San Antonio Express-News

AUSTIN — The inability of many Texas students to write and speak English well is like a dreadful disease requiring aggressive treatment, say some education advocates who want to use different teaching approaches.

A lot of things don't make sense about education policy in Texas:
A public school finance system that ensures "property poor" school districts get no annual increase in funding, unless they can sell a tax increase to voters;

Some systems decried for leaving achievers out of top 10 percent. The Churchill junior plays soccer for the school team and pulls an A average despite a schedule loaded with Advanced Placement classes and rounded out with Spanish.

The story of the American Revolutionary War figure could do wonders for the close-minded folks on Texas' State Board of Education.

State guidelines for 4-year-olds are being revised. Texas 4-year-olds have been skating by on just 10 alphabet letters for almost a decade now, but that could change soon. The Texas Education Agency and the State Center for Early Childhood Development have been busy revising the state's Prekindergarten Guidelines for the first time since their adoption in 1999.

Several severance payments in recent years have topped $200,000. Two dozen Texas school districts have spent $2.4 million in taxpayer dollars since July 2005 on payments to outgoing superintendents, according to a San Antonio Express-News analysis of documents from the Texas Education Agency.

Research shows high school progress hasn't fully carried over. The number of Latinos dropping out of high school has been cut in half during the past 25 years, but great disparity remains when it comes to their college graduation rates, according to a study from the Pew Hispanic Center.

One lawyer who represented PCI in the Rosales lawsuit says the nonprofit disputed the expired drink/moldy food claim.

Independent study says district lacks hands-on learning. An independent audit of the school district's instructional program, headed up by a nationally known curriculum expert and released by school officials Monday, found that SAISD isn't challenging students.

The latest report card on the nonprofit group that directs the city's best-known school readiness program does not contain a letter grade. If it did, Parent/Child Inc. might get an F.

Vote has been postponed until April. A creation science group hoping to offer master's degrees in Texas has postponed its application to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.

School districts must offer it if 15 or more students show interest. A new law soon will require all Texas public school districts to offer a Bible as Literature course, but one San Antonio public school has been offering such a course for more than 30 years.

Forbes educator set to retire after six years with same class. Mary Barrera-Gomez, his fifth-grade teacher at Forbes Elementary School, would like to think she influenced his decisiveness. She's been Guerrero's teacher since kindergarten and has plied him and his classmates with can-do messages.

Singapore cadets get chance to learn under top-caliber drill expert. Master Sgt. Ken Madden is used to standing for hours in the heat, running his drill team through the legendary practices that have helped Jay High School's Air Force JROTC program become one of the best in the nation.

Teen art program SAY Sí has received a pair of challenge grants totaling $250,000 from the Tobin Endowment and the Kronkosky Charitable Foundation.