This week was the third to last week of the 85th legislative session. In the Texas Senate, the week marked a significant increase in the number of House measures considered by the chamber and the Senate Education Committee, which included HB 21, or a Senate version of the bill that now includes a special education voucher. The week also included passage of a handful of education related Senate bills out of the full Senate, including the ATPE supported inclusive consultation bill and an educator preparation bill strongly opposed by ATPE.

Senate Education Committee hears House school finance bill, advances A-F fix

The Senate Education Committee heard mostly House bills this week when it met to consider its Tuesday and Thursday agendas. The House version of a fix to school finance, HB 21 by Rep. Huberty (R-Humble), was the most high profile bill heard and got bigger as Chairman Taylor made a last ditch effort to pass vouchers by adding a special education educational savings account (ESA) to the bill. The bill was originally supported by ATPE, but we joined the slew of advocates changing our position to against in light of the voucher addition. Witness after witness, which included special education parents, teachers, administrators, districts, former educators, and more, spoke against the committee substitute and, more specifically, the eleventh hour addition of vouchers to the important bill. View more on the committee substitute and the hearing here.

The committee voted yesterday evening to advance their version of HB 21 to the full Senate by a vote of 7-1; Sen. Carlos Uresti (D-San Antonio) was the lone "no" vote on the committee.

The committee also advanced SB 2051, Chairman Taylor’s (R-Friendswood) approach to fixing issues that surfaced after last session when the legislature passed major changes to the state’s public school accountability system. That law also changed the state’s school rating system to one that labels schools with an A through an F, which ATPE opposed. SB 2051 is now eligible for debate on the Senate floor. The House version, HB 22, has made its way to the Senate, but hasn’t moved. Find more ore on SB 2051 here. A

TPE reiterated support in committee for a handful of House bills now moving through the Senate:

• HB 3563 by Rep. Koop (R-Dallas) would align parental notification requirements regarding public school teacher qualifications with the new federal education law.
• HB 1569 by Rep. Ashby (R-Lufkin) would require the sharing of certain student records with a school providing educational services if a student resides in a residential treatment facility.
• HB 1645 by Rep. Lozano (R-Kingsville) would require schools to offer a letter to students who participate in a Special Olympics event.
• HB 2130 by Rep. Roberts (R-Houston) would require a study on the impact state standardized tests have on special education students.
• HB 657 by Rep. Bernal (D-San Antonio) would allow an ARD committee to promote a special education student who failed an exam but met the goals of an individualized education plan.

These bills must still get through the Senate to make it through the legislative process.

Inclusive consultation bill, other ATPE-supported measures get approval from Senate   

SB 1294 by Sen. Buckingham (R-Lakeway) was sent to the House this week after it passed the Senate on a vote of 21-10. The bill would prohibit districts from limiting professional staff eligibility to members of one professional organization when developing certain school district planning and decision-making committees. ATPE is in strong support of the bill, which aligns with our collaborative approach tenet, among others. SB 1294 will foster an approach to planning committees where educators, regardless of their professional association affiliation or lack of affiliation, are at the table working together – an approach that ATPE members believe result in the best policies for schoolchildren.

The full Senate also advanced the following measures supported by ATPE:

• SB 195 by Sen. Garcia (D-Houston) was filed in response to a local tragedy and seeks to improve school transportation safety for certain students by allowing districts to use transportation funding to provide transportation and protections to students residing in or forced to walk through high violence neighborhoods.
• SB 2039 by Sen. Zaffirini (D-Laredo) would create a sexual abuse and sex trafficking prevention program that districts could add to their curriculum if they choose.
• SB 436 by Sen. Rodriguez (D-El Paso) and SB 748 by Sen. Zaffirini (D-Laredo), which would address needs for special education students. (The Senate also advanced SB 529 by Sen. Lucio (D-Brownsville). The bill addresses training and professional development on the "universal design for learning" framework, which aims to prepare educators to teach all students, including those with disabilities, special needs, or behavioral issues.)

These bills now go to the House where they await approval from the lower chamber.

Bill rolling back educator preparation standards gets green light from Senate

An educator certification bill opposed by ATPE and most of the remainder of the public education community, which includes administrators, teachers, university deans, districts, educator quality groups, and more, passed the Senate this week with 20 senators supporting the measure. ATPE opposes the measure because we know that all kids deserve access to a well-trained educator, and we can’t expect educators to achieve excellence in the classroom if they aren’t excellently prepared in the first place. SB 1278 would roll back several standards recently raised at the State Board for Educator Certification, a board of education professionals. The bill is now sent to the House where it must get approval from the body; the bill had a House companion, but it died in committee when it failed to garner the votes necessary prior to the deadline.

House gives approval to ATPE-supported Senate bills

The House powered through their last day to pass House bills on second reading yesterday, and while the calendar included mostly House bills, the occasional Senate bill was substituted and considered. Among the Senate bills passed were three bills supported by ATPE: SB 7, the educator misconduct bill; SB 179, the anti-bullying and cyber-bullying measure referred to as David's Law; and SB 160, which prohibits the Texas Education Agency from monitoring school performance based on the percentage of students receiving special education services. The latter seeks to fix the 8.5% cap on special education services uncovered last year. An update on SB 7 can be found here.