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

• House Public Education Chair files sweeping voucher/school finance bill
• House Democrats file bill highlighting potential of a $40 billion investment in Texas public schools
• Republican SBOE member denounces vouchers on YouTube
• ATPE, T4PE, and Coalition for Public Schools host #NoVouchers virtual rally
• Early voting starts Monday in constitutional amendment and HD 2 special elections
• Cornyn among bipartisan group filing bill to allow federal dollars to go to prospective charter school applicants
• Texas Teachers of the Year announced
• TEA shares resources on Israel-Hamas war

HB 1: House Public Education Committee Chair Brad Buckley (R–Salado) has filed House Bill (HB) 1, a 184-page private school voucher/school finance bill. ATPE opposes the bill because it contains a private school voucher, as directed by our member-written-and-approved legislative program. The bill also contains myriad unvetted provisions, such as eliminating the minimum salary schedule, and would do little to alleviate the funding challenges faced by Texas school districts as it only increases the Basic Allotment by $30 in the first year of the biennium. “This approach—having one or a handful of legislators throw everything but the kitchen sink into a bill without broad input or vetting—is not a serious way to make good policy,” ATPE Executive Director Shannon Holmes said in a statement. “It leads to massive unintended consequences, D.C.-style pork, and, in the case of this bill, a huge transfer of authority away from locally elected leaders to state bureaucrats. Ultimately, HB 1 is a thinly veiled attempt to buy off legislators and educators in a quest to appease a governor who has chosen to put politics over the needs of 5.4 million Texas schoolchildren. We are grateful that the majority of legislators see through it, continue to oppose voucher scams, and are eager to move on and address school funding in a meaningful way. We look forward to working with them to lift up all public school students.” Look for further analysis of HB 1 on Teach the Vote in the coming days. 

FULLY FUND OUR FUTURES ACT: Texas House Democrats introduced a school finance bill Thursday that highlights all that Texas could accomplish by investing $40 billion in its public schools, the amount needed to bring Texas up to the national average in per-pupil spending. House Bill (HB) 177—the “Fully Fund Our Future Act”—by Rep. Gina Hinojosa (D–Austin) proposes to: raise educator pay by $15,000 and support staff pay by $5,500; reduce class sizes to provide more one-on-one attention for students; address the student suicide and mental health crisis by hiring more school counselors; eliminate the special education funding gap; and dramatically increase school safety and mental health funding. Although HB 177 has little chance of making it through the legislative process in the current political climate, it was filed to spark conversations about the real needs in Texas education, which don’t include private school vouchers. “We know Texans want these things for their own children and all 5.4 million public school students,” ATPE Governmental Relations Director Monty Exter said in a statement. “Unfortunately, the governor, for all his bluster about parental rights, is not listening to parents. The sad reality is that he isn’t likely to listen to what parents or educators want for Texas kids until we say it from the voting booth. We must vote in March and vote in November for leaders who want what is best for Texas kids, and we must vote in large enough numbers that the message is too loud to ignore.” 

SBOE MEMBER VIDEO: Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) member Evelyn Brooks (R–Frisco) posted a video this week forcefully denouncing private school vouchers. Brooks posted the 22-minute video to YouTube and took direct aim at Senate Bill (SB) 1, which would divert public funding available for public education to instead pay for education savings account (ESA) vouchers to attend private schools. ATPE Senior Lobbyist Mark Wiggins recaps Brooks’ video statement in this blog post. 

VIRTUAL RALLY: ATPE has joined forces with Texans for Public Education and the Coalition for Public Schools to organize a #NoVouchers virtual rally with three components:  

1. Sharing social media graphics—Download graphics with five different messages to share on your social media profiles in addition to using the hashtag #NoVouchers. 
2. Recording video messages—Record a short video (no more than one-minute long) expressing your opposition to private school vouchers. ATPE members received a link for recording videos via email earlier this week. Videos may also be submitted to comm [at] atpe.org for sharing on social media. 
3. ​Contacting your House member—Call, email, and tweet at your House member to encourage them to vote against any bill containing a voucher. ATPE members may log in to Advocacy Central to quickly and easily contact their House member using one of our current campaigns. 

EARLY VOTING: Early voting starts Monday, Oct. 23, and runs through Friday, Nov. 3, in the Nov. 7 constitutional amendment election, which includes a cost-of-living adjustment for most Teacher Retirement System (TRS) annuitants. These same early voting dates apply for the Nov. 7 special election to fill the House District (HD) 2 seat left vacant when former Rep. Bryan Slaton (R–Royse City) was expelled from the Texas House in May. Six candidates—one Democrat and five Republicans—are vying for the seat, with only one of the Republicans opposing vouchers. If you live in HD 2, please review the Teach the Vote profiles for these candidates. 

CHARTER SCHOOLS: U.S. Sen. John Cornyn (R–Texas) is among a bipartisan group of senators who have filed the “Empower Charter School Educators to Lead Act,” a bill that would expand charter school programs across the country by allowing states that receive federal Charter School Programs grants to make “pre-planning awards” of up to $100,000 to certain prospective charter school applicants.

TEACHER OF THE YEAR: Congratulations to Taniece Thompson-Smith, a fifth grade science teacher in Abilene ISD, and Naveen Cunha, an eighth grade robotics teacher in Bryan ISD, who were respectively named Texas Elementary Teacher of the Year and Texas Secondary Teacher of the Year at a ceremony today in Round Rock. Region 13 ATPE Director Stephanie Stoebe (the 2012 Texas Secondary Teacher of the Year), ATPE Executive Director Shannon Holmes, and ATPE State Vice President Jason Forbis attended the ceremony.

Thompson-Smith, an ATPE member, will go on to represent Texas in the National Teacher of the Year competition. The Texas Teacher of the Year program is facilitated by the Texas Association of School Administrators (TASA), and ATPE is a program sponsor.

Congratulations to the 40 regional Teachers of the Year for representing excellence in Texas public education!

ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR RESOURCES: The Texas Education Agency (TEA) announced Friday the availability of resources and lessons on the Israel-Hamas war. The resources are primarily targeted at grades 6–12, though TEA links to a Common Sense Media article about talking to kids about violence, crime, and war. TEA also shared a PDF listing relevant sections of the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS).