The Texas Tribune’s data visuals team helped contextualize many of the state’s major stories this year. Here’s a look at some of our most memorable work.
85th Legislative Session
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Health care
Texas parents who care for their disabled children full time will lose money after pay raise
Texas Medicaid caregivers’ wages were already near the poverty level. But parents whose sole income came from taking care of their disabled children have now lost their ability to work overtime hours.
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Texas Legislature 2023
What you need to know about education savings accounts, the voucher-like program championed by Gov. Greg Abbott
Texas is the latest state to pitch a version of the program, which lets parents who opt out of their local school districts use tax dollars to pay for private schooling.
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Guns in Texas
Texas superintendent resigns after student finds his gun in school bathroom
The incident comes as lawmakers debate how to make schools safer after the Uvalde massacre and favor measures like arming more educators.
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Texas Legislature 2023
Texas senators seem open to major change in state’s public education funding formula
Senators in the finance committee asked questions Monday about the pros and cons of basing the amount of money that schools get per student on enrollment instead of attendance. Districts say the change could mean millions in additional funding.
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Texas Legislature 2023
Texas Legislature gears up to tackle long-standing and fresh issues in public education. Here’s what you need to know.
Lawmakers are looking at ways to keep teachers in the profession, make schools safer, give parents money for private schooling and censor conversations about sex and gender.
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Texas Legislature 2023
Most Texans support more school funding and teacher raises, new survey finds
As legislators begin to debate their public education priorities, the Charles Butt Foundation released a poll Tuesday showing Texans are mostly supportive of their public schools but are split on voucher-like programs.
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Texas Legislature 2021
Lawmaker pushes to allow concealed weapons in Texas public schools
A 2015 law that allowed licensed adults to carry concealed weapons on college campuses sparked widespread protest. Now one legislator wants to extend the practice to include public schools and some charter schools.
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New Texas Laws 2019
Texas’ Driver Responsibility Program ends next month. Here’s what that means for you.
More than 600,000 Texans will immediately be eligible to have their driver’s licenses reinstated after the program’s Sept. 1 repeal. The system was widely criticized for adding additional annual fees on top of the price of tickets, but all pending surcharges will soon be waived.
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Graphics and data reporting
From property taxes to teacher pay, here’s how the Texas Legislature handled spending priorities
Take a look at how Texas lawmakers reconciled major differences in their proposed two-year budgets, including funding for public schools, teacher salaries, women’s health, prison guard salaries and more.