The San Antonio Independent School District board voted 5-2 on Monday to hire Adrian Bustillos as superintendent. First named as the sole finalist for the job in June, Bustillos will replace Jaime Aquino, who joined the district in 2022. Aquino is taking on an emeritus role and plans to fully part ways with SAISD in January.  Bustillos joins SAISD with 20 years of experience in public education. His most recent role was chief transformation officer in Aldine ISD, located in north Houston. There, he oversaw innovative school models and the district’s school choice program. view article

As you know, Pastors for Texas Children has played a key role in alerting our communities and congregations to the destructive effects of private school vouchers. Unfortunately, due to the threatening intervention by President Donald J. Trump, the Texas House of Representatives passed a voucher proposal during the 89th legislative session last April. So, the fight for public education goes to the voters of Texas this November as we work to make the private school voucher issue the deciding factor in elections throughout the state.  Dr. Bruce Baker is a professor at the University of Miami and a leading national expert on public school funding. Thanks to our friend  Dr. Diane Ravitch, we came across his delightful parody of vouchers and want to share it with you. Read it out loud-- you might draw a crowd to hear it! view article

The state’s debut Texas Education Freedom Account program, which set aside $1 billion to give families public funds for private school tuition and education services, capped at roughly 96,000 students this week.  Of those, 8,676 students are in the San Antonio area across 16 school districts. More than twice as many, 21,483, students originally applied for the funds.  “This first year is groundbreaking for Texas,” said Kelly Hancock, acting Texas comptroller of public accounts. His office is overseeing the voucher-like program. view article