The Senate Committee on Education interim report to the 88th Legislature covers the COVID-19 pandemic impact on educator talent pipeline, bond efficiency, and homestead exemptions. For more information see the full report here.
Spotlight on Recommendations
Charge 1 – COVID-19 Pandemic Impact on Educator Talent Pipeline
- Consider expanding existing financial aid opportunities and support for teacher candidates in effective and rigorous alternative certification programs.
- Increase opportunities for districts and charters to adopt innovative, strategic staffing models such as Teacher Incentive Allotment (TIA) through multiple mechanisms including but not limited to TIA technical assistance grants, residency training models and innovative teacher training models specifically to support teacher wage growth.
- Develop state support for local school leadership related to aligned high-quality instructional and ancillary teaching materials for classroom teachers.
Charge 2 – Bond Efficiency
- Consider expanding the Texas Bond Review Board’s ability to collect unreported school district bond result data.
- Continue to contemplate the mandatory “THIS IS A PROPERTY TAX INCREASE” school bond ballot proposition language and all the implications involved for school districts and voters.
Charge 3 – Homestead Exemption
- Recognize efforts by school districts to provide additional, optional tax relief to taxpayers such as but not limited to school finance formula or property value adjustments.
- Consider creating a local optional homestead exemption allotment for school districts extending the optional exemption to their communities. Reimbursing any portion of lost revenue from offering the optional exemption would incentivize more districts to extend this benefit and drive down property taxes.
Charge 4 – Monitoring, including House Bill 3 (86th Legislature), Relating to public school finance and public education; House Bill 1525 (87th Legislature), Relating to the public school finance system and public education; and House Bill 4545 (87th Legislature), Relating to the assessment of public school students, the establishment of a strong foundations grant program, and providing accelerated instruction for students who fail to achieve satisfactory performance on certain assessment instruments.
- Provide resources to increase technical assistance available to school districts to integrate teacher training and accelerated learning initiatives into district master calendars to allow more accommodating scheduling.
- Examine the various eligibility restrictions for rehiring retired teachers including impacts to pension benefits and providing school districts incentives to rehire, in certain circumstances, retired teachers for a limited period.
- Restructure high-quality tutoring programs for struggling students that ease regulatory compliance while ensuring students’ needs are met and receive full-range of appropriate supports to accelerate learning.