With the 85th legislative session just around the corner, things are busy in Austin. Catch up on this week's education news:

• Legislative Update: Previewing the 85th legislative session, more priorities from Lt. Gov. Patrick, and spending limits

• TRS Board of Trustees in Austin for final quarterly meeting of 2016

• Election Update: Recount affirms incumbent's win in HD 105

• Federal Update: ESSA rule finalized, Trump names pick for U.S. Secretary of Education

• ICYMI: TCASE's Jana Lilly previews special education issues in the legislature

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As the Texas Legislature prepares to convene for the 85th legislative session in January, the Capitol is bustling with final preparations. Among the excitement, new members of the House of Representatives were in Austin this week for orientation, offices are being shuffled, and final meetings are underway. Adding to the preparations, the Texas Tribune Symposium Previewing the 85th Legislative Session took place on Tuesday. The event featured many high-profile legislators, including Speaker Joe Straus (R-San Antonio), and offered discussions on plenty of public education issues that are expected to be addressed in the first half of next year. ATPE Lobbyist Mark Wiggins provides more in his post on the symposium and other public education issues facing the upcoming session. Mark highlights in the same post that Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick expanded his list of legislative priorities. Particularly, he added a priority that aims to selectively prohibit certain employees from deducting their professional association dues through payroll deduction. Texas teachers were among the employees targeted by this bill during the most recent legislative session, although this session's version of the bill has yet to be filed. Two budget-related meetings also took place this week. The Texas Legislative Budget Board (LBB) met Thursday to set the spending limit for the 2018-19 biennium, for which legislators will establish appropriations during the upcoming legislative session. The board is a permanent joint committee of the Texas Legislature made up of five Texas House members and five senators, and develops recommended legislative appropriations for all agencies of state government, among other budget-related tasks. In its brief meeting, the board voted to unanimously adopt the constitutional spending limit at just over $99 billion dollars for the upcoming biennium. Earlier in the week, the Joint Select Committee on Economic Stabilization Fund, a fund more commonly referred to as the "Rainy Day Fund," set the fund's floor at $7.5 billion. The floor establishes the amount of money that must be in the fund before automatic transfers to transportation funding are made. It does not affect the legislature's ability to tap the fund to cover emergencies, short falls, or legislative priories.  

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The Teacher Retirement System (TRS) Board of Trustees met in Austin yesterday and today for the board's final meeting of the calendar year. ATPE Lobbyist Monty Exter covered the meeting and provided the following report: The board received a presentation on an external review of the TRS pension trust fund’s actuarial valuation as of Aug. 31, 2016. The review covered a range of economic and membership scenarios and how those scenarios would affect the overall health of the fund on a future-looking basis. Two big takeaways from that presentation: 1) the decision by past legislatures to dial down state and employee contributions to the constitutional minimum during the boom of the mid-nineties needlessly and irresponsibly left the fund vulnerable to becoming underfunded during periods of economic recession, and 2) the very vulnerability created by that legislative decision has created a scenario where TRS has to overcome a persistent lag created by the economic downturns in 2000 and 2007-08. Despite a period of average returns in excess of eight percent over the last five years, that lag continues to weigh down the fund. The board also received an update on the report from the Joint Select Committee on TRS Health Benefit Plans from TRS Executive Director Brian Guthrie. Read more about that report here and view the full board meeting here.  

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In the race for House District (HD) 105, the results of a recount concluded this week that incumbent Rep. Rodney Anderson (R-Grand Prairie) won reelection. His Democratic opponent, Terry Meza, requested the recount following Election Day, where results showed she trailed by only 64 votes. HD 105 was among a handful of districts in the Dallas-Fort Worth area considered to be swing districts leading up to the election. Two other incumbents lost reelection in the area. Rep. Anderson has held the seat since 2010.  

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News broke last week that President-Elect Donald Trump has chosen billionaire education reformer Betsy DeVos as his pick for U.S. Secretary of Education. The pick is a controversial one as DeVos has been heavily involved in efforts to pass vouchers and related alt-school-choice options in states throughout the country. Days after the announcement, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) released its final accountability rule, which needed a rewrite following the passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). Notably, Trump's pick for education secretary will have the power to do as he or she wishes when it comes to ESSA rules and regulations written by ED. Read more about DeVos and the final accountability rule in ATPE Lobbyist Kate Kuhlmann's post here.  

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Last week, we published a guest post from Jana Lilly, the Director of Governmental Relations for the Texas Council of Administrators of Special Education (TCASE). She shared a preview of some of the special education issues likely to be addressed during the 85th Legislature. In her post, she highlights three major issues: the particularly harmful nature of vouchers for students with disabilities, cameras in special education classrooms, and the much discussed topic of capping the number of students districts identify as in need of special education. If you missed this guest post over the Thanksgiving break, you can read more here.  

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