"I am committed to protecting the 5.5 million school kids in Texas from being used as political hostages!"

HB 100 WAS MY SIGNATURE piece of legislation for the 88th Regular Legislative Session. I’m very sad to say that it ultimately did not pass!

HB 100 as it left the House was worth approximately $5 billion in formula funding for things like the basic allotment and the small/midsize allotment. It also moved most allotments from average daily attendance to enrollment based funding, driving roughly 8% more money for student programs such as career and technical education. We created funding mechanisms for programs like fine arts and advanced math, extended the formula transition grants that we promised to schools in House Bill 3, and gave much needed recapture relief. In addition, we raised the minimum salary schedule for teachers guaranteeing an automatic pay raise for 70,000 teachers in the first year of the biennium, and even more teachers would receive a raise in the second year. We raised the basic allotment twice over the biennium and established a bi-annual inflationary adjustment.

In addition to what we passed in HB 100, we also passed HB11 that was worth $645 million for teacher pay. Totaling almost $6 billion, the House sent over a comprehensive package of bills that provided necessary funding for our students, teachers and schools!

The Senate did nothing with HB 100 until the last week of session, when they discovered they had no other vehicle for school finance. Around that time I was told our budget writers (i.e. the chairs of House Appropriations and Senate Finance) closed out the budget, meaning it cannot reopen until the regular session in 2025. The final amount of money set aside for FSP funding and teacher pay was $3.9 billion, significantly less than the almost $6 billion we policy makers in the House were told we had for this purpose. The line item in the budget sets aside $500 million for the education savings accounts (ESA).

Furthermore, the money set aside for the specific purpose of a teacher pay raise can only be accessed if a bill passes that includes an ESA! In other words, teacher pay raises are being held hostage to support an ESA plan! I think it’s important to point out that many supporters of ESA’s supported the Governor in his State of the State address when he said that he was going to fully fund public schools and have an ESA. Yet it is clear in the budget that we reduced the agreed to funding in HB 100 so we could afford the ESA. The budget we are going to pass has millions of dollars in it to increase pay for many state employees and none of these raises are contingent on anything. Only teachers are punished over a political fight.

In the last week of the 88th regular session, with only 3 days left, the Senate sent HB 100 back to the House, defunded from how it was sent to them, and it now included a universal ESA! In a good faith effort, the House continued to negotiate with the Senate, but in the end the Senate would not negotiate at all, it was a universal ESA or nothing. I am truly sorry HB 100 did not pass, but in the end I believe students, teachers, and schools are better off with current law than they would be if we accept what the Senate is offering.

The Governor likes to threaten special sessions, well my opinion of that is I stand ready! I would not have put my name on a ballot if I wasn’t . So I look forward to spending some quality time with the Governor and the Senate in the summer, fall, or anytime we are called back, to continue to work on this important issue. I am committed to protecting the 5.5 million school kids in Texas from being used as political hostages! What the Governor and the Senate has done is inexcusable and I stand ready to set it right and continue to work for the best outcome for our students and schools!