House Appropriations S/C on Article III RFI Responses – Charge 1

This report covers the responses House Appropriations S/C on Article III received for their RFI for Charge 1, relating to overseeing the implementation of relevant legislation and riders passed by the 86th Legislature. The RFI for this charge can be found here and responses in their entirety can be found here.

The HillCo report below is a summary of information intended to give you an overview and highlight of the various topics included in the responses. This report does not cover the entirety of each response, but aims to provide an overview of the testimony submitted.

 

University of North Texas, Texas A&M University – Central Texas, Texas A&M University – San Antonio, Texas A&M University – Texarkana, University of Houston – Clear Lake, University of Houston – Victoria (pages 2-3)

• Seeking to safeguard expansion funding
• Requesting that these items be treated similarly to other non-formula support items
• Should eliminate the additional 25% reduction in the base appropriations bill and delete the corresponding rider
• Any reductions in non-formula support funding will force eliminations in critical programs and services and impact those graduates ready to enter the workforce
• Institutions face a compounding impact of a statewide budget reduction of 5% plus this potential 25% reduction to expansion funding in the base appropriations bill
  • Will disproportionately impact students

• Next session, need to use 100% of the State’s Economic Stabilization Fund to maintain the progress made toward adequately and equitably funding public education
• Should cuts to PK–12 education spending prove necessary, three areas the Legislature should consider first are testing and accountability, charter expansion, and the continued rollout of the HB 3 merit pay program known as the Teacher Incentive Allotment
• Programs that could be cut: alternative certification program Teach for America or physical fitness assessments
• Texas requires more standardized testing than necessary to meet federal government requirements
• Next year Texas is scheduled to eliminate the stand-alone fourth and seventh grade writing tests; the state could also eliminate the eighth-grade social studies and high school U.S. History tests
• The state’s contract with a testing vendor to provide the 2020-21 STAAR test alone is projected to cost between $70 and $90 million, and that does not even take into account the tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars spent annually by districts and charters to administer STAAR
• Recommends the state take advantage of the opportunity for substantial savings by foregoing standardized testing this year to the extent possible and minimizing testing requirements and cost moving forward
• Recommends the Legislature expand the SBOE’s veto authority to include oversight and approval of charter amendments and clarify SBOE has a duty to represent the voting public on matters related to charter authorization and expansion
• Legislature should place a moratorium on granting charters to new operators or approving new expansion amendments during the next biennium
  • Lawmakers should consider capping charter enrollment for existing charter holders at current levels until we recover from the recession
• Recommends legislature ensure funding is in place to maintain educator salary increases under HB 3 and encourage districts to distribute any future additional funding in the form of permanent raises
• Supports differentiated pay programs that offer educators extra compensation for extra work or acceptance of a more challenging or high-need position
  • Opposes systems that sort and rank teachers primarily based on measures of student performance that are at best one-dimensional and at worst inaccurate
• With the state likely to face significant budgetary pressures next session, ATPE recommends the Legislature halt its implementation of the TIA until state and district budgets have stabilized
• Legislature should continue funding scheduled increases to the state’s contribution rate

• Legislature should continue the funding commitment of HB 3 next session and refrain from cuts that could delay or impact HB 3 programs

• Should fully fund the FSP, including hold harmless funding for losses in the ADA due to the pandemic
• Should provide an inflationary adjustment to the basic allotment
• Should provide an enforceable mechanism for the settle-up for the compensation increases provided by HB 3
• Need to identify ongoing costs of the Teacher Incentive Allotment and divert those funds directly into teacher compensation by streamlined mechanism that is not governed by TEA rules
• Should uphold the state’s commitment to fund TRS and work towards a true cost of living adjustment in the future in lieu of periodic of one-time benefit enhancements

• Overviews SB 25 and SB 500
• If state backs out of its TRS funding commitment or reduces/delays contribution plans, will trigger a reduction in the public education employer and active employee contribution rates
  • Will likely increase unfunded liability and the future cost will increase substantially
• Overviews TRS’s defined-benefit structure and pre-established formula
• State needs to uphold its commitment to TRS and work towards a cost of living adjustment

• A student is considered chronically absent when they miss 10% or more of school days within an academic year for any reason; Given a 180-day school year that would be at least 18 days missed
• Texas does not currently define chronic absenteeism
• Chronic absenteeism will negatively impact a student’s ability to learn and decreases the likelihood that he/she will graduate on-time
• Statewide chronic absenteeism averages at 12.48% but can vary dramatically by region
• Should amend Section 29.081(d), Education Code to include a definition of “chronic absenteeism” to mean a student who misses 10% of instructional days
• Add chronic absenteeism to the “at risk” category as a duplicated count
• Ensure reporting – Require that TEA report chronic absenteeism as an indicator

• Legislature should fully fund educational components of HB3
• Need to ensure early education allotment supports children in pre-k, including young English learners
• Need to update high-quality prekindergarten standards required in HB 3 to include a maximum class size of 22 students and a student-teacher ratio of no more than 11:1
• Need to protect and increase state financial support for bilingual education/ESL programs in schools through per-pupil funding
• Should leverage existing and future federal COVID-19 relief funds to support student mental health and supportive school climate strategies
• Should TEA with funding to dedicate additional staff to coordinate and administer agency activities related to student mental health
• Need to increase the capacity of ESCs to assist districts in implementing effective school mental health practices
• Recommends dedicate a portion of the Safe and Supportive School Allotment to support mental health
• Should establish a school mental health matching grant program and increase access to school-based mental health services
• Should establish a state center for enhanced technical assistance on school mental health