DALLAS – The summer break is over, and the school year is beginning for students in 11 North Texas school districts.

All of the districts starting on Monday have four-day schedules, an increasingly popular idea many districts have adopted to attract and keep teachers.

Most are in rural areas. The biggest are Paris, Mineral Wells, Athens, and Quinlan.

11 more districts start the year on Tuesday.

Ready 4 School

Good Day wants to see your first day of school photos! 

Visit fox4news.com/ready4school to upload pics. Please include a name and city.

We’ll share some of our favorites on TV as we celebrate the start of the new year.

Offer online voter registration

Much of my volunteer time is spent as a volunteer deputy registrar in several Texas counties. This means I’m certified by those counties to accept voter registration applications from eligible voters. I then drive those applications to the appropriate counties, where elections professionals verify eligibility and issue voter registration certificates to qualified applicants.

Texas is one of just seven states that does not offer online voter registration, compared to 43 states, Washington, D.C., and Guam that do. This saves election departments printing and storage costs for forms, eliminates transcribing handwritten information, means no more driving of forms to county elections offices and decreases rejections due to incomplete information.

As I visit with eligible voters, they are shocked when I inform them that they cannot register online. Gov. Greg Abbott continues to say he wants to make it “easier to vote and harder to cheat.” A good step would be to embrace that this is 2024 and offer online registration to eligible voters.

Cathy Murphree, Richardson

Let us dine with Texas wine

Re: “Protect Texas Wineries — Illegal, out-of-state shipments cut into tax revenue and wine sales,” Thursday editorial.

I concur with the call for our Legislature to address the issue of out-of-state wineries that are avoiding the payment of appropriate Texas taxes of their product. And while the Legislature is at it, I would hope they would change the anti-consumer rule of the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission that prohibits proprietors of fine dining establishments from having the option to allow their customers to bring in those special Texas wines to enjoy with their meal.

Currently the law disallows this even though it is a win for the consumer, a win for the restaurant (they may charge corkage on a product they didn’t have to carry) and a win for the state since increased business for a restaurant translates into increased revenue for them, too.

I have written my concern to Rep. Mihaela Plesa and Sen. Bob Hall. No response.

Greg Polito, Dallas

Just wait for the election

Re: “Divisive bill could be back — ‘Hostile nations’ legislation has support, will be refiled, Republican Kolkhorst says,” July 25 Metro & Business story.

The Texas Legislature attempted to pass this racist measure in 2023. State Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, says, “Since then, voters have only continued to show their support for this policy, including on the March 2024 Republican primary ballot where it received over 95 percent approval.”

Kolkhorst said in a text message. “I look forward to delivering this policy to Gov. Greg Abbott during the next legislative session.”

The majority of people who voted in that election were Republicans. The proposals were not on the Democratic ballot.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Kolkhorst seem awfully sure of themselves talking about other horrible things they have planned for the 2025 legislative session.

I have a suggestion for them — don’t count your chickens before they hatch. A lot has changed since that election. Maybe they should wait to plan all that nastiness until after the November election?

There are seats all across this state with Democrats on the ballot in the Texas House and Senate. Don’t get happy clappy too soon!

Bonnie L. Mathias, Dallas/Pleasant Grove

No free lunch or electricity

Re: “Time to pay for ‘21 storm,” by Dave Lieber, Sunday Metro column.

After the big ice storm, the Watchdog screamed for more infrastructure so the grid can withstand future storms. I cautioned him that it would come with a price and he would be writing about that increase in costs in future columns.

So here we are. Pick any topic that involves the “what the government. should do.” They all sound wonderful until the bill arrives.

COVID tax-free money, the Affordable Care Act, student loans etc. Push, push, push for free money, then the bill arrives. Then the push is for someone else to pay for it.

That is the mantra of the Democratic Party. Free everything. Somebody else pays. Medical care suffers, education suffers, job opportunities move overseas. And next year you read it again like it is something new.

There is no free lunch. And, yes, people lived in Texas with no grid for several centuries. Amazing how we have become so dependent on the government to solve our problems. Learn to take care of yourself and your family. Government solves nothing. It just gets in the way.

Frank M. Wagnon, Southlake

Juvenile justice is someone’s job

Re: “Juvenile justice director resigns — His exit comes days after state’s surprise inspection of youth detention center,” July 20 news story.

An unannounced inspection conducted by the Office of Inspector General at the Texas Juvenile Justice Department revealed ongoing deplorable conditions at the youth detention center.

This story is a perfect example of an “It’s not my job” mentality. If this surprise inspection had not been done, rest assured, Darryl Beatty would not have resigned, and the problems would have received minimal attention.

It is no surprise to me that every person mentioned by name in this story is a Democrat. There is a fitting quote from the movie Blazing Saddles that applies to everyone involved in this fiasco: “We’ve got to protect our phony-baloney jobs!” Harump, harump, etc.

Mike Davis, Dallas

Even school playing field

The school voucher issue would simply disappear by creating an even playing field — put billionaire money into the existing public school system. Problem solved.

Frances Baldwin, McKinney

We welcome your thoughts in a letter to the editor. See the guidelines and submit your letter here. If you have problems with the form, you can submit via email at letters@dallasnews.com

Raymond Cottrell, a wide receiver who transferred from Kentucky to Texas A&M this offseason, is doing the Texas two-step as he announced on Sunday he is transferring to the University of West Florida,

The news was originally reported by On3’s Pete Nakos. The announcement was confirmed by Cottrell’s NIL agents at A&P Sports Agency,

West Florida is located in Pensacola, which is in the panhandle. Pensacola is near Milton, where Cottrell played his high school football.

Cottrell started his collegiate career at Texas A&M last fall. He then transferred to Kentucky, before coming back to College Station. He is now on the move once again. He played in three games for the Aggies as a freshman, He caught one pass for a 13-yard touchdown.

It was reported in May that Cottrell took a recruiting visit to Arizona State. Cottrell has been a flip-flopper since high school. He was originally committed to Georgia as a senior. He then flipped his commitment to A&M where he was part of a top 15 ranked class.

He was described by On3 as a “big-bodied route running savant that can dominate at the catch point and run through defenders with the ball in his hands.”

Cottrell was a four-star recruit coming out of high school. He totaled 651 yards receiving on 46 catches and nine touchdowns as a high school senior. He was a two-way player at Milton. His best season was his junior season at Milton when he caught 63 passes for 985 yards.