College Station, Texas

Rural Liberty County, Texas, illustrates a growing divide in Texas public education: charter school systems expanding quickly into fast-growing rural areas while traditional school districts struggle to finance new facilities. Cleveland ISD, overwhelmed by growth tied to the Colony Ridge development, has seen voters reject multiple bond proposals since 2019, forcing staff cuts and budget shortfalls even as it faces possible state takeover over failing academic ratings. Meanwhile, ILTexas, a charter network invited into the region by the state in 2020, has opened new, well-resourced campuses and is now outpacing traditional districts in enrollment growth.

Statewide, rural districts added over 156,000 students since 2021 while urban districts lost nearly 90,000, but Texas's funding formulas—capped fast-growth allotments, property-wealth calculations skewed by owner-financed land deals, and reliance on local bond votes—leave traditional districts unable to build ahead of demand. Charters face no such constraints and can cap enrollment. Experts warn that without funding reform, Texas's dual public school systems could increasingly compete for the same students and dollars rather than complement each other.

Republican Rep. Greg Steube of Florida introduced legislation to bar the federal government from purchasing, operating, or accessing Flock Safety automated license plate reader (ALPR) cameras without a judicial warrant. The bill, called the Facilitating Liberty and Accountability for Flock Observations (FLAFO) Act, would also tie Department of Justice grants for local law enforcement to adoption of similar privacy safeguards. Steube said the Fourth Amendment requires warrants before Americans can be tracked while driving, and criticized Flock Safety's network as too expansive and prone to abuse.

ALPR systems, originally designed for limited vehicle identification, have expanded into broader AI-powered surveillance, drawing scrutiny over misuse, including the wrongful jailing of a Florida woman falsely linked to a crash by Flock data. In New Jersey, Edison approved dozens of new cameras and its first thermal-equipped drone despite privacy objections and ACLU criticism of the state's long data retention. In Texas, the fight has split communities: cities including College Station, Carrollton, Kyle, Conroe, and Laredo have voted to keep or renew Flock contracts even after Gov. Greg Abbott froze state funding amid an investigation into grant spending, while roughly two dozen other Texas cities and counties have moved to end their agreements, and Houston and Dallas are scaling back grant-funded cameras while keeping city-funded ones running.