Here are the stories on Texas Standard for Friday, April 25, 2025.
School voucher bill finally clears the Texas Legislature
After years of political fights and multiple special sessions, a school voucher bill is finally headed to Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk. It allows state tax dollars to fund private school tuition. The Senate unexpectedly agreed to pass the House’s version of the bill without changes.
The Texas Newsroom’s Blaise Gainey joins the Standard with more.
Marijuana decriminalization faces pushback from state leaders
Texas cities large and small have passed ordinances to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana. But Attorney General Ken Paxton says they violate state law, and now a state court has blocked one such ordinance, allowing Paxton’s case against it to proceed.
Rice University drug policy fellow Katharine Neill Harris joins the show with the latest.
Trump-era cuts raise alarms for education in Texas and California
Federal education funding, especially for low-income and special needs students, is under threat as the Trump administration eyes dismantling the Department of Education.
How are schools in Texas and California preparing? We’re joined by Carolyn Jones from CalMatters and Bill Zeeble from KERA.
Texas once planned to pump Mississippi River water using nuclear power
Back in 1969, Texas lawmakers backed a plan to divert water from the Mississippi River across Louisiana – using nuclear energy to pump it to Central Texas. Voters rejected it, but echoes of the plan still inform today’s water policy debates.
Texas Monthly’s Forrest Wilder joins us with the story.
Meet the ‘King of the Roadies’ and the woman who told his story
Ben Dorcy III, widely considered the first roadie in country music, worked with Willie, Waylon and countless others until he was 92. A new documentary, “King of the Roadies,” tells his story.
Director Amy Lee Nelson (daughter of Willie Nelson) joins the Texas Standard to talk about her film.
Typewriter Rodeo
The gang delivers another custom poem.
The Texas Tribune politics reporter Jasper Scherer joins the Standard with a recap of the week that was in Texas politics.
All this, plus Alexandra Hart with the Texas Newsroom’s state roundup and Wells Dunbar with the Talk of Texas.
