Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

Stats indicate our generation's financial literacy is abysmal, with personal finances to match. Only 52% of high school seniors passed a recent national financial literacy test, meaning adults entering the work force do not know enough about basic budgeting, interest rates or taxes to make sound decisions for their own lives.

The governor's fear of taxes in any form is so visceral that he finds himself unable to conclude that there is any other way to build much needed public highways than to turn the process over to private enterprise.

And dozens more have participated in brutal beatings at the psychiatric hospitals since 2005, employee disciplinary reports show – using chokeholds, headlocks and threats of violence to restrain the patients under their watch.

Perry's appointment of past chief of staff Deirdre Delisi, 35, and Fort Worth insurance executive Bill Meadows, 55, who serves on the North Texas Tollway Authority, leaves South Texas without a member on the powerful panel.

Texas needs to make good again on its pledge to help low-income students pay for college, a group of campus financial aid directors and other experts said Thursday.

A pair of reports out this month affirm that the rising tide of American health is not lifting all boats, and that there are widening gaps in life expectancy based on the interwoven variables of income, race, sex, education and geography.

Hospitals are adopting a policy to improve their finances: making medical care contingent on upfront payments. Typically, hospitals have billed people after they receive care. But now, pointing to their burgeoning bad-debt and charity-care costs, hospitals are asking patients for money before they get treated.

And even though a new state law went into effect two years ago to require high-school students to take personal finance before graduation, Texas high-school seniors still answered only 49 percent of the questions correctly on the test sponsored by the JumpStart Coalition, a group of more than 200 personal-finance partners focused on financial literacy for children.

The state quietly launched the $2 scratch-off game in December, and once again Fred, Wilma, Barney and Betty have proved their popularity, fueling nearly $14 million in ticket sales. Lottery officials have billed the game as a cultural touchstone for baby boomers who remember ? when the show debuted in 1960 as a primetime spoof on suburban life.

Every lawmaker in the state needs to hear the point that education consultant Aims McGuinness made to the House Higher Education Committee last week. "Focus on the results you want," or mission creep is almost sure to set in, said Mr. McGuinness, who studies university funding across the country.

Gov. Rick Perry appointed Karl Eschbach of San Antonio as the new state demographer Tuesday, putting the University of Texas at San Antonio associate professor in charge of distributing census information for the state.

This big step in the right direction is the result of the Legislature which, with support from our business community, families, advocates and volunteers, strengthened Children's Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program during the past legislative session. Because of these program improvements, 127,000 more children are expected to become enrolled as the year progresses.

There's a reason why Republican-controlled legislatures are enacting voter ID laws: The voters most likely to be without the required identification are the poor and the elderly, prime Democratic Party constituents whose turnout rate is lower than average to begin with.

The Supreme Court on Monday upheld Indiana’s voter-identification law, declaring that a requirement to produce photo identification is not unconstitutional and that the state has a “valid interest” in improving election procedures as well as deterring fraud.

Focusing only on the negative perpetuates a climate in which illegal immigrants are demonized for breaking immigration law in a broken immigration system, rendering the topic too politically toxic for congressional leaders to touch.

The 63-year-old Yudof reflected on his current position and looked ahead to his new one during an interview at his wood-paneled office in O. Henry Hall in downtown Austin recently. Here is an edited account:

Texans continue to pay the highest home insurance rates in the country despite reform efforts five years ago that have not met expectations. Perry has not ruled out making it a priority issue again next year when the Legislature meets in regular session, Perry spokeswoman Allison Castle said.

The proposed ban is the result of a two-year effort by the group, the Association of American Medical Colleges, to create a model policy governing interactions between the schools and industry. While schools can ignore the association’s advice, most follow its recommendations.

What was intended as a boon for energy independence is costing Texans an estimated $3.6 billion a year in added food costs, while gasoline prices also are at record levels.

Advocates for people with disabilities fought off the most severe proposed cuts in community-based services in 2003, when lawmakers faced a huge budget shortfall. But even in flush times, they haven't secured enough funds to serve all of the nearly 84,500 people with disabilities awaiting community services, although lawmakers have allocated money to help more of them.