Here's your weekly wrap-up of education news from ATPE Governmental Relations:

• Children's advocacy group urges legislature to heed data on student suicides
• A first look at some interim school finance recommendations 

Josette Saxton

This week Josette Saxon, Director of Mental Health Policy at the statewide, non-profit, non-partisan, multi-issue children’s policy organization, Texans Care for Children shared why it"s critical that the Legislature and local school districts act to promote the mental well being of Texas school children.

Noting alarming data on youth suicides, Sexton writes:

"The pain and despair behind these numbers is heartbreaking, but it should also be a call to action. We all need to work harder to understand and address the causes of this crisis. We also need our policymakers to strength our children’s mental health policies, including policies to support students through our schools."

Read more here.

On Tuesday, the Texas Commission on Public School Finance's working group on outcomes met to deliberate and discuss recommendations based on previous testimony.

The group structured incentives around three core principles: "Ready to learn, ready to teach, and ready to earn." Goals for the working group include ensuring graduates don't require remediation and go on to obtain a post secondary credential. In order to achieve these goals, the working group recommends new weighted funding for certain student groups and suggests the state encourage school districts to implement performance pay programs to attract and retain educators. You can read more about the group's recommendations in this post by ATPE Lobbyist Mark Wiggins.

Next week, Teach the Vote will be taking a hiatus from our regular weekly wrap-up while the ATPE Governmental Relations staff is atrending the ATPE Summit in Dallas. The wrap-up will be back the following week. A big THANK YOU to all our regular readers who look forward to getting this digest each week, as we look forward to bringing you more of what's going on with public education in Texas directly to your email. Until our next digest on Friday, July 20, please visit the Teach the Vote blog directly and follow @TeachtheVote on Twitter for updates and breaking news.