On May 24th the Senate passed out HB 100 which included ESA/voucher language and the House passed SB 9 to third reading. Below is a HillCo Report spotlighting the floor discussion on both bills.
*SB 9 (Creighton / et al. SP: Dutton) Relating to the rights and certification of public school educators, including financial and other assistance and waivers provided to public schools by the Texas Education Agency related to public school educators, methods of instruction provided in public schools, and certain allotments under the Foundation School Program.
- Dutton – HB 11 went to the Senate, Senate didn’t do anything with it, but sent SB 9 back which has HB 11 in it
- Dutton – Senate needs to recognize that this has been a bicameral legislature since; if Senate won’t respect us, they need to expect us
- Will have some amendments & would like to hear from the members on those
- Talarico highlights teacher shortage, teacher quality is the largest influence on school success
- Dutton – Agrees, in HB 11 we were trying to shore up teaching supplies; Senate had objections to it, but then voted out SB 9 with HB 11 in it
- Talarico – Low pay is one of the biggest reasons for teachers leaving the profession, does this bill raise teacher pay?
- Dutton – That was in HB 100, we separated those ideas
- Senate tried to put all the education ideas into one bill, including ESAs, telling us we have to take it or leave it
- Talarico – About the Teacher Incentive Allotment from HB 3 in 2019, which rewarded teachers; is it true that just 14% of ISDs are participating?
- Dutton – True, which is why we gave money to TEA to address needs of ISDs who were trying to get there; expected a twofold increase in ISDs participating in TIA
- Talarico – Just 4% of teachers drawing down salary increase in TIA
- Dutton – Also added 4th category to increase number affected by TIA
- Talarico – Fiscal note budgets for 47 additional FTEs, can you talk about how TEA will help ISDs?
- Dutton – Spoke with Commissioner about helping districts, gave him the money to help increase number of ISDs who can access this
- Talarico – Unconscionable that Senate would hold teacher pay raises hostage
- FA 1 Burns – Clean up for HB 750, HB 1662* from this session
- FA 1 adopted
- FA 2 M Gonzalez – Guardrail amendment that was put on another bill, putting this on as belts & suspenders
- FA 2 adopted
- FA 3 Dean – Preserves teachers who became board certified between Jan 2021 and Sept 2023
- FA 3 adopted
- FA 4 TMF – Add $1k in basic allotment in year 2 of budget when federal funds run out
- TMF – Every time bill comes out of Senate, Senate always substitute our ideas with ideas that don’t make a lot of sense
- Hinojosa – You’re increasing basic allotment to increase amount of teacher pay raise?
- TMF – Correct, basic allotment is the funding source for Edu, percentage goes to salaries
- Hinojosa – Taking opportunity with surplus to address teacher pay?
- TMF – True, haven’t done this since 2019, inflation will make paychecks smaller
- Hinojosa – Bill has certain requirements for teachers to get raise, but this is for all teachers?
- TMF – Correct, will kick in in year 2 of budget after federal funds run out
- FA 4 adopted
- FA 5 Bernal – Increases Comp Ed weight by .005
- Bernal – Haven’t touched the Comp Ed weight in some time
- Ramos – Relates to students with disabilities?
- Bernal – No, has to do with students based on where they live, neighborhoods, etc. Deals with poverty; need to adjust weight, though this doesn’t do enough; something we did earlier in the session & wanted to put it in this bill
- FA 5 adopted
- FA 6 Talarico – Adding Fine Arts allotment, from HB 100
- FA 6 adopted
- FA 7 Allison – HB 4358*, micro-credentialing for teaching in virtual learning
- Allison – Senate has held this captive
- FA 7 adopted
- FA 8 Allen – Minimum wage for school bus drivers
- Ramos and Allen discuss school bus driver wages
- FA 8 adopted (100-37)
- FA 9 Guerra – Limited retakes on bilingual proficiency test
- FA 9 adopted
- FA 10 K Bell – Codifies grievances process
- FA 10 adopted
- Passed to third reading (116-24)
*HB 100 (King/Creighton) Relating to the compensation of public school educators and to the public school finance system, including enrollment-based funding for certain allotments under the Foundation School Program
- HB 1605 and HB 1 committed over $800 million in rigorous appropriate instructional materials, will be time saving tool for teachers
- $600 million in TRS active care
- Bills committed even more funding in virtual and safety into public education
- $4 billion in public education above and beyond what he has mentioned
- A total of $9 billion new dollars will be invested in public education
- Some need to find freedom that meets their needs, some students stuck in failing schools
- Asking them to give Texas families an option
- Large bill that has components of other legislation already passed off the floor like Teacher bill of rights, teacher residency, waivers for certain educator’s certification, Art II and Art III of SB 8 is included as well for ESA which includes eligibility for public and private school students
- $8k account for ESA, almost 6 million students in Texas
- Comptroller will audit ESA accounts
- “Bold effort” to support education for all students and families
- West – asked about components of bills passed by senate that are in this bill
- SB 8, SB 9 and components of HB 100
- Menendez – fine arts allotment, fine arts sometimes first things to go in schools and wants to know why was that removed?
- Others had legislation to address but as decisions were made on school finance focusing on teachers rights and pay and parental rights, focused on increasing BA and golden penny that provides almost $2.5 billion alone
- Menendez – new committee sub provides additional funding for charters so increase funding of choice by providing additional funds for charters, vouchers were also added in sub
- Will definitely need to conference on this item
- Menendez – wouldn’t investing in charter schools already meet choice given there are magnets outside and inside schools and charter schools
- Menendez – $8k going to voucher/ESA?
- Yes, added a penny at $2.4 billion and increase in allotment, TRS active care and safety added
- Menendez – ½ billion set aside for voucher is money we could use for school safety, clear to him would only meet about 30% of annual expenses on safety and was told not enough money to fund it but this bill sets aside ½ billion
- Menendez – if have 3 kids could get up to $24k, but not sure average homeowner pays that in taxes, is it fair if not fully funding public school
- Not sure of strategy to fully fund public school
- State is approaching 50% when just a few years ago in 36%
- New money in public schools is $9 billion, reaching historic levels
- If put entire state budget into public education, not sure that would fully fund
- Menendez – have 5.4 million students in public education (mentioned the budget is bigger than many states but of course it is going to being large), believes some of that $9 billion going into compression
- Menendez – not raising BA to match inflation, but taking ESA to do what?!?!
- Menendez – there are enough seats in private schools and not enough money, do we just abandon public schools?
- Talking about lifting up both, it is not either or
- Would be 31st state to expand into these categories, parents deserve it and trust them
- Menendez – why are private school kids worth $8k but public school kids just around $6k
- Don’t mention other funding strategies
- State avg $10k according to RYHT (Raise Your Hand Texas)
- Menendez – $8k may not be enough and private school doesn’t have to take every child
- Thinks bill is structured in a measurable way, think students may move from out of public school for a myriad number of reasons, trends will be reported to TEA
- Menendez – offended by legislation that takes ½ billion from taxpayers to maybe access something others were already accessing, sounds like it may just become a discount
- West – raises a point of order, violates constitutional rules no bill shall contain more than one subject
- Author said the bill contained several different subject matters
- POO overruled
- FA #1 Creighton – ensure funds stay with student when transfer happens
- FA #1 Adopted
- FA #2 Creighton – strikes provision of bill that would only have helped one district, need to help struggling districts across Texas
- FA #2 Adopted
- FA #3 Hughes – FMLA leave, teacher can take unpaid leave and use personal time later
- FA #3 Adopted
- FA #4 Nichols – 4 day school week, population scale
- FA #4 Adopted
- FA #5 Creighton – formula transition grants, since HB 3 with cost of inflation districts facing a fiscal cliff, extension for formula transition grants to plan for loss of funding
- FA #5 Adopted
- FA #6 Creighton – fixes drafting error for salary transition allotment, addresses minimum salary schedule
- FA #6 Adopted
- FA #7 Creighton – ensure SBOE retains oversight of certification rulemaking process
- FA #7 Adopted
- FA #8 Perry – PEIMS going to principal be removed as current statute today
- FA #8 Adopted
- FA #9 Johnson – incorporates *bill for PTECH funding
- FA #9 Adopted
- FA #10 Johnson – strikes out ESA provision
- FA #10 fails (12-19)
- FA #11 Creighton – changes requested by Comptroller, tutors in ESA to be held to certain background check, mechanisms to help Comptroller to protect against fraud
- FA #11 Adopted
- FA #12 Creighton – expands provision on educational records under Military Compact upon discharge and duty up to 4 years instead of 1 year
- FA #12 Adopted
- FA #13 Creighton – military & JROTC
- FA #13 Adopted
- FA #14 Middleton – BA retitled “initial allotment”
- FA #14 Adopted
- FA #15 Hughes – each regional center establishes preparation program for needs and look at workforce shortage
- FA #15 Adopted
- FA #16 Hughes – gives employees more options in health insurance options
- FA #16 Adopted
- Passed to engrossment (18-13)
- Finally passed (18-13)
These reports are intended to give you an overview and highlight the various topics taken up. It is not a verbatim transcript of the discussions but is based upon what was audible or understandable to the observer.