Appointees Confirmed
Both Donna Bahorich, as Chair of the SBOE, and Mike Morath, Commissioner of Education, had their nominations confirmed this week in the full Senate.
Spotlight on Education Committees
The House Committee on Public Education will meet on March 21 to take up 25 bills. The significant theme for the meeting is accountability legislation, with HB 21 (Huberty) taking center stage. The committee will have additional discussion on HB 21 (Huberty) on school finance and is likely to vote on that bill.
On March 21 Senate Education will take up SB 3 (Taylor) relating to the establishment of an education savings account program and a tax credit scholarship and educational expense assistance program.
Budget
This week both the Senate and House made final committee revisions on their budget bills for the upcoming biennium. After committee discussions, revisions will continue once the bill is taken up in the Chamber.
The Senate Finance Committee reduced funding to Texas Education Agency by a net amount of $276 million and adopted the bulk of reductions in General Revenue from the following:
- $150 million – eliminating funding for the High-Quality Prekindergarten (Pre-K) Grant Program
- $30 million – eliminating funding for Supplemental Prekindergarten
- $104.6 million – reduction in Instructional Materials Allotment
- $47.5 million – eliminate funding for New Instructional Facilities Allotment (NIFA)
In regards to Pre-K funding in the House, the House Appropriations Committee did not initially fund High-Quality Pre-K moving the entire request for $236 million over to Article XI. The commitee did maintain the funding for supplemental Pre-K. They also adopted a contingency rider for HB 21 which would add $1.47 billion in GR to the Foundation School Payment (FSP) and increase the basic allotment from $5,140 to $5,350 in each fiscal year of the biennium. It would also reduce by $1.87 billion in FY 2019 to implement a statutory payment deferral.