Texas Rural Reporter - News clips 5.20.2024
Here's the latest news impacting Rural Texas.
#TXLEGE
Democrats as for a Special Session on school funding
Texas House Democrats, led by Rep. Jon Rosenthal, wrote a letter to Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday urging him to call a special session to address the need for public education funding in the state.
Podcast: 5/9- Chad speaks with Gov. Greg Abbott on school choice, school district budgeting and the Space Force in Texas
On Chad Hasty Radio Show, Governor Abbott said he was not responsible for the shortfalls that schools are experiencing.
Texas House District 97 Democratic runoff election to be decided May 28
Two candidates in southwest Fort Worth face off in a May 28 runoff election to determine the Democratic Party nominee in the race for Texas House District 97. The runoff pits Carlos Walker, director of the Fort Worth ISD Family Action Center, against photographer and former presiding election judge Diane Symons. Walker and Symons are both first-time candidates.
POLITICS
Colin Allred, unknown to many voters, launches early ad campaign in race against Ted Cruz
U.S. Rep. Colin Allred is launching a television ad campaign in several Texas markets to introduce himself to voters who will decide what’s expected to be a tough race against Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz.
Gillespie County’s election worker costs more than double after switch to hand count
The hand count of thousands of Republican primary election ballots in Gillespie County is on track to cost taxpayers more than double the wage costs of the 2020 Republican primary, according to records obtained by Votebeat. Public records show Republicans employed 350 people to hand count, who collectively reported working more than 2,300 hours the day of the election at a rate of $12 per hour. That means more than $27,000 in wages.
TSCRA Disaster Relief Fund Distributes $900,000 in Financial Assistance
Texas & Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association (TSCRA), the largest and oldest livestock association in the Southwest, today announced the distribution of $900,000 in financial assistance through the TSCRA Disaster Relief Fund. This signifies the first of ongoing financial assistance going directly to cattle raisers impacted by the largest wildfire in Texas history.
A new Democratic ad campaign targets one of Trump’s most loyal blocs: Rural voters
A Democratic group is rolling out a new $140 million ad campaign that aims to chip away at Donald Trump’s support among one of his most loyal voting blocs: rural voters. The ads, from American Bridge 21st Century, will begin airing Monday in the northern battleground states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. They are aimed at swing voters in smaller media markets that are less saturated with political advertising and where they hope to reach people, especially women, who may be on the fence.
A GOP Texas school board member campaigned against schools indoctrinating kids. Then she read the curriculum
Weeks after winning a school board seat in her deeply red Texas county, Courtney Gore immersed herself in the district’s curriculum, spending her nights and weekends poring over hundreds of pages of lesson plans that she had fanned out on the coffee table in her living room and even across her bed. She was searching for evidence of the sweeping national movement she had warned on the campaign trail was indoctrinating schoolchildren.
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
The Perryman Report: The Five-Year Outlook for the Texas Economy
The Texas economy has been experiencing strong growth, although the rate of expansion has been slowing more recently. Despite challenges and significant uncertainty, The Perryman Group’s latest projections call for significant growth over the next five years.
Partisan Clash or ‘Grand Bargain’? Dueling Proposals Set the Stage for the Farm Bill’s Uncertain Future
After failing to take significant action for more than a year, farm bill re-authorization negotiations in Congress have finally picked up speed in the last two weeks. Agriculture Committee leaders in the Republican-controlled House and the Democratic-led Senate have released competing farm bill frameworks. The contrast between each party’s package is significant, but both continue in a relatively status quo direction.
Thompson Releases Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2024
“The Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2024 is the product of extensive feedback from stakeholders and all Members of the House, and is responsive to the needs of farm country through the incorporation of hundreds of bipartisan policies,” stated House Committee on Agriculture Chairman Glenn “GT” Thompson (PA-15). “The release of this draft is a significant step forward in a years-long, deliberative process. The markup is one step in a greater House process, that should not be compromised by misleading arguments, false narratives, or edicts from the Senate. I look forward to engaging with colleagues on both sides of the aisle as we move to markup.”
TFB statement on House Ag Committee farm bill text
The following statement may be attributed to Texas Farm Bureau President Russell Boening regarding today’s release of "The Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2024” by U.S. House Agriculture Committee Chairman G.T. Thompson.
EDUCATION
Unlicensed teachers now dominate new teacher hires in rural Texas schools
The passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act in 2015 eliminated the federal requirement that teachers be highly qualified to teach. This regulatory freedom, combined with a shortage of trained and qualified teachers, has led some states to allow unqualified people to teach children. Texas used this freedom to adopt a new state law that allows almost any school to hire unlicensed teachers. As a result, Texas schools now hire more unlicensed new teachers than licensed ones. The supply problem is especially acute in rural and small-town schools, where almost 75% of new teachers hired in 2023-2024 were unlicensed. This is up from 17% in 2013-14.
HEALTHCARE
America's rural hospitals are on the financial knife edge
Half of America's rural hospitals are running in the financial red, per a recent report from health care consultancy Chartis. Why it matters: Millions of Americans rely on rural hospitals for emergency and other forms of care. Plus, as the report points out, "within many rural communities, the hospital is often among the largest employers and thus a major contributor to the local economy."
In rural Texas, ERs are facing a growing mental health crisis
Across the state, rural hospitals face a shortage of mental health care providers, with over 60% of rural counties designated as provider shortage areas by the Health Resources and Service Administration. At the same time, the number of people experiencing mental health crises has increased, and these patients are often forced to seek care in the emergency room of rural hospitals, where they face long waits for treatment and use resources that are needed by patients with critical conditions.
Missed care, fewer patients: Rural families and clinics feel Medicaid cuts
Rural children and families are having to skip vital health treatments and even ending up in the emergency room, while already struggling rural clinics are losing more patients, as states cull their Medicaid rolls. The process began in April 2023, when pandemic-era rules that prohibited kicking people off Medicaid coverage expired and states again began checking whether families met income restrictions. Nationally, nearly 70% of people who lost coverage did so for “procedural” reasons such as incomplete paperwork.
Amarillo City Council must vote on abortion travel ban following successful voter petition
The Amarillo City Council must consider a policy that outlaws using local streets to access an abortion in other states after the city verified supporters of the policy gathered enough signatures to advance the issue. The five-member council in the heart of the Texas Panhandle had been reluctant to follow other conservative cities and counties that have put the largely symbolic policy in place.
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