Federal and state authorities have arrested more than 100 illegal aliens in the controversial Colony Ridge development north of Houston. view article

Austin Independent School District announced on Tuesday that the district was officially accepted into the Teacher Incentive Allotment (TIA) program through the Texas Education Agency. The press release said the Texas Legislature created TIA to provide a way for top-performing teachers to earn higher salaries and help districts recruit and retain “highly effective” teachers. view article

Another North Texas school district is switching to a four-day school week. The Ponder Independent School District in Denton County will move to the new schedule during the 2025-2026 school year. To meet the state's requirement for 75,600 instructional minutes per year, the Ponder district will have a traditional five-day schedule for the first nine weeks of the school year, starting Aug. 6. Then, in October, the district will shift to a four-day week, with Fridays off. School days will be extended by 30 minutes on the four-day schedule, officials said. view article

The Lufkin school district says it must do a better job of promoting itself amid growing competition from charter schools and homeschooling.   view article

The lieutenant governor says the Texas Lottery Commission’s sudden reversal on online courier sales won’t stop the Senate from investigating.   view article

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is making it clear that “Sharia cities” have no place in the state, responding to growing concerns over the planned “EPIC City” development in Josephine, Texas. view article

How Texas’ proposed school voucher program could affect the Friday night lights that bring our communities together. view article

During the hearing, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick issued a statement calling on Gov. Greg Abbott to expand his investigation into the commission.   view article

Gov. Greg Abbott said Colony Ridge, a sprawling development northeast of Houston that has long been the subject of right-wing conspiracy theories, is being targeted Monday morning in President Donald Trump’s mass deportation push. view article

Fort Worth ISD leaders sought to ease the fears of parents as the district weighs closing and repurposing schools as enrollment declines. The district hosted the first in a series of community meetings Monday night. This meeting was the first chance for families and parents to hear directly from the district about its goals for the next 5, 10 and even 15 years. view article

The Texas A&M University System Board of Regents has interviewed five candidates to replace outgoing chancellor John Sharp, who is set to retire in June. State Rep. Trent Ashby (R-Lufkin) was one of the five interviewees, according to The Texas Tribune. view article

The counties hope to access state money to help pay for some criminal justice work, such as prosecuting drug cases and overtime.   view article

Attorney General Ken Paxton is taking legal action against the National Collegiate Athletic Association, seeking a temporary injunction to halt what he claims are “deceptive trade practices” as the organization’s athlete eligibility policy could allow men to compete in women’s sports.  view article

Clark Smith, one of five members of the commission, stepped down Friday as lawmakers have raised questions about the role of lottery couriers and agency governance.   view article

Several of Houston ISD's schools with the largest Latino enrollments saw drastic drops in attendance on Feb. 3 while the “A Day Without Immigrants" protest was observed nationwide — with one high school having more students absent than present. That Monday, 51% of students at Sam Houston Math, Science, and Technology Center High School were absent, according to attendance data obtained by Houston Public Media through an open records request. That means 1,186 students out of the school's total enrollment of 2,316 missed school. view article

The state is aggressively pushing to deploy the next generation of atomic energy that would power big industrial operations.   view article

The Keller ISD school board officially accepted the resignation of Superintendent Tracy Johnson during a special meeting on Thursday. She is stepping down at a time when there is a lot of uncertainty and a lot of questions about the school district’s future. view article

The decision to name Davis, UT-Austin's chief operating officer since 2023, ends President Jay Hartzell’s tenure months earlier than anticipated.   view article

Weeks after Fort Worth police seized photographs featured in a Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth exhibit, a coalition of civil liberties groups is demanding the police department close its investigation into child pornography allegations, citing First Amendment protections.  view article

The number of top-tier research universities in Texas jumped, according to a new report, making the state home to more such institutions than any other state. view article

Gannett Co. has signed an asset purchase agreement with Hearst Corp. to divest the Austin American-Statesman from the USA TODAY Network, officials with both companies announced Wednesday. view article

Students in Liberty Hill ISD will attend school four days a week at several points throughout next school year. The board of trustees adopted the district’s 2025-26 academic calendar at its Feb. 18 meeting following nearly two hours of discussion. District officials said the four-day student weeks are intended to help retain and recruit teachers as LHISD prepares to make multi-million dollar budget cuts. view article

The El Paso Independent School District has approved its academic calendars for the next two years during its district meeting on February 18. During the meeting, El Paso ISD aimed to make minimal changes to the calendar due to previous pushback from families. view article

Texas must increase its investment in water, wastewater and transit systems infrastructure, the country's foremost society of civil engineers urged state lawmakers Tuesday when it announced Texas received a "C" grade on its 2025 report card. view article

A Texan who represents the largest congressional district along the southern border is the new chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Conference, a group of Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill.  view article

Houston ISD’s calendar for next school year does not include a holiday for Eid al-Fitr — one of the biggest celebrations in the Islamic faith — and a local Muslim organization is calling on the district to reinstate it. The Houston chapter for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR-Houston, on Tuesday asked the district to restore Eid as an observed holiday. view article

With a cold winter blast blazing through parts of Texas, select school districts have announced closings and cancellations for Wednesday, Feb. 19. We are monitoring announcements and will update the story as we get more information. view article

Fort Worth ISD schools will operate on a normal schedule on Wednesday, Feb. 19, following consultation with the National Weather Service, district officials said Tuesday evening. Temperatures will plummet Tuesday as an arctic front moves through the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, according to the weather service. view article

As North Texas prepares for the arrival of an arctic cold front Tuesday night, several Dallas-area school districts have begun taking extra precautions, changing start times for outdoor games or canceling them outright. The National Weather Service issued both a winter weather advisory and extreme cold warning for Dallas-Fort Worth and surrounding areas. The advisory is scheduled for 5 p.m. Tuesday and will expire Wednesday morning. It includes Collin, Dallas, Denton, Ellis, Fannin, Grayson, Johnson and Tarrant counties. view article

North Texas school districts are making decisions about whether told cancel classes on Wednesday due to dangerously cold weather and concerns about hazardous road conditions brought on by an Arctic blast view article

A blast of Arctic air will drop temperatures below freezing on Tuesday night, and we could see some icy spots on the roads. We don't expect to see any snow or ice falling on Wednesday, but wind chills are expected to be at or near zero as kids head to school. view article

North Texans woke up Wednesday morning to blistering cold air, which prompted WFAA to trigger a Weather Alert Day for Wednesday and Thursday. Keep track of the latest forecast here. Some schools decided to cancel classes due to the extreme cold weather, while others chose to either delay start times and some resumed as normal. Most of the major school districts in North Texas are open Wednesday. view article

Economist Claudia Goldin finds it largely comes down to societal expectations of how much men should do at home  In the debate about why young Americans aren’t having kids, I have a somewhat unique perspective. I had a strong desire to become a mother, but in my late 30s, I was divorced and on my own. I decided to become a “single mom by choice” — meaning I had a child on my own using donor sperm. It’s a tough path to parenthood, but I’m glad I did it. As my story has become more widely known, I hear nearly every week from other women in their 30s and 40s who want to be mothers, too, but they have not found a life partner. They are full of questions for me. Many fear they won’t be able to afford to raise a child on their own, or cover the high price of fertility treatments or adoption. Some worry about the ethics of our donor system. Nearly all grapple with whether they can parent on their own. Can they handle the physical, financial and emotional demands of parenting — all solo? view article

When asked about the ongoing brouhaha that’s erupted in Keller Independent School District over the school board’s discussion of splitting the district, I keep telling friends the same four words. I saw this coming. Years ago, in the wake of the COVID-19 shutdown — when parents saw their kids masked, cities paralyzed, businesses closed and neighbors divided over the government’s response — a seed was planted to reclaim more control from local governments. view article

The Lone Star State is expected to replace California as the largest state by population.  If you haven't already noticed, Texas keeps growing. Now, a new report published by a real estate company that recently announced its own move to the Lone Star State, predicts that Texas will overtake California as the most populous state by 2045. view article