The Texas House of Representatives passed its version of the state budget, House Bill (HB) 1, Sunday, April 3. The bill cuts public education funding by nearly $8 billion and reduces overall state spending by approximately $23 billion. The House spent several hours debating Article III, the education portion of the bill, but did little to change it from the bill’s filed version. The final vote was 98-49 and was largely along party lines. Only two Republicans, Rep. David Simpson (R-Longview) and Rep. Aaron Pena (R-Edinburg), joined House Democrats to vote against the bill.

The bill will now head to the Senate, which is also planning massive cuts for education funding, though not as deep as the House. The bill will ultimately end up in conference committee, where a group made up of House and Senate members will hammer out the differences between the two versions.

The Senate Finance Subcommittee on Education voted March 22 to send its recommendations for the budget to the full Senate Finance Committee for consideration. The subcommittee recommendations reduce public education funding by approximately $4 billion (5 percent). There is still a question about the source of the funding needed for the recommendations. When asked during a press conference on the subject, Subcommittee Chairwoman Sen. Florence Shapiro (R–Plano) stated that the Senate is still working on it. The Senate Finance Committee voted 13-2 to adopt the subcommittee recommendations March 24.

Both versions of the budget still necessitate massive budget cuts at the local level. Finance Committee Chairman Sen. Steve Ogden (R–Bryan) has appointed Sen. Robert Duncan (R–Lubbock) to chair the newly formed Senate Finance Subcommittee on Fiscal Matters. The subcommittee will study current spending, obligations and tax exemptions in order to maximize revenue. Ogden believes that the committee can find up to $5 billion in non-tax revenue.

In other developments, the House Public Education Committee met March 15 to hear several bills, including House Bill (HB) 400 by Committee Chairman Rep. Rob Eissler (R–The Woodlands). HB 400 calls for “mandate relief” for school districts in order to make operations more efficient and to save districts money. However, the bill contains many provisions that, if passed, would be detrimental to schools, educators and students.

Some of the provisions in HB 400 include:

• Repealing the minimum salary schedule for educators.
• Eliminating the 22:1 student-to-teacher class-size limit and replacing it with a 22:1 district wide average and a hard cap of 25 students per classroom.
• Eliminating the 10:1 student-to-teacher class-size limit for remedial classes.
• Changing the 45-day notice of nonrenewal for teacher contracts to the last day of instruction.
• Eliminating noninstructional in-service days from district calendars to facilitate budget cuts at the local level.

ATPE appeared before the committee to testify against HB 400, which was left pending. ATPE will continue to closely monitor the progress of the bill and will report on any significant developments.

Other bills that will be discussed this week include:

• HB 862 by Rep. Diane Patrick (R–Arlington). This bill would impose review cycles for the State Board of Education and State Board for Educator Certification that would begin in 2013.
• HB 1587 by Eissler. This bill calls for the adoption of a new appraisal system for evaluating teacher effectiveness and would require people who perform such evaluations to renew their certification annually.
• HB 2378 by Rep. Larry Gonzales (R–Round Rock). This bill calls for the creation of an evaluation process for administrators that would be performed by the educators said administrators supervise.
• Senate Bill (SB) 4 by Shapiro. This bill relates to the certification, performance, continuing education and appraisal of public school teachers.
• SB 6 by Shapiro. This bill relates to the foundation curriculum; the establishment of the instructional materials allotment; and the adoption, review and purchase of instructional materials and technological equipment for public schools.
• SB 1383 by Shapiro. This bill calls for the creation of an appraisal and professional development system for public school principals.

Keep up with the latest legislative news with the Legislative Update at atpe.org.

Questions? Contact ATPE Governmental Relations.