AUSTIN (Nexstar) — A spokesperson in the governor’s office confirmed Gov. Greg Abbott will sign House Bill 8, which will change the way Texas public school students are tested starting in the 2027-2028 school year.

Eliminating the current State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) was a bipartisan issue, but finding its replacement split Democrats and Republicans in the Texas House of Representatives.

HB 8 passed along party lines and State Rep. Gina Hinojosa, D-Austin, called on Abbott to veto the bill. “This bill betrays Texas students, parents, and teachers Governor Abbott, there’s only one right move for Texas kids: Veto HB 8,” Hinojosa wrote in a news release.

“Texas is on a pathway to become number one in education which requires a strong accountability system,” Andrew Mahaleris, a spokesman for the governor’s office, said in a statement. “HB 8 replaces the outdated STAAR test with more modernized testing strategies that prioritize learning over testing and more effectively measure student progress. The Governor looks forward to signing this legislation when it reaches his desk.”

What will the test look like?

Students between 3rd and 8th grade will continue taking the STAAR test for the next two school years. Starting in the fall of 2027 schools will switch to a three-test system. They will take a beginning-of-the-year test (BOY), middle-of-the-year test (MOY), and an end-of-the-year (EOY) test.

The Texas Education Agency (TEA) is tasked with creating the tests. School districts can choose to take an approved exam that is not created by the TEA for the BOY and MOY, but they are required to take the EOY created by the TEA.

Results are required to be reported within 48 hours of the exam to give parents and educators an idea of where children are in their education.

The results of the tests will factor into the final grade rating school districts receive each year. New to these three tests is a through-year indicator. Currently the rating system compares a students score from the previous year to the current year to see how they are progressing.

The new system will see how students are progressing throughout the year by looking at the three test scores. Lawmakers did put in a provision that would allow the legislature to course correct if the through-year indicator is negatively impacting the final grade for schools.

The TEA is required to write a report about the impact of through-year indicators on the final A-F grade for schools. That report is due by March of 2029.

What are lawmakers saying about it?

Hinojosa was against the final version of the bill because she thinks it will add more stress for students. “From third through eighth grade, right now, kids take 12 state mandated tests,” Hinojosa explained. “That number goes up to 51 state mandated tests, and as a mother of kids who have attended Austin public schools, I know the pressure, the stress that the STAAR test puts on our kids. It is unacceptable.”

State Rep. Brad Buckley, R-Salado, the author of the bill, refutes that claim. He says the new system will take pressure off of kids and allow teachers more time to teach their students.

Currently students are only required to take an end-of-year exam, but some school districts give their students benchmarks throughout the year to prepare them for the STAAR. This bill bans benchmarking in schools, which means students will only have to take the three tests per year.

A big reason Hinojosa rejects this plan is because of the involvement of the TEA. She does not trust the agency to make a good test for students. “It is not a reliable test. Nobody trusts the Texas Education Agency anymore,” Hinojosa explained.

But Republicans believe the new testing system will help students progress throughout the year and take the stress off a one-day, one-test system.

“We finally got a system that’s going to make what measure gets fixed an A plus for all Texans,” State Sen. Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston, said when laying it out on the Senate floor. He sponsored the bill and helped install last minute changes to the final version, like requiring a social studies test for 8th grade students and an U.S. History end-of-course exam (EOC) for high school students.

Postal deliveries from around the world to the United States have plummeted by 80 percent since President Trump lifted the “de minimis” exception that allowed small packages worth less than $800 to be exempt from tariffs, a United Nations body has found.

The Universal Postal Union (UPU), a U.N. agency that works on global postal cooperation, said postal traffic had gone down 80 percent to the U.S. since Aug. 29, when the rule went into effect.

The group said it would be working to get more packages to go to the United States by developing a technical solution that could help ensure required duties are collected. One reason for the huge drop in traffic is that the duties on the low-valued packages had to be collected by new parties. Air carriers did not want to bear the responsibility, the UPU said, and there was no new link for postal operators in other countries.

“The UPU has in its mission the responsibility to guarantee the free circulation of postal items over a single postal territory. We’re working to uphold that responsibility with the rapid development of a new technical solution that will help get mail moving to the United States again,” said UPU Director General Masahiko Metoki.
The group said starting on Sept. 5, postal operators will be able to access a landed-cost calculator via an application programming interface that can be plugged into their retail and counter solutions. It said this would allow postal operators to calculate and collect the required duties from customers at origin.
UPU said it had been informed by 88 different postal operators that they had suspended some or all postal services to the U.S. until a solution was implemented, highlighting the massive impact of Trump’s de minimis order.

It said its solution would be integrated into its Customs Declaration System platform, which it said would gradually allow 176 postal operators already using the platform to take advantage of the solution.

Even before the de minimis rule was thrown out in August, Trump had ended it for China.

This had left discount retailers like Shein and Temu scrambling to change their distribution models. They also raised their prices for people sending the lower-cost packages.

President Trump attended the U.S. Open men’s singles final on Sunday between Italy’s Jannik Sinner and Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz, but wasn’t the only notable figure to attend the match.

A number of celebrities are also in attendance at the final in New York City, including some who are big-name critics of Trump.

Some of the celebrities who have voiced their opposition to the president in attendance include rock legend Bruce Springsteen, who once called Trump “the most dangerous candidate for president in” his lifetime and endorsed Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris in a video posted on Instagram.

“Donald Trump is the most dangerous candidate for president in my lifetime,” Springsteen said in the video. “His disdain for the sanctity of our Constitution, the sanctity of democracy, the sanctity of the rule of law and the sanctity of the peaceful transfer of power should disqualify him from the office of president, ever again.”

Trump has fired back at Springsteen.

“Never liked him, never liked his music, or his Radical Left Politics and, importantly, he’s not a talented guy — Just a pushy, obnoxious JERK, who fervently supported Crooked Joe Biden, a mentally incompetent FOOL, and our WORST EVER President, who came close to destroying our Country,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social earlier this year.

Springsteen was seated near Sting, another superstar musician.

Actors present at the final included the movie star and comedian Kevin Hart, the producer and “Taxi” star Danny DeVito, Ben Stiller of “Severance” and David Duchovny of the “X-Files.”

Actress, comedian and “The Office” veteran Mindy Kaling was also there to watch the final, along with her “Office” co-star BJ Novak. “Freaky Friday” star Lindsay Lohan is also in the crowd.

Besides Springsteen and Sting, other musicians at the men’s final include Usher, who campaigned with Harris in Atlanta during her bid for the presidency last year, and Pink, who performed on the final night of last year’s Democratic National Convention (DNC). She also has a history of being a political advocate, with the singer taking part in a massive fundraising call after Harris announced her candidacy.

A number of celebrity athletes and coaches were also present for the final, including Golden State Warriors star Steph Curry and Philadelphia 76er Paul George of the NBA, and Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola.