Education

In 1973, in a 5-4 ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court decided that there was no federal right to equal school funding in the Constitution.

That was more than 40 years ago, and today Patty Rodriguez, a teacher in the same school district in San Antonio where that fight started, says nothing has changed.

Her father, Demetrio Rodriguez, filed the suit. It became a landmark case, a turning point when the focus around school funding shifted from the federal government to the states.

For generations, school kids had lockers. But in Texas, some schools are no longer assigning them. Only two students out of 2,700 at a high school in Austin asked for lockers this year. The rest were wired shut. Some students don’t need lockers, because they rely on laptops rather than textbooks. Security concerns are another reasons lockers aren’t being used. Kate McGee from Here & Now contributor KUT reports.

From Texas Standard:

Some of America’s biggest school districts in New York City, Chicago, Miami-Dade County and Houston are hiring more security officers and police than counselors. In Houston, for example, there is only one counselor for every 1,175 students.

Policy and research editor Matt Barnum, from a nonpartisan news website focusing on education issues called The 74,  looked at the data.