ADVOCACY

The 81st Legislative Session

• Part One: School finance, federal stimulus funding, early childhood education and certification
• Part Two: Bills filed on behalf of ATPE
• Part Three: Accountability
• Part Four: Teacher compensation, incentive funds and the Teacher Retirement System
• Part Five: Vouchers, special education and miscellaneous bills of note

Part 1: School finance, federal stimulus funding, early childhood education and certification

Even before it began, it wasn’t hard to recognize that the 81st legislative session was going to be unlike any other in recent history. The November elections brought change to Washington and the theme reverberated through the country. Change came to the Texas Legislature in the form of a new Speaker of the House, and smaller Republican majorities in both the House and the Senate. The new speaker, Rep. Joe Strauss (R–San Antonio) promised that the will of the House would guide his leadership, and his desire to “create an atmosphere where everyone’s voice can and should be heard” was a significant departure from the climate of the last several sessions during which partisanship often led to bitter rivalries. On top of all this, due to the world’s economic crisis, the U.S. federal government sent billions of dollars to Texas as part of a stimulus program. What did it all mean for public education and ATPE’s legislative priorities? Read on for a wrap-up of the most important and pertinent happenings of the session.

School finance
The school funding fix devised by the 2005 Legislature after the state’s school finance system was successfully challenged in court as being unconstitutional fell far short of shoring up the system. While the Legislature had no initial plans for finding a permanent solution to the system’s problems this session, it was evident that something would have to be done to provide school districts relief. ATPE’s message was clear in all of our testimony and communications with the Legislature regarding this issue: For a school finance bill to be acceptable, it must increase equity among all schools, provide a stable school funding stream that gives school districts more discretionary funding, and include a teacher pay raise.

ATPE worked with the House Appropriations Committee to include in the state budget nearly $1.9 billion for school finance reform and ensure that whatever finance bill passed would include a pay raise component for educators. House Bill (HB) 3646 by Rep. Scott Hochberg (D–Houston) met our criteria, and was the bill that made its way through the legislative process.

HB 3646 provides school districts with $1.9 billion to help relieve budget constraints caused by inflation and increased costs due to population growth and dwindling revenue streams. The bill was voted out of the House Public Education Committee and passed the House of Representatives 144-2. HB 3646 finally passed the Senate on the last day of the legislative session.

Halfway through the legislative session, the legislature chose to use federal stimulus dollars to fund the school finance bill instead of state general revenue dollars for accounting purposes. Because of this maneuver, after the governor reviews the bill, the United States Department of Education will determine whether the state’s chosen method of spending these funds is allowable under stimulus spending guidelines. If the Education Department rules that Texas violated federal stimulus spending requirements, it is possible that the $1.9 billion will be distributed to school districts based on Title I formulas instead of state formulas.

Federal stimulus funding
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) contained nearly $5 billion earmarked for Texas’ public schools. The most important aspect of ARRA funds is that they are intended to be used to fill existing gaps in state education budgets and to supplement, not supplant, current spending.

Of the approximately $5 billion in ARRA funds, more than $944 million in Title I Grants is being distributed to improve the performance of low-achieving students, and more than $1 billion will be used for IDEA grants that support students with disabilities. Fifty percent of these funds have already been sent to school districts and the remaining funds are expected to be distributed later this summer.

The largest portion of ARRA funds are referred to as State Fiscal Stabilization funds (SFS). A total of $3.9 billion was allocated in SFS funds, with more than $3.2 being guaranteed for public schools. The federal government has stipulated that these funds must first be used to fill existing holes in public school spending. If it is determined that there are no holes, the money must be distributed to schools through Title I formulas. Texas’ approach to using these funds has been somewhat controversial, since there are no plainly identifiable budget holes to fill. ATPE testified before the Select Committee on Federal Economic Stabilization Funding on how data shows the importance of teacher quality to student achievement, and how we believe that this infusion of federal dollars provides a momentous opportunity to make a serious investment in teacher quality.

The Texas Education Agency is expected to submit its application to the U.S. Education Department soon, which will explain in detail how the state intends to use stimulus funds. Future federal funding is contingent upon the state using stimulus dollars to meet education-related goals set forth by the Education Department.

Early childhood education
One of the highest profile bills of the session was HB 130, a bill that greatly increased the funding for pre-kindergarten services to allow for the expansion of full-day pre-Kindergarten programs around the state. The bill, by Rep. Diane Patrick (R-Arlington) and sponsored by Sen. Judith Zaffirini (D–Laredo), along with a record number of co-authors, promotes high-quality pre-K programs operated by school districts with the help of community providers. The Legislature approved a $25 million appropriation for the bill. Although the amount is far less than the authors initially sought, it is an investment in early childhood education that is expected to save taxpayers three times that amount. Some estimates put the savings at more than $87 million, since children who participate in high-quality pre-K programs have been shown to have fewer referrals to special education programs, higher graduation rates, a decreased likelihood of becoming involved in the criminal justice system and eventual greater earning power in the adult job market. ATPE supported this bill.

Educator preparation, certification and training
arly in the session, House Public Education Committee Chair Rep. Rob Eissler (R–The Woodlands) and Sen. Florence Shapiro (R–Plano) announced their intentions to pursue a “teacher quality” bill. Ultimately, they filed HB 3421 and Senate Bill (SB) 1787, respectively, which related to educator preparation programs and educator certification, performance and recruitment. Shapiro never scheduled a hearing on the Senate version of the bill, but HB 3421 was heard by the House Public Education committee. Eissler agreed to incorporate several ATPE-recommended changes based on our Teacher Quality Study into his bill. HB 3421 was one of many bills that “died on the House calendar,” meaning that the deadlines for consideration of the bill elapsed before it was able to be brought up on the House floor. However, a few provisions of the bill were added late in the session to another bill, SB 174 by Shapiro, which related to the accountability of higher education institutions. SB 174 was passed by the Legislature and will enable the State Board for Educator Certification (SBEC) to:

Charge fees to educator preparation programs.
Establish an accreditation system for educator preparations programs.
Have the ability to sanction programs that do not meet the accreditation standards.
Establish a consumer information website with information on the quality of educator preparations programs. The consumer information website, which ATPE strongly supports, will also provide information on employment opportunities for teachers.

The Legislature also passed bills that offer additional training to existing teachers. SB 451 by Sen. Leticia Van de utte (D–San Antonio), sponsored by Rep. Patrick, will enable teachers who are not certified in special education but are assigned to teach students with special needs to obtain additional training to help them meet the needs of those students. SB 2262 by Zaffirini, sponsored by Rep. Dan Branch (R–Dallas), will make more teachers eligible to participate in math, science and technology teacher preparation academies. Under this bill, eligible teachers need only two years of experience, rather than the five years that are required under current law. ATPE supported these bills.

A few bills relating to continuing education for school principals were also approved.

HB 200 by Rep. Joe Heflin (D–Crosbyton) eliminates a statutory requirement for principals to participate in a mandatory assessment program every five years. The costly program was found to be ineffective, since the results of the assessments were confidential. The bill does not, however, change the continuing education requirements that are imposed on principals by SBEC.
HB 4435 by Rep. Alma Allen (D–Dallas) modifies the School Leadership Pilot Program created for principals of campuses that are rated academically unacceptable. The bill specifies that the program will apply only to a principal who was actually leading the campus during the year in which it earned the unacceptable rating.

Other certification-related bills included:

HB 709 and HB 4152, two bills by Rep. Patrick Rose (D–Dripping Springs), deal with certification of educators. HB 709 permits school districts to use state incentive funds to award stipends to teachers who have obtained national certification. A similar bill passed last session but was vetoed by the governor. HB 4152 makes it quicker for out-of-state educators to become certified in Texas, especially in subjects that are designated as shortage areas.
HB 963, by Rep. Ryan Guillen (D–Rio Grande City) and sponsored by Sen. John Whitmire (D–Houston), benefits students entering educator preparation programs. The bill enables students to request criminal history evaluation letters from SBEC to determine whether or not they will be eligible for employment in a school setting. Since the enactment of the fingerprinting laws in 2007, administrators of educator preparation programs have complained that their students are not eligible to be fingerprinted until they apply for certification; therefore, some students do not find out they are ineligible to become teachers until after they have already spent the time and money to complete an educator preparation program. HB 963 was amended late in the session to include language from another bill relating to the offenses that can disqualify a person for certification or licensure in various fields, but it is not expected to have a significant impact on educators since SBEC rules already address this issue. ATPE supported this bill.

Questions? Contact ATPE Governmental Relations.

Other Useful Links

The 81st Legislative Session

Part 1: School finance, federal stimulus funding, early childhood education and certification