On September 13th, Senators Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn introduced a bill (S 3768) to remove a Texas-specific provision included in the Education Jobs Fund passed on August 10th.
The provision in the Education Jobs Fund was added by Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Austin) and requires the Governor of Texas to provide prospective state funding assurances to the Secretary of Education in order for Texas to receive its share of federal education jobs funds. The Hutchison-Cornyn bill would remove that provision. Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Fort Worth) has introduced a companion bill (HR 6108) in the House. Both the U.S. Senate and House bills have been referred to committee.
The Texas Association of School Administrators (TASA), the state’s superintendents’ association has sent a letter to each member of the Texas delegation asking them to remove all legal and administrative barriers to accessing $830 million of the edujobs money. TASA and the Texas Association of School Boards were the first statewide organizations to publicly support the Doggett amendment, so the TASA letter is a change in position for the organization. In the brief one-page letter addressed to each member of the Texas delegation, TASA’s Executive Director Johnny Veselka explained that half of the school districts in Texas are faced with deficit spending this year.
“The Texas Association of School Administrators (TASA) strongly encourages you to remove all legal and administrative barriers currently in place that would prohibit or hinder the immediate distribution of the $830 million in federal funds for Texas public schools that was part of the Education Jobs Bill,” Veselka wrote. “This funding is critical for schoolchildren and teachers of Texas.”
The U.S. Department of Education responded to the state’s application for $830 million, turning down Commissioner of Education Robert Scott’s request for the funding, noting that an application with conditional assurances is not consistent with the statutory requirements.
However the Department did leave open the opportunity for awarding the funds to Texas, noting if Texas submits an approvable application, the Department will award the state its edujobs allocation without delay.
Texas Education Commissioner Robert Scott has sent a letter to the Department of Education asking for immediate assurances that the federal money would be available, as tentatively promised, in July 2011.
Texas will have until September 2012 to apply for the $830 million, according to a spokesperson from the Department of Education.