Latest news with #BradBuckley
Yahoo
18 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Sine die for Texas Legislature while debate over THC ban continues
The Brief Monday was sine die for the Texas Legislature Judicial pay kept the legislature from an early end THC ban still awaits Gov. Abbott's signature AUSTIN, Texas - Day 140 of the 89th Texas Legislature's regular session wraps up another face-off between Democrats and the Republican majority. What we know A major accomplishment was the passage of education funding. The landmark bill was pushed through by state Rep. Brad Buckley (R-Salado). "I don't have any regrets. I feel like we dealt with everyone honestly and openly. Everybody knew what was coming, what my opinion was on issues. And as always, look forward to the interim to study more issues and come back next session and finish the job on some things," said Buckley. School choice passed by replacing the STARR Test was an unexpected failure, one of several missed opportunities, according to state Rep. Donna Howard (D-Austin). "I am pleased about the budget. I would have liked to have seen more done. I think we could have done more with our economic stabilization fund, which is busting at the seams," said Howard. What we know A lingering financial disagreement between the House and Senate put an early legislative exit on hold. Conferees from the two chambers met throughout the day trying to reach a deal on a judicial pay raise bill. The House did not want lawmakers' retirement pay to be linked to the six-figure amount for judges. An agreement was reached to separate the two calculations in 2030. What's next As lawmakers waited, several boxes were delivered to the governor's office. The items in the boxes could trigger a quick return by way of a special session. The boxes contained petitions that urged Gov. Greg Abbott to save the hemp industry by vetoing Senate Bill 3. The controversial bill would ban many products with THC. "I've rebuilt my life. I've become a better leader, a better husband, a better father, and ultimately a better man. But now Senate Bill 3 wants to turn this into contraband. It wants to me and thousands of other veterans into criminals for choosing an alternative that works for us," said Dave Walden, a ranking member with the VFW and a hemp industry advocate. Those who support SB3 urged the governor to let it become law. They argued that the hemp industry is filled with unregulated and dangerous products. "Senate Bill 3 does not ban hemp. It prohibits the manufacture, the sale of hemp-derived THC and its analogs, such as Delta-8-thc, which are synthetically produced by CBD. This bill is a correction bill to get rid of the poison that is synthetic THC," said Aubrey Adams with Citizens for a Safe and Healthy Texas. If there is a veto, lawmakers could be brought back for a special session to consider new regulations. Abbott could also let SB3 become law without his signature. He has until June 22nd to make a decision. The state medical marijuana law was expanded as a way to provide some political cover for lawmakers who voted for the ban and for the governor. Regardless of what Abbott does, hemp products could become an election year issue in 2026. The Source Information in this report comes from reporting/interviews by FOX 7 Austin's chief political reporter Rudy Koski.
Yahoo
a day ago
- General
- Yahoo
Bill to replace Texas STAAR test fails
The Brief A bill to replace the STAAR test failed to pass the Texas legislature The House and Senate could not agree on key differences. The Texas State Teachers Association opposed the Senate's version, preferring no bill to what they saw as overreach by the education commissioner. AUSTIN - Texas lawmakers failed to come to an agreement on a bill that would have replaced the STAAR test in the state. Dig deeper House Bill 4, authored by state Rep. Brad Buckley (R-Salado), would have replaced the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) with three shorter tests during the school year. Under the bill, the tests would have been given out in October, from mid-January to early-February, and late May. Different versions of the bill passed the House and Senate, but the two chambers could not agree on differences. The Senate was pushing to keep a social studies test and for the Texas Education Agency commissioner to be able to set strict standards for school districts' letter-grade system. The House wanted the state legislature to approve any changes to the A-F ratings made by the TEA. The STAAR test has been used for students in grades three through 11 since 2012. What they're saying The Texas State Teachers Association had urged state legislators to vote no on the Senate version of the bill. "We think we are better off that there is no bill at all than what the Senate wanted to do. We thought the Senate gave far too much authority to the unelected state commissioner," the union wrote on social media. The Source Information in this article comes from documents from Texas Legislature on House Bill 4 and statements by the Texas State Teachers Association.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Bill to scrap STAAR test dies in the Texas Legislature
A legislative effort to scrap the STAAR test to respond to concerns that the test puts unnecessary pressure on students died in the last days of the legislative session. House Bill 4, authored by state Rep. Brad Buckley, would have swapped the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness test for three shorter tests given throughout the school year. The Senate and House failed to come out of closed-door negotiations with a compromise in time, missing a key legislative deadline this weekend. Legislators in the House and Senate agreed that Texas schools needed to do away with the STAAR test. But in the end, the two chambers could not close the gulf over what they wanted to see out of the new test and from the A-F ratings system, which uses standardized test results to grade schools' performance. Tensions had come to a head in recent years when a dispute over how ratings should be calculated led to two years of scores to be held up in court. The Senate wanted to solidify the Texas Education Agency commissioner's authority to set stricter standards for the ratings system. And to discourage schools from taking legal action again, the upper chamber's version of the bill gave the TEA commissioner authority to appoint a conservator to districts that initiate lawsuits. The House version, meanwhile, required the TEA to get approval from the Legislature before making major changes to the ratings system. And it left an avenue for districts to sue to challenge the TEA in the future, while setting up a fast-track court process so those lawsuits would not halt the release of the ratings. The two chambers also differed over whether to keep or do away with a mandatory social studies test, with the House in favor of less testing. The session started with nearly identical versions of the legislation in the House and Senate, but when senators slammed school districts in committee hearings and on the chamber floor for participating in the recent lawsuits, few superintendents came out to testify in front of the Senate Education Committee. Instead, the school leaders were in talks with House representatives about their lack of trust in the state's accountability and testing systems. The House's rewrite of the legislation to reflect school leaders' concerns eventually came late in the session, leaving little time for negotiations between the chambers to reach a compromise. To the Texas State Teachers Association, the current high-stakes STAAR test takes instructional time away from the classroom and is not an accurate measure of student success. But the group was holding their breath when the two chambers were in closed-door negotiations. 'We think we are better off that there is no bill at all than what the Senate wanted to do,' said Clay Robison, a spokesperson for the group. 'We thought the Senate gave far too much authority to the unelected state commissioner.' The Texas Tribune partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage. Disclosure: Texas State Teachers Association has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here. First round of TribFest speakers announced! Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Maureen Dowd; U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-San Antonio; Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker; U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff, D-California; and U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Dallas are taking the stage Nov. 13–15 in Austin. Get your tickets today!
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
$8.5 billion school finance bill heads to Governor's desk for signature
AUSTIN (Nexstar) — Texas House lawmakers gave the thumbs-up to a $8.5 billion school finance bill, which some in leadership called the largest investment in public schools in the state's history. But some school district leaders said they worry about the lack of local control. House Bill 2 is now heading to the Governor's desk for his signature. PREVIOUS: Texas Senate advances $8.5 billion increase to public school funding The additional dollars have an emphasis on raising the salaries of teachers with at least three years experience, while creating new guidelines for how the dollars can be spent by school districts. 'Texas is a big state,' said State Rep. Brad Buckley, R-Salado, on the House floor prior to passage. 'Every district in our region, from El Paso to Orange and from Texoma to Brownsville, has varying needs and requests for specific support from this legislature. Satisfying all of those needs is an incredible, incredible undertaking, and I believe that this version of House Bill Two before you now meets that moment as passed by Senate.' Of the $8.5 billion in the bill, almost half — $4.2 billion — is dedicated strictly for teacher and staff pay raises. Teachers in smaller school districts will earn a $4,000 pay raise in their third year of teaching which will then double when they reach their fifth year of experience. Teachers in larger school districts with more than 5,000 students will receive $2,500 after three years and $5,000 after being on the job for five years. There is an additional $500 million in flexible funding for non-administrative staff pay raises for entry level teachers, counselors, librarians, nurses, custodians and bus drivers along with other support staff. Related: A look inside the school finance and education savings account bills Mary Lynn Pruneda, director of education and workforce policy at Texas 2036, a nonpartisan policy research organization, said in total it is around an additional $1,600 per student in Texas. 'This is an investment in particularly paying teachers more. Paying our staff members in our districts more, but then also these certain programs that we know have a really high return on investment for students,' Pruneda said. Those programs include $677 million for early learning, $850 million for special education, and $153 million for career technical education. The bill sponsors also say it funds full-day pre-K. At least half of the state's public school districts are projected to receive at least $1,000 in additional per student funding with more than 350 of those districts receiving an additional $1,500 per student. There are more than 1,200 public school districts in Texas, all with their own unique challenges and needs depending on their size and location. Nexstar spoke to a few school leaders in districts with varying student population size. All the school leaders said they experienced some type of financial struggle over the past couple of years as the costs of day-to-day operations increased with a lack of additional funding from the state. School leaders in Thrall ISD, Mercedes ISD and Brownsville ISD all agreed they are grateful for any additional dollars from the state to go into their budget. Tommy Hooker, Thrall ISD superintendent, said the increase in teacher pay is monumental. His rural district with fewer than 900 students has grown in the past seven years, increasing by about 3% to 5% each year. Because of that, he's had to hire more staff without any additional financial assistance from the state and his teachers went without pay raises. Under the new bill, a majority of his teachers will see an $8,000 increase to their salary. 'We've not been able to do an increase like that ever locally,' Hooker said. He added that he believes the funding is 'adequate,' but expressed hesitations about the structure of the bill. Instead of pumping new dollars to raise the basic allotment, which is the base amount of money for per student funding, lawmakers decided to create separate allotments that have guidelines in how the dollars can be spent. They even created a new allotment called the allotment for basic costs. That allotment as $1.3 billion for costs like insurance premiums that are skyrocketing, costs associated with the Teacher Retirement System, utilities and transportation. Buckley said that allotment is to make sure the basic allotment dollars are being spent inside the classroom. But school leaders have expressed they are concerned this limits control at the local level. The basic allotment does provide more flexibility for school districts to use the money how they see fit, but the structure of this bill puts the new dollars into different sections that have a dedicated use. Dr. Jesus Chavez, Brownsville ISD superintendent, said the lack of state funding in recent years led to his school district and others dipping into their savings to cover rising costs. For his district, Chavez said he needs money to focus on renovations to older schools. 'They're giving us dollars but they're telling us where to spend them. Can I move five million or can I move eight million over to roofs and air condition systems? The answer is no,' Chavez said. Dr. Alicia Noyola, interim superintendent of schools for Mercedes ISD, said the district will close a couple of schools because of rising costs and limited funding. She too does not like the lack of flexibility with the new dollars. 'It doesn't provide us funds to address day-to-day operations,' Noyola explained. All of the superintendents said that they were happy with funds coming in, but that they hope to see additional dollars from the state in future sessions. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
CBS News
28-05-2025
- General
- CBS News
Bill advancing at Texas Capitol gives school boards, parents process to remove books in public school libraries
New bill would give Texas parents more control over books in public school libraries New bill would give Texas parents more control over books in public school libraries New bill would give Texas parents more control over books in public school libraries Texas lawmakers are taking a step closer to passing a bill that will give local school boards the ability to pull books from school library shelves. Parents will also be able to challenge books in the school libraries under the legislation. The Texas House passed Senate Bill 13, authored by Senator Angela Paxton, R-McKinney, along party lines Monday. Lawmakers in the House were set to give final approval Tuesday, but that has been pushed back until Wednesday morning. From the House, the measure will return to the Senate to review changes made by the House. Under the legislation, the state will establish a definition for harmful materials. According to legislative records, indecent content would portray sex organs or activities in a way that's patently offensive. Profane content would include grossly offensive language considered a public nuisance. There is a difference between the House and Senate versions in at least one provision, which allows the creation of a school library advisory council. The Senate version says it should be mandatory, while the House version says it should be optional. Republicans, including Representative Brad Buckley of Salado, support the bill because it gives more local control. "Senate Bill 13 understands that too often, for too long, libraries have been filled with agendas," said Buckley. "It's time to end that. But the way to end it is to empower our local leaders and our parents locally to find some resolution." Democrats, including Representative Mihaela Plesa of Dallas, expressed concerns over the legislation and said she opposes it. "Senate Bill 13 may not call itself censorship, but in effect is the same thing: giving the government the authority to decide what stories are too uncomfortable, too complicated or too real for our students to read," Plesa said. In addition to Senate Bill 13, the Texas House gave final passage to Senate Bill 6. It will allow ERCOT, the power grid operator, the ability to shut off power to large customers, such as data centers, during emergency situations. Those customers would have to have backup power. It comes as ERCOT has forecast that demand for power will surge in Texas by 2030. The bill will have to go back to the Texas Senate to work out differences. Watch Eye On Politics at 7:30 Sunday morning on CBS News Texas on air and streaming
