Equity Center’s Special Session Legislative Update, July 20, 2017

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Governor adds Public School Finance and Teacher Retirement to Special Session

AUSTIN, TX – Texas Governor Greg Abbott added school finance reform and retired teacher benefits to the list of items which the legislature can take action on during the special session just underway in Austin. view article  

New From TEA

• Deadline Extended for the 2017-2018 school year New Instructional Facility Allotment (NIFA); Online Application for Funding
• Required Annual Notification of Nondiscrimination in Career and Technical Education Programs
• TEA Releases Results For Statewide End-of-Course STAAR Exams 7/10
• TEA Releases Results For Statewide 3-8 STAAR Exams
•  New STAAR Report Card provides Texas parents stronger student-specific information, helpful resources
• 2016-2017 Bus Accident Reporting Survey is open through August 31, 2017 6/30
• LEAs with Schools Identified as Priority and/or Focus for school year 2017–2018 6/27
• Open-Source Instructional Materials6/27
• Special Education Data Sharing Request - Eligibility for Reimbursement 6/20
• School Year 2015–2016 (Fiscal Year 2016) Final IDEA-B LEA MOE Compliance Reviews 6/20

Preventive Law: An Oscar-worthy Surveillance Video

When a verbal or physical altercation is recorded on the school surveillance system, it can seem easier to determine which movie won the Oscar for 2017’s Best Picture than to figure out who gets to see the video, who gets a copy of it, and whose faces need to be blurred. Below we will open the big red envelope that we have double-checked is labeled “FERPA” to get our answer.

2017 Tax Ratification Elections/Results

Election information related to all Tax Ratification Elections in 2016

Senate panel to hear ‘school choice,’ finance bill Friday

The Senate Education Committee on Friday will consider two bills that address many of the major education-related issues on the special session call, including school finance and ‘private school choice.’ Senate Bill 2, filed by Senate education chairman Larry Taylor, R-Friendswood, is comprised of several education issues that would reallocate $270 million from Health and Human Services over the next biennium to pay for: view article  

How to watch today’s bathroom bill proceedings

Say hello to the "bathroom bill" for the third time this year — a proposal that has raised a divide between conservative and moderate Republicans and the rest of the Texas Legislature this year. The Senate, maintaining its full sprint just three days into the special session, quickly sent measures that would regulate restrooms for most transgender Texans to a committee that will hold a hearing on the legislation this morning. Here's what you need to know:  view article  

Abbott adds school finance, retired teacher benefits to special session

Texas legislators could end up passing bills to reform the state's school finance system and help out retired teachers this special session. After the Senate voted early Thursday morning to pass a bill keeping several key state agencies alive, Gov. Greg Abbott immediately expanded the special session agenda by adding 19 items — and dramatically expanded the focus of two education-related priorities he had announced last month. view article  

Pastors for Texas Children: SB 2 – A Voucher That Harms Students with Disabilities

SB 2 is a voucher bill. SB 2 contains Education Expense Assistance and a state premium tax credit. Tax Credit vouchers would allow businesses or individuals to count donations to private school “scholarships” against state premium tax liability and would funnel taxpayer money to private and corporate schools for students with a disability. We oppose this bill on the following grounds: view article  

Shutting down unfunded mandates — the state’s no-limit credit card

As a conservative Republican county judge in a growing county, I’m concerned by Sen. Paul Bettencourt’s property tax plan, Senate Bill 1. Entitled the “Texas Property Tax Reform and Relief Act of 2017,” it failed to pass during the regular session, but is again under consideration in the special session. I believe the bill will never live up to its promising name. Unfortunately, it doesn’t cut taxes. It’s just a distraction from a problematic school finance system, and the eagerness of many in Austin to use unfunded mandates to pay for things they haven’t found the money to cover. view article  

BILL ANALYSIS Senate Research Center S.B. 2

S.B. 2 addresses funding needs of independent school districts and public charter schools in Texas and establishes a tax credit scholarship and educational expense assistance program. The bill creates a "Financial Hardship Transition Program" to assist districts facing funding shortfalls due to the expiration of the Additional State Aid for Tax Reduction (ASATR) program. The program, designed to ensure districts facing substantial financial hardship without ASATR funds, considers local tax effort. view article  

‘Bathroom bills’ targeting public buildings, schools get hearing today

The Senate Committee on State Affairs is holding a public hearingFriday morning to discuss two newly filed bills, Senate Bill 3 and Senate Bill 91. The bills were filed by Senator Lois Kolkhorst (R-Brenham),the same senator who filed the so-called bathroom bill during the regular session, but there are some changes in the language this time around. view article  

Watch as hundreds in Texas testify on the bathroom bill

For the third time this year, a committee of state lawmakers will consider measures to restrict bathroom use for transgender residents in what’s expected to be an hours-long hearing Friday that could draw out hundreds of Texans to testify. view article  

Education items added to special legislative session agenda

East Texas education advocates say recent teacher rallies in Longview and elsewhere helped spur Gov. Gregg Abbott to add two school-related items to the special legislative session agenda. After the Texas Senate voted early Thursday to pass a bill keeping several key state agencies alive, Abbott dramatically expanded the focus of two education-related priorities he announced last month. view article  

New Seguin ISD Superintendent introduced

The Seguin Independent School District is hoping to move past a number of controversies after a new superintendent has signed on.  Superintendent Dr. Matthew Gutierrez was officially welcomed Wednesday night during a Special Meeting where his contract was approved.  It was a very short meeting and afterword the community got a chance to talk to him.  Dr. Gutierrez comes to Seguin ISD after serving as an assistant superintendent in the Plano ISD, which is North of Dallas. view article  

Plans to raise teacher pay go before state legislature

The governor and lieutenant governor of Texas are at odds over how to fix the teacher retention problem in Texas. Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick seem to agree that teachers should receive a bigger paycheck, but each is backing a different plan.  Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick is asking legislators to approve a plan that would provide bonuses to long-term teachers. view article  

4 complaints filed against Kirbyville school district

The Texas Education Agency is reviewing complaints against the Kirbyville school district. view article  

Teachers union chief: School choice rooted in segregation

The head of one of the country's leading teachers' unions charged Thursday that school choice, a key policy agenda of the Trump administration, is rooted in segregation and racism. Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, the nation's second largest teachers' group, said that decades ago school choice was used by officials in the South to resist desegregation. view article  

Joe Straus: Austin school district giving up $530 million to others

Texas House Speaker Joe Straus hinted at the Texas House’s derailed regular-session push for more state education aid by asserting that absent action, Austin taxpayers can count on ponying up more than half a billion dollars to schools in other places this year. The San Antonio Republican prefaced his Austin-centric claim by rehashing his view that Texas overly relies on property taxes to fund the schools. view article  

Reynolds gives report on Legislature, preview of special session

State Rep. Ron Reynolds presented his “good, bad and ugly” review of the 85th Texas Legislature Thursday at the Missouri City Leadership Luncheon held at the Ben E. Keith company. The Missouri City Democrat didn’t have very many highlights to report in a session dominated by Republican majorities in the House, Senate and Governor’s Mansion. view article  

Bathrooms vs. bucks for schools

House Speaker Joe Straus would rather lawmakers spend their 30-day special session improving Texas' broken school finance system than policing which bathrooms transgenders can use. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, the driving force behind the "bathroom bill," hijacked a must-pass sunset safety net bill in the regular session to make the special session necessary. view article  

South Texas School District Allows Teachers to Hit Students with Paddles

Teachers at Three Rivers Independent School District in South Texas will soon be allowed to hit students with paddles as a measure of punishment. According to the Corpus Christi Caller-Times, the district's trustees voted unanimously Tuesday to allow corporal punishment in the classroom. view article  

Beaumont ISD managers OK potential partnerships with charter schools

Beaumont ISD's board of managers on Wednesday cleared the way for potential partnerships with charter schools, considered a threat to public education by some, allowing the district to proceed with discussions with charter school company ResponsiveEd. Five managers voted to approve the resolution and policy on the "public/private partnership." A.B. Bernard opposed it, and Jack Carrollabstained. view article  

Abbott and Patrick proposals nothing more than unfunded mandates

Both Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick take great pride in promoting proposals that would get more money in teachers’ pockets, but they make no effort toward funding their largesse. The cost of these unfunded mandates fall squarely on the shoulders of taxpayers back home. Instead, state officials should concentrate on fixing Texas’ deeply troubled public education finance system. view article  

Texas teachers challenge Abbott

Lawmakers are back at work at the Texas Capitol, and so are the ever-present protesters. A day before the opening of a special session with public education on the governor's agenda, Texas educators began converging on the state Capitol to protest the proposed reforms. view article  

Gov. Abbott launches media blitz to ride herd on special session

Gov. Greg Abbott Wednesday launched a blitz of some 60 radio and TV appearances planned through next week to promote his bid for a second term, which he announced Friday, and to ride herd on the special legislative session that got underway Tuesday. Abbott has promised a running public accounting of who’s with him and who’s against him on the 20 items on his special session agenda, and he told Scott DeLucia on WTAW-AM in College Station that the first of what DeLucia called his “naughty and nice” lists should come by week’s end. That will probably focus on gold stars for those legislators who authored or co-sponsored legislation on Abbott’s priorities. view article  

Straus, Patrick haven’t met in more than six months

The Texas Senate and House of Representatives haven't been on the same page for a while, and it's no wonder. During Dan Patrick's press conference last week, the lieutenant governor admitted that he and House Speaker Joe Straus hadn't met one-on-one since the start of the 85th legislature, 190 days ago. view article  

Bushland ISD superintendent Don Wood to retire in January

Superintendent Don Wood is leaving his post after eight years as chief executive of the growing, 1,500-student school district that serves Amarillo’s western edge. His tentative last day is Jan. 31. “I’ve been very blessed with the people I’ve been working around and working for,” Wood said. “The success that we’ve had as a district has been overwhelming because of the type of community we have, the type of support we have from our families.” view article  

Texas school district approves paddling misbehaving students

The Three Rivers Independent School board of trustees in South Texas approved the policy Tuesday, which would allow for paddles to be used as corporal punishment against misbehaving students. Corporal punishment is defined by the Texas Classroom Teachers Association (TCTA) as “deliberate infliction of physical pain by hitting, paddling, spanking, slapping or any other physical force used as a means of discipline.” view article  

Red Oak school board announces new high school principal, chooses representation and insurance plan

With the new school year on the horizon, the Red Oak ISD Board of Trustees met Monday evening to pass a few of the final agenda items of the summer. Welcoming the new Red Oak High School principal, choosing an insurance plan and selecting the district’s state representation were among the highlights. view article  

LEIGHTON SCHUBERT MEETS WITH AREA SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENTS

State Representative Leighton Schubert (R-Caldwell) spent the first day of the special session of the 85th Texas Legislature reaching out to school superintendents and county judges from around House District 13, which he represents in the Texas House of Representatives. Schubert invited all superintendents from his district to the Texas Capitol to discuss proposed legislation dealing with public school education, among them school finance, "private school choice," and increased teacher pay. view article  

Pflugerville ISD trustees cap tax rate at $1.54, plan to set exact rate in future

At Thursday night’s Pflugerville ISD board meeting, trustees voted to prepare for budget considerations by starting discussions about the 2017-18 tax rate. Trustees began this discussion by setting a cap on the tax rate, without actually setting an exact rate. The board members voted to cap the maintenance and operations tax rate at $1.04 and the sinking and interest rate—which pays back debt from bonds—at $0.50 for a combined maximum of $1.54 per $100 valuation. This is the same as the tax rate set for the 2016-17 fiscal year. view article  

Texas teachers rally to support public education

Hundreds of teachers in red shirts looked to the sky Monday afternoon as an airplane circled high above the Texas Capitol trailing a banner in support of a public education rally. Current and retired teachers, parents and students rallied on the south steps of the Capitol to show their support for public education and denounce standardized testing, school vouchers, lack of public education funding and unfunded teacher pay raises. Many of the teachers present were also members of different major teacher associations, like Texans for Public Education, the organization that coordinated the rally. view article  

Lubbock ISD Concerned About Special Session Education Agenda

State lawmakers called for a $1,000 pay raise for teachers in Texas public schools, but Lubbock ISD said they are worried about cuts they would have to make in order to follow such a mandate. “We would love to see teachers make more money,” LISD Superintendent Dr. Berhl Robertson, Jr. said.  “Obviously we all know they don't make near enough, but given the requirements, we pay as much as we possibly can and still be fiscally responsible.  If a thousand dollar teacher pay raise was mandated, we would have to be looking to cut some place.” view article