Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R) released what he called the “first round” of Texas Senate interim charges Jan. 30. Patrick said in a statement these five charges “reflect issues that I am particularly focused on, and that Texans have asked the Texas Legislature to study.” 

An interim charge is a specific topic or issue assigned to a legislative committee to study and review between regular sessions of the Texas Legislature. These charges are set by legislative leaders, such as the speaker of the House or the lieutenant governor, and are intended to guide committees in gathering information, hearing from stakeholders, and developing recommendations on important issues facing the state. 

The purpose of interim charges is to allow committees to research and analyze complex topics, monitor the implementation of previously passed legislation, and consider potential solutions or legislative actions for the next session. While not every interim charge results in new legislation, they provide insight into the priorities of legislative leaders and help shape the agenda for the upcoming session. 

Two of the initial interim charges, assigned to Senate Finance and Senate Education committees respectively, relate to public education. The Finance Committee charge reads: 

Further Property Tax Cuts: The Homestead Exemption has proven overwhelmingly popular with voters. It has eliminated school property taxes for the average senior and reduced school taxes in half for those under 65. Study and report on the effect of the continued increasing of the Homestead Exemption. Assess the impact of reducing the senior homestead exemption from 65 to 55 years of age. This change would freeze home values 10 years sooner for over 3 million homeowners, saving 55 plus homeowners thousands of additional dollars. 

Bringing down the cost of living, including the cost of property taxes, is high on the list of issues voters from both parties routinely tell pollsters they care about. This continues to be true despite legislators having appropriated $51 billion in the current state budget, largely from state sales taxes, to offset the impact of lost property taxes at the local level due to previous tax reductions. That figure accounts for one in five discretionary dollars spent in the state budget, a more than tenfold increase over the past decade.  

Why is this a public school issue? Local ISD maintenance and operations (M&O) property taxes account for about half of the dollars that fund our public schools. The remainder comes from a combination of state and federal funding sources. Currently, pre-K through higher education funding makes up the largest share of the state budget, but property tax reduction is rapidly catching up. Education, property tax reduction, and health care funding make up nearly all of the state’s discretionary spending. Since 2019, federal relief funds—quickly followed by high increases in sales tax collections—have allowed lawmakers to dramatically reduce property taxes without needing to cut spending in other areas. Unfortunately, that kind of growth does not last forever, and it may have already ended or soon will as economic circumstances change. This will leave lawmakers facing a harsh reality: How can they fill the huge structural hole they have created in the Texas budget?  

The Education Committee charge reads: 

Promoting America & Texas First in Our Schools: Examine the current practices of some public schools promoting events, partnerships, or associations with federal or state-designated hostile agents or their surrogates. Provide recommendations to strengthen laws stopping hostile countries or related entities from infiltrating our classrooms. Make recommendations to ensure public schools promote students’ learning about American and Texas exceptionalism. 

Despite having state standards (TEKS) that are already deeply aligned to promoting American and Texas exceptionalism, Patrick seems to be following the lead of Gov. Greg Abbott (R) on churning concerns over the infiltration and influence of groups they deem hostile. Recent news reports have covered situations in which school districts have rented facilities to groups, such as youth sports organization Islamic Games, which Abbott alleged were affiliated with entities that he has designated as “terrorist organizations.” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) also recently released an opinion stating that the comptroller can exclude private schools from the state’s new voucher program if these private schools have hosted events for organizations such as the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which Abbott has directed the Department of Public Safety to investigate, or if the schools had ties to the Chinese government. On the technology front, Abbott has previously prohibited governmental entities, including school districts, from using TikTok because of its ties to the Chinese government.  

What remains to be seen is whether this charge will go beyond efforts that, to date, feel more like PR than protection to instead create solid state policy truly aimed at safeguarding students and educators alike from threats such as radicalization or loss of data privacy. 

Patrick has tasked Texas senators with making interim charge recommendations by Feb. 20 and has said that the full list of interim charges will be available in March. Readers can find the current list of initial interim charges here. 

Stay tuned to Teach the Vote for updates as ATPE participates in discussions on these topics.