LEGISLATION HIGHLIGHTS

HOUSE COMMITTEE ASSIGNMENTS

On Thursday, the Speaker of the House announced committee assignments for the 89th Session. You can also review the committee assignments by member of the House here. Now that committee assignments have been announced, the pace of the legislative process in the House will accelerate. The members of the House Public Education Committee are:

• Brad Buckley (R), Chair
• Diego Bernal (D), Vice Chair
• Alma Allen (D)
• John Bryant (D)
• Charles Cunningham (R)
• Gina Hinojosa (D)
• Alan Schoolcraft (R)
• Trent Ashby (R)
• Harold Dutton (D)
• James Frank (R)
• Todd Hunter (R)
• Helen Kerwin (R)
• Jeff Leach (R)
• Terri Leo Wilson (R)
• James Talarico (D)

Additionally, the House Rules set up new permanent standing subcommittees including one on the Public Education Committee: The Subcommittee on Academic and Career-Oriented Education. The members of the subcommittee are:

• Trent Ashby (R), Chair
• James Talarico (D), Vice Chair
• Harold Dutton (D)
• Todd Hunter (R)
• Alan Schoolcraft (R)

PROPERTY TAX RELIEF

SB 4 and the related constitutional amendment, SJR 2, which were just filed last Friday passed out of the Senate unanimously on Thursday. This bill raises the homestead exemption for school district property taxes to $140,000 from $100,000 and to $150,000 for disabled individuals and those aged 65 or older. The bill also holds school districts harmless by providing that additional state aid will be provided to ensure that school districts do not lose funding as a result of the increase in the homestead exemption.

OTHER LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR PRIORITIES

Three additional bills related to Lieutenant Governor’s priorities related to education have been filed:

• SB 10 requires public schools to display a copy of the ten commandments in every classroom, if the posters, or funds for the purchase of posters, are donated to the school. The bill also allows, but does not require, public schools to purchase posters to display the ten commandments with district funds.
• SB 11 requires the board of trustees of a school district or charter schools to take a record vote on a policy to designate a period of prayer and reading the bible or other religious text at every campus. The bill requires that policy to include the following:
  • Only employees who have provided written consent or students whose parents have provided written consent may participate
  • The designated time may not substitute for instructional time and may be before school
  • The prayer and reading of the bible or other religious text may not occur over the public address system
• SB 13 addresses public school libraries creating school library advisory councils and requiring board approval of library book purchases. Review a detailed summary of SB 13 here.

BY

THE
NUMBERS

• 4,044 total bills filed

• 774 public education bills filed

• 97 bills related to property tax

• 82 bills related to school district governance

• 64 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.

CAPITOL "TEA"

The Senate Finance Committee is meeting just about every day at this point to consider different parts of the 1,083 page budget bill, SB 1, in hearings that run anywhere from three hours to ten hours straight. On Monday they considered general appropriations for Article III, Public Education. Committee hearings in both the Senate and House always begin with “invited testimony”, a list of speakers invited by the committee chair to provide information related to the bill or topic being considered. Most of the invited testimony on Article III came from the Commissioner of Education. Some key comments made by the Commissioner include his emphasis on the increase in uncertified teachers, which impacts certification fees collected by the TEA, and the need for an increase in the basic allotment to address inflation.

During the invited testimony, Senator Creighton asked the Legislative Budget Board, also invited, and the Commissioner to reconcile the different numbers that have been provided regarding public school funding. Later, the Commissioner explained that their reported per student funding number of more than $15,000 includes funding that cannot be used for operations. Finally, several Senators described concerns about Special Education funding and emphasized the need for increased Special Education funding, and Senator Bettencourt referenced SB 568 filed by him to adjust the structure of Special Education funding.

PLANO ISD ACTION

During the Senate Finance Committee hearing on the budget, several school districts testified regarding the need to increase the basic allotment to address inflation for schools. The testimony also included information compiled by Plano ISD staff related to administrative costs in school districts:

Total Operations Expenditures

• TEA’s financial accountability system shows that 79% of districts received the highest possible rating regarding their ratio of administrative costs to instructional costs
• Over 91% of school district operations expenditures are in areas directly related to students
• School districts spend just 3.32% of their total operations budgets on all administrative costs, including pay and non-pay expenditures

Payroll Expenditures

• Just 2.7% of school district payroll budgets were spent on central administrators, down since 2020
• Schools districts spend nearly 3 times as much on teacher pay as on the next largest category of pay: paras and auxiliary staff
• Only 1.93% of new money received from the legislature since 2019 has been spent on central administrator pay
• 81% of new money since 2019 has been spent on non-administrator pay

The Fund Schools First website has also been updated to include resources for school districts to use to calculate and communicate the impact of a basic allotment increase on their district. More resources are coming. Check it out here!

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