The Core Blog

The 86th Texas legislative session was a disappointing one for progress on criminal justice reform. Issues that Texas Appleseed had prioritized going into session failed to pass. Comprehensive bail reform was derailed by the introduction of a weaker bill with the Governor’s backing. A bill to reduce driver’s license suspensions for unpaid fines didn’t even get a hearing; the private vendor that administers the suspension program aggressively lobbied against any changes, eager to protect their

Texas State Senator Judith Zaffirini and State Representative Morgan Meyer spearheaded the effort this session to pass HB 2697. This new law, which goes into effect September 1, is an important step forward to combat coerced debt and help survivors of domestic violence and financial abuse achieve economic stability. Coerced debt is debt incurred by an abuser in the name of a victim of domestic violence or financial abuse. It affects as many as one

This month, on the heels of the end of the Texas legislature’s 86th session, Texas Appleseed will launch a campaign aimed at engaging our friends and supporters in considering what justice means to them. Our “Justice Is” campaign will not be just an opportunity to hear what justice looks like to the Texans we work for and alongside of — it is an opportunity for us to think deeply about how our work at Appleseed

This session, Texas Appleseed supports legislation that increases supports for kids aging out of foster care, ensures students who are homeless are not given out-of-school suspensions (which assumes they have a home to go to when they aren’t in school) and makes it easier for homeless youth to get driver’s licenses and state IDs — a key to greater stability. Bills We Support HB 811 (Rep. White) & SB 424 (Sen. West) Youth experiencing homelessness

During the 86th Texas Legislature, Texas Appleseed supports legislation that will enhance consumer rights and promote fair market standards, including bills that do the following: Bills We Support Enforce State Rate Caps for Payday and Auto Title Loans SB 110 (Menendez): Closes the payday loophole Adopt City Payday and Auto Title Lending Reform Ordinances as State Law HB 1258 (Craddick): Creates uniform regulatory structure by enacting city ordinances into law HB 242 (Bernal): Creates uniform

We knew it was coming. Yesterday, the Federal Commission on School Safety, a group created following the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, and led by Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, released their report with recommendations for how to improve school safety. There were some good recommendations, including urging school districts to adopt “evidence-based multi-tiered behavioral framework(s) for improving behavioral outcomes and learning conditions for all students” and evidence-based behavior threat assessments. The Commission also recommended

If you ask most people what it means to them to do legal work on a pro bono basis, they will tell you about one specific person or family they were able to help and the impact it had on both the individual and themselves. It is incredibly important work to ensure that a parent is not wrongfully evicted due to a simple inability to pay rent on time that month or to secure a

As we enter the 2018 holiday season, we should take the time to remember survivors and those lost from natural disasters that seem to occur with greater and greater regularity. In 2018, we marked both the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Harvey and the 10-year anniversary of Hurricane Ike, two of the most devastating disasters in U.S. history. And even more recently, we’ve witnessed other natural disasters wreak havoc in other parts of the U.S., from

During the upcoming 86 th legislative session, the Texas Legislature will have the opportunity to create a pretrial justice system that maximizes both public safety and court appearance rates, while advancing equal justice for all Texans regardless of income. The key to accomplishing these goals is for lawmakers to require that judges make decisions about pretrial release based on the unique needs of each individual, only detaining people who pose a true risk to public

Social media feeds are filling up this week with annual back-to-school photos — kids excitedly posing with their backpacks, brand new sneakers, and school outfits in front of their houses before they head off to school. These adorable photos remind us that summer is over and school is back in session. It’s also an important reminder that for children in Texas experiencing homelessness, school is often a place of refuge, providing meals and shelter, as

In the first two blog posts in this series, Deborah and I described some of the school safety proposals — including hardening schools, bringing back zero tolerance discipline, and increasing the presence of school police officers — that are currently being discussed and debated by school administrators, educators, parents, students, advocates, and lawmakers across the state. Many of us who work on school discipline, school policing, and school safety issues are concerned that these proposals

Last week, a federal district court in Tennessee issued a monumental decision — one that the Texas legislature must take note of if they want Texas to avoid a similar suit. The federal court struck down a Tennessee law that suspended the driver’s licenses of people who failed to pay criminal fines and costs, holding the law was unconstitutional because it had the effect of punishing low-income people more harshly than wealthy people, simply because they did not have the ability to pay.