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

• Morath tells SBOE that HB 1605 was not intended to take away lesson planning ability
• Preview of a busy week ahead: Senate hearings and TRS and SBEC board meetings
• Patrick releases second round of Senate interim charges, including new education-related charges
• How do Harris and Trump view education issues?
• Recapping TribFest from a public education perspective
• Learn how to confirm your voter registration in this ATPE video

SBOE: The State Board of Education (SBOE) met Wednesday through Friday in Austin. On Wednesday, Texas Education Agency (TEA) Commissioner Mike Morath took questions from board members about the implementation of House Bill (HB) 1605 and the development of open educational resources (OER) by the agency. Education stakeholders, including ATPE, are concerned the agency is pushing for educators to rely on scripted curriculum. Morath, however, insisted that was not the case. ATPE Senior Lobbyist Mark Wiggins recaps the commissioner’s Q&A session in this blog post.

WEEK AHEAD: Next week will be busy, with both the Teacher Retirement System (TRS) Board of Trustees and the State Board for Educator Certification (SBEC) meeting Sept. 19–20 in Austin. SBEC will be discussing possible changes to rules regarding disciplinary proceedings for educators, new rules regarding certification requirements for special education teachers, and revisions to the teacher pedagogy standards. In addition, the Senate Education Committee will hold an interim hearing at 9 a.m. Sept. 18. Look for coverage of these meetings here on Teach the Vote in the days to come.

SENATE: Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R) issued a second set of Senate interim charges Tuesday with the statement that his chamber would “hit the ground running [in January 2025] to ensure the priorities of the conservative majority of Texans are accomplished, including school choice, continued property tax relief, and strengthening our power grid.” New education-related charges include examination of K-12/college pathways and student enrollment trends, as well as following up on implementation of legislation passed during the previous session. ATPE Lobbyist Tricia Cave takes a closer look in this blog post.

PRESIDENTIAL RACE: The debate between the major-party presidential candidates dominated headlines this week, but nothing was said about education policy. How do former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris stack up on K-12 issues? David Pore, who has represented ATPE at the federal level for the past two decades, explains how Trump and Harris couldn’t be further apart on the issues.

TRIBFEST: ATPE was proud to partner with The Texas Tribune Festival to offer educators continuing professional education (CPE) credit for attending select sessions during the 2024 festival, which took place Sept 5–7 in downtown Austin. As part of our sponsorship, several ATPE staffers attended public education-related sessions at the festival, and ATPE Lobbyist Heather Sheffield recaps the conversations and forecasts for the 89th Legislature in this blog post. (If you attended TribFest and haven’t yet tracked your CPE credits, be sure to do so soon! Find details at atpe.org/tribfest.)

VOTER REGISTRATION: The last day to register to vote in the 2024 general election is Oct. 7, just over three weeks away. Now is the time to confirm your voter registration is current and active, especially if you’ve recently moved or changed your name. In this short ATPE video, we explain how to confirm your voter registration at votetexas.gov. Early voting runs Oct. 21–Nov. 1, so now is the time to start making your plan to vote!