Special Education Students Lost Help During Lockdown
Ten percent of Texas public school students need special education resources, and many were left stranded when schools closed abruptly in the spring.
Special education students lost crucial help when
the pandemic hit. Texas schools are still struggling to
restore it.
By Stacy Fernández, August 28, 2020
Since March, Melissa and her husband have gutted their savings, spending more than $5,000 caring for their three children. Most of the money has gone to child care and speech therapy for their daughter Nora. Two weeks ago, the couple put their house up for sale.
Five-year-old Nora is on the autism spectrum and has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, her mother says. Before the coronavirus pandemic, Nora attended school full time in the Katy Independent School District and had access to a suite of behavioral therapists, speech therapists and special education teachers. But that resource lifeline has been cut for nearly six months, and her parents have only been able to afford select specialists since.
She’s at an age when special education intervention and socializing with other kids are crucial. Without them, she could lose out on building key skills — like learning how to intuitively communicate with others — that she may never pick back up. It only takes two weeks without school for Nora to regress. Since schools closed, Melissa has noticed it’s harder for her daughter to pick up on social cues, like when someone speaks to her and it doesn’t click that she has to respond.
“She’s starting to become more self-aware of other kids not liking her, so she’s not even willing to practice those skills anymore, so that’s a little heartbreaking,” said Melissa, who asked the the family’s last name not be used to protect their privacy. “I don’t know if she’ll become more reclusive because of that or if she’ll be able to pick that back up.”
Nearly 10% of Texas public school students — about half a million — receive special education services through their schools, which offer help with a wide range of behavioral, emotional and physical challenges.
When schools shuttered in the spring, many families were left to manage their children’s learning and seek out special services, like therapy, on their own. Educators, many new to remote teaching themselves, struggled to adapt students’ individual learning plans to a virtual world.
For students with more intensive needs, both cognitive and physical, being at home without access to the many professionals they work with is an “incredible burden to put on parents,” said Lindsay Jones, chief executive officer of the National Center for Learning Disabilities. Families don’t have the training to provide the support their children need, she said. Districts need to provide ways to get parents those services online and in “unique and creative ways.”
The online classes offered during the initial months of the pandemic largely did not serve the needs of students with disabilities, parents and educators say. Some classes were prerecorded, and curriculum was more text- and reading-heavy than traditional schooling, putting students who struggle with reading at a disadvantage. Special education students were often left stranded in front of screens. Experts say it’s important to get special education students who have trouble with online learning adapted resources, and some need to be back in classrooms.
As the new school year begins, districts are pushing to do that as quickly as possible, knowing that valuable ground is lost as time slips away.
Pandemic-era school this fall will almost surely be better executed than in the spring, educators say, but with many school buildings still closed, some parents aren’t confident that the education offered to their children will be enough. Some students will struggle to recoup lost progress and move forward in their learning, which could have long-lasting effects.
The health risks of in-person learning for students who may already have physical vulnerabilities has left may families torn. Some would prefer that their children continue learning virtually. Other parents are pushing to reopen in-person classrooms, fearing that without them, their kids will stagnate and regress, cut off from access to crucial resources.
Nora’s teachers from the Katy school district are doing the best they can, her mother said. They’ve uploaded videos on YouTube, created new lesson plans for online learning and checked in on the family via phone and text, though much of that hasn’t been done since early May. What Melissa really wants is for Nora to go back to school.
“The [skills] I worry about the most are probably her socialization because I don’t want her to be lonely in life, where if she sucks at math I can live with that,” Melissa said.
Katy ISD has a reputation as a district with the bandwidth, expertise and resources for children with disabilities. But even a district lauded as a hub for special education is struggling.
Maria Corrales DiPetta, a Katy ISD spokesperson, said in an email that the district will continue providing students the services outlined in their individualized education plans. If accommodations need to be made for distance learning, a meeting will be convened to review options with the student’s parent and support committee.
Some families in the district have been critical of how it is approaching reopening. The district’s local health authority has mandated that schools remain closed to in-person learning until Harris County drops below Red Alert level 1, which means the county needs to average 400 or fewer new cases of COVID-19 over a 14-day period, among other factors, according to county reopening guidelines.
In a letter signed last week by the superintendents of 10 school districts, including Kenneth Gregorski of Katy ISD, school leaders called the threshold for reopening schools “not attainable” and said they cannot support “your recommendation that would essentially require indefinite closure.”
“We must come to grips with the fact that in order to learn and grow, students must be healthy and safe. That means not setting arbitrary dates for reopening schools that provide false hope, dates this virus does not recognize or respect. Instead, our focus should be on thresholds and on developing measured reopening plans,” Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo said in a written statement.
Earlier this month, the Texas Education Agency released suggested guidelines for schools to consider students with special needs in their reopening plans and virtual learning strategies. The agency suggested access to assistive technology — things like audiobooks, alternative keyboards and screen readers — and spacing out classrooms with mobility needs, like wheelchairs, in mind. The agency also asked schools to consider on-campus, remote, hybrid and intermittent closure models.
On the ground, Texas schools are trying to figure out how to adjust their special education programs and improve on last spring’s makeshift efforts.
Premont Independent School District in south Texas will open its doors to students with disabilities in late August, weeks before welcoming back general education students in person. North East Independent School District in San Antonio is using Google Classroom, which has built-in accessibility tools like audio for students with hearing impairments and those who have trouble with reading. In other districts, some teachers are moving classes outdoors to make physical contact with students safer.
But some parents can’t wait any longer for public schools to work out solutions. A few weeks ago, 14-year-old Katie, whose disabilities include Asperger’s, obsessive-compulsive disorder and attention deficit disorder, started school at a residential mental health treatment center in San Marcos instead of her school in the Keller Independent School District, said her father, Chuck Lee.
Katie’s parents were advised to send her to the care center for up to three months after she tried to hurt herself, an act her parents believe resulted in part from the stress of the pandemic.
For months, Katie moved between her mother’s house and her father’s. The routine for online school was the same in both homes. Katie would sit and stare at the screen. Click. Click. “Type some stuff,” and that was it, her father said. None of the services she was used to, like face-to-face counseling, could be offered through a laptop. Social reinforcement couldn’t be done through a screen.
“The specialized support she gets to help her with her academics, it’s gone from teacher’s aides and special education specialists and the teachers conforming to her [individualized learning program] to just her mother and I and the laptop,” Lee said.
Under federal law, students with disabilities are entitled to a free education that helps them make progress academically and socially.
A hallmark of special education is the individualized education plan put together for each child by a team that often includes parents, teachers and specialists. Some students may need extra time or additional resources, like word banks and calculators, during tests. Others may need full-time aides or physical therapy.
It’s generally understood that the current health crisis presents limitations, but “there’s no exception for a pandemic,” said Dustin Rynders, supervising attorney at Disability Rights Texas.
Katie’s stay at the center is temporary, but as long as she’s there, Lee has more confidence that she’ll get the education she needs.
“It took our daughter a long time to understand that it wasn’t punitive, it wasn’t punishment, she wasn’t being sent away to ‘the bad kid’s place.’ But we just couldn’t get the resources and services that she needed. It’s our hope that … there’s some semblance of normalcy when she comes back,” Lee said.
In some districts, students with disabilities that affect their reading or math comprehension are now spending most of their school days in virtual classes with their general education peers and teachers who may not be know how to make the classes accessible for them, said Jones, of the National Center for Learning Disabilities.
It’s possible that students will be sitting at home staring at their computers unable to do work because they can’t understand the lessons without the teachers turning on accessibility tools, which many general education teachers are unfamiliar with using, Jones said.
Ten-year-old Max had his first day of virtual fifth grade in mid-August. Aside from a hiccup in the morning with logging into Google Classroom, virtual learning went smoothly. There were audio options for Max, who has dyslexia and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, general education and special education classes for reading and math were staggered throughout his day — but his usual hourlong extra help sessions were cut to just 30 minutes.
Halley Justus, Max’s mom, will tentatively let her son continue in the North East ISD school during the initial three-week remote-learning period. If she sees improvements in his learning, she’ll likely keep him in the school district.
But like many parents and experts, she’s anticipating gaps in what the local public school district can provide and has already begun looking into alternative education programs that she hopes will better meet Max’s needs.
Advocates and special education experts are urging parents to meet with their children’s education teams and look for solutions before pulling them out of their schools. Rynders and his team have found that most schools are open to finding solutions, “but there will still be cases where combat and compensatory education is needed.”
Paying for online school, which Justus estimated would cost about $1,500 a semester, would be a financial burden for Justus, who had to get a laptop from the school after her son did the bulk of his virtual learning on her smartphone in the spring. But with a scholarship, the switch may be feasible, she said.
“If he’s being neglected and he’s not getting the resources, then I already decided I would put him in one of the actual online schools, the ones that have been doing it since before the pandemic,” Justus said.
"Special education students lost crucial help when the pandemic hit. Texas schools are still struggling to restore it." was first published at https://www.texastribune.org/2020/08/28/texas-schools-special-education/ by The Texas Tribune.
Texas Students - Tuition Should Decrease due to Pandemic
Students with financial hardships and a hurting economy say tuition should be lowered at their Texas universities. But some colleges are adding new fees related to an increase in distance learning.
Texas students said pandemic-era tuition should be cut. But it’s going up at some schools due to distance learning fees.
"Texas students said pandemic-era tuition should be cut. But it’s going up at some schools due to distance learning fees." was first published by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.
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Paying for her tuition at the University of North Texas was already going to be a challenge this fall for Aimee Tambwe. Just recently, her dad — who helps pay for her education — lost his job because of pandemic-related layoffs.
So Tambwe, who is taking most of her classes remotely this semester, was dumbfounded to see her tuition bill increase by $315 because of “distance education” fees for five courses she’s signed up to take.
“This is not something that we can control. I didn’t plan for a pandemic,” Tambwe said. “I don’t think it’s fair to increase the fees on top of students losing their jobs and funding. This does not help me.”
Students across Texas are denouncing what they view as unfair increases in fees that add to the financial strain on students, especially during a pandemic in which thousands of Texans are losing their jobs and their homes. It’s further injury to students who have instead argued for tuition decreases because of restrictions to campus amenities and experiences that are typically paid for with their fees.
At the University of North Texas, the distance learning fee is $35 per credit hour, capped at $315. According to the school’s website, the fee is used to support the management, delivery and technology for distance education courses.
UNT officials say it’s not a new fee, but because the pandemic has necessitated more students going remote, the fee is being applied more widely.
UNT Provost Jennifer Cowley said in an interview that she was sympathetic to students’ frustration.
“I totally understand where it would be coming from,” Cowley said.
Currently, 28% of the fall’s course offerings are online and come with the corresponding distance learning fee, Cowley said.
As students call for tuition cuts, Texas university officials have defended their prices, saying that online classes are not less expensive than in-person classes because faculty and staff still need to be paid. There are also some additional costs associated with technology upgrades needed for more remote instruction.
At other schools across Texas, students are facing sticker shock over some price hikes made months before the pandemic. At the University of Texas at Austin, undergraduate tuition rates will increase by 2.6% per year until 2022, a move that will increase tuition by more than $140 per semester for the next two years.
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A recent petition from the Texas State Employees Union calls for a tuition decrease of 10% for the duration of the pandemic across the University of Texas System. There are at least five tuition-related lawsuits against Texas universities, stemming from students demanding discounted tuition or reimbursements because of the campus changes related to COVID-19 responses.
A recent survey of UT-Austin students also showed that 91% of students were not satisfied with tuition rates.
Gabrielle Vidmar, a Texas State University student, said the San Marcos school had estimated she would pay nearly $7,000 in tuition and fees for the fall semester – including almost $1,000 in new “electronic course” and “off-campus class” fees for classes that had been designated as online because of the pandemic. Her previous tuition bills have been around $4,000.
Texas State later reversed course and shaved off many fees for students, including Vidmar. But the sting remains, compounded by the fact that Vidmar’s money will still be going toward services like athletics and the library, neither of which she plans to participate in or use during the pandemic.
“We are not getting the bang for our buck,” Vidmar said. “It sucks ... that the general consensus is that we feel Texas State doesn’t care about us. And that they’re in it for the money.”
A spokesperson for the school declined to comment and referred questions to a statement released by the school.
Texas State University revised its fee structure in late July. If a student has at least one face-to-face class, school officials said, the $50 per-credit-hour electronic course fee would be dropped. But if a student only takes online and hybrid courses, the electronic course fees would remain while $342 in on-campus fees will be waived.
“Texas State leadership recognizes the hardships our Bobcat Community is experiencing because of COVID-19,” a message from the school reads. It notes that the change will waive more than $7 million in fees for students.
Students like Vidmar, with one in-person class, are off the hook. But others, who may be afraid to go to campus or who simply are placed in online-only classes, will be charged the full slate of distance education fees.
“We didn’t get a stimulus check, we didn’t get help from anyone,” said McKenzie Decker, a Texas State student who started a petition to erase all the online fees. “They’re screwing over students that may not have a choice here.”
Disclosure: The University of Texas at Austin, the University of Texas System, the University of North Texas and Texas State University have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.
This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2020/08/24/texas-tuition-universities/.
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Texas bar Owners are on the Brink of Losing Everything
Some bar owners are planning to reopen in defiance of the moratorium, a desperate attempt to generate income — and draw Gov. Greg Abbott’s attention.
With no end to the shutdown in sight, Texas bar owners and employees are on the brink of losing everything
"With no end to the shutdown in sight, Texas bar owners and employees are on the brink of losing everything" was first published by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.
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Holly Jackson has spent 20 years working for the Austin nightclub Barbarella, where crowds of customers danced and drank until the early morning hours. But for months, there’s been no music or cocktails at Barbarella. And Jackson and around 30 of her employees have been furloughed.
“I have no idea what’s gonna happen to me, honestly,” said Jackson, the bar’s general manager. “I feel like I’ve lost my right arm. I have no family. I have no kids, no husband. My entire identity in life was Barbarella. And now that’s gone.”
Gov. Greg Abbott has shut down Barbarella, along with the rest of Texas’ bars, twice — once in March and again in June — in an attempt to stem the spread of the coronavirus. There is no end in sight for when bars will be allowed to reopen, leaving those business owners and their workers worried about how long they can hang on until they lose everything. In some cases, bar owners are planning to reopen anyway in a desperate attempt to generate some income — and draw Abbott’s attention.
Jackson joins thousands of service industry workers who have filed for unemployment, with restaurant and bar workers leading the state in number of claims. About 12.5% of the 3.2 million unemployment claims filed in Texas between the beginning of March and early August have come from workers in the accommodation and food services sector.
But economists say joblessness in Texas will only improve when the state has a handle on the coronavirus and consumers feel like they can safely patronize businesses in person. Still, Texas is experiencing record numbers of deaths related to the coronavirus and high numbers of hospitalizations.
While some bars can serve to-go items or reopen as restaurants, both of these options require them to have a permanent kitchen, excluding many bars across the state. Chris Porter, a spokesperson for the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission, said about 6,600 active businesses were required to close under the order.
Jackson said she feels abandoned by the state and is frustrated by the “radio silence” from the governor. Abbott addressed the shutdown last week, expressing sympathy for employees put out of work. But he said the closure would need to continue until coronavirus metrics improve significantly — with the state’s positivity rate dropping below 10% for a sustained period of time and the number of hospitalizations decreasing.
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But many bar owners say their businesses might not survive that long.
Last month, Elizabeth McNiel was forced to move into an RV along with her husband and 14-year-old son behind Ironwood Saloon in Sabinal.
Her husband was the bar’s general manager, and now they’re relying on her income as a school teacher to scrape by. They’ve depleted their savings and maxed out credit cards trying to keep their dream of owning a bar afloat.
“I don't want to lose a dream that we've had for years,” McNiel said. “But on Sept. 1, I will have to close these doors for good.”
The TABC recently allowed some bars and other businesses with high alcohol sales to reopen as restaurants after they applied for food and beverage certificates. However, this workaround requires businesses to have an onsite kitchen and keep alcohol sales under 51%, which excludes many bars across the state and is sometimes cost prohibitive.
Kim Finch owns two bars in Dallas, but neither has a kitchen. So she’s going all in on a third bar — a lease she signed before the pandemic began — that is under construction with a kitchen that will allow it to open as a restaurant.
But even once it’s open, she doesn’t know if it’ll be enough to offset her losses.
“I have absolutely no way to make any income or revenue to pay all the bills, taxes, rent that are due. I can’t provide jobs for my employees,” she said. “I have no way to save my businesses that I’ve worked 17 years to build. And I’m afraid I’m going to not only lose my businesses but lose my house.”
Finch has cashed out all of her investments and her life insurance policy and has depleted 15 years of savings. It’s money she won’t get back even if her businesses survive. She tried opening a pop-up market but was told that wasn’t allowed because even without alcohol, her business was still a bar.
“It’s disheartening. It’s frustrating. It’s maddening,” she said. “I understand there was bad bar operators, too, that were not adhering to guidelines, but it sucks for the ones that were trying really hard to be safe.”
Reopening in protest
Some bar owners say they have no choice but to open in defiance of the state moratorium.
Hundreds of bar owners across the state participated in a demonstration late last month called Freedom Fest, intended to prove that they could open safely. As a result, 16 bars’ liquor licenses were suspended.
Chris Polone, the event’s organizer and owner of the Rail Club Live in Fort Worth, said the event adhered to strict safety precautions — limiting capacity to 25%, requiring masks at all times and enforcing social distancing.
And last week, around 100 bar owners gathered to protest near the TABC office.
But Polone said the group hasn’t been able to discuss the situation with anyone from the TABC or from Abbott’s office.
So now, Polone said some bars are making plans for another unified reopening Aug. 29 dubbed Come and Take It.
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“We don’t have a choice. Our livelihoods are on the line,” he said. “We’re opening and we’re not closing back down.”
The hope is that if enough bars reopen, the TABC will be overwhelmed and unable to enforce the shutdown order, Polone said.
Polone said he will be selling small ownership stakes of his business instead of tickets to his customers — since he says owners of the bars are still allowed to be inside.
“We’re not selling cover charges,” he said.“We’re making everybody an owner.”
A. Bentley Nettles, executive director of the TABC, addressed rumors of bars reopening in an Aug. 7 letter to the industry.
“Recently we have spoken with business owners who tell us they don’t intend to follow the orders. On that note, I want to remind every member of this industry that it is a privilege to be in the alcoholic beverage business in Texas,” Nettles said in the letter. “When a business tells TABC it doesn’t intend to follow these orders, you leave the agency with no option but to revoke your license and shut you down.”
Porter said any business that defies Abbott’s order will first face a 30-day suspension of its license to sell alcohol. Second offenses will result in a 60-day suspension, with third offenses leading to “stronger actions up to and including cancellation of the permit.”
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Music venues
The bar shutdown is also hurting Texas musicians and concert venues.
About 90% of National Independent Venue Association members report that they will close permanently in a few months without federal funding, according to an internal survey. Many bars have doubled as music venues and vice versa.
“I haven't had a paying gig since Feb. 11,” Austin drummer Mike Webb said. “Nobody I know has gotten any gigs.”
Some of his musician friends have moved on to other jobs. One is a janitor now. Another is working at a grocery store.
According to the Austin Chamber of Commerce, 83% of the city’s live music venues and 70% of the restaurant and bar owners reported in a survey that they had to lay off full-time employees.
“Most of those businesses indicated that if something doesn't give in the next few months, that they are at risk of closing their doors,” said Laura Huffman, CEO of the Austin chamber.
Polone said the economic effects of music venues ripple outward, funding musicians, agents, sound engineers, distribution companies, public relations firms and other businesses. The National Independent Venue Association estimates that for every dollar spent at music venues, $12 is generated in economic activity.
“If we lose,” he said, referring to venues being forced to close, “music, in my opinion, will never be the same. The local music business will never be the same.”
Lack of collaboration from Abbott
State Rep. Matt Schaefer, R-Tyler, said closing bars, breweries and other businesses with high alcohol sales while restaurants are allowed open is unfair and impractical.
“You can go into a restaurant and you can drink, you could buy a $10 hamburger and fries and you could order three drinks,” Schaefer said. “You could sit there and have your drinks and eat your hamburger, without a mask. Tell me how that’s any different.”
He said there’s been a lack of collaboration among lawmakers with both Abbott and with the TABC.
Porter, from TABC, disagreed.
“From the beginning of this crisis, TABC has worked closely with stakeholders to assist struggling businesses and at the same time protect the health of Texans,” he said. “We’ve also worked directly with industry members and state lawmakers to find ways of assisting businesses.”
Schaefer said lawmakers will have to look at options in the upcoming legislative session, which begins in January, to find ways to offer relief to the food and beverage industry.
“We’ve got to find economic relief for this industry when you have livelihoods essentially being destroyed by government order,” Schaefer said, adding that it’ll be a challenge due to a constricted budget.
State Rep. Erin Zwiener, D-Driftwood, said she’s unsure that indoor dining of any kind is a good idea right now and believes that a lot of the COVID-19 cases that came on the heels of Texas’ phased reopening could be tied to restaurant and bar activity.
But Zwiener lamented that there has not been enough collaboration between Abbott and lawmakers. Abbott did not respond to requests for comment.
“I really wish Abbott would work more closely with legislators, but his, his circle seems to only get smaller,” she said. “Absolutely legislators are, by and large, not at the table, and that seems to be a bipartisan frustration.”
For Jackson, the general manager of Barbarella, the hardest thing to grapple with is that she has no idea what comes next. She’s running out of options while waiting for something to change.
“I have mentally in my head prepared myself to have to lose my house and probably move back home to Orlando with my mom at 40 years old,” she said. “It’s scary. I did what I was supposed to do. I went to college and worked my ass off at the same job, bought a house, and now it’s all being taken away for something that I didn’t do.”
Disclosure: The Austin Chamber of Commerce has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.
This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2020/08/21/texas-bars-shutdown/.
The Texas Tribune is proud to celebrate 10 years of exceptional journalism for an exceptional state. Explore the next 10 years with us.
Texas Legislation Could Freeze Revenues for Cities That cut Police Budgets
The state's three top elected leaders also fiercely criticized the Austin officials who plan to cut up to one-third of their police department's budget, largely through reorganizing divisions out from under law enforcement.
Gov. Greg Abbott, other Texas leaders want to freeze property tax revenues for cities that cut police budgets
"Gov. Greg Abbott, other Texas leaders want to freeze property tax revenues for cities that cut police budgets" was first published by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.
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Gov. Greg Abbott and top Texas leaders announced Tuesday that they will push for legislation next year that would freeze property tax revenues for cities that cut police budgets, just days after the Austin City Council approved a budget that will cut police funding by up to one-third by moving areas like forensics outside of the management of the police department to become separate municipal offices and by reinvesting money in social services.
The proposal sets up what is expected to be a fight in the 2021 Texas Legislature over what police reform should look like after the in-custody death of George Floyd that reignited a national movement against police brutality and racial injustice.
“Any city in the state of Texas that defunds law enforcement will have their property tax revenue frozen as of that time,” Abbott said in Fort Worth, where the press conference was held. “This will be an effective tool that effectively will prevent cities from being able to reduce funding support for law enforcement agencies.”
The killing of Floyd, a Black man who died after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for nearly eight minutes, has spurred protests against police brutality and calls to reduce police funding across the state and country. Police reform advocates are pushing cities to reallocate police funds to areas like housing, social services and public spaces.
Texas’ four largest cities — Austin, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio — each spent more than a third of their general funds on their police departments in the 2020 fiscal year. But on Thursday, Austin became the first major Texas city to cut its police department’s budget.
At a press conference Tuesday, Austin Mayor Steve Adler said the bulk of the decrease to the police budget is achieved through reorganizing existing offices and duties out from under the department. About $80 million in police budget decreases comes from moving things like the forensic lab and the internal affairs office out of the department and into other areas of city government. Another $50 million in police budget decreases might come from areas that are being reevaluated and might be removed from the department, like traffic work, training and recruitment within the agency. About $20 million comes from moving money to social services like violence prevention, food access and abortion access programs.
"Public safety is more broad than just police and EMS and fire. It is about making sure that people have health care opportunities," Adler said. "And that is part of the way our city and other cities are going to have to frame public safety if they want to be just, equitable and the safest cities they can be."
The City Council approved the measure after Austin's police department faced months of criticism over the killing of an unarmed Black and Hispanic man, the use of force against anti-police brutality protesters and the investigation of a demonstrator’s fatal shooting by another resident. The move quickly drew outcry from Texas Republican leaders and prompted Tuesday's press conference.
“If we have police brutality, we don't need fewer police, we need less police brutality, and so we need to take action, whether it be as a Legislature or in police departments or whatever the case may be,” Abbott said. "We do need to take action to ensure that law enforcement officers are trained in ways in which they will not engage in police brutality.”
Last week, the Texas Legislative Black Caucus unveiled provisions it plans to include in a George Floyd Act when the legislative session begins in January. The proposals included some related directly to Floyd, like banning chokeholds and requiring officers to intervene if another officer is using excessive force. But they also revived efforts that have previously failed at the Capitol after facing opposition from police unions. One such measure would be to end arrests for criminal violations that at most would result in a fine, like theft under $100.
While Abbott has mentioned potential proposals since Floyd’s death, they have mostly fallen in line with what police unions also support, like increased training. But the item Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said would be a priority in the Senate is to ensure that police funding is not diminished.
Abbott was joined in the press conference by Patrick, Texas House Speaker Dennis Bonnen, several Republican North Texas lawmakers and Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price. During the press conference, Abbott made a reference to a report from The Wall Street Journal that showed increases in homicides and robberies in Austin this year. The report lists Austin and Fort Worth, the city Abbott praised for its public safety policies, as both showing high increases in the percentage of murders from last year to this year; city crime data reveal those percentages amount for nine more murders in Austin this year compared with 2019 and 13 more in Fort Worth.
Experts have pointed out that crime rates are nowhere near the high levels of two decades ago. An analysis by the University of Pennsylvania shows a marginal increase in violent crimes compared with the previous five years in Austin.
During the press conference, Bonnen, who is not returning to the Legislature in 2021, criticized Adler for opposing police funding cuts in previous years during property tax debates, only to support it now.
“It is not acceptable,” Bonnen said. “Law enforcement is not a tool of political agendas, and I would ask the city of Austin to stop using them as one.”
Austin City Council member Greg Casar said in a statement that the council was following what Austin residents wanted and that Abbott, instead of supporting police reforms proposed in the Black caucus' George Floyd Act, relied on fear-mongering.
“The message from the tens of thousands of Austinites who made their voices heard in this year’s budget process was clear: We must decrease our over-reliance on police to handle all of our complex public safety challenges and instead reinvest in domestic violence shelters, mental health first responders, and more," Casar said.
Other major Texas cities are also weighing police budgets, now with Abbott's proposal in mind. San Antonio’s proposed budget for 2021 increases overall police funding by $8 million, but cuts overtime and funds health and violence prevention programs. In Dallas, the proposed 2021 budget includes a small increase in police funding, as well as $3.2 million for safety net resources. Both cities are scheduled to approve their budgets in September.
"I would want to see the actual legislation before I comment directly on Governor Abbott's proposal because 'defunding' means different things to different people," said Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson in a statement. "But generally, I believe it should be up to voters to hold their local elected officials accountable for their budgetary decisions, which should reflect the people's priorities."
The Houston City Council approved a minor funding increase to its police department in June, but an amendment that tried to redistribute some of the money to other areas, like the police oversight board and loans for businesses owned by people of color, was rejected.
In Fort Worth, voters supported renewing the half-cent sales tax that funds at least 24% of the city police department's budget in July. According to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, the city is considering a proposal to redirect some funds within its police department to expand its mental health team, increase funding to nonprofits and create a civilian response program.
Abbott said Tuesday's press conference was in Fort Worth because “Fort Worth is doing it right” in terms of investing in police and public safety. While Abbott mentioned Floyd’s death in Minneapolis, there was no mention during the conference of Atatiana Jefferson or other Black residents who died in high-profile Texas police killings. Jefferson, a 28-year-old Black woman, was killed last year after a Fort Worth police officer shot into her home during a welfare check. The former officer, Aaron Dean, has been indicted on a murder charge.
Advocates have argued that while police departments receive a large portion of city funds, safety net programs remain underfunded and communities of color are disproportionately affected by unemployment, lack of adequate housing and poverty. In 2018, 19.6% of Black Texans and 20.9% of Hispanic Texans lived below the poverty line, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, compared with 8.5% of non-Hispanic white Texans.
“The only way that you're going to prevent crime is by addressing the root causes of crime, and the main one is poverty,” said Nora Soto, co-founder of Our City Our Future in Dallas. “Police have acted as a poverty patrol. They're criminalizing poor people.”
Police unions explain that law enforcement is expensive and involves a wide range of responsibilities, which include everything from responding to potentially dangerous emergency 911 calls to attending monthly neighborhood meetings.
“Just because of the sheer volume of tasks that we are responsible for dealing with, public safety is going to be the most expensive part of a city budget across the board. That's really just demand,” said Jennifer Szimanski, public affairs coordinator for the Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas.
Disclosure: Steve Adler, a former Texas Tribune board chairman, has been a financial supporter of the Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.
This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2020/08/18/texas-police-funding-greg-abbott-dan-patrick/.
The Texas Tribune is proud to celebrate 10 years of exceptional journalism for an exceptional state. Explore the next 10 years with us.
Isolation of Nursing Homes During the Lockdown
Texas eased restrictions on visitation in long-term care facilities last week, but many families remain unsure if they will be allowed to visit. For those cut off from their loved ones for almost five months, isolation is becoming another very real threat.
By Sarah R. Champagne , August 14, 2020
After 70 years of marriage, the coronavirus tore Margie and Werner Stalbaum apart. But Margie, who was positive for COVID-19, wasn’t the one who died. It was Werner, of natural causes — and maybe of loneliness.
In early June, when 87-year-old Margie tested positive for the virus in the Cedar Park nursing home where they lived together, she was transferred to a different facility in nearby Round Rock to be isolated.
When their granddaughter Serena Bumpus visited Werner during that period, she talked to him through a window. Werner, who was 88 years old with dementia, would point at his wife’s empty bed, looking as if he didn’t know what was going on.
“Part of me wonders, and the rest of my family wonders, did he think she had already passed?” said Bumpus, who is a nurse. “And he just thought, ‘It’s time for me to go be with her.’”
The coronavirus pandemic has been a constant and precarious balancing act between limiting the spread of the virus and the need for life to go on. In few places has this balance been more delicate than in long-term care facilities, where elderly and medically fragile residents have been deprived of visits from loved ones for almost five months.
For some families, that wait is ending as the state rolls out new rules to allow visitation again in certain nursing homes and assisted living facilities, but it remains unclear how many facilities can — or will — start allowing visits. And some families say the damage to their loved ones from prolonged isolation has already been done.
As the pandemic reached the U.S. — and began ravaging nursing homes soon after — most states with coronavirus outbreaks closed visitation at long-term care facilities. Recently, some states have begun allowing visitors again as the COVID-19 curve flattened.
In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott shut down visitation in mid-March. That order remained in effect for 145 days until Aug. 6, when the state eased restrictions for facilities that don’t have any active COVID-19 cases among residents or confirmed cases among staff in the last two weeks.
Of Texas’ 1,215 nursing homes, 56% still had active cases on Thursday while more than 15% of the 2,000 assisted living facilities have reported active infections.
Once a facility determines it can allow visitors, the next step is to get approval from the state if it decides to resume visitation — and that’s up to each facility, Texas Health and Human Services spokesperson Kelli Weldon said in an email. Weldon added that the state doesn’t yet have a list of facilities that have been approved to resume visitation.
It’s up to families to contact the facilities to find out whether they are able to allow limited visitation. Even facilities that meet the requirements cannot allow physical contact between residents and visitors, state officials said.
Genny Lutzel holds a photograph of her mother, Paula Spangler, 80, outside her home in Rockwall on Aug. 06, 2020. Lutzel hasn't seen her mother, who lives in a nursing home and suffers from Alzheimer's, since March due to COVID-19.
Genny Lutzel stretches her hand as she describes her experience visiting her mother through a window outside of a nursing home, outside her home in Rockwall on Aug. 06, 2020. Lutzel hasn't seen her mother, who lives in a nursing home and suffers from Alzheimer's, since March due to COVID-19. Lutzel stopped visiting her mother through a window because, she says, "the experience for her (mom) is very confusing" due to the Alzheimer's.
Genny Lutzel covers her mouth as tears fill her eyes while holding a photograph of her mother, Paula Spangler, 80, outside her home in Rockwall on Aug. 06, 2020. Lutzel hasn't seen her mother, who lives in a nursing home and suffers from Alzheimer's, since March due to COVID-19.
For many families, this is not acceptable.
“My mom has Alzheimer’s, she is nonverbal," says Genny Lutzel, whose mother Paula is in an assisted living facility in Rockwall, near Dallas. "Everything in her world is sensory, sensory touch, sensory communication. And we can’t touch.”
COVID-19 has been so devastating in long-term care — with close to 22,000 infections and over 3,100 deaths in Texas since the beginning of the pandemic — that facilities are fearful of allowing any visitors and wary of putting more pressure on their staff, who will have to supervise every minute of the visits, said Jude Goodson, former executive director of Orchard Park at Southfork, an assisted living facility south of Houston.
Goodson said the pandemic has put facilities under tremendous financial pressure because of expenses like protective equipment for staff and technology to keep the residents in touch with their families. Meanwhile, revenues have dropped because of fewer new admissions and more deaths, she said.
“With severe financial issues, where is that extra staff [to manage visitations] going to come from?” Goodson said.
Roadblocks to visits
Abbott’s March order halting visitation didn’t halt the spread of COVID-19 among some of the state’s most at-risk residents. After the governor allowed businesses to gradually reopen in May and June, infections in nursing homes and assisted living facilities soared. In July, more than 11,000 of their residents were infected, and 1,350 died — more than four times the totals for June.
While families were banned from entering the facilities, infected staff members brought the virus to work with them, health experts say. Once inside a facility, it spreads “like a wildfire,” Phil Wilson, the acting executive commissioner for the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, said during a webinar about the new visitation rules on Aug. 7.
The visitation rules are taking effect even as cases in nursing homes and assisted living centers are still growing, with deaths in long-term care facilities still making up for a third of the state’s overall toll. More than 1,100 new cases have been reported over the past week, a 54% drop compared to the last week of July — which saw some of the highest case numbers of the pandemic — but still more than double the weekly average for June.
Under the new rules, in addition to being COVID-free, nursing homes — the hardest hit facilities — will also have to test their staff every week, which has been difficult to achieve because of limited access to testing.
“Testing has been an ongoing challenge,” Kevin Warren, president and CEO of the Texas Health Care Association, which represents long-term care facilities, said last week after the new rules were published. Facilities can perform their own testing, using federal funds allocated for COVID-19, but without that federal money, Warren said it can cost facilities up to $15,000 a week to perform tests.
In July, the state tested all residents and staff in only about 7% of long-term care facilities, either through requests by the facilities or through quick response teams the state deployed after outbreaks were reported. In August, the state plans to test residents at 9% of nursing homes and assisted living facilities.
At the end of July, the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services started sending devices to nursing homes that can perform antigen tests on-the-spot within minutes; 372 have been allocated so far at Texas’ more than 1,200 nursing homes. Antigen tests are taken by nasal or throat swab like other tests, and while faster, they generate more false negative results than other kind of test.
But the new requirement to test all staff weekly could be a Catch-22 for nursing homes: those with no active case aren’t prioritized to receive those testing devices.
“I don’t see how a nursing facility can test staff weekly without point-of-care testing [with the federally-supplied devices],” said Patty Ducayet, the state’s long-term care ombudsman, adding that she has no evidence that the state is fulfilling the remaining need.
Isolation kills too
Lutzel said she has been visiting her mom through a window since March.
“I know they’re doing everything they can, but there is just no substitute for a family member,” she said.
Scientists have long studied the effect of social interaction on the brain; the pandemic has offered a grim occasion to measure the consequences of the lack of interaction.
Isolation can lead to mental and physical decline, said Dr. Carmel Dyer, professor and executive director of the Consortium on Aging at UTHealth in Houston. Anxiety and depression increase with social isolation.
“One thing that our brains like the most is social interaction,” says Dr. Janice Knebl, professor in geriatrics at the University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth.
Both said several of their patients in long-term care have shown signs of declining health at a much faster pace than the normal course of aging or dementia.
Leora and Aretha Carter have also noticed the rapid decline of their mom, Willie Mae Carter, who is in Ridgecrest Retirement and Healthcare in Waco, during their weekly through-the-window visits.
“She had dementia but could still recognize us even if it took a minute. Now she won’t even get up out of a chair. I understand she’s 90 years old, but it occurred so quickly,” Leora Carter said.
She had a chance to do an outside visit with her mother in mid-May, but being six feet apart was hard, and the ritual hug to say goodbye was impossible.
Dyer said people with moderate to severe dementia are not always aware of the reasons why their loved ones can’t visit or hug them and might feel abandoned.
The new state rules allow for a “failure to thrive” exception to the visitation ban, which has to be documented and is only allowed at facilities that meet the other requirements.
Under the exception, if a physician diagnoses a decline in a resident’s physical or mental health, one person can be designated to be the sole visitor for that person, and not just in end-of-life situations as has been the case.
“Signs of a failure to thrive include weight loss, decreased appetite, poor nutrition, and inactivity,” reads the new emergency rules for nursing facilities.
For Renee Griggs, the fact that rules are different for different facilities creates “a lot of confusion.”
Her mother suffers from dementia and lives in an assisted living facility called The Grandview of Chisholm Trail in Fort Worth. When she talked to the facility on Friday, they didn’t know if they could or were going to allow visits.
Griggs said her mother has lost 16 pounds since January, and she’s gone from remembering her daughter to being disoriented and incontinent.
“Even though COVID itself is not killing my mom, the consequences of the disease are killing her,” she said.
She picked her mother up last week on Friday for an essential doctor’s appointment. She still has not driven her back to the facility. “I just couldn’t do that,” she said.
The Stalbaum family thinks Werner Stalbaum could be another victim of the virus who never contracted it. Werner and Margie Stalbaum in May 2020, about two months after Texas nursing homes were locked down because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Margie Stalbaum was her husband’s “lifeline,” and putting her in quarantine took away the one person “who kept things familiar,” Bumpus said.
They had never been apart for so long, she added, and Werner’s health declined quickly after his wife was transferred.
Bumpus had a chance to visit her grandfather in his last hours, because of the exception to the visitation ban for compassionate end-of-life care. Bumpus said what she saw still haunts her; in 18 years of nursing, she said she had never seen such a “look of defeat on everyone’s face,” including residents and the staff.
That day, Margie Stalbaum was still waiting for a second test to come back negative so she could be reunited with her husband. She learned through a wrought iron fence, through masks and distance, that the love of her life was gone.
“She could hardly formulate a sentence” after she returned to the Cedar Park facility, Bumpus said, adding that she believes isolation caused her grandmother to become disoriented.
Only at Werner’s funeral did it become clear that Margie didn’t fully grasp what had happened.
“And so when she is rolled up to the casket to say goodbye, she looks at my aunt and says ‘Oh my god, he died,’” Bumpus said.
"The crushing isolation of nursing homes during the pandemic" was first published at https://www.texastribune.org/2020/08/14/texas-nursing-home-visitation-coronavirus-isolation/ by The Texas Tribune. The Texas Tribune is proud to celebrate 10 years of exceptional journalism for an exceptional state.
Bars and Restaurants Reinvent Themselves to get Around Shutdown
Businesses that make up most of their sales with alcohol were closed down by Abbott's latest shutdown order, leaving them to maneuver through loopholes to reopen.
Restaurants, bars and breweries scramble to reinvent themselves to get around Gov. Greg Abbott's bar shutdown
"Restaurants, bars and breweries scramble to reinvent themselves to get around Gov. Greg Abbott's bar shutdown" was first published by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.
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Hundreds of Texas bars and restaurants are scrambling to change how they operate, maneuvering through loopholes that will allow them to reopen after being closed by Gov. Greg Abbott’s latest shutdown targeting bars.
Abbott has shut bars down twice since the coronavirus pandemic emerged in Texas. The first time bars were swept up in a total lockdown of statewide businesses. But the second time, on June 26, Abbott singled bars out while allowing virtually every other kind of business in Texas to stay open.
But other operations such as restaurants that sell a lot of booze, wineries and breweries were ensnared in the same order and also forced to close because alcohol sales exceeded 51% of total revenue, meaning they were classified as bars.
“Generally everyone has a common sense understanding: ‘What is a bar? And what is a restaurant?’ I think that 51% rule is so broad that it actually picks up or encompasses businesses that we would normally think of as really being restaurants,” said State Rep. John Wray, R-Waxahachie, one of more than 65 lawmakers who signed a letter asking Abbott to update his order’s definition of a restaurant.
Wray gave the example of a burger restaurant, where a patron might buy a burger and two beers. Oftentimes, the beer will cost more than the food, but that doesn’t make the restaurant a bar, he said.
Emily Williams Knight, Texas Restaurant Association president, estimates that about 1,500 restaurants ranging from steak houses to coffee shops that sell wine were “inadvertently” forced to close when Abbott shut down bars, translating to about 35,000 lost jobs in the state.
The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission responded to outcry from the service industry with new guidance in a July 30 notice allowing businesses to either demonstrate that they recently had less than 51% alcohol sales or use alcohol sales projections and apply for a Food and Beverage Certificate, documentation that allows them to reopen as a restaurant.
The certificate workaround requires the business to have a permanent kitchen. It allows bars and restaurants to use projected sales numbers instead of requiring past sales to determine if alcohol sales exceed food sales.
The TABC received more than 600 requests from existing businesses for Food and Beverage Certificates since Abbott’s order took place and granted about 300, according to commission spokesperson Chris Porter. Almost 90 businesses have also requested to update their alcohol sales numbers in an effort to reopen.
The Texas restaurant industry is already struggling, with Knight projecting that up to 30% of restaurants in the state could go out of business.
For those forced to shut down due to the bar order, it can be a death sentence and business owners see these changes as their last hope.
After his Dallas restaurant was closed for a second time, Lava Cantina owner Ian Vaughn knew he’d have to figure out a way to reopen — and fast — for the sake of his more than 100 employees and to save his business.
After three weeks of pursuing various options to reopen, Vaughn updated his sales numbers to include live music ticket sales from concerts, knocking his alcohol sales percentage down to about 39%. This allowed him to resume operations.
“I was highly distressed throughout the entire time," Vaughn said. "I had over 100 people out of work, and I just needed to get my staff back, and I had bills to cover and no idea how we were going to ultimately make ends meet. You feel completely helpless.”
Even some traditional bars can reopen using the same workarounds outlined by the TABC — as long as they have, or will obtain, permanent food service facilities.
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Justin Kaufman, owner of the El Paso Drafthouse and The Rey Muerto, decided to reopen his bars as restaurants by using future sales projections to get a Food and Beverage Certificate.
Functionally, Kaufman’s businesses operate almost the same as before the second shutdown, using the safety measures he implemented when he was first allowed to reopen. He offers the same menus but now requires all patrons to purchase food with their drinks to ensure he stays under the 51% alcohol sales limit. He also hired additional chefs to deal with the increased food sales.
Although he’s happy to be open, finding a way through the state’s loopholes took time and money.
Kaufman estimates that the entire process, from hiring new chefs to deal with increased food sales to applying for the permits cost him around $10,000.
“I wish things have been a little different, and I wish we'd been taken into consideration,” he said. “I've had no choice but to kind of sidestep these situations and do what I got to do to stay open.”
However, the option to reopen doesn't work for everyone. Kim Finch, owner of Dallas bars the Double Wide and the Single Wide, said adding just one kitchen to her facilities would cost about $30,000. A grease trap alone would cost $15,000, she said.
After already draining her savings to keep the bills paid while her businesses are bringing in zero income, adding that expense not an option for her.
“You're just in the dark, you know nothing," she said. "No one’s mentioned a ‘maybe date.' There's not too much longer that we can all just stay closed and keep paying bills.”
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Breweries also found themselves forced to shut down by Abbott’s order, with two-thirds of Texas craft brewery owners predicting that their businesses could close permanently by the end of the year under the current closures, according to a July survey by the Texas Craft Brewers Guild.
Hopsquad Brewing Co., an Austin brewery, reopened as a restaurant using a Food and Beverage Certificate with an onsite food truck serving as its kitchen, General Manager Greg Henny said.
He was lucky, because the brewery already had a food truck on site, Henry said. But he thinks breweries and wineries should have their own classification separate from bars, because they operate differently.
Henny said the guidance from the TABC has been confusing and harmful to breweries. To help other businesses survive the pandemic, the agency allowed “retail and manufacturing businesses” to serve and sell alcohol in a patio or outdoor area that wasn't part of its original designated premises, which some brewery owners took as being able to reopen.
However, the TABC later released a clarification saying that businesses with more than 51% alcohol sales were not eligible.
“The circumstances are constantly changing as a result of which way the winds are blowing with [the TABC],” he said. “It makes us feel frustrated. We're fighting tooth and nail just to stay open, and we've shown time and time again that we can operate safely,” he said.
State Rep. Matt Krause, R-Fort Worth, and Texas Legislative Tourism Caucus chairman led the efforts behind the letter sent to Abbott asking for an updated restaurant definition.
“You've got a lot of these establishments — these restaurants — that are kind of in limbo just because of how much alcohol they sell,” he said. “Restaurants that have already been decimated by the first initial shutdowns with the pandemic [and] by some people's reluctance to want to come in and eat.”
The letter asks that any business with a permit or license from the TABC still be considered a restaurant if it has a permanent kitchen that is operational during all business hours, serves multiple entrees, includes an exhaust hood and fire suppression system, only serves seated customers and follows social distancing protocols.
Abbott did not respond to requests for comment.
Krause said he also believes bars could safely reopen as well.
“I'd like to see them be able to open up under certain restrictions under certain guidelines,” Krause said. “They're ready, willing and able to comply with those.”
Angela Clendenin, an epidemiologist at Texas A&M University School of Public Health, said that the rise of COVID-19 cases can’t be attributed to any one factor, including to bar activity, but instead is a combination of many. However, it is likely bar activity did have an impact on the overall transmission rate and some areas saw declines after their bars were closed and the mask mandate was in place, she said.
The typical bar environment makes it easy for the virus to be transmitted, she said. People are typically in much closer quarters, willing to socialize with strangers and can’t wear masks as they’re drinking. Even speaking loudly or singing over music can propel droplets further than usual, she said.
Clendenin said to reopen bars safely, it will take consumers making sure that they are holding themselves accountable and bar owners enforcing social distancing, masking and other safety practices.
“But ultimately at the end of the day, bar owners need to be able to provide for their employees and their families,” she said. “This is a very difficult time for everybody, but it goes back to individual responsible behavior and I can't emphasize that enough.”
Texas A&M University has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.
This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2020/08/10/texas-bars-restaurants-gov-greg-abbott-shutdown/.
The Texas Tribune is proud to celebrate 10 years of exceptional journalism for an exceptional state. Explore the next 10 years with us.
Private schools in Texas limit enrollment
Dependent on tuition money, private schools are eager to get children back into their classrooms. But they know inadequate safety measures could make them vulnerable to lawsuits.
Private schools in Texas limit enrollment as they aim to reopen classrooms
"Private schools in Texas limit enrollment as they aim to reopen classrooms" was first published by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.
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While debate about how to safely reopen public schools in Texas raged through the summer, Kim Olstrup was preparing to bring students back to her Midcities Montessori private school in Bedford. She bought an electrostatic disinfection device similar to one used on airplanes and halved enrollment from about 130 students to about 60 to accommodate social distancing in her classrooms.
In two weeks, her school for children in preschool to 12th grade will be open to students. Olstrup is optimistic enough about her precautions that she didn’t even consider turning to virtual learning as an option.
Private schools weighing whether to reopen their campuses as the coronavirus pandemic continues face a different calculus than their public counterparts. The fewer students in classrooms, the more income lost. But if they fall short on safety, private schools are more vulnerable to lawsuits than public schools.
Texas has about 900 accredited private schools that served about 250,000 students last academic year, according to the Texas Private Schools Association. Even with many Texas parents desperately seeking schools to take their children, private school enrollment is expected to drop for the next academic year, industry leaders and school leaders say.
But even with tuition income likely to go down, many schools are spending money they hadn't budgeted for safety measures like disinfectants and personal protective equipment and buying online learning software.
Texas is set to receive almost $1.3 billion from the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund, the largest pot of money allocated for local education agencies — which includes public school districts and charter schools — under the CARES Act, said Morgan Craven, national director of policy, advocacy and community engagement for the Intercultural Development Research Association.
Private schools will get some of that money, but it's unclear how much. Public schools usually have to set aside a portion of federal money for “equitable services” for private school students. The calculation is made based on how many low-income students go to private schools.
But a new rule from the U.S. Department of Education gives school districts the option to distribute the federal money based proportionally on how many district students attend a private school regardless of income. By adding caveats to how the federal money can be used, the department has made it more difficult to choose the option that only funds low-income students and effectively increases how much federal funding a private school can receive, Craven said.
The latter option means Texas’ private schools could potentially get up to $44.2 million in federal funding, while the former would allocate about $5.5 million to private schools — about a more than $38 million difference.
While school districts are still deciding how they’ll share funds, so far most school districts have chosen to distribute them proportionally, said Laura Colangelo, executive director of the Texas Private Schools Association.
Many private schools want to reopen classrooms, administrators said, but several are cutting back the number of students they will admit as they ramp up safety precautions.
In Corpus Christi, the Arlington Heights Christian School, which has enrolled about 180 of its usual 230 kids so far, canceled its football season and morning devotional with students, said head of school Leanne Isom. Parents will also be barred from entering the building after the first two weeks of school.
And the Brentwood Christian School in Austin, which enrolls upwards of 600 students on a 44-acre campus, bought plexiglass dividers and is starting the process of deciding who should wear face shields, said Jay Burcham, the school’s president.
Although it's not required by law, private school administrators that move forward with in-person classes feel that they have to clear a higher bar for safety precautions than public schools, said Cynthia Marcotte Stamer, a Texas lawyer.
As government entities, public schools have legal protections making it more difficult to sue them. Private schools try to meet or exceed state and federal safety standards — including from the Texas Education Agency, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and their local health departments — to protect students, families, faculty and staff, since they’re more vulnerable to litigation.
While private schools don’t have to adhere to TEA guidances, they have long used them as their baseline standard of care, Colangelo said.
For months, some private school leaders like Olstrup have argued that larger campuses and classroom sizes, smaller enrollment numbers and increased safety precautions uniquely position private schools to safely reopen on a case-by-case basis even if their public counterparts don’t.
Last week, Gov. Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton effectively cleared the way for private schools to reopen at will by announcing that local health authorities don't have the power to issue blanket orders to shut down schools preemptively in anticipation of virus spread.
Under the state's guidance, local health officials can only intervene if there is an outbreak once students return to campus, at which point they can temporarily shut down a school.
While the exact data won’t be available for months, a May survey conducted by the Texas Private Schools Association projects that private school enrollment will be down about 8% in the state for the upcoming school year, Colangelo said.
Already, at least six private schools in Texas — five Catholic and one independent — have closed down permanently due at least partly to the coronavirus pandemic, according to the CATO Institute, a libertarian think tank.
Switching to fully online classes could cost private schools a chunk of money if parents are unwilling or unable to pay as much for an online education as in-person instruction.
"Most of the time, our parents aren't going to want to pay us for a 10-month contract if they know they aren't going to start until the second month of school,” Isom said.
With new safety measures in place, some schools will just barely be able to save themselves from permanent closure, Colangelo said.
“[Schools are] taking a hit for this year's budget, hoping for next year that there's a vaccine and they can be back to full speed ahead," Colangelo said.
Disclosure: The Texas Private Schools Association has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.
This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2020/08/05/texas-private-schools-coronavirus-reopen/.
The Texas Tribune is proud to celebrate 10 years of exceptional journalism for an exceptional state. Explore the next 10 years with us.
New Census Deadline may Increase fears of an Undercount
The Census Bureau on Monday lopped a month off the time people have to respond to the 2020 count. Texas is already lagging behind the country in response rates, with low-income and Hispanic Texans at high risk of being missed.
An abrupt change to the census deadline shortened the response period by a month, increasing fears of an undercount in Texas
"An abrupt change to the census deadline shortened the response period by a month, increasing fears of an undercount in Texas" was first published by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.
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For months, as Texans have been asked to stay home to avoid the spread of the new coronavirus, Jennifer Edwards has been doing the rounds at gas stations in a trio of counties near the Texas-Louisiana border.
Moonlighting as a census community organizer, the Tarleton State University professor reasoned that gas stations, like grocery stores, would continue to see foot traffic during the pandemic. Setting up a booth just outside the front doors offered her face time with essential workers to deliver an essential message — please fill out the census.
“When we’re meeting with people in front of the tractor supply or the dollar store or the gas station … the communication is focused on 'Well when does it end, what’s the deadline?,' ” said Edwards who had been sharing the pandemic-induced October deadline for counting every person living in the U.S. for the once-a-decade census.
But on Monday evening, the U.S. Census Bureau upended the timeline Edwards and hundreds of other organizers, volunteers and local officials had been working under. After previously stating the census would run through Oct. 31, the bureau announced it was cutting the count short by a month, moving up the deadline for responding to Sept. 30.
The October cutoff had offered organizers crucial overtime for the count after the coronavirus pandemic derailed a ground game for canvassing and outreach efforts that in some regions of the state had been in the works for years. Now, the earlier deadline is heightening risks that Texas will be undercounted and that some Texans, particularly those who are low-income or Hispanic, will be missed in the count as the coronavirus pandemic continues to ravage their communities.
The schedule change comes at a key point in the count. The bureau has started its door-to-door campaign to follow up with households that have not yet filled out the census online, by phone or by mail, but census workers won’t reach some communities in Texas, like the Rio Grande Valley, that are at the highest risk of being missed until next week.
“It seems like not only are they cutting back the time they’re giving themselves to do this non-response follow up, but they’re also allocating the least amount of time in the hardest to count places in the state,” said Lila Valencia, a senior demographer at the Texas Demographic Center.
If the census is carried out properly, Texas should post huge population gains since 2010 with more than 3.8 million new residents, according to the bureau’s latest estimates. Those estimates indicate Hispanics will account for more than half of that growth.
While other states earmarked millions of dollars to marshal outreach encouraging census response, Republican state leaders in Texas chose not to put any money toward the high-stakes, hard work of counting communities, leaving it up to a brigade of local government employees, service providers and volunteers to fill the gap. But invitations to fill out the census ended up landing in mail boxes just as the coronavirus took hold of the state and shut down outreach efforts. The bureau also temporarily shut down its field operations, delaying invitations to Texas households who were supposed to get census materials dropped off at their doors.
Months into the count, not even three out of every five households in Texas have responded to the census. The state’s 57.9% response rate puts it several points lower than the national average and at 39th place in rankings by response rates among states, Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico.
As of Monday, just one county — Jackson County on the Gulf Coast — had received responses to date at a rate equaling the 2010 count. Less than 10% of cities had reached that marker. And response rates were lower in census tracts with larger shares of Hispanic residents or those with more people living in poverty, Valencia said.
“We’re in the middle of this pandemic where people are concerned about their health and safety but also concerned about their future and food insecurity and things of that nature,” said Valencia. “That is a phenomena that many of us are experiencing at different levels, but some in our state are experiencing all of it. It’s a cumulative effect and for them to even think of the census, it’s just not at their top of mind and understandably so.”
An incomplete count directly imperils the future of the state because the census flows down to Texans’ daily lives for an entire decade. It serves as the funding basis for everything from early childhood programs to highway planning and construction. Data derived from the count is used for community building, guiding where grocery stores are built and whether schools will be large enough to host students in a community. The once-a-decade count is also about power, with the population figures used to determine how many seats Texas gets in Congress and how to distribute voters into political districts.
But the 2020 census has ushered in a politicization of what was once a mostly civil assignment. The count was preceded by a drawn-out court battle as the Trump administration pushed unsuccessfully to add a question about citizenship — a decision that organizers, demographers and even former directors of the Census Bureau warned could depress responses among some people of color and immigrants fearful of providing that information to the government. With insufficient resources or time allocated for the count, some of the people at the highest risk of being missed — including Hispanic and immigrant Texans — are also those considered more likely to support Democrats.
“It’s been a point of view of ‘Let’s exclude people, we don’t want their voices heard’,” said David Herrera, a chair of the Paso del Norte Complete Count Committee, which serves the El Paso area. “Why are we moving backward when the original strategy was to ensure that everybody gets counted?”
Census officials in April proposed moving the count deadline back “to ensure the completeness and accuracy of the 2020 Census.” In announcing the new deadline on Monday, Director Steven Dillingham said the bureau planned to hire more employees “to accelerate the completion of data collection” and avoid a delay in reporting counts for seats in Congress and the distribution of redistricting data.
“The Census Bureau’s new plan reflects our continued commitment to conduct a complete count, provide accurate apportionment data, and protect the health and safety of the public and our workforce,” Dillingham said in a statement.
The deadline switch is the latest twist in months of challenges and delays that have forced local efforts to regroup time and again during the coronavirus pandemic. And with local leaders focused on keeping their residents alive instead of counting them, grassroots work has emerged as an even more significant component of census outreach efforts.
“What is essentially happening here is the bureau is being forced to rush the census, which feels very intentional,” Genesis Sanchez, a regional census manager for the NALEO Educational Fund, said on Monday during a weekly virtual meeting with local census organizers. “The hardest to count folks — we know them. We are them. We’ve been working really hard to reach those people … This is going to impact every hardest to count [census] tract and so the urgency around the work that we do is now amplified.”
After scrapping in-person outreach efforts, organizers in Hidalgo County borrowed a tactic common in Mexico and headed out with megaphones and speaker systems strapped to the back of trucks or atop cars to prowl the streets of low-income communities and broadcast their message about filling out the census.
Organizers in El Paso have been visiting food distribution centers, surveying residents waiting in long lines of cars about whether they’ve filled out the census. In San Antonio — where data shows lower response in the inner city — local officials have targeted some housing areas with door hangers; other neighborhoods have seen caravans come through promoting the census.
The shared goal is to find people where they are and ensure that commissioners courts and city council meetings aren’t the only setting in which details about filling out the census are discussed, said Edwards, the professor working in East Texas.
“That information isn’t getting to a single mom who is working at a poultry processing plant. It’s not getting to the plumber who is trying to make ends meets,” Edwards said. “So primarily it’s been a lot of Facebook communication, but it’s been mostly in front of gas stations.”
This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2020/08/04/texas-census-deadline-hispanic/.
The Texas Tribune is proud to celebrate 10 years of exceptional journalism for an exceptional state. Explore the next 10 years with us.
School Officials Will Decide When to Reopen
Abbott said the state will provide schools with personal protective equipment to prepare for the new year.
Gov. Greg Abbott stresses local school officials "know best" whether schools should reopen
"Gov. Greg Abbott stresses local school officials "know best" whether schools should reopen" was first published by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.
Gov. Greg Abbott stressed Tuesday that only local school boards, not local governments, have the power to decide how to open schools this fall during the coronavirus pandemic.
"The bottom line is the people who know best ... about that are the local school officials," Abbott said during a news conference in San Antonio, echoing a message he's been relaying in response to questions about the process.
Texas educators and parents have been confused about who has the power to keep school buildings closed. They have also been frustrated by conflicting messages from state and local leaders.
Abbott also said that in preparation for the new school year, the state has already distributed to schools more than 59 million masks, more than 24,000 thermometers, more than 565,000 gallons of hand sanitizer and more than 500,000 face shields. He promised schools "will have their [personal protective equipment] needs met at no cost" to them, with the state picking up the tab.
In general, he described the state's personal protective equipment levels as bountiful even as the state faces an "an even greater strain" on the supply due to the coming school reopenings and flu season.
Abbott and other state leaders have backed a legal opinion from Attorney General Ken Paxton that prohibits local health authorities from issuing blanket school closures for all schools in their jurisdiction before the academic year begins. Local school boards can decide to keep schools closed to in-person learning for up to eight weeks, with the possibility to apply for waivers to remain shuttered beyond that timeframe.
Under the state's guidance, local health officials can only intervene if there is an outbreak once students return to campus, at which point they can temporarily shut down a school.
Abbott stressed Tuesday that the policy does not mean that local health authorities are cut out of the reopening process, saying local school boards are free to consult with the health experts.
"Nothing is stopping them from doing that, and they can fully adopt whatever strategy the local public health authority says," Abbott said.
The state’s guidance has overruled orders from local health authorities to keep schools closed to in-person learning for certain periods. For example, Metro Health in Bexar County had ordered schools to remain virtual until Sept. 7.
As for the personal protective equipment for schools, the Texas State Teachers Association said it was not nearly enough.
"The governor’s optics today on PPE is a drop in the bucket, compared to what will be needed if schools are forced to reopen before it’s safe," the union's president, Ovidia Molina, said in a statement. "59.4 million masks are roughly 11 masks per student. That might get students through the first week of school."
Aliyya Swaby contributed reporting.
Disclosure: Texas State Teachers Association has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.
This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2020/08/04/texas-greg-abbott-coronavirus-press-conference/.
The Texas Tribune is proud to celebrate 10 years of exceptional journalism for an exceptional state. Explore the next 10 years with us.
Who Should Prosecute the El Paso Walmart Shooting Suspect?
The incoming El Paso District Attorney is going to inherit the biggest case in the city's history. But the federal government is pursuing its own charges, and the new DA is weighing whether to pursue the county's case.
Who should prosecute the El Paso Walmart shooting suspect? A year after the massacre, local and federal prosecutors still face hard decisions
By Julián Aguilar July 31, 2020
EL PASO — When El Pasoans mark the one-year anniversary of the Walmart shooting Monday, attorney Yvonne Rosales will be one of hundreds of thousands of border residents reflecting on the tragedy afflicted on this city that claimed the lives of 23 people.
But after the candlelight vigils dim, Rosales will be right back at the task she’s been preparing for since she was confirmed as the county’s incoming district attorney — how to take over an office that could prosecute the man authorities say is responsible for one of the worst mass shootings in Texas history.
Rosales, an El Paso native who graduated from Austin High School and the University of Texas El Paso, will replace Jaime Esparza — who decided not to seek reelection after nearly three decades in office — in January to become the county's first female district attorney.
Rosales is inheriting one of the biggest criminal cases in the state’s history amid a pandemic that’s shut down in-person court proceedings. She's also inheriting a huge decision: whether to pursue a death penalty prosecution in the city's biggest murder case.
Federal prosecutors have also brought a litany of charges against Patrick Crusius, a 22-year-old from the Dallas suburb of Allen who authorities claim drove nearly 600 miles to target Hispanics; he allegedly posted a document online just before the shooting railing against immigrants and a "Hispanic invasion of Texas." He’s facing dozens of state and federal charges, including nearly two dozen counts of capital murder at the state level and 23 counts of hate crimes resulting in death and 23 involving an attempt to kill at the federal level.
Esparza, the outgoing district attorney, said he would pursue the death penalty, while federal prosecutors have stated they would consider it upon conviction, but it’s unclear which case will proceed first — and whether Crusius will be tried by both jurisdictions. Rosales said justice isn’t likely to come soon because of the complexity of the case and the uncertainty of the coronavirus pandemic. “I really don’t anticipate this case going to the trial [phase] until, I am guessing, between two to three years,” she said.
Before the coronavirus pandemic put a stranglehold on local economies, including El Paso’s, Esparza said he was “offended” at the suggestion that the county should sit back and let federal officials take the lead in Crusius' prosecution in order to save the county millions in prosecution costs. “Funding should never have a barrier in this prosecution, so I can tell you I’m not going to hand it off to the feds just because it’s cheaper,” Esparza said in February.
That was before the pandemic ravaged El Paso County and the rest of Texas. After sealing her victory in last month's runoff election, Rosales said letting the U.S. attorney’s office prosecute Crusius first would make financial sense for El Paso.
"From a legal perspective, it would make more sense for the federal government to try the case first," she said, adding that the appeals process for federal cases is faster than state cases. "If you’re going to talk economics, then it would save the county of El Paso millions of dollars to try that case," Rosales added. She said it's too soon to make that determination, and she plans to discuss the situation with both the state and federal judges after she takes office.
Rosales said she must also consider whether the community — and especially the victims’ families — should be forced to relive the tragedy twice during two separate trials. “As we approach the one year anniversary, it’s going to be a very emotional time for these people,” she said. “Is it something that we really want to put the families through a second time?”
Crusius's attorneys have already raised the issue of his mental health and said he has "lifelong neurological and mental disabilities,” the Associated Press reported earlier this month. His lawyers said that should be taken into consideration when prosecutors consider what punishment they seek. Despite confessing to authorities that he was the gunman after his arrest the day of the shooting, Crusius has pleaded not guilty in both the state and federal cases. Federal prosecutors were scheduled to meet Thursday to discuss what punishment they would seek when the case moves forward. Defense attorney David Lane did not respond to a request for comment.
In a emailed statement, John Bash, the U.S attorney for the Western District of Texas, said: “I join all El Pasoans, all Texans, and all Americans in mourning those we lost that terrible day one year ago. And I pray for the continued healing of those who survived. My office will not relent in our pursuit of justice for the victims and our community.” Bash declined to comment on any aspect of the prosecution.
Robert Dunham, executive director of the Washington-based Death Penalty Information Center, a non-profit think tank that analyzes the death penalty, said the case could be over quickly if prosecutors took the death penalty off the table.
“How important is it to make a statement to take his life?" he said. "How important is it to do that to protect the public, which can be done just as effectively with a sentence of life [in prison] without parole?” Earlier this month in the parking lot of the Walmart, where the shooting began before the gunman entered the store, El Pasoans had a range of thoughts on what the accused gunman's fate should be.
“I don’t think anyone should get the death penalty,” said Stephanie Cordova. “He needs to live so he can learn his lesson. What if he just wants to die?” Her friend Joey Reynolds said that while he’d usually agree with Cordova, the scale of the shooting and the number of lives lost justifies capital punishment.
“My personal belief, I think he should [face the death penalty],” he said. “A lot of [images] were shown online and I think that got to a lot of the younger generation. It would be nice to have some finalization.” Domingo Soledad Nuñez, who was raised in Chihuahua City in northern Mexico but has lived in El Paso for 20 years, said whether Crusius is executed or not won't make a difference in God's eyes. “I can’t say whether to kill him or lock him up for the rest of the life,” he added. “But he was already dead inside when he did what he did.”
The anniversary has already rekindled demands for action from lawmakers, especially Democrats who last year pleaded with Gov. Greg Abbott to call a special session of the Texas Legislature to address gun violence. Those calls grew louder after another mass shooting just weeks later in Midland that took eight lives, including the shooter's. The El Paso shooting happened a day after Abbott's campaign sent out a mailer saying Texans would need to take matters into their “own hands” to “defend” the border.
Abbott later said he spoke to members of El Paso's legislative delegation and told them “that mistakes were made and course correction has been made,” he said at the time. “We will make sure that we work collaboratively in unification.” The governor didn't call lawmakers back into session, instead opting for roundtable discussions in El Paso on gun violence.
During a press call Monday with Moms Demand Action, a national gun-reform group with chapters across the country, U.S. Rep Veronica Escobar, D-El Paso, said Texas Republicans who pushed for a special session on a transgender bathroom bill showed little interest in addressing what she called the more pressing issue of gun violence.
“Unfortunately we have yet to see any legislation taken up and really not much has changed,” she said. “And as you can imagine, it is very frustrating not just for me, but I hear all the time from constituents ‘What are you going to do about this?’”
State Rep. Joe Moody, D-El Paso, said the state’s Democratic caucus has had a long-standing request for a special session on gun violence since before the Walmart shooting. But he said he did come away with the feeling that the task forces formed after the shooting were able to create some momentum on how to move forward next session and address issues like strengthening background checks and ensuring that information provided to gun sellers by potential owners is accurate.
"The message I heard from the governor and from others was to build consensus around reform measures and then bring those forward,” he said. “I fully expect and anticipate that when we return, in whatever way it looks in January, that gun violence and community safety is going to be one of the major issues that is going to get tackled." Abbott spokesperson John Wittman said the El Paso shooting led to the creation of a domestic terrorism task force that recommended creating "domestic terrorism teams" comprised of Department of Public Safety special agents, as well as a "state intelligence assessment on domestic terrorism threats in Texas.”
Wittman said Thursday that the governor shares the city’s grief and said lawmakers will act on other recommendations by the task force when lawmakers return to the Capitol next year.
“Our hearts forever remain with the victims, their families, and all those impacted by this senseless and hateful attack," he said in an email. "As Texas prepares for the upcoming session, we seek justice for all those harmed in this tragedy by passing laws to combat domestic terrorism in Texas.”
The city and county have planned events to commemorate the anniversary, including a drive-through candlelight vigil and a memorial at the city's history museum. Activist groups said they are also planning their own events. Fernando Garcia, the executive director of the El Paso-based Border Network for Human Rights, said his group will march to the Walmart from a nearby memorial service carrying 23 white crosses.
"What is different from what we’re doing and from the county and the city is doing is we’re going to call it what it was, white supremacy," he said. "It was a racist attack against our community. It wasn’t about mental health or about a disturbed individual. It was created by the hateful rhetoric by the president and others."
Disclosure: Walmart has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism.
"Who should prosecute the El Paso Walmart shooting suspect? A year after the massacre, local and federal prosecutors still face hard decisions" was first published at https://www.texastribune.org/2020/07/31/el-paso-walmart-shooting-prosecute/ by The Texas Tribune.
The Texas Tribune is proud to celebrate 10 years of exceptional journalism for an exceptional state.
Funding for Rural Broadband
Rural Texans have been clamoring for high-speed internet services for years, and the requirements of a pandemic — work, schools and medicine — have raised the stakes. But a state fund that helps provide those services is in financial trouble.
Analysis: Funding for rural broadband in Texas is in trouble. The pandemic might save it.
By Ross Ramsey July 29, 2020
A state fund used to buttress rural telecommunications and internet services could run out of money before the end of the year, even as Texans’ reliance on those services for medicine, education and commerce balloons.
Phone companies and a pack of rural state legislators are asking utility regulators to increase the tax on interstate telecommunications services that fills the Texas Universal Service Fund; a decision could come as early as Thursday. But action has been delayed a couple of times this summer.
“TUSF, the high-cost and small and rural programs in particular, is what has given the opportunity for small and rural telecommunications providers to build and maintain the foundational network platform that allows rural Texas to remain connected. Without it, that network would fail,” state Rep. James White, R-Hillister, wrote to the Public Utility Commission.
“Before, but certainly with the current pandemic crisis, these small rural telecommunications carriers have stepped up to help provide the critical services needed as our citizens face a more ‘online’ environment. The ability to work, learn, and even seek healthcare from home would not be possible without the networks provided with the support of TUSF,” White wrote.
In early June, the PUC staff recommended raising the assessment rate to 6.4% from 3.3%, which would add about a dollar a month to customers’ telephone bills. Blame consumers: The shift from traditional landline phones to internet-based phones has cut into company billings, which in turn cut into the tax proceeds. By March 2019, the PUC staff wrote, the fund was falling short by $5 million to $7 million per month. Their gently worded recommendation was that “an increase in the assessment rate is appropriate to allow for funding of expenditures through August 2021.”
One forecast cited by PUC Chair DeAnn Walker said the fund would go into the red in December. Bluntly, that means the TUSF won’t make it to the end of the 2020-21 state budget period without some surgery.
The phone companies are on board with the increase, according to their filings. Some, like the members of the Texas Telephone Association, want to switch from a tax on revenues to a tax on the number of lines, and they want to add voice over internet phones to the mix. In its filing, AT&T Texas (among others) recommends increasing the rate to get through the next legislative session, when lawmakers can figure out the future of the fund.
The Texas Cable Association, another trade group, says the PUC should cut the fund’s spending — especially on former rural areas that are now exurban or suburban areas not in need of the help.
The Universal Service Fund pays for a bunch of programs set up to get phone service to Texans who might not otherwise have affordable access: Relay Texas and Specialized Telecommunications Assistance; Tel-Assistance, Lifeline and Link Up; Small Local Exchange Carriers Universal Service Fund; and the Texas High-Cost Universal Service Plan.
The idea in rural Texas was that the hardest-to-reach customers — the most expensive ones — wouldn’t get service at affordable rates and that the fund could subsidize them.
“For instance, in the Texas Panhandle there are four rural telecom providers that serve 42,431 households,” state Rep. Four Price, R-Amarillo, wrote in his letter urging the PUC to raise the rates and preserve the fund. “These four providers also each provide internet connectivity. Their geographic service area is approximately 18,344 square miles; an area larger than nine U.S. states.”
The fund covers about 55% of the state’s area, overall. And longstanding battles over rural access to the same services available in the cities — from phone lines to broadband internet — are getting more attention amid a pandemic that has forced students and teachers, patients and doctors, employees and employers into virtual relationships.
“Connectivity is important across the entire state, but perhaps especially so in rural areas where the digital divide may disproportionately affect rural Texans,” state Rep. Chris Paddie, R-Marshall, wrote to the regulators earlier this month.
Another East Texas lawmaker, state Rep. Travis Clardy, R-Nacogdoches, implored the PUC to keep the fund going until the regular legislative session starts in January. “If further legislative action is required, I am prepared to stand with rural Texans in providing solutions for their connectivity needs,” he wrote. “Unfortunately, if the funding issue is not addressed in the short-term a legislative solution will be too late.”
Even the professionally parsimonious chairman of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee chimed in.
“Rural areas, inner cities, public school systems, medical systems, and commerce are now faced with the challenge of meeting the demand of a more ‘online’ environment,” wrote state Rep. Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock. “As such, more federal dollars and state initiatives are clearly taking focus during the interim.”
If the PUC doesn’t keep the fund going, he said, it “would lead to loss of services or loss of access to services at reasonable rates for more than half of the state. No one wishes to increase costs on Texans in any environment, but the shortsighted approach of a small increase in order to guarantee a viable future network is only common sense.”
Disclosure: The Texas Telephone Association, AT&T and the Texas Cable Association have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism.
"Analysis: Funding for rural broadband in Texas is in trouble. The pandemic might save it." was first published at https://www.texastribune.org/2020/07/29/broadband-rural-texas-pandemic/ by The Texas Tribune. The Texas Tribune is proud to celebrate 10 years of exceptional journalism for an exceptional state.
Extended Deadline to Apply for Pandemic-EBT Program
More than 20% of the 3.6 million eligible school children across the state have yet to apply for federal aid under the Pandemic EBT program.
Texas families now have until Aug. 21 to apply for food aid to make up for free and reduced-price meals
"Texas families now have until Aug. 21 to apply for food aid to make up for free and reduced-price meals" was first published by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.
Gov. Greg Abbott announced Tuesday that he has extended the deadline to apply for the Pandemic-EBT Card, which pays $285 for each student who received free and reduced-price meals, to Aug. 21.
The federal benefit for lower-income students is intended to fill the gap caused when schools shut down last spring because of the pandemic. The deadline had previously been extended from the end of June to the end of July.
Food policy advocates said these extensions are necessary to give more time to the families of about 800,000 eligible Texas children who have yet to apply for the federal program.
As of July 17, a little more than 20% of the 3.6 million eligible Texas school children had not been signed up for the program, according to Texas Department of Agriculture data, said Rachel Cooper, a senior policy analyst with Every Texan, a left-leaning think tank previously known as the Center for Public Policy Priorities.
"We’re pleased with how many families have so far received this benefit, but there are still thousands of eligible families in our communities that can apply for assistance,” Wayne Salter, Texas Health and Human Services’ access and eligibility services deputy executive commissioner, said in a written statement.
While some Texas counties — including Hidalgo, Harris, Fort Bend and Nueces — have reached upward of 88% of eligible applicants, others — including Williamson, Potter and Ector counties — are hovering around 67%, according to data from the agriculture department.
Thousands of families are still applying every day, but “with all of the chaos and disruption” of the last few months, many still don’t know they qualify, Cooper said.
In addition to the online application, the state also has a phone number families can call to fill out their application over the phone; translators are available if needed.
Cooper said its likely many immigrant families have hesitated to apply because they don’t know that their immigration status will not bar them from aid or hurt their chances to become legal residents under the public charge rule — which penalizes immigrants who have used public benefits for a certain period of time.
"We know that families are struggling right now. Food insecurity rates have skyrocketed for families in Texas and so any additional money that they can put towards food helps and this is one way to get help to those families and kids right away,” Cooper said.
This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2020/07/28/p-ebt-texas-food-aid/.
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Schools Reopening in Texas
With the safe reopening of schools this fall in doubt, parents with the resources are setting up "learning pods" or seeking other options. But the do-it-yourself approach to education threatens to leave behind students of color and poorer families.
As school reopenings falter, some Texas parents hire private teachers. Others can only afford to cross their fingers.
"As school reopenings falter, some Texas parents hire private teachers. Others can only afford to cross their fingers." was first published by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.
Earlier this summer, Kristina Boshernitzan and a group of neighbors stood in the driveway of her Austin home for a socially distanced meeting to figure out how to take greater control of their childrens' educations.
With the coronavirus spreading unpredictably and plans to safely reopen schools shifting day by day, the parents grappled with the increasing prospect that it might be unsafe, or impossible, to send their children back to school in the fall.
Each faced difficult decisions. One neighbor's husband had stage 4 cancer, and she didn’t want her children to expose him to the new coronavirus, which they might pick up in a classroom. Another mother had young twins with lung issues. Just a cold is enough to send them to the hospital, and they can take no risk of being exposed to COVID-19.
Boshernitzan, who works full-time at a nonprofit, wanted parents to pool resources and find ways to make virtual learning easier. They discussed hiring a college student or nanny to help children complete their online school district coursework, or finding a music or arts instructor who could replace enrichment courses while schools are closed for in-person learning.
To reach even more parents, she created a private Facebook group for parents in northwest Austin who want to connect and form “learning pods,” a term she said is “in the zeitgeist right now.” In less than two weeks, the group gained almost 500 members.
Such scenes are playing out across Texas and the country as school districts delay their return to in-person instruction this fall and COVID-19 cases continue to surge. Parents will be playing an even bigger role in determining what and how their children learn, and they are deploying all the resources they have at their disposal to ensure it goes more smoothly than in the spring.
For some, like Boshernitzan, that means organizing learning pods in which families pool their money to hire an instructor and take turns hosting small groups of students to follow the school district’s learning plan at home. Others are withdrawing their children from public schools entirely and planning to home-school with learning materials they can find online for free and at cost. Some parents with younger children are sticking with trusted private child care centers that separate students and follow strict health codes.
But many parents don't have the money to hire private instructors or the flexibility to home-school their children. Upon hearing that Frisco ISD wouldn’t open classrooms for at least three weeks after the school year begins, Chloe McGlover panicked, knowing her budget is too tight to hire a tutor or full-time teacher for her 11-year-old son, Jhonte. The single mother owns a massage therapy business and lost money shutting down earlier this year during the statewide stay-at-home order.
“I already know I can’t afford it. There’s really no point in even looking,” she said. “Whatever little savings I had is almost depleted now.”
The decisions parents are making in response to the patchwork of opening dates, remote learning and do-it-yourself education coming this fall underscore the fact that the pandemic will exacerbate education gaps between higher-income and low-income students, as well as white students and students of color.
A University of Texas and Texas Politics Project poll earlier this summer showed that 65% of Texans said it was unsafe for children to return to school. Black and Hispanic Texans were more likely than white Texans polled to say it was unsafe. Available data from some of Texas’ most populous counties, including Harris County, shows Black and Hispanic Texans disproportionately contracting COVID-19.
Research published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests there are higher rates nationally of hospitalizations and deaths related to COVID-19 among some people of color than there are among white people, and that circumstances such as being an essential worker and lacking health insurance are related to these risks.
Low-income, Black and Hispanic Texans are more likely than high-income and white Texans to be essential workers and to lack health insurance. And those families, a majority in Texas public schools, are less likely to be able to afford private supplements to their children’s education.
Some with money and resources will sprint ahead. Those without will lag behind. Thousands of families still don’t have access to the laptops and Wi-Fi hotspots they will need to learn from home this fall, and for some, keeping schools closed cuts off access to food, medical care and a refuge from abuse.
“There’s ugly sides to parenting, and I think the idea that I’m going to protect my kids first is really beautiful and really ugly,” Boshernitzan said. “How do you balance your desire to give to your kids without taking away from others?”
“We’re about to see what happens when we turn up the volume on families and turn it down on schools,” wrote Paul von Hippel, an associate professor in education policy at the University of Texas at Austin, in an opinion piece this spring on disparities in student learning due to the pandemic.
For privately organized efforts like learning pods, parents are tending to connect with others in their neighborhoods and school zones, already segregated by race and class.
“The question is how far kids who don’t get that, who don’t have access to that, how far are they going to fall behind?” said Tomeka Davis, assistant professor of sociology at Georgia State University. “If schools are already cash strapped, how are they going to remediate kids who have lost that much school to the pandemic?”
Amber Williams-Platt considered putting her 3-year-old son in pre-K in Georgetown ISD this fall, but she’s reconsidering in light of the pandemic. Out of work and in school, she looked for subsidized or free child care options such as Head Start but said she was put on waitlists each time. She used a federal stimulus check to catch up on overdue electricity bills and is living off Social Security payments.
She heard about the learning pods but ruled the idea out quickly as an option for her family. “It has merit, but it takes money to do something like that. You have to have food available for all of the children. You have to have space available,” she said. “If you can’t, you can’t properly share in the duty.”
Texas gave public school districts more flexibility last week on how long they can keep their campuses closed, with educators and parents clamoring that it wasn’t safe to return. Some districts, especially urban and suburban ones where the virus is spreading quickly, may keep their campuses closed to students through the fall and into early winter. Over the last couple of months, state officials have postponed and walked back guidance multiple times, as the politics and health concerns of the pandemic shift — preventing districts from finalizing safety plans or reopening dates.
Largely unsure about their public schools’ plans, hundreds of Texas parents are joining local Facebook groups connecting parents who want to share the responsibilities and costs of hiring instructors to facilitate online learning for their children. The learning pod trend has caught on across the country, especially among upper- and middle-class families with kids in public schools.
Throughout the spring, many school districts struggled to get acclimated to remote learning, facing technical difficulties with their learning platforms and failing to get many students the technology they needed. That put the onus on parents to effectively home-school their kids, in some cases while working from home, or risk them not learning at all.
Boshernitzan and her husband both work full time and are considering a combination of a private child care and a learning pod for their three elementary-age children. A strong proponent of public schools, she plans to send her kids back to Austin ISD in person as soon as it’s safe, and she recognizes how lucky she is to have options.
A whole new industry is springing up around the learning pod trend, with new organizations offering to connect pods of families with teachers or tutors. The Texas Learning Pod, for example, started by a University of Texas at Austin student, links families with college students, offering packages that range from $20 to $55 per hour depending on the number of children and grade levels. And public and private school teachers who are worried about getting sick when schools resume in person are looking for opportunities to teach learning pods.
Sarah Bridle, a parent of five children in Keller ISD in North Texas, is worried her eighth grade son in particular will feel “chained to sitting at the computer” watching teachers livestream lessons. So she’s considering a learning pod where he could socialize with other kids in his grade while completing school assignments.
A stay-at-home mother, she started a Facebook group earlier this month for Keller and nearby Northwest ISD parents who want to create learning pods, getting the idea from a popular San Francisco group called Pandemic Pods and Microschools. Bridle’s group now has more than 900 members.
Bridle has talked with her husband about bringing in one student to join her family’s pod who otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford it, and she’s encouraging other families to do the same. “That’s not always going to be possible, and there’s not an easy fix,” she said. “That’s why we need our public schools system, and we have to find a way to get through this and come through the other side without losing our public schools.”
Chelsey Carter, a co-founder of Bridle's group, is one of an increasing number of parents looking to home-school their children without using resources from the school district, which is virtually unregulated in Texas. Carter is reaching out to other families to form a small group of five or fewer children who hop from home to home and work from the same curriculum.
“While we know the school district is doing everything they can … we feel like there’s just too many unknowns,” said Carter, whose son finished first grade at Northwest ISD last year. “We want to have stability and consistency for our child, and we feel like home school is the best way to do that.” A social worker, she worried her son would have to spend the day tied to a computer if he learned with a school district, which didn’t fit in her schedule. This way, she can share the responsibilities of helping students learn with other parents and potentially pool money to hire a teacher for a couple of days a week.
The Texas Homeschool Coalition said it has seen a major increase in parents inquiring about how to home-school their children, seeking more stability during a rocky year. It has created a tool to help parents withdraw from their public schools and provided resources and free learning packets for parents who want to try it. According to the coalition, about 25,000 students withdrew from public schools to home-school in Texas in 2018.
It’s unclear how much of a blow the drop in enrollment will be for Texas public schools, which are funded based on daily attendance. Texas is requiring school districts to count the number of students who attend remotely and announced last week it will give school districts a break if their attendance drops dramatically during the first 12 weeks.
The uncertainty of where coronavirus hot spots will erupt is especially stressful for parents, who want stability for their children and for themselves. Many know it’s inevitable that some public schools that reopen while the virus is still spreading quickly will have to close again, complicating their decisions.
Rene Coronado and his wife, who both work full time outside the home, will pay $200 per week to keep their 6-year-old son in a private child care center they trust instead of sending him to Grapevine-Colleyville ISD in North Texas. The center had two positive COVID-19 cases this summer, which it handled well, Coronado said, quickly confirming which students had been directly exposed and informing parents as needed.
He received an email from Grapevine-Colleyville ISD last week that included limited details on health and safety protocols for students. “It was just super clear that if one kid gets sick, all the other kids get exposed,” he said. “Even if we couldn’t afford [private child care], which we’re very fortunate we can, we would have to figure it out anyway because the school is going to shut down.”
Disclosure: Facebook and the University of Texas at Austin have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.
This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2020/07/23/homeschool-texas-schools-reopening/.
The Texas Tribune is proud to celebrate 10 years of exceptional journalism for an exceptional state. Explore the next 10 years with us.
Undocumented Immigrants are Self-Evicting Across Texas
Without money to pay rent, facing pressures from landlords and afraid of courts, people without legal immigration status have limited options.
Undocumented immigrants behind on their rent are self-evicting across Texas
"Undocumented immigrants behind on their rent are self-evicting across Texas" was first published by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.
The coronavirus pandemic pushed María and her family from a small two-bedroom apartment in southeast Houston into homelessness in less than a month. Her boss cut her hours in a clothing warehouse in mid-March as business slowed. Without enough money to pay rent, she packed her belongings and found another place to live even though there was a statewide moratorium on evictions.
“When I couldn’t find how to pay, I just had to leave,” said María, 47, who is an undocumented immigrant. “I didn’t want to be in debt, and I couldn’t go to court.”
María asked that she be identified by a pseudonym out of fear that immigration authorities could seek to deport her.
On paper, an undocumented tenant has the same rights as anyone else during the eviction process. But housing attorneys and tenant and immigration advocates say undocumented immigrants are frequently hesitant to exercise those options. Their fear of the legal system and lack of access to government-funded financial help prompt many to self-evict, or prematurely leave the property. And as a result, many turn to a network of nonprofits and religious organizations accustomed to helping vulnerable people who keep the Texas economy humming. But those groups say their ability to assist is being stressed by the many people who were swiftly left without work due to the coronavirus pandemic's economic wallop.
Zoe Middleton is the Houston and Southeast Texas co-director at Texas Housers, an affordable-housing advocacy group. She said that because Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are allowed in courthouses, undocumented renters avoid going inside these buildings out of fear of being deported. There have been cases in Texas in which undocumented immigrants were arrested in courthouses while appearing for cases unrelated to immigration.
“I think the fear that concerns most of the undocumented tenants that I’ve spoken to is that somehow the [eviction judges] will collude with ICE or that their documentation status will be used against them by their landlord even if they try to remain on the property,” she said. “So they choose to leave the property so they don’t risk detention and deportation.”
Many renters in Texas found temporary relief in eviction moratoriums, federal pandemic relief payments, unemployment checks and rental assistance programs. Undocumented migrants, though, either don’t qualify for such aid or are afraid that merely seeking it will alert immigration authorities to their presence in a country whose president has called some immigrants “animals,” makes racist remarks and consistently tries to create barriers for migrants.
In many of Texas’ largest counties, evictions in June were lower than they were for the same month last year. In Harris County, where María lives, eviction filings were down about 67%. Local moratoriums, rent assistance programs and other government aid have helped renters stay afloat for the time being. Still, housing advocates forecast a historical increase in evictions statewide due to the unprecedented unemployment COVID-19 swiftly spurred.
But tenants who decide to leave a home on their own, or self-evict, many times don’t even get to the point at which an eviction is filed, so there’s no record of how many people, like María, pursue this route.
“When it comes to eviction, a verbal threat of eviction or lock-out may result in an undocumented person packing up and leaving immediately,” said Sandy Rollins, executive director of the Texas Tenants’ Union, a housing advocacy group. “This could be due to the lack of understanding of their rights, but it could also be from fear of engaging with courts in order to stand up for their rights.”
“We want to do more”
Linley Boone-Almaguer, an attorney with the nonprofit Texas RioGrande Legal Aid, said that widespread job loss has compounded tenants’ anxieties during the eviction process. And immigrants have been more affected by this year’s historic unemployment than U.S.-born workers, according to an analysis by the Pew Research Center.
“There’s a lot of home health care aides. There’s a lot of people like certified nursing assistants, housekeepers, day cares, people — both documented and undocumented — that work in the service industry,” Boone-Almaguer said. “And so many of those people lost their jobs completely or lost hours, or they work at the flea market selling things, so there’s so many jobs like that, where people lost their very, already very limited income. And so you have seen evictions spiking during the COVID period.”
In these cases, many undocumented immigrants rely on their community and avoid seeking assistance from the government or nonprofits. But if they do reach out for benefits like rent assistance, they face language barriers.
“When they want to ask for help from a nonprofit, and the staff only speaks English, they feel intimidated and don’t want to go on,” said Adriana Godines, a volunteer for Dallas Area Interfaith, a community group made up of religious congregations, schools and other nonprofits. “Even if I tell them that there will be no problem and they won’t ask for your Social Security, they prefer not to [ask for help].”
And even people who go to the justice of the peace courts, where eviction cases are heard, face similar hurdles.
“A lot of JP courts won’t have bilingual speakers,” said Lizbeth Parra-Davila, a housing fellow at the University of Texas School of Law. “Throughout Texas, that has been the case where I’ll call JP courts and they’ll say, ‘Yeah, we don’t have any Spanish speakers. We don’t have any Spanish interpreters.’”
Many undocumented people have been counting on their families, friends and churches.
Godines has seen homes with 12 people living together as people who self-evict move in with loved ones.
“It’s people of all ages. Kids, adults, sometimes senior citizens,” she said.
Godines has worked with families searching for rental assistance, and she said that funds are running low among nonprofit organizations that are allowed to serve undocumented immigrants.
“We want to do more, but we don’t have more resources,” Godines said. “But the little that we have in this community, we give it.”
Auxiliary Bishop Greg Kelly of the Catholic Diocese of Dallas explained that many priests and churchgoers have pooled together resources to pay for rent and food for undocumented migrants. But he, too, worries how long such resources will last.
“I don’t think we know yet how serious this is or how long it will last. When the city assistance program opened, the help available was overwhelmed in the first couple of hours,” Kelly said. “It could be a very lengthy situation. There’s so much uncertainty.”
Ready to work
As María was planning to move out, she heard that a Christian pastor nearby was willing to let her live in a small apartment in the back of his church. She let her kids sleep on the king-sized bed there, and she took a small couch. They had to share the kitchen with the church staff and churchgoers.
“Sometimes we wouldn’t eat until everyone left the church,” María said.
She was grateful, but also sometimes uncomfortable.
“My way of thanking them was cleaning the church,” she said.
After almost three months there, she was asked to leave. A relative of the pastor was also having trouble paying rent and was going to use the apartment. María told the pastor not to worry, that she was going to find a solution.
“Even before the pandemic, things were tough in our community,” said Josephine Lee, an organizer with the workers’ group El Pueblo Primero, which has been trying to help María. “People were living check to check. This pandemic basically made it where it was completely unbearable. People call us saying that most of them haven’t paid a month [of rent], but half of those haven’t paid for two or more months.”
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After having her working hours cut, María decided to self-evict. Undocumented immigrants, such as María, are frequently afraid of the legal system. Pu Ying Huang for The Texas Tribune
María now lives apart from her family, though she still regularly sees her kids, who moved in with her ex-husband. She has been staying with a friend, trying to save some money to find a new place. But jobs are still hard to come by.
She has managed to pick up work cleaning homes here and there, but not much more than that. And finding financial help is out of the question: Undocumented workers are not eligible for stimulus checks, and they can’t apply for unemployment benefits.
“I don’t have papers, but I file my taxes every year,” said María, who uses an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number provided by the Internal Revenue Service, as do many other undocumented workers who don’t have Social Security numbers.
According to the IRS, ITIN users paid more than $23.6 billion in taxes in 2015. In Texas, undocumented immigrants contributed $1.5 billion in local and state taxes, a 2017 study found.
María’s older daughter, who is a citizen and lost her job at a mall, applied for state unemployment benefits.
“But she tried and tried, and the website never worked,” María said. “If that would have worked out, we might have been fine.”
In Houston, María has appreciated the help from her community, but she said she’s also ready to work. She hoped to get back to work at the clothing warehouse this week, but she never heard back from her former boss. Now she’s applying to work in a plastics factory. Her goal is to save up for a car, to be able to access more jobs, and to have a steady paycheck to get a new home.
“Now I don’t have furniture, I don’t have beds to sleep. We only have clothes and our personal stuff,” she said. “But at the end, that’s not the most important. What you really want is a place to be quiet, no matter if you have to sleep or eat on the floor. The important thing is to have a place of peace, to be with your kids.”
Disclosure: The University of Texas System has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.
This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2020/07/22/evictions-texas-undocumented-immigrants/.
The Texas Tribune is proud to celebrate 10 years of exceptional journalism for an exceptional state. Explore the next 10 years with us.
Texas GOP Postpones Convention
After struggling to kick off the virtual gathering Thursday, the party's executive committee has voted to wait until Saturday to resume business, hoping it can use the time between to smooth things out.
Texas GOP postpones convention a day due to technical problems
"Texas GOP postpones convention a day due to technical problems" was first published by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.
The Texas Republican Party has postponed its state convention by a day to give itself more time to figure out technical issues that plagued the virtual gathering Thursday.
After a nearly four-hour meeting that ended after midnight on Friday, the State Republican Executive Committee voted 51-5 to resume convention business Saturday instead of later Friday. The delay was encouraged by party Chairman James Dickey, who expressed uncertainty throughout the night that the party could start the convention again Friday without encountering further problems related to its online credentialing process.
"I very, very much think this would be a wise move," Dickey said of resuming Saturday.
The party faced hours-long delays as it sought to get its convention going earlier Thursday. Dickey abruptly announced Thursday evening that the convention would reconvene at noon Friday, citing "extenuating circumstances and technical issues."
Now, with the SREC vote, convention business will not begin again until Saturday morning, likely about 8 a.m., Dickey said. That also means the convention will last a day later than originally scheduled, going into Sunday.
For weeks, the party had pushed to hold an in-person convention in Houston, one that was expected to draw thousands of people, even as coronavirus cases spiked across the state. After exhausting legal options earlier this week, party officials moved forward with the virtual meeting, which they said they had long been preparing for as a backup plan.
The saga has been especially high-stakes for Dickey, who faces a serious challenge to his chairmanship from Allen West, the former Florida congressman. It was not immediately clear when exactly that vote would be held at the convention under the new schedule approved by the SREC.
In any case, Dickey opened the SREC meeting Thursday night with an apology.
"I am sorry that today did not go much, much better," Dickey said, "and as the chair, that is my responsibility, and I accept that responsibility."
This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2020/07/17/texas-gop-convention/.
The Texas Tribune is proud to celebrate 10 years of exceptional journalism for an exceptional state. Explore the next 10 years with us.
No Shutdown Coming For Texas
Texas Governor Greg Abbott said it will take weeks to see whether his recent mask order and decision to close bars are effective in slowing the virus' spread.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott says "there is no shutdown coming" as coronavirus cases surge
"Texas Gov. Greg Abbott says "there is no shutdown coming" as coronavirus cases surge" was first published by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.
As the number of new coronavirus cases in Texas continues to rise and hospitals grow more crowded, Gov. Greg Abbott said Thursday there is no statewide shutdown looming.
Abbott said last week that if the spread of the virus didn't slow, "the next step would have to be a lockdown." But in a television interview Thursday, he said that there have been rumors of such a move and stressed that they were not true.
“Let me tell you, there is no shutdown coming,” he told KRIV-TV in Houston.
Abbott pointed to measures he’s taken in recent weeks, including a statewide mask mandate and an order shutting down bars, to slow the spread of the virus. It will take a few weeks to see a reversal in coronavirus case surges, he said.
He has repeatedly stressed this week that, if people wear masks, he'll be able to avoid shutting down the state. On Wednesday, he told KPRC-TV in Houston that it seems like people ask him about a shutdown "like a thousand times a day."
"People are panicking, thinking I'm about to shut down Texas again," he said. "The answer is no. That is not the goal. I've been abundantly clear."
As of Thursday, there were 10,457 people in Texas hospitals with the coronavirus. That was down slightly from a peak of 10,569 on Tuesday, but still an 8% increase from a week ago and more than four times the number a month ago. Abbott described seeing a "flattening" of hospitalizations. The state has reported 3,561 deaths from the virus.
“We are certainly not out of the woods yet, but this could be a glimmer of hope,” Abbott said of the recent hospitalization numbers. “But the only way we can avoid a shutdown is if we do get everybody buying into this process of wearing a face mask.”
Earlier Thursday, Abbott defended his coronavirus response at the Texas GOP convention after acknowledging widespread discontent among party members. Several Republican officials have voiced their criticism of Abbott’s statewide mask order.
"The last thing that any of us want is to lock Texas back down again," he said during the virtual convention.
But Democrats continued to push for Abbott to take more action to stem the spread of the virus.
"Governor Abbott should start listening to public health officials and members of his own coronavirus taskforce before he makes blanket claims," Abhi Rahman, a state party spokesperson, said in an email. "After experiencing record deaths today and over 10,000 new cases, it's shocking that Abbott continues to double down on his failed policies and positions."
Correction: The photo caption for this story originally misstated when Gov. Greg Abbott held a press conference on steps to reopen Texas businesses. The press conference was in April.
This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2020/07/16/texas-shutdown-greg-abbott/.
The Texas Tribune is proud to celebrate 10 years of exceptional journalism for an exceptional state. Explore the next 10 years with us.
Texas not Ready for November Election
In some counties, previously advertised polling places were shuttered at the last minute for lack of workers, some fearing the pandemic or reluctant to risk exposure to voters who were not required to wear masks.
Runoff elections show Texas not quite ready for November's main event
"Runoff elections show Texas not quite ready for November's main event" was first published by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.
As dress rehearsals go, Tuesday's Texas primary runoff elections weren't bad, but for some voters and poll workers, they revealed problems that need to be fixed before November's big show.
With much lower turnout than primary or general elections, the first in-person election day during the coronavirus pandemic saw voters reporting heavily sanitized polling places, an ample supply of gloves, finger cots or pencils to mark up their ballots, and socially distanced lines. With a tiny ballot in many places, some were in and out of polling places in minutes.
But some Texans who sought to vote by mail — and submitted their applications on time — indicated they never received their ballots. Some opted instead to vote in person. Others went uncounted. It’s unknown how many were affected.
Other voters sent in their mail-in ballots only to have them returned unopened. Some of those reached county elections offices after a second attempt, while others still appeared lost on election night. It’s also unknown how many were affected.
In some counties, previously advertised polling places were shuttered at the last minute for lack of workers, some fearing the pandemic or reluctant to risk exposure to voters who were not required to wear masks. Others walked off the job Tuesday morning after discovering some of their fellow poll workers wouldn’t be donning masks.
And throughout the night, the Texas secretary of state's portal for reporting election night returns was either broken or incorrect, first displaying garbled numbers in various races on the ballot and later showing discrepancies with county reports.
“I would say a number of the problems we saw in this election are red flags that, left unaddressed, could result in massive problems in November,” said Anthony Gutierrez, executive director of Common Cause Texas, in a statement.
On the eve of the election, Bexar County saw examples of the staffing issues local officials could face in November when counties are expected to run a higher number of voting sites. Late Monday night, the county announced it would not run three planned polling places on election day. Along with closures announced last week, that meant the county cut 12 of the 226 voting sites it had planned.
“Today, we had three teams decline to serve, because of the COVID-19 virus,” said elections administrator Jacque Callanen. “Please keep in mind that the average judge’s age is 72, so we certainly understand their concerns.”
By Tuesday morning, mask politics reached into election administration in Collin County, where at least two Democratic poll workers said they abandoned their duties after realizing some of the Republican poll workers at their sites didn’t intend to wear masks.
Longtime poll worker Allison St. Claire agreed to work the election as a “foot soldier” working to help keep elections safe and fair even though her kids “weren’t wild about” the idea because she’s considered high risk for complications that come with COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus.
“I assured them we’d have PPE on and we’d be fine,” St. Claire said. “I’d been there a little less than four hours, and I just decided, you know, this is not worth the risk if they’re not going to mask up.”
At her assigned polling place inside a high school, Cynthia Riley’s shift lasted about 45 minutes after she decided she was unwilling to sit for 14 hours next to poll workers who weren’t wearing masks.
“I guess I just missed the memo that I needed to be concerned about other election workers,” Riley said. “I did understand we couldn't require the voters to wear a mask. … I didn’t realize I needed to be concerned about the people sitting on the other side of the plexiglass next to me."
For some first-time and regular mail-in voters, election day went by without their votes being counted.
Multiple voters continued to report they had not received the ballots they requested in a timely manner. Travis County realized that thousands of its voters had incorrectly filled out their applications and missed checking off the runoff election or indicating a party on the form they submitted — an issue that came to light because some voters who didn’t receive runoff ballots did get ballots for a special election to select their state senator. But it’s unclear how many voters in other counties were similarly tripped up by the form.
In Burnet County, Jennifer Hess and her mother — both considered high risk — applied for and received mail-in ballots, but the 59-year-old artist said she miscalculated when those ballots could be dropped in the mail based on her experience voting in Washington state, where she said she posted her ballot on election day.
In Texas, those postmarked votes are only counted if they’re received by 5 p.m. the day after the election. Voters who don’t get their absentee ballots in the mail on time can still drop them off in person, but they can only drop off their own ballot and have to show photo ID to do so.
“I don't think the USPS has ever been able to deliver mail that fast,” Hess wrote to The Texas Tribune. “And, the voting law prevents me from being able to deliver my mom's ballot for her, (which is sealed inside two envelopes). Our vote was not heard.”
In Dallas County, Michael Vendrell, a teleradiologist who works from home, faced a maddening situation getting his ballot to count. An experienced absentee voter, he left his absentee ballot for pickup at the end of June only to find it back in his mailbox days later — unopened and with a printed return label to himself that had been seemingly tacked on by the post office.
It was a conundrum the Dallas chapter of the League of Women Voters had heard from various other voters.
Vendrell scratched off the label, dropped it back in the mail and didn’t get it back. But his name never appeared on the county’s roster of voters who had cast early ballots by mail. When he called the elections office, a county worker indicated they were still receiving mail-in ballots and would call him when his ballot came in. But two weeks after it was picked up by a postal carrier, it had not shown up at the county elections office.
“The fact that I didn't have one vote ... get counted is not my issue,” Vendrell said. “My issue is we have a broken system.”
Among those voters almost left out of the election was Carmen Radley, a 38-year-old writer in Austin.
Radley first attempted to vote at an elementary school around midday on the last day of early voting but was met with what she described as a “COVID tunnel” — a line of an estimated 100 people wrapped around a school hallway on both sides.
“I was disoriented. I got in there and saw the line and thought about waiting and just decided this wasn’t ethical — to risk exposing myself and bring that to a hospital,” Radley said.
Her options were limited. Scheduled to have surgery the morning after the election, Radley was supposed to be self-isolating at home. On Tuesday afternoon, an Instagram post on curbside voting caught her attention, but she wasn’t sure how that worked.
After speaking with a reporter, Radley reached out to the Travis County clerk’s office about voting from her car. The process required an initial call to the clerk, a second call once she got to a polling location and a third call by the clerk to alert poll workers there about a curbside voter.
“Not sure how this is current process would be feasible for general election crowd,” Radley wrote in a text after casting her ballot. “Just so many hoops to jump through.”
Disclosure: The Texas secretary of state's office and the League of Women Voters have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.
This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2020/07/15/texas-primary-runoff-elections-november/.
The Texas Tribune is proud to celebrate 10 years of exceptional journalism for an exceptional state. Explore the next 10 years with us.
Texas’ Primary Runoff Elections
Texans will be voting in the middle of a pandemic on Tuesday in a runoff election originally scheduled for May. Here’s what to watch for when the results come in.
6 things to watch in Texas’ primary runoff election
BY ALEX SAMUELS JULY 13, 2020 UPDATED: JULY 14, 2020
1. A race to face off against John Cornyn
Whoever wins the U.S. Senate Democratic primary runoff — a race between Air Force veteran MJ Hegar and and Dallas state Sen. Royce West — will face an uphill battle against U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, who will have a huge financial advantage in a traditionally red state. As tightening polls at the top of the state ticket have given some Texas Democrats hope for November, the race between Hegar and West has become contentious. With Hegar leading in the polls, West has amped up his questioning of Hegar’s party credentials and harnessed the energy over police misconduct to energize his campaign.
If Super Tuesday is any indication, West will perform well in his hometown of Dallas, so the question is whether Hegar can overcome that advantage in other parts of the state. Working in her favor are outside groups like EMILY’s List and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee— plus Hegar’s own campaign — that put up a combined $2 million to mount a massive television ad campaign on her behalf. The spending differential between the two campaigns is approximately $85 to $1.
2. If a Republican wins Tuesday, is that a win in November?
In two GOP congressional runoffs, the winners will be clear favorites to become their districts’ next members of congress. In District 17, which includes Waco, Bryan-College Station and rural parts of east central Texas, former U.S. Rep. Pete Sessions is seeking a return to Washington. He represented Dallas in the U.S. House until losing his seat in 2018 to Democrat Colin Allred. Now he has moved 100 miles south and faces local businesswoman Renee Swann, who has the support of retiring U.S. Rep. Bill Flores, R-Bryan.
In the Texas Panhandle, two outspoken conservatives will vie for the nomination in one of the state’s reddest U.S. House districts. One of the candidates, Ronny Jackson, the former White House doctor, has the backing of President Donald Trump. He’ll square off against Josh Winegarner, a veteran agriculture expert and lobbyist. Trump had a near-perfect endorsement record in Texas on Super Tuesday. In several primaries, his nod either helped land a candidate above the runoff threshold — as in Jackson’s case — or cement the candidate’s name on the November ballot. (With Trump’s poll numbers suffering, however, it’s unclear if his endorsement will carry the shock and awe it did several months ago.) Another notable race for a safe GOP seat is the runoff for state House District 60, where Jon Francis, son-in-law of Farris and JoAnn Wilks, will face off against the Gov. Greg Abbott-backed Glenn Rogers. The Wilkses — brothers Farris and Dan and their extensive families — have doled out millions supporting candidates and causes that reflect their hardline political ideology anchored in faith, freedom and guns. In turn, Francis, who works at Wilks Development, a real estate development and investment company, has received the backing of hardline conservative leaders and groups, including Empower Texans and outgoing state Rep. Jonathan Stickland, R-Bedford.
3. Swing congressional seats
But in four other prominent congressional races, the parties are picking their candidates in what are expected to be competitive seats this fall. In another race that has gained Trump's attention, the president has tried to tip the scales in favor of Tony Gonzales in the 23rd Congressional District, a perennial swing seat represented by outgoing U.S. Rep. Will Hurd, R-Helotes. Gonzales will face the U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz-backed Raul Reyes for a chance to take on Gina Ortiz Jones, the Democratic nominee.
In Austin, Mike Siegel hopes to overtake Democratic rival Pritesh Gandhi for a chance to take on U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Austin, later this year. Siegel won the Democratic nomination in 2018 and came within 5 percentage points of besting McCaul in a seat that has long been in Republicans’ grip. Another likely competitive race this November has quickly transformed into an expensive one: Kathaleen Wall, a prominent GOP activist-donor, has spent more than $8 million, most from her own pocket, for the nomination in the 22nd Congressional District near Houston. Wall is up against Fort Bend County Sheriff Troy Nehls, who won the most votes on Super Tuesday. The winner will face Democrat Sri Preston Kulkarni in November in a race to replace retiring U.S. Rep. Pete Olson, R-Sugar Land.
Farther north, March Democratic primary frontrunner Kim Olson faces rising momentum from former local school board member Candace Valenzuela in a bid to replace retiring U.S. Rep. Kenny Marchant, R-Coppell. The winner of the primary will face Republican Beth Van Duyne in the fall.
4. The wild card: Robert Morrow
For Republicans in Texas, Robert Morrow advancing to the GOP primary runoff for a seat on the State Board of Education was nothing short of frightening. Morrow is perhaps best known for wearing a jester’s hat and holding incendiary signs outside political events around Austin. He also has a history of making racist, sexist and profane statements. On the day before the runoff, his account was restricted on Twitter. Still, he finished first in the three-way primary on Super Tuesday to fill the seat of retiring member Ken Mercer. All Republicans on the board quickly teamed up to rally around his opponent, Lani Popp.
Republicans were puzzled and dismayed that Morrow, who doesn’t have much in terms of a formal campaign, endorsements or money, advanced as far as he did. Even Morrow himself has admitted that he thought his chances of winning the runoff were slim. But if he wins, Morrow, a self-described performance artist who was ousted after a brief stint as chair of the Travis County Republican Party, could have a voice on adopting school textbooks and determining the curriculum for millions of Texas children. Backing Popp, a Northside ISD speech language pathologist, are Abbott and the Travis County GOP, which issued an anti-endorsement of Morrow in January. The winner in the GOP runoff Tuesday will face Texas State University English professor Rebecca Bell-Metereau, a Democrat, in November’s general election.
5. Progressive Democrats challenge more moderate foes
Texas progressives are determined to have a political comeback after a good chunk of their candidates lost their primary races in March. In New York, voters were primed to welcome a new, diverse set of candidates after nearly a month of protests over the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody. In Texas, at least three progressive challengers have mounted aggressive campaigns against two moderate Democrats in the northern part of the state.
Siegel’s Austin congressional bid has received the endorsements of national progressive leaders like U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont. At the local level, José Garza, who has been endorsed by Julián Castro, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Sanders, is challenging Travis County DA Margaret Moore in a nationally watched race. And state Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr., D-Brownsville, who has been in the Texas Senate for nearly three decades, faces a stiff challenge from Sara Stapleton-Barrera. Lucio, who has long bucked his party on votes concerning abortion, has enjoyed the support of Republican megadonors and has been aggressively campaigning on his Senate seniority over the past few weeks.
6. What will the election’s impact be on health in Texas?
Prominent state Democrats and civil rights activists have repeatedly called on the courts to expand voting by mail to all Texans because of health concerns. All of their attempts have failed. When he issued a statewide mask mandate, Abbott excluded churches and people voting in the primary runoff elections. That means it will be up to people heading inside crowded polling places to decide whether to wear a mask.
Previously, the Texas secretary of state issued “minimum recommended health protocols” for elections, including a suggestion that voters bring their own hand sanitizer to the polls and that they “may want to consider” voting curbside if they have symptoms of the new coronavirus. The guidelines come as Texans headed to the polls at high rates for the historically low-turnout runoffs. Through July 8, nearly 800,000 Texans had voted early — either in person or by mail; more than 482,000 people have voted in the Democratic Party runoffs, while more than 316,500 have participated in Republican runoff contests.
Still, in close races in Texas, the results may not be immediately known. Because of the number of voters casting mail-in ballots, the final results might not be tabulated for days. And in close race, it may not be clear who won by late Tuesday night or even Wednesday morning.
Disclosure: Texas State University and the Texas secretary of state have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism.
6 things to watch in Texas’ primary runoff election was first published by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.
Texas Supreme Court Denies Texas GOP's Appeal
The Texas Supreme Court has dismissed an appeal by the Republican Party of Texas seeking to host its in-person convention this week in Houston.
Texas Supreme Court denies Texas GOP's appeal to hold in-person convention this week in Houston
"Texas Supreme Court denies Texas GOP's appeal to hold in-person convention this week in Houston" was first published by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.
The Texas Supreme Court has dismissed an appeal by the Republican Party of Texas seeking to host its in-person convention this week in Houston. Justices also denied a similar petition spearheaded by other party officials and Houston activist Steve Hotze.
Monday's news effectively kills the party's chances of holding its in-person gathering as planned, which was set to begin July 16 at Houston's George R. Brown Convention Center. As of Saturday, the State Republican Executive Committee, considered the party's governing board, had reaffirmed the party's commitment to proceeding with the event, which was expected to draw roughly 6,000 people.
Last week, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner directed the city's legal department to work with Houston First Corp., the operator of the convention center, to review its contract with the party. The group later sent a letter to the party informing them that the event had been canceled. The party responded, saying it would sue Turner, the city of Houston and Houston First Corp., arguing that the gathering was protected under both the Texas and U.S. Constitutions and should be allowed to continue as planned. A Harris County judge denied a request by the party that would have let them proceed with the convention, and, soon after, the party said it would file an appeal to the Texas Supreme Court.
As the back and forth has ensued, party officials have said repeatedly that they have a contingency plan to host the event virtually.
This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2020/07/13/texas-supreme-court-gop-convention/.
The Texas Tribune is proud to celebrate 10 years of exceptional journalism for an exceptional state. Explore the next 10 years with us.
TWC Won't Collect Overpaid Unemployment Benefits
A Texas Workforce Commission spokesperson said he was previously unaware that a judicial order bars the state from recovering funds when the overpayment is the agency's fault.
Texas reverses course, says it won't collect overpaid unemployment benefits in instances when it was the state's mistake
"Texas reverses course, says it won't collect overpaid unemployment benefits in instances when it was the state's mistake" was first published by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.
Workers who lost their jobs and received overpayments from the Texas Workforce Commission won’t have to pay back those unemployment benefits if it was the state’s mistake, commission officials now say.
That's different from the agency's previous insistence, first reported by the Houston Chronicle, that the 46,000 Texans who received overpayments in recent months would have to pay the state back — even if they were not to blame.
“Texas is prevented by court order from collecting overpayments caused solely by the commission's error,” spokesperson Cisco Gamez said Wednesday during a media update posted on Facebook. That court order, which Gamez said he was previously unaware of, dates to 1978.
"I have to apologize for giving you information that was not more clear," Gamez wrote in an email to The Texas Tribune on Thursday.
The agency is seeking $32 million in unemployment benefits back. The commission is unsure how many people were overpaid because of a TWC error but says it’s very rare. Last year, according to a U.S. Department of Labor audit, TWC was responsible for 0.4% of incorrect payments.
“Anecdotally, there are roughly eight to 10 of these types of errors identified each year,” Gamez said Monday.
In most cases, overpayments occur because applicants report incorrect information or are not eligible, according to the agency.
Claimants who have received notices about overpayments can appeal the process, but TWC can take legal action if it doesn’t recover the money. If TWC finds unemployment fraud in a case, the person has to give back the benefits and pay a 15% penalty.
“There is no statute of limitations on debts owed to the state,” Gamez wrote in a previous email. “TWC cannot forgive or dismiss the overpayment and there is no exception for hardship.”
After two months of decline, unemployment claims have started to increase in Texas again. More than 117,244 people applied for unemployment claims last week, an increase of 21.4% compared with the week before. It was the second week in a row that the number of claims rose. Since mid-March, nearly 2.8 million people have filed for unemployment benefits in Texas.
This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2020/07/09/texas-unemployment-overpayment/.
The Texas Tribune is proud to celebrate 10 years of exceptional journalism for an exceptional state. Explore the next 10 years with us.