The Latest Breaking News from James Frank

Though lawmakers have drafted a bill to increase public school funding and teacher salaries, it cannot pass during the special session unless Abbott adds those issues to his agenda. Teachers were the only state employees to not receive a raise in the regular session.

Lawmakers at a Texas Tribune Fest panel found common ground on school funding and teacher pay but took starkly different stances on “school choice.”

Texas joins a handful of states turn to the north for cheaper drugs. But feds have been slow to approve requests, three years after giving initial OK.

Lawmakers were assured that outsourcing management of foster care services would fix the state’s troubled child welfare agency. But the rollout of the new model, set to be completed by 2029, has been complicated by setbacks.