Welcome to the TeachtheVote blog. The goal of this blog is to foster a running dialogue on ATPE’s advocacy efforts and the progress of public education issues before the Texas Legislature. We invite you to participate in our community by commenting on posts and the comments of other readers in a thoughtful and productive way. Before you comment, please review the TeachtheVote blog commenting policy. Failure to abide by this policy could result in loss of privileges We also invite you to follow the TeachtheVote blog on Twitter and Facebook and to subscribe to the TeachtheVote blog and comments RSS feeds to receive notification of updates and new posts. This blog will hopefully provide you with a unique insight into ATPE’s advocacy efforts and the political and legislative processes. It will be helpful to you to have a basic understanding of the legislature and the process by which laws are enacted. Visit the Take Action page for a brief overview that you can also use as a reference when needed. We hope this blog will be fun as well as useful. You will hear from a variety of contributors, including ATPE Lobbyists and staff and the occasional guest, who will present a variety of material to entertain as well as inform. However, in the end, the quality of this experiment will depend on the users and their participation. So don’t be afraid to join in the conversation and show your enthusiasm or to alert the moderators to offensive or abusive users. Thank you and welcome! Ethan Herr – ATPE Governmental Relations Communications Coordinator