Homeschooling

Christian Home-Schoolers on Alert for Atheist Protest at Convention

Hair Balls is licking our lips over an atheist group's planned protest of a Christian homeschoolers' convention in The Woodlands later this summer -- few things are more awesome than watching two groups of insufferably sanctimonious windbags duke it out in a heavyweight Battle of the Blowhards. As ... More >>

CEP About to Shrink to One Campus, If HISD Trustees Say A-OK

Terry Grier is calling for a less expensive CEP contract​ Updated: With comments from board agenda meeting at end of story. Community Education Partners will shutter its Ferndale campus as a result of an amended contract calling for it to receive $1.8 million less a year from the Houston IS ... More >>

HISD Trustee Manuel Rodriguez Sends Out Letter Defending CEP

​Houston ISD board member Manuel Rodriguez has sent out "an open letter to the Taxpayers of HISD" in which he defends the private firm Community Education Partners' operation of its two alternative schools in Houston.HISD Superintendent Terry Grier has proposed ending the contract with CEP, saying ... More >>

Learn Valuable Skills At Home!! Through HISD!!!

HISD is expanding its at-home learning program, whereby kids from across the state (mostly home-schoolers) can get a tuition-free educational curriculum monitored by a certified teacher via computer and phone.The district partners with the Texas Connections Academy to offer the program, which is the ... More >>

Warehousing Minority Kids in Atlanta and Houston

Opt In, Opt Out

HISD continues to send students to CEP. Whether they go there, stay there or return successfully to their home school is anyone's guess.

Mind Reading

Is Yvette Lacobie really a terrorist? Did legislators really mean to kick kids out for a butter knife? Is zero tolerance really stupid? (No, maybe and yes.)

The Canons of Courting

Or, eight simple rules for dating my teenage daughter

KISD Off

Klein students are on a fast track to expulsion, thanks to a district that's figured a way to get someone else to pick up the tab for alternative education

Teen Spleen

Talking smack wreaks high school havoc in Mean Girls

Million-Dollar Babies

Some CEP students have been locked in for years

Backing Off

HISD cuts $2 million from CEP's lucrative deal and adds more controls.

But Who's Counting?

Thousands of students disappear from our schools yearly, but the TEA insists they're not dropouts

Letting Go

HISD settles with parents over CEP punishments

Letters

A Wave of Laughter, Strip Search Horrors, Fine Frye

Learning How to Survive (at) CEP

HISD and a paid trustee get entangled in the spreading empire of a private firm touting safe alternative schools for troubled kids. So why are some students and parents so scared?

Emily Conner

A "Learning How to Survive (at) CEP" sidebar

180 Days in the Hole

HISD insists that kids sent to its alternative school should spend an entire year there, no matter what. What a crock.

Letters to the Editor

School's Out Forever

"Unschoolers" like Holly Furgason don't believe in public education. They don't even believe in teachers. They believe in the ability of their children to teach themselves. Will the law catch up with them?

Looking for Laura

First Friendswood rallied to find Laura Smither. Then it rallied to find her killer.

Letters

Letters