CAPITOL "TEA"

The 89th Legislative Session officially began on Tuesday, January 14 at 12:00 PM. During his speech in the Senate, Governor Abbott expressed his desire to avoid special sessions this year, and his priority of passing a voucher/ESA plan this year. Lieutenant Governor Patrick later pointed out that the Senate has passed a voucher/ESA bill five times and stated that they would do so again.

In the House, Dustin Burrows of Lubbock was elected Speaker of the House. In his remarks, Speaker Burrows highlighted supporting public schools as one of his top priorities. The Lieutenant Governor, while stating that he plans to work with Speaker Burrows this session, continues to criticize his election.

On Wednesday, Speaker Burrows announced his first senior staff hires, including Former Senator Robert Duncan as his Chief of Staff. Senator Duncan is widely respected and previously enjoyed a positive and productive working relationship with Lieutenant Governor Patrick.

PLANO ISD ACTION

Over the past several weeks, trustees and district staff have met with members of the Plano ISD legislative delegation to share the Board-adopted legislative priorities for the 89th Legislative Session. In these meetings, trustees and staff emphasized the importance of working collaboratively with lawmakers to ensure Plano ISD has the resources it needs to serve all its students and the availability of the district as a resource to lawmakers during the session.

Additionally, for the past several months, staff in Dallas ISD, Frisco ISD, and Plano ISD have been working together with the North Texas Commission to develop and launch a coordinated initiative regarding school funding. Fund Schools First is designed to provide consistent and accurate information about school funding to education leaders, lawmakers, parents, business leaders, and communities across the state.

BY

THE
NUMBERS

• 2,638 total bills filed
• 555 public education bills filed
• 66 bills related to property tax
• 59 bills related to school governance
• 44 bills related to school finance

Bills are prioritized based on the expected impact to the district or the level of public attention garnered by the bill, not based on the preferences of the district. High priority bills are either a state leadership priority, related to a Plano ISD legislative priority, would require significant resources to implement a change in district policy, practice, or procedures, or would otherwise significantly impact the district.

LEGISLATION HIGHLIGHTS

STATE LEADERSHIP PRIORITY BILLS

As is usual for this point in the session, none of the state leadership priority bills have yet been filed in either chamber. However, the state budget will be Senate Bill 1 and Lieutenant Governor Patrick has indicated that the Senate's voucher/ESA bill will be filed as Senate Bill 2. As Speaker Burrows was just elected, it may take some time before his priority bills are filed.

NOTABLE FILED LEGISLATION

• SB 260 would double the school safety allotment. This bill was filed by Senator Joan Huffman, Chair of the Senate Finance Committee meaning it is likely to receive a hearing and move through the process.
• SB 568 would restructure the Special Education allotment to be based on the intensity of services provided, rather than the current structure of being based on instructional arrangement. The bill would have the Commissioner set the weights for each tier of services for the first biennium and the provide recommendations to the legislature to set the weights in the budget in each future biennium.
• SB 806 would require school districts to consider enrolling a student in a virtual education program prior to expelling the student, except if the expulsion is for certain conduct.
• HB 515 would require school districts to ban student cell phones in schools and would also require districts to use a lockable storage device to hold student cell phones.

THE SPEAKER'S RACE

For the first time in many years, the outcome of the vote for Speaker of the House was uncertain going in to opening day. Three candidates ran: Republicans Dustin Burrows and David Cook, and Democrat Ana-María Rodríguez Ramos. 76 votes are required to be elected speaker. On the first ballot, Burrows received 71 votes, Cook received 56 and Rodríguez Ramos received 23. In accordance with the rules for the election, a runoff was immediately be held between the top two vote-getters. On the second ballot, Burrows received 85 votes (36 Rs, 49 Ds), Cook received 55 votes (52 Rs, 3 Ds), 9 members chose not to vote and 1 member was marked absent.

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