Financial Planning

McKinney Sen. Ken Paxton's Tax-Credit Voucher Bill a Sneaky Way to Route Public Money to Private Religious Schools

The idea behind McKinney Senator Ken Paxton's proposed legislation really is pretty ingenious. The whole school-choice voucher idea -- essentially a guise to funnel public money to religious schools -- invariably runs afoul of constitutional challenges. So, lately, that movement has shifted its stra ... More >>

Exclusive Premiere: The new Single from Tunk, Quietly One of the City's Best Rappers

Kevin "Tunk" Arradondo is not afraid to tell you that he's been broke all of this life, and on his latest mixtape, Direct Deposit, he does many times. "I'm not tryin to sit here and lie on the record. Sooner or later that can be your downfall," says the 23 year old Midlothian resident, "I'm the ba ... More >>

Surprise! I’m A Dinosaur!

A Dallas County Community College Official Was Fired for Giving Scholarships to Herself

When Minnie K. Patton wrote her will, she left a portion of her estate to the Dallas County Community College District Foundation to create a scholarship in her name. She'd grown up poor and uneducated in rural Oklahoma and wanted to give students the shot at upward mobility that she wouldn't have h ... More >>

Miller Lite Wants You to Know it Pays For Hispanic Kids to Go to College. It Doesn't Tell You it Doesn't Do it Very Well

Miller Lite announced yesterday that, for the second year in a row, it will partner with the Dallas Cowboys and a nonprofit called Adelante U.S. Educational Leadership Fund "to support educational programming and resources for Hispanics through the 'Scoring for Education' campaign." In layman's ter ... More >>

Feds Say ATI's For-Profit Colleges Created Fake Jobs, Companies to Rip Off Students and the Government

ATI Career Training Center is the type of school you see advertised on daytime TV. It prepares its graduates for "rewarding careers" in "fields such as health care, personal fitness and wellness, business technology, information technology, automotive repair, air conditioning and refrigeration repai ... More >>

Report: Don't Major in the Humanities, You Broke Idiot

A new report submitted to the Texas Legislature says that Texans who earn their bachelor's degrees in the humanities have higher levels of debt and lower earning potential than people who get degrees in math and science-related fields. In 2010, the majors with the highest rates of unemployment were ... More >>

Eat, Drink and Be Charitable For Once

UT-Dallas: Way Less Fun and Way More Expensive than UT-Austin

It wasn't without some pride that I saw last week that my alma mater, the University of Texas at Dallas, had earned what may be its first superlative. (Okay, maybe its second, but the most-hideous-architecture label was unofficial). The Texas Tribune has helpfully compiled a list of average tuition ... More >>

Mark Cuban Tackles America's Student Loan Bubble, Then Roots for It to Burst

In addition to sports team ownership and a sideline in media impresario-ness, Mark Cuban is quite the blogger: dishing out advice to the Occupy movement, fulminating about patent law, apologizing for some casual homophobia. And a few days ago, he aired his views on the small matter of student loan d ... More >>

Dallas Police and Fire Pension Boss: Fund's Risky Investments "Are Building America"

The Nasher Sculpture Center and the developers of the Museum Tower project are continuing to hammer out their white light, white heat debacle behind closed doors. They recently hired a mediator in lawyer Tom Luce, who promptly asked both sides to quit talking to the media already. Above, however, y ... More >>

Before Council Votes to Help Uplift Sell Bonds, More Questions, Answers and Concerns

​Earlier today Rudy posted an explainer to the City Hall blog about those so-called "conduit bonds" Uplift Education hopes to sell with City Hall's backing. But long story short, per a Los Angeles Times piece last year, they "allow private entities to tap into low-cost municipal bond financing for ... More >>

What's the Hurry? Why Does Council Have to Vote on Helping Uplift Sell Bonds This Week?

​You know the cell phones must have been burning all weekend when the first city council committee briefing of the week at City Hall on Monday morning starts off with a rebuttal. Wait, rebuttal already? While those of us out here in the peanut gallery are still wiping the weekend from our eyes, co ... More >>

Dallas City Hall Wants to Create Nonprofit to Help Uplift Education Sell Bonds for Expansion

​Speaking of Uplift Education and its planned expansion into Deep Ellum ...There's an intriguing item that just appeared on the Dallas City Council's consent addendum for next week's meeting, posted here. According to the doc, the city wants to create a nonprofit called the City of Dallas Educatio ... More >>

Feeling Horny?

Taste of Today

Tiffany Derry Defends For-Profit Culinary Schools

​Dallas chef Tiffany Derry this week dove into the maelstrom surrounding financial assistance at for-profit colleges, arguing in an essay for The Hill that the government is threatening the culinary arts by withholding loans from students enrolled in career schools. The Department of Educatio ... More >>

Craig Watkins's Legislative Wish List

​On the other side is a lengthy missive we just received from the Dallas County District Attorney's Office in which Craig Watkins outlines his to-do list for the new Legislative session. But you can probably guess what's top-of-the-pops with a D.A. seeking criminal system reforms: eyewitness ident ... More >>

Teaching DISD Students About Money -- How to Keep It, and How to Make It

​Over the weekend, New York Times personal finance writer Tara Siegel Bernard visited with Sunset High School's Mathew Frost, an 11th and 12th grade American history and economics teacher giving his students a real-world look at how to balance the books. In other words, he's teaching to the actual ... More >>

New Federal Program Aims to Help Student Debtors, But Is it Too Late?

​DeSoto resident Pamela Bradley, who once worked for the city of Dallas, feels cheated by the education system. She was raised to believe that education leads to better jobs, so she got a master's degree and started a Ph.D. program. But now Bradley finds herself in this disheartening position ... More >>

Debt Collectors Consider Trading "Knee-Breaking" Techniques for "Empathy Training"

Hal Samples Craig Cunningham​Craig Cunningham of Dallas has an interesting way of dealing with debt collectors: He sues them, as documented in this week's paper version of Unfair Park. While only a small number of debtors file such lawsuits, the debt collection industry isn't waiting for su ... More >>

Dallas Observer's Parent Company Announces Pay Cuts and Layoffs

Twice today I've been asked about several posts on The Latest Word, one of our sister blogs out of Denver, referring to layoffs and pay cuts taking place throughout the Village Voice Media chain. The Dallas Observer, of course, is among the 15 papers in the chain, formerly known as New Times Inc.Spe ... More >>

Supreme Court Will Let Dallas Man's 401(k) Lawsuit Move Forward

Yes, Carlos, Sure, They're Out to Get You

Should One Deduction Lead to Another?

Man to Man

Da Vinci, Da Jackpot

RIght Cross

Is George W. Bush a conservative? Author Bruce Bartlett doesn't think so,

and saying that cost him his job.

This Week's Day-By-Day Picks

Best Reason to Book It to Denton

Recycled Books Records CDs

Best Girlie Explosion

Talulah Belle

Best Urban Waterfall

Texas Discovery Gardens conservatory at Fair Park

House of Cards

Enron's collapse may have been engineered from the top, but low-level employees played parts, too

Hard knocks

A school's closing leaves a Dallas woman $10,000 in debt for a worthless education

Own a piece of the sod

Their boss invested the retirement fund in real estate, and employees wound up with dirt