Dallas Morning News

A special committee of Dallas school trustees will meet for the first time today to take up the potentially volatile issue of ethics reform. Trustee Edwin Flores, chairman of a new three-member school board committee, said there is momentum for at least some change to DISD's ethics policy.

Ruben Bohuchot, at one time DISD's technology boss, and Frankie Wong, once the district's largest technology vendor, are set for trial in Dallas today. They face a dozen charges ranging from bribery and money laundering to conspiracy.

Theresa B. Lee Academy, a Fort Worth charter school discovered cheating on 2005 TAKS tests, is failing in virtually every regard, according to state records. Yet it remains open.

William Coleman, a former top Dallas school administrator, pleaded guilty Wednesday to one count of attempting to influence a grand jury that was investigating a bribery and money-laundering scheme in the Dallas Independent School District.

Dallas school officials plan to cut an estimated $4 million from the district budget in the coming fiscal year because of a shortfall largely due to declining enrollment.

AUSTIN – The State Board of Education's debate on new English and reading standards took another rowdy turn Friday as members approved a never-before-seen version of the lengthy document which materialized less than an hour before the board was to take a final vote.

Do you know the difference between an "alleged father" and a "presumed father?" Your child soon will. The Texas attorney general's office has created a new parenting curriculum that will be required in every public high school this fall. It will cover everything from the legalese of paternity to dealing with relationship violence.

Toddlers are shaping up to be the next generation of preschoolers, a pattern fueled by fears that poor children aren't ready to learn when their first school bell rings. University of Texas researchers say the answer is to start younger. They are using a $6 million federal grant to test out preschool for poor 2- and 3-year-olds in Houston and Tallahassee, Fla., day-care centers.

Feeling the pinch from rising gas costs? Imagine paying to fill up a fleet of school buses each month.

At a Dallas-area job fair this week, Garland ISD recruiter Jed Reed kept a hand on one applicant's shoulder to keep him from disappearing into the sea of hopeful teachers.

Teachers who complain about being underpaid may need to find another beef. How does $50,000 a year for a newly minted teacher sound? A lack of qualified instructors in some critical subject areas has set off a hiring war in North Texas.

The last time Dallas ISD sought support for a $1.3 billion bond campaign, in 2002, roughly three of four voters around the city marked their ballots "yes."

Southern Methodist University students won't get a campus pub and administrators will create more Friday morning classes to curtail Thursday-night partying, SMU President Gerald Turner is expected to announce today.

Fed up with sleep-deprived, obstinate and unprepared students, schools are pumping more time and money into efforts to cultivate better moms and dads who willshare the responsibility for turning out good students.

School board President Jack Lowe is among those DISD leaders whose companies have been awarded contracts. Just how much money their firms were paid is unclear, school officials acknowledge, because the district only tracks some payments.