Rob Reid

A fight to save an Austin middle school puts families at odds with Texas over how to rate schools Legislators have a chance this summer to replace the STAAR test. What they come up with will decide the fate of schools like Dobie Middle School, where low test scores have pushed the Austin district ...

"What happens when the state’s metrics used to measure success and failure in education are fundamentally at odds with how a community views their schools?"
www.texastribune.org/2025/07/30/t...

I wanted to shout out to my "tireless" colleagues at the Texas Tribune reporting on the weekend's flooding, but on Monday morning it's clear that they're very tired. The reporting is insightful, the photos visceral, and the tips for how to help purposeful. www.texastribune.org/series/texas...

With only 8% built, Texas quietly defunds state border wall program Texas officials suggested the federal government could pick up construction. However, during President Trump’s first term, his administration built about one-third of what the state was able to put up...

"Sen. Bob Hall, R-Edgewood, wondered aloud whether the Legislature was 'spending a whole lot of money to give the appearance of doing something rather than taking the problem on to actually solve it.'"
www.texastribune.org/2025/06/17/t...

See how your representatives in the Texas Legislature voted on this year’s major bills Our interactive tool allows you to search how state lawmakers voted on the most consequential proposals debated during the session, which ended June 2.

My colleague Carla developed this nifty tool to look up how your Texas state legislators voted on some of the most significant bills this session...and see the current status of those bills. www.texastribune.org/2025/06/13/t...

From Beto to Karl Rove, John Bolton to Maureen Dowd, a former chief justice to the CEO of the Marshall Project...TribFest 2025's lineup of thought leaders is wildly eclectic. I'm really looking forward to it, and hope you can join us. festival.texastribune.org/event/c17d2d...

This should be super helpful as I plan my urban walking group events this summer!

Is it law yet? See how far some of the most consequential bills have made it in the 2025 Texas Legislature We’re tracking the status of major bills through the final stretch of the session.

As we approach the close of the Texas Legislature's 2025 session, our bill tracker summarizes the status of nearly 30 of the most consequential bills, including 7 education-related bills, with hyperlinks to our latest reporting on each. www.texastribune.org/2025/05/20/t...

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Texas megadonor Alex Fairly joined forces with the GOP’s ultraconservative wing. He didn’t like what he saw. Fairly, an Amarillo businessman, backed many candidates aligned with conservative West Texas billionaire Tim Dunn’s political operation in 2024. Now he’s disavowing what he says are dishonest and aggr...

As a first-year staffer, I've benefited greatly from the baseline of trust the Trib built over the prior 15 years. Sharing a piece that exemplifies a colleague building trust with a new source. Check it out and consider becoming a member- no donation too small.
www.texastribune.org/2025/05/08/a...

That $15.5k statement needed to be fact-checked more than once! I particularly liked the LBB analysis and Taylor quotes, and above all agree it's important to be clear about what we are and aren't counting.

"The numbers ignore rising costs due to inflation...[and] are also based on data from the 2022-2023 school year, when school districts still had access to unprecedented amounts of temporary federal money allocated to help academic recovery following the COVID-19 pandemic."

I'm looking forward to hearing my ever-insightful colleagues Jaden, Eleanor, and Matthew reflect on the numerous education bills still being deliberated in the legislature. You can join us for this free event at Austin's beautiful Central Library on June 11. trib.it/ahPqTG

Nothing builds character like persistent obstructive freight train traffic.

Is Dolton #1 on popes per capita?

"seems" plus a private pandas repo exported to Postgres then sqlite queryable thru datasette?

I don't like to mourn such sad news in public, but I'm hoping I have a rich follower who wants to save a terrific Austin music club.

Texas school districts got their first A-F grades in five years. See how your school did here. The Texas Education Agency released the 2022-23 school year ratings on Thursday after a 19-month legal battle over how those ratings are calculated.

...and at almost the same time, we published an interactive tool for looking up the recently published ratings for any public school campus or district in Texas. www.texastribune.org/2025/04/24/t...

1 in 5 Texas schools got a D or F rating under new performance standards Failing grades for districts were made public for the first time since 2019. They showed schools with the poorest students were more likely to get a low score.

2022-23 school year data released this morning shows that school ratings declined after the state changed its rating thresholds.

…and learned a bit of history on the way, discovering this surviving 1950s model windmill that outlasted its accompanying home- which was demolished to make way for the MoPac in the late 1960s.

After rounding the tip of the isle, we headed back to Deep Eddy/Tarrytown, planning some future adventures based on steps not taken…

A narrow sidewalk along the Shelton Bridge led us to Red Bud Isle- a man-made island built on the surface of a dam that collapsed 125 years ago.

Part VII of Walking Austin’s Neon Wilderness avoided busy streets in favor of a meandering residential route around Deepy Eddy- where we noticed homesteads with more to offer than the brute opulence the area is known for.

This graphic promotes ticket sales for the 2025 Texas Tribune Festival. Get tickets for TribFest, happening November Thirteenth through Fifteenth in downtown Austin. Buy tickets at TribFest Dot Org before May First and save big.

Tickets are on sale now for the 15th annual Texas Tribune Festival, Nov. 13–15 in downtown Austin! Get tickets before May 1 and save big. Discounts available for members, students and educators. trib.it/tribfest2025... #TribFest25

This makes parenting sound easy

Government Salaries Explorer | The Texas Tribune The Texas Tribune's Government Salaries Explorer lists compensation for Texas state employees.

Aside from the Schools Explorer, one of my other primary responsibilities at the Tribune is maintaining our Government Salaries Explorer. This morning we posted our quarterly update including state comptroller data from April 1. salaries.texastribune.org

Texas Public Schools Texas Public Schools: Use our database to learn more about the state’s 1,207 districts and 9,082 public schools, including hundreds of charter schools and alternative campuses. You can easily navigate through information on demographics, academic performance, college readiness and average teacher salaries for each school or district.

Our Schools Explorer lets you look up demographics, graduation rates, teacher experience, SAT scores and more for any school district or campus in Texas. Updated for the first time in two years to include the latest available data.
schools.texastribune.org

Trump wants to dismantle the Education Department. That could hurt students with disabilities in Texas. In a state with a checkered history with federal special education law, advocates say Texas students will see an erosion of their disability rights protections.

The DoE, which may soon be dismantled, had compelled Texas in 2018 to reevaluate students denied special education services because of a cap set by the state to reduce special education costs.
www.texastribune.org/2025/04/07/e...

Many see "Robin Hood" as a villain. But lawmakers rely on it to pay for schools. Even outspoken critics of the controversial program that redistributes money among school districts, acknowledge that they need it to avoid future school-finance lawsuits.

Our 2019 piece on recapture is still relevant www.texastribune.org/2019/01/31/t...

Absolutely a key part of the budget picture! On the list of followup pieces we hope to take on soon.

Texas officials’ claim that school funding is at an all-time high ignores inflation and temporary federal money A Tribune analysis also found the state’s share of the funds that schools receive per student significantly decreased in the last decade until recently.

Our school funding explainer and my first proper co-byline provides context around the state's role in funding schools and why many schools are struggling to balance the books. Check out Yuriko's interactive district lookup to see how your school is funded. www.texastribune.org/2025/03/28/t...