The Senate Education Committee met today in its final interim hearing before kicking off the legislative session in 2019. The agenda included a discussion on mandate relief and innovation as well as an update on the implementation of two bills pertaining, respectively, to the Pathways in Technology Early College High School (P-TECH) program and educator misconduct.

The committee spent the majority of their time on the mandate relief discussion, which was guided by the following interim charge:

Mandate Relief/Innovation: Review, modify, or abolish chapters of the education code. Specifically, study cost-drivers, unnecessary mandates, reduction/elimination of inefficiencies, focus on policies or opportunities targeted to improving student outcomes, and better utilization of taxpayer resources.

The invited panel of witnesses primarily included members of a work group convened this year by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. The group was tasked with agreeing to changes to the Texas Education Code that provided mandate relief or innovation. The group consisted of a variety of education stakeholders, including ATPE, and ultimately agreed upon 20 recommendations (only unanimously agreed upon recommendations were advanced) for the 86th Legislature to consider in 2019.

The group's work included considerations on data reporting, school operations, teacher quality, and classroom conduct, among other categories. The work did not include mandate discussions related to accountability or assessments. The official work group report will be released soon.

Regarding the innovation piece of the charge, ATPE member Aletha Williams testified in her capacity as a Teach Plus Texas fellow. She spoke about the importance of quality mentoring programs for teachers, saying that "when teachers receive quality mentoring at the beginning of their teaching career, they are much more likely to stay in the profession and become highly qualified educators.” While Texas has seen mentoring programs in the past, such a state-wide, funded program would currently be a new and welcomed addition.

The committee also monitored the implementation of last year's Senate Bill (SB) 22 pertaining to the P-TECH program and SB 7 regarding inappropriate relationships between students and educators. The Texas Education Agency (TEA) offered invited testimony on the educator misconduct piece, saying the number of reports has risen since SB 7 was enacted, and increasing the reporting was the intent of the legislation. TEA also highlighted the issue of uncertified educators, which are on the rise due to laws like Districts of Innovation that enable many districts to exempt themselves from requirements to hire certified teachers. TEA and the State Board for Educator Certification (SBEC) lack jurisdiction over these uncertified school employees when it comes to sanctioning inappropriate relationships and other educator misconduct. Some senators again raised their desire for a "Do Not Hire Registry," confirming a bill to implement such a registry would be filed in the upcoming session.

An archived video of the full hearing can be found here.