AUSTIN, Texas - Already hard-hit by more than $4 billion of state cuts, Texas school districts may have to pony up millions more to some of the nation's largest oil refineries.

So far, 16 companies, including Valero Energy, have requested $135 million in property-tax rebates they say are owed to them for installing pollution-control devices covered by a state incentive program.

Tom "Smitty" Smith, spokesman for Public Citizen of Texas, says the controversy comes at a pivotal time for Gov. Rick Perry, who announced Tuesday he would slash both the federal Department of Education and the Environmental Protection Agency if elected president.

"At a time when the refining industry is making near-record profits, this is a real critical question for Gov. Perry. Are you going to stand up for the school kids, or are you going to stand up for corporate welfare for the biggest polluters in the state?"

Perry has said he trusts the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to evaluate the refund requests, but Smith says TCEQ's members - all appointed by the governor - have a pro-corporate history. Unless there's a public outcry, Smith fears, they will side with an industry which has donated heavily to past Perry campaigns.

"The tendency of the TCEQ is to bend over backwards and give these large corporate polluters everything they want at the expense, in this case, of the schoolchildren of Texas and the taxpayers of the state."

Disagreement remains about whether the equipment Valero installed in 2007 meets eligibility requirements for tax incentives. Environmentalists contend it makes no sense to give state tax incentives for technology that already is required by the feds.

Some of the counties that might have to pay for the rebates include Harris, Howard, El Paso, Jefferson and Nueces. Many of the school districts which depend on refinery property taxes already have been struggling because of multiple corporate tax breaks.

"These aren't like rich suburban school districts that have lots of wealthy homeowners to tax. These are amongst the poorest in the country."

Linda Bridges, president of Texas' American Federation of Teachers, says some schools would find it impossible to take additional revenue losses after staff layoffs, larger class sizes and program cuts.

"There's a tremendous amount of money that has been cut that directly impacts kids. And then you add in rebates to Valero and other oil companies. It certainly makes a bad situation worse."

It's not clear when the TCEQ will decide the matter, but school advocates are expected to voice concern at the commission's next meeting Nov. 2. Meanwhile, community-based opposition to the tax refund has been growing, with some parents planning bake sales to demonstrate their need for more - not less - state aid.


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Virginia advocates believe more can be done to make higher education accessible to incarcerated people.

Only a handful of community colleges partner with less than half of the state's correctional facilities to help people obtain associate's degrees.

In 2023, incarcerated people became eligible for federal Pell Grants, supporting tuition costs for low-income individuals.

Terri Erwin, director of the Virginia Consensus for Higher Education in Prison, an initiative of the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy, said the General Assembly can help grow the programs.

"I think that the General Assembly can be kind of a third leg in the stool in supporting the collaboration as it develops between the Department of Corrections and the institutions of higher education," Erwin asserted. "What might be needed depends in part on how those relationships develop."

Higher education's shift to technology was one big challenge in maintaining this access during the pandemic. She noted Virginia did not pivot the same way, yet technology solutions in states such as Tennessee and Maine provided secure learning management and intranet access to incarcerated students. Despite the challenges, higher education in prison has grown nationwide in recent years.

Studies show some benefits of these programs are a 43% reduction in recidivism and a 13% increase in post-release employment. Erwin emphasized the programs can be transformative for people.

"It's an opportunity to reenter society with just one more similarity to folks who have been on the outside all along," Erwin pointed out. "It helps to move past some of the stigma. It gives them a hook to put their hat on as they move forward in looking for jobs and telling the story about who they are."

Formerly incarcerated people reentering society face numerous obstacles. Programs such as SNAP and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families are proven to reduce recidivism by 10% but having a criminal background disqualifies someone's eligibility for both social programs and unemployment insurance.


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A new report shows Black girls are enduring disproportionate discipline, sexual harassment and public humiliation from school-based police and security guards in Miami-Dade public schools.

The report, "Keep Her Safe: Centering Black Girls in School Safety," compiles the experiences of Black girls and young women between the ages of 14 and 24, sharing their stories through surveys and focus groups about mistreatment by school safety personnel who make them feel unsafe.

Bayliss Fiddiman, director of educational equity at the National Women's Law Center, which produced the study along with the Southern Poverty Law Center, said the girls were being treated differently for their appearance, often unaware of the lines of sexual harassment.

"The girls express school security guards making inappropriate comments about their appearance that could range from. 'Oh, she looks ghetto,' or 'she's too big to wear that outfit. I would never let my daughter wear that,'" Fiddiman explained.

The report urged the school system to use proven behavioral interventions in such cases, rather than using policing, surveillance and harsh student punishment. Miami-Dade schools has not responded to a request for comment on the study.

Fiddiman pointed out in listening sessions, the girls also did not have a clear understanding of whom to tell if they felt violated. She argued it is an opportunity for school leaders to step in and explain school safety procedures by engaging students in the conversation.

"Schools can definitely implement policies around explaining what sexual harassment is, what boundaries are, what is safe and healthy," Fiddiman recommended. "That was missing."

The report underscored incidents of security using excessive force, such as a 16-year-old Black girl being slammed to the ground, rendering her unconscious and subsequently handcuffed to prevent a fight in 2021. In 2023, a Miami-Dade security guard faced allegations of attempting to seduce three teenage girls.

The Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act in response to the 2018 Parkland shooting aimed to bolster school safety. However, it also led to heightened law enforcement presence in schools and increased surveillance measures.


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Advocates for the rights of people with disabilities have joined the Montana Quality Education Association in a suit to stop a school voucher bill in the state.

Montana is the latest to enact a plan allowing parents to pay private school tuition with public money. Senate Bill 393 is much more narrowly focused than Educational Savings Accounts in other states. In Montana, the money is limited to reimbursing services for special-education students and those with disabilities.

Rylee Sommers-Flanagan, executive director of Helena-based Upper 7 Law which is overseeing the suit, said Montana's version of Educational Savings Accounts requires special-ed students to renounce their right to a free, quality education under the state constitution and forgo federal assistance.

"In exchange for renouncing that, they can gain access to anywhere between $5,000 and $8,000 annually," Sommers-Flanagan explained. "Which, as we all know, is not enough money to educate a child for a year under any circumstances, let alone a student who may have special needs and may have particularity expensive special needs depending on the circumstances."

School voucher measures are growing across the nation, 29 states now having some form of them. The suit to block the Montana bill was filed in state court in Helena.

In addition to the critics' standard argument which holds funding Educational Savings Accounts with state education money comes at the expense of public K-12 classrooms, Sommers-Flanagan added the accounts will not make enough money available to adequately fund special-needs students anyway.

"It's a lose-lose situation," Sommers-Flanagan contended. "It's incredibly harmful. It appears just to be a gambit to try to privatize public money and to send it to vendors and to folks who have no accountability and no responsibility to genuinely meet the needs of kids who have disabilities in Montana."

Supporters have said they can do a better job educating their own kids than the state can because they understand the students' strengths and weaknesses.