On Thursday, legislators in the Texas House discussed their version of the state budget deep into the night. Hundreds of amendments were proposed, but fewer were actually voted upon, let alone debated. Unfortunately, budget writers affiliated with House leadership made a deal early on to stifle debate on important amendments that would have all but eliminated STAAR testing, stripped the school voucher scam out of the budget, and pushed critically needed dollars into the basic allotment for public schools.
On X, formerly known as Twitter, Houston Chronicle reporter Ed McKinley shed light on the issue:
We applaud the work of legislators like Reps. John Bryant, Vikki Goodwin, Diego Bernal, and Gina Hinojosa on their amendments that would have added money to the basic allotment, protected retirees, made meaningful investments into the teacher pipeline, and added much needed accountability and transparency measures into any Education Savings Account voucher scam.
Instead, the budget includes the following for education:
- $7.6 billion in increased funding for public schools, less than half of what was needed to make up for inflation since 2019
- $1 billion for a proposed private school voucher program
- $400 million in additional funding for school safety
- $500 million for new math and literacy programs and academies
Recent claims by Texas elected officials that public education funding has reached an all-time high overlook critical factors impacting our schools, a new report last week from The Texas Tribune confirms. The independent report aligns with data from our own report, The Lost Decade, and should serve as a reminder that while some state leaders may say school districts receive over $15,000 per student in state funding, they omit that this figure includes temporary federal pandemic relief funds that have largely expired (and that the figure doesn’t account for inflation).
Republicans and Democrats alike may trumpet the billions in school funding in the budget passed last night, but the figures are woefully inadequate for the challenges facing public schools and exacerbated by uncertain economic conditions emanating from Washington.
Thankfully, we know who the culprit is behind this dramatic failure to adequately fund schools: Gov. Greg Abbott. As Rep. Mihaela Plesa writes in the Dallas Morning News:
“This isn’t a natural disaster. This isn’t an act of God. This is Greg Abbott’s school closure crisis — manufactured, deliberate and devastating for parents and students across the state of Texas. For five straight years, Abbott has held funding for D-FW schools hostage. During that time, inflation has skyrocketed, costs have soared and Abbott has left our schools to drown.”
Union members who want to make their voices heard on Abbott’s school funding crisis have another chance this coming week as the Texas House appears likely to take up House Bill 2, that chamber’s preferred school finance bill.
While the overall funding numbers may be set in the budget, there is still room to move those funds around in individual bills and change what they are prioritizing. For example, as it stands, HB 2 triples the amount of facilities funding that privately run charter schools receive, even as public school facilities funding has declined drastically over the past decade. That is funding that can and should be reallocated.
We hope for the sake of Texans everywhere that there is more robust debate on the challenges facing students and educators. As we reported last week, the latest version of HB 2 strikes librarians, counselors, and nurses from the list of employees who are entitled to a raise when the basic allotment is increased. The bill does still include the pay-for-performance Teacher Incentive Allotment (TIA) as the mechanism to provide teacher raises, which means raises would be linked to test scores, not all teachers would be eligible to receive it, and these raises would come at the end of the school year.
Use our digital action to send your legislators a message that we need more funding to truly thrive.
House Public Education, Higher Education Committees Hear Educator’s Bill of Rights Bills
We’re so thankful to legislators like Rep. Venton Jones in Dallas for taking up the cause of school librarians, counselors, nurses, cafeteria workers, and custodians – the school employees who keep school children fed and well, buildings clean and safe, and books available to feed students’ minds. Jones laid out HB 1368 this week in committee and found some support from Alliance/AFT President Rena Honea, who testified in favor of his bill:
“There are some things that parents simply assume about their child’s education. They assume that their child’s school will have a cafeteria serving fresh meals. They assume that there will be transportation to get their child safely to and from school. And they assume that if their child needs medical attention, that there will be a nurse available to provide it. Unfortunately, that is too often not the case on Texas public school campuses. Not only are districts not required by the state of Texas to have a full-time registered nurse on each campus, but under current law, they are not even required to tell parents if they lack such essential staffing.”
Honea also testified on House Bill 2234 by Rep. Tom Oliverson:
“While, in theory, I am supportive of HB 2234’s proposed Texas Commission on Teacher Job Satisfaction and Retention, I object to a 13-member commission on teachers’ working conditions that does not require any of its members to work as an actual Texas teacher … It is insulting that, once again, the state of Texas is proposing ‘solutions’ to a problem it has created without listening to the very people who are suffering from its actions.”
We’re appreciative that Oliverson has since offered a committee substitute for his bill to include teachers as part of the commission. Over the past three years, Texas AFT has surveyed teachers and school employees, conducted focus groups, and produced multiple reports on the topic of educators’ working conditions, students’ learning conditions, and cost-effective solutions for our schools.
We have taken all this teacher and school employee feedback and combined it into a true Educator’s Bill of Rights. More than 70 bills have been filed to support these rights, and we hope the House Public Education Committee continues to take up and move forward these important bills, with HB 1368 among them.
Two bills were voted out of the House Public Education Committee:
- HB 123 by Rep. Harold Dutton is intended to address literacy gaps for young students. It creates literacy and math academies that teachers would have to complete. While the bill requires teachers to be given a stipend for the additional hours of work outside of their workday, the memory of reading academies has us questioning whether these stipends will be commensurate with the additional work required.
- HB 2249 by Rep. Diego Bernal would create the Texas Teacher Recruitment Scholarship, providing four years of tuition funding for students seeking teacher certification in exchange for a teaching commitment of five years.
Meanwhile, in the House Higher Education Committee on Tuesday, lawmakers heard HB 3326 by Rep. Alma Allen, which would extend eligibility to Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) to adjunct faculty. This would be a huge victory for many of our higher education members, even with the federal uncertainty surrounding student loan repayment.
HB3/SB2 – the School Voucher scam – May Soon Get a House Floor Vote
The next fight against this giveaway for the wealthy comes as it makes its way to the House floor. We expect a vote on this bill could come as early as Wednesday. If you have not contacted your state representative, now is the time.
HB 3/SB 2 sets aside $1 billion in taxpayer money for a private school voucher program open to all Texans – even Elon Musk’s kids could get this money.
Do you know what $1 billion could do for Texas public schools? With the money earmarked for a voucher that only the governor seems to want, we could increase public school funding by almost $100 per student. This voucher scam also threatens to destabilize educator pensions by reducing the number of active educators contributing to the Teacher Retirement System.
- Email your representative: Tell them to fund public schools & reject vouchers
- Call your representative: Let’s jam the phone lines for public schools
- Spread the message: Share information on your social media accounts
Senate Education Committee Hears Bills About Employee Misconduct
The Senate Education K-16 Committee meeting this week was a bit of a bruiser as the members considered several bills related to the reporting of school employee misconduct.
- SB 1224 by Sen. Kevin Sparks concerns the reporting of alleged romantic, sexual, or abusive conduct between staff and students. The legislation would require superintendents to promptly report such allegations to municipal or county law enforcement rather than rely solely on internal investigations.
- SB 1832 by Sen. Tan Parker would allow families of victimized students to transfer their child — whether to another public school, a private school, or even a homeschool — and have the public funding follow the child (read voucher).
- SB 2392 by Sen. Phil King would shorten the timeframe for school principals and superintendents to report any educator or employee misconduct, including sexual offenses, to both district and municipal law enforcement; would impose fines and other penalties for failure to report.
To be explicit, Texas AFT does not tolerate or condone abuse or exploitation of a student in any way or any circumstance. However, it can be difficult to write policy that centers students without also creating the unintended consequence of interfering with due process and confidentiality for all involved in these situations. We look forward to working with the bill authors to tighten the language to ensure that students, their families, and district employees are protected. Though we are often at odds with those representing private schools, we appreciate testimony from advocates seeking parity in these policies for both private and public schools.