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Apr 22, 202332 min read

Schools, Students, and Education, 88th TX Legislative Session

Updated: Oct 12, 2023

Summary: "School Choice" is once again a battle ground in the 88th Texas Legislature, (and even in The Community News). There is plenty of puerile finger pointing and name calling, (aka politics) but you have to read widely and deeply to get to the facts. / State civics is an integral part of Willow Park civics and of Willow Park Civics. Willow Park Civics is providing a blog of articles on specific legislative topics, during the 88th Texas Legislative Session. We will update and repost this blog as new information develops about SCHOOLS / EDUCATION legislation.

Latest Update: Tuesday, 10 October, 2023; Friday, 21 April, 2023; originally published 25 January 2023

Select #Tags for additional articles: #PropertyTax, #StateLegislation



 

Students, Schools and Education in the 88th Texas Legislative Session

Editorial Note: Since the overwhelming part of personal property tax is levied by public school districts, Property Tax Reduction is also a part of the legislative discussions about Texas schools and education.




School Choice News in the 88th Texas Legislature


• Classical Charter Growth Hints at School Choice Support, The Dallas Express, 16 July 2023



• Majority of Texans Support School Choice, The Dallas Express, 29 June 2023













• Abbott Endorses Universal School Choice Through Education Savings Accounts, Texas Scorecard, 02 January 2023, Excerpt. “Parents deserve the freedom to choose the education that is best for their child.”



Other School News in the 88th Texas Legislature


• Armed School Guard Law Kicks in This Fall, The Dallas Express, 19 July 2023




• SBOE Workshops New Sweeping Education Law, The Dallas Express, 23 June 2023



• Signs Ban On DEI Into Law, Texas Scorecard, 19 June 2023, Excerpts. The restrictions do not apply to academic instruction, student organizations, student admissions, guest speakers, or research.



• Gov. Abbott signs parental rights, education bills into law, The Center Square, 12 June 2023





















Week ending Friday, 21 April, 2023











 

Week ending Friday, 07 April, 2023

Left to right: Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (The Texan/Daniel Friend) and House Speaker Dade Phelan (The Texan/Brad Johnson)

• After House vote signaling opposition to school choice, Gov. Greg Abbott says the fight isn’t over, The Texas Tribune, 07 April 2023, Excerpt. The House voted 86-52 on Thursday to amend the budget to ban state funding for “school vouchers or other similar programs.” Abbott has spent the past two months touring the state to build support for the proposal, spending tremendous political capital on trying to break through the rural Republican opposition to it.


• Breakdown of the School Choice Vote in the Texas House, The Texan, 07 April 2023, Excerpts. Rep. Abel Herrero’s (D-Robstown) amendment to prohibit state dollars from going to school choice programs passed by a vote of 86 to 52.

24 Republicans Who Voted for the Herrero Amendment: 24 Republicans Who Voted for the Herrero Amendment:


Steve Allison (R-San Antonio) Trent Ashby (R-Lufkin) Ernest Bailes (R-Shepherd) Keith Bell (R-Forney) DeWayne Burns (R-Cleburne) Travis Clardy (R-Nacogdoches) Drew Darby (R-San Angelo) Jay Dean (R-Longview) Charlie Geren (R-Fort Worth) Justin Holland (R-Rockwall) Kyle Kacal (R-College Station) Ken King (R-Canadian) John Kuempel (R-Seguin) Stan Lambert (R-Abilene) Brooks Landgraf (R-Odessa) Andy Murr (R-Junction) Angelina Orr (R-Hillsboro) Four Price (R-Amarillo) John Raney (R-Bryan) Glenn Rogers (R-Graford [Represents Texas State House District 60, which includes Willow Park.]Hugh Shine (R-Temple) Reggie Smith (R-Van Alstyne) David Spiller (R-Jacksboro) Gary VanDeaver (R-New Boston)


• Texas Senate Approves School Choice, Texas Scorecard, 06 April 2023






• Pax­ton Says School Choice Legal in Texas, Attorney General of Texas, 20 March 2023


updated 05 April 2023




 

Week ending Friday, 17 March, 2023





• Editorial: The time is now for parent empowerment, The Community News, 14 March 2023, Excerpts. Therefore, I strong support Educational Savings Accounts (ESA) and reject the notion that ESAs will negatively impact the financial health of our strong public schools. Here is some data to support my conclusion.


In 2019, Texas legislators made a promise—and kept it. They pledged to fully fund Texas public schools, while at the same time delivering on our conservative agenda that has made Texas the “best state for business” for 18 years running.


The education budget allocated $11.6 billion for the biennium (2020 and 2021) on top of the previous budget, including $6.5 billion in new dollars—funding for teacher raises and all-day pre-k among other items. Base per-pupil funding from the state was raised from $5,140 to $6,160, an increase of 20%.


Lawmakers added merit pay and bonuses for outstanding teachers, and funding for districts that have trouble recruiting teachers, such as inner-city schools and rural districts. They even cut school property taxes by $5.1 billion.


It’s time for the next step in educational reform. We can ensure that Texas public schools are fully funded, while at the same time we can put parents in charge of their children’s educations.




The Texas Senate’s much-anticipated blueprint for school choice reform was filed Friday. It allots $8,000 for students moving from public schools to private schools and includes a “hold harmless” provision for rural school districts concerned about the program’s financial impact.


State Sen. Brandon Creighton (R-Conroe) introduced two bills on the bill filing deadline dealing with education, the first of which has been the subject of much debate in the Texas Legislature. Senate Bill (SB) 8 [Legiscan]is a dual “parental bill of rights” and a conduit for school choice by way of education savings accounts (ESA), the endorsed method by Gov. Greg Abbott.


This proposal grants $8,000 for each student per year, to be distributed quarterly. Students will be eligible for the program if they are currently enrolled in a public school, attended a public school for 90 percent of the previous year, or are entering Pre-K. Private and homeschool students will not be eligible.


• Multiple School Safety Bills Filed in Texas Senate to Fulfill Legislative Priority, The Texan, 09 March 2023, Excerpts. Sen. Paul Bettencourt (R-Houston) announced the filing of his “safety six” legislation, six different bills relating to school safety.


  • One of the main reforms offered in Bettencourt’s slate, Senate Bill (SB) 1630 [Legiscan], creates a mandatory procedure for handling truancy cases, specifically setting notification requirements and providing for a school attendance officer to perform home visits and inspect living conditions.

  • Another bill, SB 1631 [Legiscan?], establishes a grant program that provides $3,000 to every school campus to help fund school marshals and guardian programs.

  • Sen. Robert Nichols (R-Jacksonville) has filed SB 11 [Legiscan], which provides a lengthy variety of safety-related reforms such as creating a school safety resource committee provided through regional educational centers, requiring the Texas Education Agency to monitor campus security and safety requirements, and ensuring disciplinary records follow students to new schools.

  • One other school security option being offered is SB 147 [Legiscan?] by Sen. Drew Springer (R-Muenster), which would allow school districts and charter schools in counties with less than 150,000 people to bring in retired police officers and veterans as volunteer school security, with approval from the school board and after completing a background check.


• Lawmaker Seeks to Block School Districts from Paying Groups that Employ Lobbyists, Texas Scorecard, 10 March 2023, Excerpts. House Bill 3559 [Legiscan], filed by Brian Harrison (R-Midlothian) and joint authored by Terri Leo-Wilson (R-Galveston), stipulates that a school district “may not contract with or distribute public funds to a nonprofit association or organization that employs an individual required to register as a lobbyist.” This prohibition applies to payments for any kind of training, insurance product, or professional service.


• Legislation to Protect Women’s Sports Gets Hearing in Texas Senate, Texas Scorecard, 14 March 2023, Excerpts. State Sen. Mayes Middleton (R–Wallisville) filed Senate Bill 15 [Legiscan], which requires athletes competing in intercollegiate athletics to compete on the team corresponding to the athlete’s biological sex, as stated on the student’s birth certificate. Middleton said students should be required to compete “based on their God-given biological gender.” SB 15 is one of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s priorities for the session and includes 17 original authors in addition to Middleton, all of whom are Republicans.


• Texas Senate’s priority bills on higher ed would end tenure, diversity policies, The Texas Tribune, 10 March 2023, Excerpts. A bill filed Friday in the Texas Senate would prohibit public colleges and universities from awarding tenure to professors hired after September, legislation that critics have said would make it extremely difficult for the state to recruit top faculty and negatively impact the reputation of its higher education institutions.


Creighton also filed a bill that would prohibit Texas’ higher education institutions from considering diversity, equity and inclusion when hiring new employees. The third bill, filed by Sen. Bryan Hughes, R-Mineola, would prohibit faculty members from teaching that any race, ethnicity, sex or political belief is "inherently superior to another."

 

Week ending Friday, 10 March, 2023

• Poll: Vast majority of Texas parents back education savings accounts, Houston Daily, 23 February 2023, Excerpts. Although Jenaya Garrett works as a public school teacher, she has witnessed problems and deficiencies in the Texas system that have prompted her to send her two school-age children to private schools within the Houston Independent School District (HISD). / “There is no way I would send my students, my sons, to the schools that I’ve taught at," she said. "The campuses would not be advantageous for them with the way they’re currently being run."


More than 30,000 students nationwide outside of Texas have used ESAs as of 2022, according to ExcelinEd data, and public support for education choice policies like ESAs is at an all-time high. For example, in a recent poll, 70% of Texans and 77% of parents of school-age children support ESAs.

• Texas Teachers Split on School Choice, Texas Scorecard, 03 March 2023, Excerpts. More than 41 percent of respondents want to “empower parents with school choice,” while 42 percent say “public school teachers know best how to educate kids.” Nearly 17 percent of respondents indicated they were uncertain of their views. Although “school choice” initiatives poll very high among Republican voters, efforts to implement them in Texas have been repeatedly blocked by a coalition of public school administrators, teacher unions, and school district vendors. School choice opponents like the Texas Association of School Boards have argued that such initiatives would drain money from public schools when countless parents inevitably withdraw their children, thereby implying that their opposition is rooted in maintaining public education’s near-monopoly status in Texas.


The Texas Senate on Friday unveiled its priority school safety bill that would create a safety and security department housed in the Texas Education Agency. And the legislation would give the education commissioner more direct power to compel school districts to establish safety protocols for active-shooter situations. Senate Bill 11 [Legiscan], filed by Sen. Robert Nichols, R-Jacksonville, additionally beefs up current truancy laws.


• Sexually Explicit’ Library Book Prohibition Makes House Priorities, Phelan Continues Slow Release of Full List, The Texan, 07 March 2023, Excerpts. The headliner of Tuesday’s release is state Rep. Jared Patterson’s (R-Frisco) House Bill (HB) 900, [Legiscan] dubbed the READER Act, which states, “A school district or open-enrollment charter school may not allow a student enrolled in the district or school to access sexually relevant materials in the catalog of a school library at the district or school unless the district or school first obtains written consent from the student’s parent or person standing in parental relation.”


• Texas schools have more teachers than ever, but reports of shortages continue, The Center Square, 03 March 2023, Excerpts. The number of public-school teachers in the state of Texas has increased for 10 consecutive years from 2011-12 to 2021-22. Yet the media has reported a teacher shortage crisis. Texas TV station KXAN reported Feb. 24 a story with the headline, "Texas governor's taskforce takes on teacher shortage crisis in new report." However, that report by the Teacher Vacancy Task Force released last month stated, "Texas is employing more teachers than ever before, with a total of roughly 370,000 teachers. In the 2021-22 school year alone, nearly 43,000 new teachers were hired across the state. The number of Texas teachers has continued to increase even as student enrollment has declined due to COVID." The number of teachers has increased 13.9% while student enrollment has increased 8.6% from 2011-12 to 2021-22. There were 370,431 teachers in 2021-22, up from 325,160 in 2011-12.


 

Week ending Friday, 03 March, 2023


• Plurality of Texas voters say they support school voucher-like program, The Texas Tribune, 02 March 2023, Excerpts. A new poll sheds light on how Texas voters feel about one of the most hotly debated proposals of the legislative session so far: letting parents use tax dollars to take their kids out of public schools.


The University of Texas at Austin survey, released Thursday, found 46% of voters supported the idea, while 41% opposed it. The 5-point margin was unchanged since the pollsters last asked the question in April 2022, but the political landscape has shifted significantly since then.


• Gov. Greg Abbott Holds Strategic Tour Stops in Campaign for School Choice, Texas Scorecard, 28 February 2023, Excerpts. After naming it one of his top priorities, Gov. Greg Abbott is touring the state to promote school choice, holding rallies in key areas to garner support from potential Republican holdouts in the Texas Legislature. / Deeming them “Parent Empowerment Nights,” Abbott has so far held three such events in Corpus Christi, Temple, and Corsicana, with more slated to be held in the coming weeks.


• Majority of Texas House Backs ‘Save Women’s Sports Act’ for Collegiate Athletics, The Texan, 01 March 2023, Excerpts. State Rep. Valoree Swanson (R-Spring) filed House Bill (HB) 23, [Legiscan] also known as the “Save Women’s Sports Act,” which garnered 77 co-authors, establishing majority support in the Texas House. The bill would see the prevention of biological males from participating in female-only athletic activities extended to the collegiate level.

• Texas Lawmakers Seek to Protect Women in Sports, Texas Scorecard, 01 March 2023


• Texas Lawmaker Files Bill to Allow Educators to Refuse CDC LGBT ‘Inclusivity Tool’, The Texan, 27 February 2023, Excerpts: The bill focuses on a self-assessment tool that asks users to become an "awesome ally," created by the CDC for use in Texas schools. Rep. Terri Leo-Wilson (R-Galveston) has introduced a bill that would give protections for Texas educators who refuse to participate in LGBT inclusion training from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).


House Bill (HB) 2659 [Legiscan]would take immediate effect if it receives a two-thirds vote. This bill aims to ensure that a school district or charter school “may not discipline, retaliate against, or otherwise discriminate against” any employee who refuses to complete the training. The “LGBTQ Inclusivity in Schools: A Self-Assessment Tool” is at the center of this bill, a tool created by the CDC


• Texas teachers need raises, more training and better working conditions to fix shortages, state task force finds, The Texas Tribune, 24 February 2023, Excepts. Nearly a year after Gov. Greg Abbott ordered a task force to look at the state’s teacher shortages, the group is recommending that lawmakers increase salaries, improve training and commit to respecting teachers’ time.

 

Week ending Friday, 24 February, 2023


• Gov. Greg Abbott promises to be “heavily involved” in push for education savings accounts, The Texas Tribune, 21 February 2022, Excerpts. Gov. Greg Abbott said Monday he will be “heavily involved” in the push for an education savings account program this legislative session as the idea continues to face an uphill battle in the Texas House.


Abbott, in an interview with The Texas Tribune, said he would be traveling the state to make the case directly to voters, particularly in rural areas. Such a program could redirect taxpayer money away from public schools as parents use that money to pay for their children’s private school, online schooling or private tutors. Similar proposals have typically met resistance from a coalition of Democrats and rural GOP lawmakers.


“Among Republican rural voters, about 80% support this,” Abbott said, “and I think that Republican officeholders will see that more and more, and I think there may be a change in the perception of what their voters expect of them in Austin, Texas.”


• What you need to know about education savings accounts, the voucher-like program championed by Gov. Greg Abbott, The Texas Tribune, 22 February 2023, Excerpts.Gov. Greg Abbott has made "school choice" one of his highest priorities this year, highlighting it in his State of the State address and throwing his weight behind education savings accounts, which would allow parents to opt out of their local school districts and receive state money to school their children directly.


“That will give all parents the ability to choose the best education option for their child,” he said during a parental rights event in Corpus Christi last month, where he announced his support for such a program. “The bottom line is this: This is really about freedom.”


Public education advocates and rural lawmakers have long opposed the voucher programs most often associated with "school choice,” saying they siphon funds away from public schools. But supporters of education savings accounts, which have spread across the country in the last decade, see them as their best way to harness conservative parents’ discontent with public schools and expand “school choice” in the state.


Under Senate Bill 176 [Legiscan] — authored by state Sen. Mayes Middleton, R-Galveston — participating families would receive the average amount of money it costs Texas public schools to educate each of their children, which is about $10,000 a year. The money would roll over on a year-to-year basis and could be used to help families pay for higher education. The funds for the program could come from both taxpayer money and donations.


• Investigation into Texas School Districts Reveals Educators ‘Get Around’ Critical Race Theory Ban, The Texan, 20 February 2023, Excerpt. Texas has made steps towards school choice, which have been echoed by the governor in recent weeks and has shown support among the public.

 

Week ending Friday, 17 February, 2023

• Child care operators rally for school choice, Weatherford Democrat, Herald Banner, 06 February 2023, Excerpts. Texas child care businesses have joined the school choice movement. / “We’re here today due to the unintended negative consequences of a series of well-intentioned but mistaken legislation,” said David Fincher, a learning center director in the Dallas area. “The Legislature has it within their power this session to save the failed child care market and deliver school-ready children to prekindergarten.” / “School choice would be a win for our children, a win for child care and a win for our state economy,” he added.


Over the past 30 years, Texas lawmakers have been trying to tackle the lagging education of early learners. / Surveys and studies have found that roughly half of Texas kindergartners are not school-ready when they enter the classroom.


To address this, lawmakers passed legislation in 2015 to create high-quality prekindergarten for eligible students. They boosted that again in 2019 by extending it to full-day prekindergarten. / Still, roughly half of Texas students don’t meet state standards.


Fincher said this is because Texas lawmakers have chosen to place the responsibility of lifting up early learners in the public school system rather than partnering with child care centers that have the skillset and proven record of preparing young learners for school.


• School Choice Activists Optimistic About New GOP House Public Education Committee Chair, The Texan, 08 February 2023, Excerpt. Rep. Brad Buckley (R-Killeen) was appointed chair of the House Public Education Committee on Wednesday, a move lauded by some pro-school choice activist groups.


Buckley, who first won election to the Texas House in 2018, said of his appointment, “I am thankful to Speaker Phelan for the trust he has placed in me to lead a committee that impacts the lives of 5.5 million Texas school children.”


“I look forward to working with members of the committee and my colleagues in the Texas House to craft policy to provide the best opportunities for Texas teachers, students, and their families.”


Last session, the committee was chaired by state Rep. Harold Dutton (D-Houston) and featured multiple notable policy fights — including the stalling out of school choice legislation in that committee.


• Texas senators seem open to major change in state’s public education funding formula, The Texas Tribune, 06 February 2023, Excerpt. Senators in the finance committee asked questions Monday about the pros and cons of basing the amount of money that schools get per student on enrollment instead of attendance. Districts say the change could mean millions in additional funding.


• Gov. Greg Abbott says he supports legislation banning transgender college athletes, The Texas Tribune, 12 February 2023, Excerpt. In 2021, Texas passed a law restricting transgender athletes’ participation in K-12 sports. Now there’s talk of extending those limits to colleges and universities.


• Patrick Lauds Teachers Pension ESG Divestment, The Texan, 17 February, 2023, Excerpts. In an email, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick boosted the Teachers Retirement System’s (TRS) start on removing its investments from the 10 companies named in the Comptroller of Public Accounts “fossil fuel divestors” list. The Teacher Retirement System of Texas has divested part of its massive pension fund from woke investment firms state leaders accused of ‘boycotting’ oil and gas companies,” Patrick wrote. “In 2021, Texas lawmakers prohibited the state from contracting with or investing in companies that divest from oil, natural gas and coal companies. The pension, worth about $173 billion, is the sixth-largest such pension fund in the country.”


• COVID exodus: Where did 1 million public school students go? New data sheds some light., 08 February 2023, Excerpts. When classes resumed in fall 2020, several months after COVID struck, enrollment in the nation’s public schools had plummeted by more than a million students. It was the largest single-year decline since World War II. And defying hopes of a rapid rebound, enrollment barely budged the following year.


There have been clues about where students went, such as the steep rise in homeschooling, but a full explanation of the public school exodus has been elusive. Now, a new analysis offers a more comprehensive accounting — though one of its most striking findings is that tens of thousands of students remain absent from the available data.


The data the team compiled point to two main drivers of the public school enrollment plunge: family choices and population changes. After public schools went remote, a portion of families switched their children to private schools or homeschool. At the same time, immigration slowed and many families fled big cities, causing the school-age population in some places to shrink.

 

Week ending Friday, 10 February, 2023

• Texas Legislature gears up to tackle long-standing and fresh issues in public education. Here’s what you need to know, The Texas Tribune, 02 February 2023, Excerpts. Lawmakers are looking at ways to keep teachers in the profession, make schools safer, give parents money for private schooling and censor conversations about sex and gender.


With the legislative session now underway, lawmakers will once again have the chance to tackle issues that have plagued Texas’ public schools since the COVID-19 pandemic hit three years ago, like school funding and teacher shortages.


And they have a historic $32.7 billion surplus to work with. Both the Senate and House’s budget proposals include money for school safety, and lawmakers from both sides of the aisle have expressed willingness to increase school funding for teacher raises.


But they’ll also address other issues that have dominated the discussion on public education recently, including how sexual orientation and gender identity are taught in schools, a renewed push to pass a “school choice” program and school safety in the aftermath of the mass shooting in Uvalde...


During his inauguration earlier this month, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick stated that he will be doubling down on his crusade against professors who teach critical race theory in classes, revoking them of their tenure.


• New Legislation Would Ban Critical Race Theory on Texas Public Universities, Texas Scorecard, 01 February 2023, Excerpts. Proposed legislation in Texas would prohibit universities and colleges from teaching critical race theory and remove their state funding if they violate the law.

House Bill 1607 [Legiscan]by State Rep. Cody Harris (R–Palestine) reads that no institution of higher education is allowed to instill beliefs or teach that “one race or sex is inherently superior to another race or sex” or that “an individual’s moral character, standing, or worth is necessarily determined by the individual’s race or sex.”

uring the 87th Legislative Session, State Rep. Steve Toth (R–The Woodlands) filed legislation that would prohibit any teacher, administrator, or other employees in any school district from teaching CRT concepts in classes. That bill was watered down in the Texas House, but it ultimately passed and was signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott.


• Texas Lawmaker Files ‘Save Women’s Sports Act’ To Exclude Males from Collegiate Women’s Sports, The Texan, 06 February 2023, Excerpts. Sen. Mayes Middleton (R-Wallisville) has filed a bill to expand the exclusion of biological men from competing in women’s sports and provide legal protections for women who speak out on the issue.


Middleton’s Senate Bill (SB) 649 [Legiscan]is titled the Save Women’s Sports Act. “I filed the Save Women’s Sports Act to protect the integrity of women’s sports,” said Middleton in a statement. “The bill makes sure women are not forced to compete against biological men, who steal victories and athletic records from females, and put women’s athletic scholarships unfairly at risk.”


Republicans in the Texas Legislature are on the side of national polling when it comes to opposing biological male student athletes from competing on women’s sports teams. A 2022 NPR/Ipsos poll found that 63 percent of American adults were opposed to the idea.


Along partisan lines, polling found 88 percent of Republicans and 63 percent of independents oppose allowing biological men to compete against women; Democrats were more divided, with 46 percent supporting it and 41 percent opposed.


• Former State Board of Education Member Files Legislation to Reform Public Education,Texas Scorecard, 07 February 2023, Excepts. A former member of the State Board of Education and freshman member of the Texas House, State Rep. Terri Leo-Wilson (R– Galveston) has filed three new bills that she says will empower the citizen-elected State Board of Education to tamp down against radical ideology in schools.


House Bill 1804 [Legiscan]would create new criteria for the instructional materials that would be approved by the SBOE each year.


House Bill 1822 [Legiscan] would give the SBOE the authority to review any advanced placement course offered in the state, also requiring AP courses to be compliant with the state law and the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills adopted by the board.


Meanwhile, House Bill 1837 [Legiscan] would give the SBOE members the opportunity to appoint expert members to any TEKS writing committee established by the Texas Education Agency.


As parental rights in education is one of the legislative priorities for the Republican Party of Texas, more legislators are filing bills to ensure parents have a say in their children’s education.

“These are common-sense bills that will ensure that the SBOE regains its constitutional jurisdiction. Elected board members are beholden to the voters, unlike bureaucratic state agency employees,” said Leo-Wilson. “Parents know what’s best for their children’s educational needs, and it is important that we empower their elected SBOE representatives, not textbook publishers who are beholden to other interests.”

• Texas Senator Announces Bills to Establish School Safety Force, Require Mass Shooting Training, The Texan, 07 February, 2023, Excerpts. Sen. Roland Gutierrez (D-San Antonio) announced a series of bills at the Texas Capitol designed to improve school security, add billions in funding for mental health and campus safety, and memorialize victims of mass shootings in Texas.


He added, “That’s why we’re asking for $2 billion for school hardening measures. That means doors, bullet-proof glass, fencing, the kind of technology that’s required in these types of schools.”


Another one of Gutierrez’s bills would set up a statewide school patrol with at least one officer at every campus and a chain of command including sergeants and captains. SB 737 [Legiscan] also aims to prepare schools to respond to mass shootings. The senator said the statewide force would fall under Texas Highway Patrol and likely be composed of approximately 10,000 officers.


The senator also filed a concurrent resolution, Senate Concurrent Resolution (SCR) 15 [Legiscan], that would relocate the Confederate Soldiers Monument to the Austin State Cemetery. The statue is currently located on the south lawn of the Capitol grounds.


• Judiciary Committee Issues First Subpoenas to Biden Administration on Targeting Parents at School Board Meetings, US House Judiciary Committee, 03 February 2023, Excerpts. Whistleblowers have disclosed how, shortly after Attorney General Garland formally directed the FBI to take action, the FBI’s Counterterrorism and Criminal Divisions created a specific threat tag for school board-related threats and even opened investigations into parents simply for speaking out on behalf of their children. The Attorney General's directive followed a letter from the National School Boards Association to President Biden, urging him to weaponize the Patriot Act against parents. Emails later showed how the Biden White House had advance knowledge of this letter and its contents and raised no objection.

 

Week ending Friday, 03 February, 2023

• Republican lawmakers urge Paxton to review school advisory on trans students, Rockwall Herald Banner, 18 January 2023, Excerpts/ Texas Republicans are calling on Attorney General Ken Paxton to review new Texas Association of School Boards guidance about addressing transgender student concerns, calling the document “harmful” and “highly concerning.” / The association is a taxpayer-funded lobbying group that works on behalf of local Texas school boards. It recently released new guidance for legal issues related to transgender students and how school districts could go about addressing these students’ needs. / Texas Republicans, however, are critical of portions of the guidance that they claim directs school districts to allow transgender girls to use women’s restrooms and locker rooms, as well as refrain from reporting information to parents regarding their child and any display of child dysmorphia.


• Conservative lawmakers push for review of school board group’s guidance on transgender students, The Texas Tribune, 21 January 2023, Excerpts. ... group of state lawmakers has asked Attorney General Ken Paxton to review the Texas Association of School Boards’ guidance relating to transgender youth, arguing that the advice would “endanger children and encourage school districts to keep parents in the dark.”


The association, which serves more than 1,000 school boards across the state, updated longstanding guidance related to transgender students after receiving questions from school officials on navigating the complex legal landscape around issues including restroom access and Title IX, a federal civil rights law that bans sex-based discrimination, said TASB Deputy Executive Director Tiffany Dunne-Oldfield. / The 13-page document outlines the legal rights of transgender students and explains how districts can avoid policies that conflict with federal laws that ban discrimination. In its guidance, TASB recommends that school administrators talk with students and parents about “appropriate accommodations.” In instances when children ask district employees to not tell their parents about their gender identity, the guidance advised school officials to “proceed with caution” and in accordance with district policy.


• Lawmakers Urge School Districts to End Tax-Funded Membership in Texas Association of School Boards, The Texan, 31 January 2023, Excerpt. Citing a controversial document on transgender policy, a group of lawmakers is urging all public school districts to stop paying membership dues to the Texas Association of School Boards (TASB).


• Lawmakers Urge All School Districts to Leave Texas Association of School Boards, Texas Scorecard, 31 January 2023, Excerpts. A group of Texas lawmakers urged school districts across the state to leave the Texas Association of School Boards after the organization promoted “transgender” restroom policies. TASB is a statewide taxpayer-funded lobbying group for school officials that provides products and services to school districts. All 1,024 Texas school boards are TASB members and pay their dues with tax dollars. / The letter condemned TASB for taking over a year to leave the National School Board Association after the group compared concerned parents to “domestic terrorists.”


• Majority of Texans Say Child Sex Change Procedures are ‘Child Abuse’ in New Poll, The Texan, 01 February 2023, Excerpts. In the fourth of seven polls on Texas legislative issues conducted by the University of Houston (UH) Hobby School of Public Affairs... The poll found that 65 percent of respondents favor a ban on changing the sex on a child’s birth certificate unless there was a clerical error or the minor had atypical or ambiguous sex organs. Blacks and Latinos supported the proposed ban by 70 and 60 percent respectively, while just 45 percent of Democrats approved. / The question over treatment for minors derived from legislation proposed by Rep. Bryan Slaton (R-Royse City), and asked about support for classifying “as child abuse in Texas any gender-affirming care sought by parents from medical or mental health professionals to change or affirm their child’s perception of the child’s sex if that perception is inconsistent with the child’s biological sex.” While 57 percent of respondents supported the proposal, including 53 percent of blacks and Latinos, only 36 percent of Democrats expressed support.


• With full state coffers and bipartisan support, Texas teachers are hopeful they’ll get a raise this year, The Texas Tribune, 30 January 2023, Excerpts. Texas teachers are hopeful that this session lawmakers will use some of the historic $32.7 billion budget surplus to fund raises for educators. Texas currently ranks 28th in the nation for teacher pay, $7,652 less than the national average, according to the latest report from the National Education Association.


Both Republicans and Democrats have signaled that they intend to use some of the extra money for teacher raises. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick already listed teacher pay raises as one of his legislative priorities late last year, and Gov. Greg Abbott’s office said in a statement last week that he will “continue working with the Legislature to support our teachers.”


But while teacher raises may be a bipartisan issue this session, Republicans may be at odds with Democrats over how to get it done. / A couple of bills calling for teacher raises have already been filed, including one which would give teachers a $15,000 pay raise and other school employees a 25% pay raise. At least one estimate from the Association of Texas Professional Educators says those raises would cost $12 billion every two years.


• Texas Governor Promotes School Choice Week, Texas Scorecard, 25 January 2023, Excerpts.

Republican legislators in the House and Senate have already filed at least three bills to create school choice programs.


• Gov. Greg Abbott Backs Education Savings Accounts as School Choice Option for Texas Legislature, The Texan, 01 February 2023, Excepts. The top elected official in Texas planted his flag on school choice reform Tuesday when Gov. Greg Abbott announced his support for Education Savings Accounts (ESA). “Parents should not be helpless, they should be able to choose the education option that is best for their child,” Abbott said at an event in Corpus Christi. “The way to do that is with ESAs — Education Savings Accounts. We’ve seen them work in other states and we’ve seen them work in the State of Texas also.”


• Lawmaker Files Legislation to Combat Gender Identity Radicalism in Schools, Texas Scorecard, 16 January 2023, Excerpts. Republican State Sen. Bob Hall of Edgewood has filed legislation “relating to parental rights in public schools and prohibiting instruction regarding sexual orientation or gender identity for public school students.” / Senate Bill 393 [Legiscan] would amend the current education code to require that each school district notify parents of any change regarding a student’s emotional, physical, or mental health. The legislation would also require the school district to advise students to talk with their parents about such issues. Under SB 393, school district employees may not “discourage or prohibit parental knowledge of or involvement in critical decisions affecting a student’s mental, emotional, or physical health or well-being.”


• Texas Lawmaker Introduces Bill to Prohibit ‘Sexually Explicit Material’ from Public School Libraries, The Texan, 27 January 2023, Excerpts. State Rep. Jared Patterson (R-Frisco) has filed new legislation to prohibit sexually explicit books from public school libraries, create requirements and restrictions on book vendors who might be selling sexually explicit content to public school libraries, and provide legal protection for schools and staff. / After filing House Bill (HB) 1655 [Legiscan], titled the READER Act, Patterson issued a press release stating, “After 14 months of fighting sexually explicit materials in public schools, I have filed HB1655, aka The READER Act.” / This follows Patterson’s introduction of HB 1155 [Legiscan] “relating to parental rights in public education and prohibiting instruction regarding sexual orientation or gender identity for certain public school students.”


Week ending Friday, 27 January, 2023

• Texas Governor Prioritizes the Future of Texas Children at Inauguration, Texas Scorecard, 17 January 2023, Excerpts. “Our schools are for education, not indoctrination,” said Abbott. “Schools should not push social agendas. Abbott also reiterated his support for school choice, where state education funding follows the student, regardless of the manner in which he or she is educated. "Parents deserve the freedom to choose the education that’s best for their child."


• Abbott pledges to provide largest property tax cut in Texas history during third inauguration, The Center Square, 17 January 2023, Excerpt. Abbott emphasized the state’s economic prowess and highlighted several priorities on his legislative agenda. They include keeping Texas the number one state for business, providing the largest property tax cut in state history, dedicating state funds to infrastructure projects and strengthening the state grid, advancing parental rights in education and school safety measures, bail reform, and expanding criminal penalties for fentanyl-related crimes.



He also vowed to reform school curriculum “to get kids back to the basics of learning and empower parents with the tools to challenge that curriculum when it falls short of expectations. No one knows what is better for a child’s education than their parents. Those parents deserve the freedom to choose the education that’s best for their child.”


He added, “our schools are for education, not indoctrination. Schools should not push social agendas. They must focus on fundamentals.”


He vowed to beef up school safety and expand mental health services to students, vowing to “not end this session without making our schools safer.”


• Trustees prepare to advocate for AISD during Legislative Session, Aledo ISD website, January 2023, Excerpts. An important role of school board trustees and school districts is to advocate for their district’s students and staff and the community as a whole. Even before the 2023 Legislative Session began on January 10, Aledo ISD Trustees and administrators met with the district’s local legislators - Senators Drew Springer and Phil King and State Representative Glenn Rogers - to share the legislative priorities of Aledo ISD. / Included are priorities that fall under the following main categories: protect local control, including the rights of local parents and citizens; protect and increase public school funding; support Texas public school students and educators and permit local parents and citizens to hold their public schools accountable; and require accountability and transparency to Texans for the use of local and state tax dollars. / “People are often surprised to learn how much of our local decision-making is impacted by mandates coming from Austin,” Board Member Lear said. “From property tax rates, to curriculum and testing requirements, to funding calculations, it is important we stay active with our legislators to make sure they understand the priorities of our Bearcat community and the impact their legislation has on our continued success.”


• Lawmaker Files Legislation to Combat Gender Identity Radicalism in Schools, [Senate Bill 393, Legiscan] Texas Scorecard, 16 January 2023, Excerpts. Republican State Sen. Bob Hall of Edgewood has filed legislation “relating to parental rights in public schools and prohibiting instruction regarding sexual orientation or gender identity for public school students.”


Senate Bill 393 [Legiscan] would amend the current education code to require that each school district notify parents of any change regarding a student’s emotional, physical, or mental health. The legislation would also require the school district to advise students to talk with their parents about such issues.


• Lt. Gov. Patrick Says He and Gov. Abbott Are ‘All In’ on School Choice, The Texan,16 January 2023, Excerpts. The second-highest state official in Texas, Lt. Governor Dan Patrick, pushed his chips to the middle of the policy table on school choice.


“The governor and I are all in on school choice,” Patrick said in his speech on Tuesday. “We are going to pass school choice and I hope, finally, that this is the session that we join over 30 other states in giving parental rights to parents to choose the school of their choice.”


He did not say the same thing about House Speaker Dade Phelan (R-Beaumont), who’s previously expressed skepticism about school choice’s ability to pass his chamber. In a May radio interview, Phelan said, “It’s something we’ve had on the House floor on budget night, which was a test vote [for vouchers], and it’s been about 40 to 45 out of 150 members [who] would vote for that. So the delta is pretty large on getting school choice across the finish line.”


Patrick added on Tuesday, “Governor, thank you for making this a campaign issue. By the way, we got 77 percent of the vote in rural Texas — we both campaigned on that — and I think people of rural Texas are just fine with school choice.”


• Op-Ed: Time for school choice in Texas, The Center Square, 18 January 2023, Excerpts. School choice is surging in popularity: 74% of parents with school-aged children want control over their children’s education dollars. Here in Texas, a majority from across the political spectrum is on board. Now that state legislators have convened for the 2023 session, it’s time to make school choice a priority.


Several lawmakers have already filed promising bills. For example, Senate Bill 176, [Legiscan] introduced by Mayes Middleton (R-11), allows parents to use public funds on approved educational expenses, such as private school tuition, distance learning, and tutoring. Allowing funding to follow the student can make Texas a national leader in family empowerment and educational effectiveness.


We know school choice is a winner for parents and students from its popularity in other states. For example, Arizona recently implemented a program similar to that in Middleton’s bill. Parents were so eager to sign their kids up that they crashed the website. In the recent midterm elections, governors and state legislators who support school choice walloped those who were opposed. Texas officials who work against school choice are likely to face significant political costs.


School choice has been extensively studied by researchers. Giving students transferable funding allows them to pick the education option that’s best for them, raising test scores and improving parent satisfaction. But that’s not all. School choice also improves student achievement in existing district schools! When families can use public funds to pursue outside options, district schools have to up their game to retain students. Competition is a tide that lifts all boats.


Defenders of the K-12 status quo sometimes claim school choice is bad for rural districts, which is frequently the largest regional employer. But in the very next breath, they claim school choice is unfair because rural students don’t have access to private schools and tutoring the way urban and suburban students do. These arguments can’t both be true.


They can both be false, however – and they are. Rural students have many more schooling options than you’d think. School choice can help them find the one that’s right for them. At the same time, there’s no evidence school choice harms rural districts. Arizona shows the way: the state’s rural schools are rapidly improving at the same time its students have more choices than ever.


We can implement school choice in ways that ensure political buy-in. For example, we can structure the program such that residentially assigned districts can keep some public funds (say, 20%) to cover overhead and other fixed costs. That still leaves roughly $8,000 in transferable funding per student, on average. Private school tuition in Texas averages $10,000. The resources are there. Let’s put them in parents’ hands, where they can do the most good.

 

The 87th Texas /Legislative Session 2021




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