely a short-term fix for attracting workers into the skilled trades. In short: more needs to […]
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More Resources May Be Needed For Texas Education Reforms to Work
Some lawmakers raised questions this week about whether school districts around Texas have the kind of resources they’ll need to fully implement sweeping education reforms signed into law last year. Starting this fall, students will have several new options for which path they’d like to take to earn a high school diploma. But whether those […]
Educators and Business Leaders Come Together to Support School Reforms
Note: This column originally appeared on Construction Citizen. In what will hopefully be the first in a series of events like it across Texas, business leaders and educators from the Houston area gathered to talk about the best ways they can work together to put kids on track for the skilled trades if that’s what […]
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Texas and Germany Face Labor Shortage for the Same Reason
The coming labor shortage reported on extensively at Construction Citizen, another website I write for, isn’t confined to the United States. Germany, an economic powerhouse like Texas, now has its economic performance threatened because the country’s businesses can’t find enough skilled laborers. Tweet Share
To My “Baddest” Teacher
“Your college professors will hate me for this,” is how my English teacher in the 10th grade at Louise High School started a lesson on “common usage.” He wrote on the blackboard: – “Bad” – “Badder” – “Baddest” Tweet Share
Wednesday Morning Reading: Anti-Tax Pledges, Chinese Ties, and More
Ohh…the coffee is dripping and so is the news. Those teases at the Texas Tribune continue to roll out the results of their latest polling with the University of Texas. Maybe unsurprisingly, those anti-tax pledges some politicians tout on the campaign trail don’t really do it for the majority of people, but the most conservative […]
Tuesday Morning Reading: May the Best Ad Win
As we get closer to the May 29th primary, there are some really effective political ads and there are some that fall into the “questionable” category. Tweet Share
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About Scott
Scott Braddock is a journalist and political analyst based in Austin.
