Texas American Federation of Teachers

11/07/2025 | News release | Archived content

Nov. 7, 2025: 2025 Elections

Friday, November 7, 2025

We Take Care of Us

Across Texas and the rest of the nation, federal workers are missing paychecks, and millions are waiting to see if they'llreceive any SNAP benefits at all amid the governmentshutdown.

The fate of those benefits remainsup in the air, with courts ordering the Trump Administration to fund them despite the shutdownover the weekend, only to be followed by a social media post from the presidentsaying benefits would only be paid after the shutdown Tuesday. By Wednesday, an official with the U.S. Department of Agriculture had backtracked and said SNAP benefits would indeed be paid out, but at 65% of their normal amounts.

No one should go hungry in the wealthiest country in the world. It'sup to politicians to fund the services our taxes pay for. But right now, it'sup to us to help our neighbors while Congress dawdles.

Donate

The Texas AFL-CIO is fundraising for Feeding Texas and its network of 20 food banks across the state. Your donation helps put food on the table forTexans who need it.

AFT national has activated its disaster relief fund to stock local food banks. Donate today and include a note that your donation is for food banks.

Share

Find food assistance, unemployment assistance, and other emergency resources in this guide from the Texas AFL-CIO.

Our union family stands ready to support our communities, and we encourage members wherever they are to consider hosting food drives in your area. Here's how to get started.

Act

Call your representative and senator, as well as House and Senate leaders, with this easy AFL-CIO tooland urge them to end this shutdown while keeping health care affordable for working families.

Follow up your call with an email through this AFT e-action.

In this week's Hotline:

  • Important wins for public schools on Election Day
  • Lawsuit over shutdown firings
  • STAAR transition
  • Book ban ruling

- Elections

Election 2025: In a high-profile off-year election, nearly 3 million Texans turn out



An attendee at Texas AFT's biennial convention in Dallas earlier this year.

Photo by Brooke Jonsson, CCR Studios.

This week, election results nationwide resulted in decisive wins for candidates in local and state races who focused on real, quality-of-life issues over divisive partisan politics. In Texas, too, several local races underlined the same trend, with record off-year election turnout.



Read the Full Story

-Government Shutdown

AFT, AFGE, AFSCME File Expanded Lawsuit Over Shutdown Firings - Why It Matters for Educators

In late October, a coalition of major labor unions - including the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees (AFSCME), and AFT - filed an amended lawsuit challenging the Trump Administration's efforts to terminate or force furloughs of federal workers amid the current government shutdown.





Read the Full Story

-STAAR

Here are the STAAR changes effective with the 2025-2026 school year



Hotline readers know that House Bill 8, passed during the second special session this year, does not "eliminate STAAR." As Texas AFT President Zeph Capo said at the time, "They've just rebranded it."

While most aspects of the legislation will be implemented in the 2027-2028 school year, four specific changes from HB 8 go into effect starting in December 2025.



Read the Full Story

-Book Bans

Judge Strikes Down Texas Book-Rating Law, but Censorship Battles in Schools Persist



A federal judge has blocked a key provision of Texas's book-rating law, HB 900 by Rep. Jared Patterson, otherwise known as the READER Act (Restricting Explicit and Adult Designated Educational Resources), marking a win for book vendors.

Under HB 900, vendors were required to rate every book sold to public school libraries for sexual explicitness, and schools were forbidden from purchasing titles flagged as "sexually explicit". It is unclear what effect remains of a December 2023 State Board of Education rule requiring each school district to adopt a book collection development policy prohibiting library material "rated sexually explicit material by the selling library material vendor."



Read the Full Story

-Event



Join us at the Texas Tribune Festival!

When: Nov.13-15

Where: Downtown Austin

It's nearly time for the 15th-annual Texas Tribune Festival, the breakout ideas and politics event that brings 300+ inspiring leaders and change-makers to downtown Austin, Nov. 13-15.

The full schedule features 100+ sessions on the issues shaping Texas and the nation - education, the economy, public policy, the arts and more. Be there to challenge ideas, make connections, and leave inspired to bring your own big ideas to life.

Texas AFT has sponsored two events:

  • Words to Live By: How to improve literacy rates in Texas.
  • Will Higher Ed Survive? Four inside perspectives on the challenges facing colleges and universities in the Trump era.

And we will have a tent set up at the Open Congresson Saturday, Nov. 15!

Educators and students are eligible for a discounted price, register online.

Recommended Reading

Education news from around the state and nation that's worth your time.

Texas put its chief financial officer in charge of school vouchers. Here's what you need to know. The Texas comptroller holds tremendous power over the program, including choosing which companies will be paid millions by the stateto help manage it. Voters will decide who runs the agency next year. (The Texas Tribune, Oct. 31)

Ed. Dept. Cuts Grants That Were Helping College Students Become Teachers. In mid-September, Texas' Prairie View A&M University, where Veronica Turbintonis enrolled in the teacher education program, received notice from top officials at the Department of Education that it was immediately discontinuing more than $2 million in remaining grant funding that was subsidizing tuition for Turbintonand dozens of her classmates. (Education Week, Nov. 4)

Billionaire Trump Donor Jeff Yass Gives $100 Million To Bari Weiss' 'Anti-Woke' University of Austin. Billionaire Jeff Yass donated $100 million to the University of Austin, the unaccredited "anti-woke" college founded in 2021 by nowCBS News chief Bari Weiss, marking what the school is calling its largest single donation to date. (Forbes, Nov. 5)

Women could be most affected by Trump's penalties for overdue student loans. The move by the Trump administration is set to begin May 5, and borrowers with delinquent payments could have their wages garnished as early as the summer. (The 19th, April 23)
The Lege's 'Big Government Intrusion' into University Academics. Expanding on last session's anti-DEI campus crackdown, some Republicans in the Legislature are now going after gender and ethnic studies programs and faculty independence. (Texas Observer, April 24)
The Shocking Billionaire Plot to Dismantle Public Education. Texas is on the verge of passing a law that could defundpublic education. Vouchers send public taxpayer dollars to private schools. It could cost taxpayers $10 billionby 2030. And it could destroy Friday Night Lights. (More Perfect Union, April 22)
This Education Department Official Lost His Job. Here's What He Says Is at Risk. Fewer teachers. Incomplete data. Delays in addressing problems and getting financial aid information. Those are just some of the impacts Jason Cottrell, who worked as a data collector at the Department of Education for nine and a half years before being laid off along with more than a thousand other agency employees, warns the Trump Administration's massive cuts to the department's funding and workforce could have on the country's education system. (Time, July 18)
This Education Department Official Lost His Job. Here's What He Says Is at Risk. Fewer teachers. Incomplete data. Delays in addressing problems and getting financial aid information. Those are just some of the impacts Jason Cottrell, who worked as a data collector at the Department of Education for nine and a half years before being laid off along with more than a thousand other agency employees, warns the Trump Administration's massive cuts to the department's funding and workforce could have on the country's education system. (Time, July 18)


Texas American Federation of Teachers published this content on November 07, 2025, and is solely responsible for the information contained herein. Distributed via Public Technologies (PUBT), unedited and unaltered, on November 14, 2025 at 22:59 UTC. If you believe the information included in the content is inaccurate or outdated and requires editing or removal, please contact us at [email protected]