The 84th Legislative Session started out with at
least a glimmer of hope that both chambers would address the needs of public
education. Well, they did … but in
totally different ways. The House public
education committee, under the leadership of Rep. Jimmie Don Aycock, focused a
significant amount of dialog on how to increase funding to the required level;
HB 1759 (before withdrawn) would have increased public education funding by as
much as $3 billion (over the biennium) on top of the $2.3 billion required to
support enrollment growth.
The Senate public education committee, on the other hand, spent more time discussing alternatives to public education and funding
considerations that support what they characterized as “school choice”. The dialog among committee members ultimately
resulted in SB4, among others, legislation that is characterized as being about
taxpayer savings grants but is, in reality, still a voucher proposal that moves
funds from public education to other options.
While the House clearly understood the requirement defined
in Article 7, Section 1 of the Texas Constitution that “A general diffusion of knowledge
being essential to the preservation of the liberties and rights of the people,
it shall be the duty of the Legislature of the State to establish and make
suitable provision for the support and maintenance of an efficient system of
public free schools.”, the Senate chose a different path, one that fails to
fulfill the requirements imposed by the Constitution.
There
is still some hope as the conference committee led by Sen. Nelson and Rep. Otto
seems to be leaning toward an increase to public education funding equal to $1.2-1.5 billion (in addition to enrollment growth funding). While well short of the House proposal, this
does at least offer some hope that legislators understand the importance of
adequacy in our system. What is not
clear yet is how these funds will then address the equity issues that are also
a part of litigation currently pending before the Texas Supreme Court.
So
what can you do as a trustee? First and
foremost, don’t give up the fight! Public education is and always has been a “school
choice” consideration. It’s critical
that the voices of public education students be heard; the most impactful
mouthpiece for that voice is through locally elected public school
trustees. This is not just an
opportunity for trustees to be stronger advocates; it is a requirement that
those elected to serve students in their communities step up to the
responsibility imposed by election to their role as trustees. Remember, you are doing this not for
yourselves but for the more than five million students (and growing) who rely
on you to represent them.
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