The ATPE Governmental Relations team recaps the past week’s education news, legislative and election updates, and regulatory developments.

• Abbott calls second special session of Texas Legislature
• First day of second special session brings surprise teacher compensation amendment
• TEA releases STAAR end-of-course assessment results
• Major education-related rulings issued by the U.S. Supreme Court this week
• ATPE releases its 88th regular legislative session wrap-up
• ATPE wishes you a happy Fourth of July

SECOND SPECIAL SESSION: The Texas Senate adjourned sine die Tuesday, ending the first special session with little to show for it. Gov. Greg Abbott (R) immediately called Texas state lawmakers back to Austin for another special session beginning at 3 p.m. Tuesday, June 27, 2023.

The governor's proclamation asks legislators to pass bills "to cut property-tax rates solely by reducing the school district maximum compressed tax rate" and "to put Texas on a pathway to eliminating school district maintenance and operations property taxes." 

Last week we covered Abbott’s vetoes of bills authored by lawmakers who had taken an anti-voucher stance in the regular session. Although Abbott’s focus has shifted from vouchers to property tax relief, he is expected to call another special session for private school voucher legislation later this year. 

TEACHER COMPENSATION: The Senate passed Sen. Paul Bettencourt’s (R–Houston) Senate Joint Resolution (SJR) 1, which is a constitutional amendment that would increase the homestead exemption. A floor amendment, offered by Sen. Roland Gutierrez (D–San Antonio), would give teachers a $2,000 one-time stipend with an additional $4,000 for teachers in districts with less than 20,000 students. This amendment and the resolution passed the Senate unanimously. If passed by the House and signed by the governor, the proposal would have to be approved by voters in November.   

In response to the passage of SJR 1, ATPE Governmental Relations Director Monty Exter told The Dallas Morning News: “If they want to include as part of property-tax relief a one-time retention bonus for teachers, fantastic. We still need to have a conversation about meaningful, permanent increases to teacher pay.” 

The Senate also passed Bettencourt’s Senate Bill (SB) 1 through the chamber on a unanimous vote.   

ATPE Lobbyist Tricia Cave has more details on SJR 1 and SB 1 in this blog post. 

STAAR RESULTS: The Texas Education Agency (TEA) released high school end-of-course assessment results Friday. Results showed strong growth in all subject areas, including for Special Education and Emerging Bilingual students. This comes after a year in which the test was moved entirely online and the question formats changed as well to allow for more rigor in the exams. Parents will need a unique access code from their child’s school to be able to view individual scores. Scores for students in grades 3-8 will be available August 16. As previously reported here in Teach the Vote, despite increased performance at the student level, campus and district scores are set to drop when released this fall due to changes in the way TEA calculates those ratings.  

COURTS: The U.S. Supreme Court released a ruling Thursday on the use of affirmative action in college admissions that severely limits, if not effectively ends, the use of the practice. In a 6-3 vote, the court ruled that the admissions programs used by the University of North Carolina and Harvard College violate the Constitution’s equal protection clause, which bars racial discrimination by government entities. Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett joined Chief Justice John Roberts who wrote the majority opinion. Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson joined Justice Sonia Sotomayor on her dissenting opinion. U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona released a statement on the ruling. 

The high court also issued a 6-3 ruling this morning striking down the Biden administration’s plan to forgive $400 billion in student loan debt. Federal borrowers who have benefited from temporary pauses in their repayment obligations will have to resume payments in October. The State of Nebraska initially sued the federal government to halt the debt forgiveness plan, and Texas later joined the lawsuit. 

Also this week, a state court has ruled the Texas Department of Public Safety must publicly release its records on the law enforcement response to last year’s Uvalde school shooting. Read more about the order, granted at the request of news outlets, here in the Texas Tribune. 

LEGISLATIVE WRAP-UP: ATPE entered the 88th regular session of the Texas Legislature in January 2023 with five priorities: increasing educator pay, defeating vouchers, enhancing educator recruitment and retention, improving school safety, and providing a cost-of-living adjustment for Teacher Retirement System (TRS) retirees.  

Educator pay and defeating vouchers—arguably our top two priorities—were inexorably linked even before the regular session began and continued to be linked all the way through to sine die (the last day of the session). This wrap-up looks at the effort to pass vouchers this session and how we ultimately defeated that effort, and we provide a breakdown of public education-related bills and their outcomes. 

INDEPENDENCE DAY: ATPE wishes you a safe and restful Independence Day weekend! The ATPE State Office will be closed Tuesday, July 4, in observance of the holiday.