The Texan Podcast - Daily Rundown - January 2, 2026

Starting point is 00:00:00 Howdy, folks, today is Friday, January 2nd, and you're listening to The Texans Daily Rundown. I'm the Texans managing editor Rob Lauchess, and here is the rundown of today's news in Texas politics. First up, 2025 was shaped by a rare alignment between the state's top leaders, the passage of long-sought conservative priorities, and a series of high-profile policy fights and legal battles. From school choice and redistricting to disaster response, social issue legislation, and shifting electoral dynamics, these stories defined the year at the Texas Capitol and beyond. Here's a look at just one of those stories. After four years of nearly unbreakable animosity between two of the state's top officials, something strange broke out, rapport.

Starting point is 00:00:52 Given the circumstances leading into it, the most contentious and competitive race for House Speaker in recent memory, capped off by a majority Democratic winning coalition for Speaker Dustin Burroughs at the beginning of the 89th legislative session, expectations were generally that at some point the train would run off the rails, but it never did. Burroughs' first and primary objective remained to avoid making an enemy of Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick. He did so by committing early to passing school choice, as many Senate priority bills as possible, and more Texas GOP priorities than have passed in recent years. Remaining cooperative with Patrick rather than combative, Burroughs avoided fighting battles on multiple fronts.

Starting point is 00:01:35 Instead, he was free to deal with the internal threats to his speakership, assuaging disaffected Democrats and isolating intra-GOP caucus tumult. Speakerships always teeter on the edge between security and chaos, and a working majority can always fall apart in short order. Burroughs next big obstacle is a growing share of Democrats unhappy with how the session went. but he no longer seems to be at risk of losing his internal caucus vote next time around, and the first big step toward that was making peace with Patrick. In other news, the percentage of uncertified teachers in Texas rose to 12% during the 2024-2020-school year,

Starting point is 00:02:15 up from 3.8% in 2019-2020, according to data from the Texas Education Agency. An increasing teacher shortage in the state has led more districts to hire more uncertified teachers. Heath Morrison, CEO of Alternative Certification Programme, Teachers of Tomorrow, said, quote, the state was trying to responsibly deal with the impact of the pandemic, but flexibility for individuals was never intended to be used at scale. And a lot of states are allowing these people to stay on these temporary licenses for three years, five years, ten years, end quote. On its website, Teachers of Tomorrow says participants can start teaching in as little as eight weeks. According to According to the University of Texas at Austin study, beyond the tipping point, the rise of

Starting point is 00:03:02 uncertified teachers in Texas, the percentage of newly hired uncertified teachers increased from 10% in 2013-2014 to 52% in 2023-20204. The study argues that compared to students who had university-certified teachers, students with uncertified teachers lost six months of learning in high school English and almost four months in high school math. Last but not least. The U.S. News 2025-20206 best high schools rankings placed 10 Texas high schools among the top 100 nationwide. U.S. News took data from more than 24,000 public high schools in the U.S. and ranked nearly 18,000 schools on six factors, such as performance on state assessments, underserved student population, graduation rate, and college readiness reflected in advanced placement or

Starting point is 00:03:54 international baccalaureate test scores. Eight of the Texas schools are magnet schools, which are selective application-based public schools that have a specific theme or focus. Two of the schools on the list are open enrollment charter schools, which use a non-selective application process and are required to hold a lottery when applications exceed available seats. Visit the texan. News for the full list. Thanks for listening. To support the Texan, please be sure to visit the Texan. News and subscribe to get access to all of our articles, newsletters, and podcasts.

The Texan Podcast - Daily Rundown - January 2, 2026

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