Senate committee OKs bill to give Texas teachers a $5,000 raise – By Lauren Mcgaughy, Dallas Morning News

The Texas Senate Committee on Finance has voted for a bill that would give every classroom teacher a $5,000 raise beginning next year.

Senate Bill 3 was approved unanimously on Monday and will be debated by the full Senate soon. If it succeeds there, it will head to the House for debate in committee. Sponsored by Flower Mound Republican Jane Nelson, the legislation would require school districts to give every full-time classroom teacher $5,000 more than what they're making this year. About 350,000 educators would be eligible for the raise at a cost of $1.8 billion a year beginning in 2020, the Legislative Budget Board estimates.

The bill was amended Monday to extend the raise to charter school teachers, and to cover the state's additional pension costs associated with the raise. School districts would not be able to lower a teacher's salary in future years to supplant the raise and Nelson said state funding for the "classroom teacher salary allotment" would be continuous unless future lawmakers write it out of existence.

8 Ways Schools Can Form a Better Relationship With the Media – By Stephen Noonoo, EdSurge

We live in a media obsessed society—and media literacy isn't just for students. Educators need it too. Learning to interact with the press is a big part of that because too often schools find themselves reacting to news coverage, instead of helping shape it themselves.

“There's a lot of good stuff that goes on in school districts that we're not aware of, especially if teachers, principals and communications people aren't telling us,” says Alia Malik, an education reporter for the San Antonio Express-News.

At the recent TCEA 2019 conference in San Antonio, Chris Piehler of the public relations firm PR With Panache hosted a panel discussion with EdSurge, Malik and other Texas journalists. Panelists dished on how schools can better work with the media, how they can pitch their own stories to news outlets and how to find the perfect hook. These are the top takeaways from that conversation.

SC WINS scholarship could help cover entire tuition for technical college students – By Chris Spiker, WBTW

A proposed scholarship could help some technical college students cover their entire tuition.

A bill in the state Senate would create the South Carolina Workforce Industry Needs Scholarship, also called SC WINS. It would give even more money to lottery scholarship students in particular programs.

It's a way state lawmakers are trying to address two issues: Finding qualified employees for certain jobs and helping students pay for college.

"I anticipate this being, as they say, a win-win," said Dr. Marilyn Fore, president of Horry-Georgetown Technical College. "A win for the students and a win for industry."

SC WINS would give up to $2,500 in additional money to technical college students who receive a lottery scholarship. Those students must be enrolled in "critical workforce area" programs, which are defined by the South Carolina Board for Technical and Comprehensive Education.

At HGTC, those include 16 healthcare programs, along with programs in hospitality, tourism, information technology and advanced manufacturing.

College-ready high schoolers need more early pathway options – By Amelia Harper, Education Dive

With the rising cost of college, gaining as many credits as possible in high school is a smart way to cut down on higher education expenses and debt. AP classes offer one way to accomplish this, though access to these courses are often limited in some areas. Dual-enrollment courses offer another avenue to college credit and often do not require an additional instructor at the K-12 level because the courses can be taken at the local community college or online. However, states treat these programs inconsistently. Early college high schools, another model, typically allow students to earn an associate degree for free while in high school.

As K-12 public schools increase their collaboration with community colleges, these options tend to grow. North Carolina offers a College and Career Promise program that allows qualified students to take dual-enrollment courses for free during their junior and senior years, and in some cases, their sophomore year. Because students are still enrolled in school, districts benefit because they still receive state funding for those students, and community colleges benefit because they are receiving funding for more students at a time when community college enrollment is generally decreasing. In addition, because the average cost of a college credit at a community college is only $135, school districts can come out ahead under these plans. States and students can also come out ahead under models that promote earning of early college credit as well, former Indiana state Senator Teresa Lubbers said in a recent column.