Latest news with #HousePublicEducationCommittee
Yahoo
10-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Budget day in the House: Texas lawmakers take up $337 billion spending plan
The Texas House on Thursday is set to take up its $337 billion budget plan, giving the full chamber its last chance to weigh in on how the state will spend taxpayer dollars over the next two years. The Senate passed its own version of the budget last month, approving a spending plan that largely aligns with the version House lawmakers advanced to the floor. But the House budget could change by the time lawmakers work through the nearly 400 amendments that have been filed in the lower chamber. Such floor debates typically last late into the night, a marathon known as House Budget Day. After the budget bill passes the chamber, lawmakers from the House and Senate can start private negotiations to hammer out a final version. The Texas Tribune will provide live coverage and analysis of the debate, which historically has stretched into the late evening, here. Follow along. Rep. John Bryant, D-Dallas, proposed a handful of amendments that would take the $1 billion currently set aside for a private school voucher program and use it instead to boost public school funding or provide a cost-of-living adjustment for retired teachers. In one of his amendments, Bryant wants to put the $1 billion toward one-time bonuses for classroom teachers. Another of his proposals would increase the base amount of money public schools receive for each student — $6,160 —a level that has not increased since 2019. Rep. Gina Hinojosa, an Austin Democrat who serves with Bryant on the House Public Education Committee, offered a similar change that would specifically increase districts' base funding, known as the basic allotment, by $395. None of the measures are likely to pass the Republican-controlled chamber, which has rejected proposals to raise the basic allotment in prior budget debates. The House Public Education Committee voted last week to advance school voucher and public school funding legislation to the full chamber. The voucher bill would provide families access to roughly $10,000 in taxpayer dollars through state-managed education savings accounts to fund their children's private school tuition. Unlike in previous sessions, no lawmaker filed an amendment to bar state dollars from being used on school voucher programs. Such amendments, which routinely passed the House with support from Democrats and rural Republicans, served as test votes to gauge the chamber's support for voucher-like bills. This year, a narrow majority has signed on in support of the chamber's school voucher bill, a milestone for the historically voucher-resistant House. - Jaden Edison and Jasper Scherer GOP lawmakers have offered up several amendments that would shift money from other parts of the budget into the attorney general's office. Three such amendments — from Reps. Briscoe Cain, James Frank and Mitch Little — would do so by pulling varying amounts from the Texas Lottery Commission. The agency has faced intense scrutiny over the use of couriers — third-party services that enable online purchasing of lottery tickets — and concerns that the practice could enable unfair or illegal activity. Little, a Lewisville Republican, served as one of Attorney General Ken Paxton's defense attorneys in his Senate impeachment trial. Another one of Little's amendments proposes making a one-time payment of $63,750 to Paxton for the purpose of recouping the salary Paxton did not receive while impeached and suspended from office in 2023. Another amendment from Little would extract more than $21 million from the governor's music, film, TV and multimedia industries budget, which goes toward the Texas Film Commission, the Texas Music Office and a grant incentives program for the moving image industry. Under the amendment, the money would be used to give a 6% raise to employees of the attorney general's office. The office will have a new leader for part of the next budget cycle with Paxton forgoing reelection to challenge U.S. Sen. John Cornyn in next year's primary. - Jasper Scherer Among Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick's 40 priorities this legislative session are a $3 billion dementia research fund and $500 million in incentives to bring film and television production to Texas. Both have advanced in the Senate, which Patrick runs with an iron fist. But in the House, some Republicans are going after those two priorities, arguing that they don't fall under the proper role of government. State Rep. Brian Harrison, R-Midlothian and head rabble-rouser, filed amendments to zero out both the film incentives package and the dementia research fund — and direct all $3.5 billion toward property tax cuts. 'Is taking $500 million in taxes from hard working Texans to give to liberal Hollywood a conservative thing to do??' Harrison posted on social media, railing against the measure. 'Is that the role of government!?' State Rep. Shelley Luther, R-Tom Bean, also proposed directing $155 million from film incentives toward border operations, which is already set to receive $6.5 billion under both chambers' budget proposals. And state Rep. Cody Vasut, R-Angleton, filed an amendment to spend $2 billion of the dementia research fund to reduce property taxes. The film incentives proposal, Senate Bill 22, would direct the comptroller to put $500 million into a new Texas Moving Image Industry Incentive Fund every two years until 2035. In March, the Senate approved the creation of the Dementia Prevention and Research Institute of Texas with the goal of attracting brain disease physicians and researchers to Texas. Senate Joint Resolution 3, which would require voter approval if passed by the Legislature, would fund the institute with $3 billion in surplus revenue. - Kayla Guo The Texas Lottery Commission has faced intense scrutiny all legislative session for allowing courier companies to sell lottery and scratch-off tickets over a smartphone app — potentially, lawmakers say, illegally. The outrage over the practice — and the Texas Lottery Commission's lack of oversight over it — has turned the agency, in many lawmakers' eyes, into a new bucket of money for their own priorities. Lawmakers filed almost three dozen amendments funneling millions of dollars from the Texas Lottery to items like the Office of the Attorney General's criminal investigations unit; an substance abuse treatment center for uninsured teenagers; property tax cuts; human trafficking victim services; and higher education research. - Kayla Guo One proposal would provide $234 million to the Texas Railroad Commission, which regulates the state's oil and gas industry, to plug leaking and exploding wells — an amount surpassing the agency's entire $226 million two-year budget. Last fall, the commission requested an additional $100 million for emergency and high-priority actions and to cope with inflation. Danny Sorrell, the agency's executive director, said in a letter to lawmakers that the commission already plugs wells where there is an urgent need whether or not it has the money in the budget. He said the practice had become unsustainable. State Rep. Drew Darby, R-San Angelo, said in an amendment filed this week that the commission must submit a report detailing the location of each inactive oil and gas well, the risks of leaving them unplugged, a plan to plug or restore them and any information the agency deems necessary. The commission estimates roughly 150,000 inactive wells are scattered throughout Texas. These do not produce oil or natural gas. They are considered 'orphaned' when they have no clear owner or if the company in charge of them is bankrupt. In an annual report detailing its oil field cleanup efforts, the commission estimated roughly 8,300, or 5% of all inactive wells, are orphaned. In 2024, it plugged a little more than a thousand of them, costing taxpayers $34 million. – Carlos Nogueras Ramos
Yahoo
04-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Texas House education panel advances school voucher, funding bills
A Senate bill that would create a $1 billion school voucher program is set for an expected heated debate on the Texas House floor after the lower chamber's Committee on Public Education advanced the proposal along party lines Thursday. The GOP-controlled committee also advanced House Bill 2, the chamber's $7.6 billion education funding package, which would increase base-level funding per student by $395 — up from $6,160 to $6,555. School vouchers, a program that would allow students to use public money to pay for private school tuition, has become a hot-button issue in recent years and has pitted Republicans against each other. Gov. Greg Abbott made "school choice" his signature issue, declaring it an emergency item, and has expended tremendous political capital into supporting a voucher program. Proponents say school vouchers would offer parents more education options for their children, while opponents insist that such a program would divert much needed funding from public schools. The House Public Education Committee on Thursday potentially shortened the runway for a voucher program to make it to Abbott's desk by advancing the Senate's proposal, Senate Bill 2, instead of the House's own plan, House Bill 3. HB 3, authored by Rep. Brad Buckley, a Republican from Salado who chairs the House Public Education Committee, has 75 cosponsors in the 150-member chamber — all Republicans — just enough to clear a majority if they all voted in favor of that proposal. HB 3 is pending in committee. The Senate passed its school voucher proposal Feb. 5, about three weeks after the start of the legislative session. Democratic members on the House committee, which has nine Republicans and six Democrats, renewed their opposition to a voucher bill Thursday. Rep. Gina Hinojosa, D-Austin, insisted that SB 2 doesn't prevent private schools from turning away students based on their religion, disability or other factors. 'This bill expands the opportunity to discriminate against our kids who need a special education and who are disabled,' Hinojosa said. As lawmakers debated SB 2 inside the Capitol, educators from across Texas were rallying outside, calling for increased public school funding and teacher pay. Yolanda Graham, a parent of two children from the Dallas area, held an enlarged version of the state's constitutional guidelines on education. 'We made a promise to make sure that children have the knowledge that they need,' Graham said. She wants lawmakers to provide enough funding for schools to pay for teachers, paraprofessionals and support staff in her children's Cedar Hill schools. 'We need to make sure that our administrators don't have to make difficult decisions about the supports we need in the building,' Graham said. Buckley told the American-Statesman that he plans to bring HB 2 and SB 2 to the House floor for consideration during the same week though a date has not yet been set. The version of SB 2 the House committee advanced was a revised version of the Senate's voucher plan, with changes made to more closely align it with the House's proposal. For example, the House program would prioritize children with special education needs in families at or below 500% of the federal poverty line — about $160,000 for a family of four. Then, it would prioritize children from all families at 200% of the federal poverty line — about $64,000 for a family of four. Children in other income brackets would be placed in other tiers of priority. The Senate's plan had far fewer restrictions, with priority placed generally on students receiving special education services and families below 500% of the poverty line. The committee's vote to advance SB 2 came after members debated about the meeting not being live streamed. It was labeled as a formal meeting, which is typically a gathering in which the committee will vote out a bill and doesn't take public testimony. Rep. James Talarico, D-Austin, insisted that since committee members were having a robust discussion about the education proposals, the meeting should be live streamed. 'I just think it's disingenuous to say that we're going by typical House rules or typical House procedures because this is not typical,' Talarico said. Buckley, who chairs the committee, maintained that the panel was following the chamber's rules. 'We're acting within House policies,' he said. This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas House committee advances school voucher, education funding bills
CBS News
03-04-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
Elon Musk's name comes up in debate over school choice bill before it advances to full Texas House
A bill that would spend $1 billion in tax dollars to send students to private schools in Texas is headed to the full House. On Thursday afternoon, the House Public Education Committee voted out the school choice measure, 9-6 along party lines . No word yet on how quickly the full House will debate the legislation. Much of the debate on school choice centers around which students are eligible to receive public money and how much. Under the House bill voted out of committee many students accepted into the program will receive $10,000 per year to attend an accredited private school. Students with disabilities will receive more than that, perhaps up to $30,000 based on their needs. Home-schooled students would get $2,000. The program will be capped at $1 billion during the first year, which is the 2026-27 school year. Forecasts by the Legislative Budget Board (LBB) show by 2030, the cost to taxpayers per year could climb to around $4 billion. But in response to a question by CBS News Texas during a news conference last week, Gov. Greg Abbott said that the LBB's estimates are "based on fiction" and that the legislature will determine the program's budget in future years. Republicans said, under their bill, low-income students and those with disabilities are prioritized. However, it is a universal program, meaning any student is eligible. State Talarico, D-Austin, said that includes billionaire Elon Musk's children. "I know Elon Musk is a somewhat humorous example, but wealthy parents, whether the richest man in the world or just a family making over $500,000 a year, they have access to this program," said Talarico. "But it is not limited to the family you just mentioned." But State Rep. Brad Buckley, R-Salado, who is Chairman of the Public Education Committee, rejected Talarico's argument. "I don't know the circumstances of every family," said Buckley. "I don't know their tax returns and I don't know the particular challenges a child is having. But what I do know is that when you put choice in the hands of the parents, they'll make the right call and I think the circumstance in which they make that will look different from family to family." Other Democratic lawmakers criticized the school choice bill saying it would lead to unaccredited private schools. "This voucher bill will eventually destroy public schools," Rep. Alma Allen, D-Houston said. "I give it 10 years, five sessions from now. Once you open the box, many of these will pop up, and will eventually destroy our public schools." "The bill requires the schools to be accredited and that's a process and it's in the bill," Buckley responded. "There will not be any pop-up schools." Rep. James Frank, R-Wichita Falls disagreed with Allen. "The studies all show public school improvement, academic performance improves," said Frank. "The idea that things are going to completely fall apart, I understand people don't like the bill, but the idea this will destroy public schools is to me fear-mongering." When the debate on this bill makes it to the House floor, Democrats will try to kill it. Abbott and Speaker Dustin Burrows remain confident they've got more than the 76 votes needed to pass the school choice bill in the House. The Public Education Committee also passed the school funding bill by a margin of 13-2. It will include nearly $8 billion in new money. It will raise the basic allotment for school districts, which has been $6,160 since 2019 by $395. That is more than the $220 increase proposed in the original bill. Forty percent of that basic allotment will go toward pay raises for teachers and other staff. The bill will automatically raise the basic allotment in future years. Watching the debate Thursday afternoon became an issue because the House committee chose not to livestream the meeting as is normally the case. CBS News Texas livestreamed the meeting. Watch it in its entirety below: Watch Eye On Politics at 7:30 Sunday morning on CBS News Texas on air and streaming
CBS News
26-03-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
Gov. Abbott, top legislative leaders continue to push school choice program in Texas during rare joint news conference
It was a rare sight: Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Governor Dan Patrick and a Speaker of the Texas House held a joint news conference for the first time since 2019. Abbott and the new Speaker, Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, gave an updated timetable on legislation that would spend $1 billion in taxpayer money to send students to private school through what's called an Education Savings Account, or ESA. They said the House Public Education Committee will pass the school choice bill, HB 2, and HB 3, the public school funding bill next week and after that, the full House will pass the legislation after that. The three Texas leaders appeared with former Republican Arizona Governor Doug Ducey along with a dozen Republican lawmakers. Arizona was the first state in the U.S. to pass a universal program that provides taxpayer-funded education savings accounts. In Texas, the average student could receive $10,000 per year with disabled students receiving more money. Texas Democrats have said Arizona's program ballooned state spending and caused a budget shortfall. But Ducey pushed back, saying that's not true, and that when he left office in 2022 the state had a budget surplus. The questions of the cost of the ESA program in Texas come as some neighborhood public schools in North Texas have closed and school districts have passed deficit budgets and dipped into savings. Democrats point to budget estimates by the Texas Legislative Budget Board that the cost of the school choice program could rise to $4 billion a year by 2030. But during the news conference, Abbott said the LBB estimates are based on "nothing but fiction" and that the legislature will pass what the state can afford. "It's wrong, flat-out incorrect for anybody to suggest that number is going to grow larger in future years," Abbott said. "The number can only grow as large as much as the legislature decides to appropriate to it." He also said the state still doesn't know how many students will apply for the program, which could be as high as 100,000 according to Patrick. In response, State Representative Gene Wu, D-Houston, and Chairman of the House Democratic Caucus criticized Arizona's ESA program and said they don't want the program in Texas. "These billions of dollars they're going to put into vouchers, that can go back home to save your local schools, but they're not doing that," said Wu. "Instead, they're doing what the billionaires want them to do." Public school districts would lose money when students leave for private schools. But the Chair of the House Public Education Committee, Representative Brad Buckley, R-Salado, told CBS News Texas that under the House legislation, school districts would not lose more than 5% of their funding if student enrollment fell by more than 5% because of the ESA program. Patrick said under the 2026-27 state budget passed by the Senate, the state will spend $84 billion on public education for about 5.5 million students, while the ESA program will cost $1 billion for about 100,000 students. "So, if anyone says that we are undermining education, that is a total lie," Patrick said. "What we are doing in our K-12 public schools is funding them more than ever before." If and when the Texas House passes the school choice program, lawmakers in that chamber will have to negotiate differences with Texas Senators, who have already passed their version of the bill. If both chambers agree to and approve the compromise school choice legislation and the governor signs it, the Texas Comptroller's office will have a year to set up the program and explain to the public how it will work. Watch Eye On Politics at 7:30 Sunday morning on CBS News Texas on air and streaming
Yahoo
24-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Texas bill would ban phones from classrooms
The Brief HB 1481 would ban cell phones from Texas public school classrooms. State Rep. Caroline Fairly believes it will help test scores and help combat bullying. The bill is currently in committee. There is a bipartisan bill in the Texas House that would ban all cell phones in public school classrooms. HB 1481, co-authored by State Rep. Caroline Fairly (R-Amarillo), is currently in the House Public Education Committee. The bill would require classrooms to designate a secure, out-of-sight area to keep phones during instructional times. FOX 4's Steven Dial talked to Fairley about the bill and the impact it could have on schools. What they're saying State Rep. Caroline Fairly: "We have heard from so many teachers who have said, you know, we need the state to kind of have our back on this issue because we're in the classroom picking up phones and ending up being the bad guy when it comes to this policy." FOX 4's Steven Dial: "Why do you think it's so important to to restrict cell phone access in the classroom?" Fairly: "There's really three critical issues that are really important when you look at this piece of legislation. First is the student academic outcome. Second is the mental health aspect. And then third is classroom management for our teachers. When you look at all of those across the board, we are targeting being sure that our kids go to school to focus on academics, but we also protect them. You know, the amount of cyberbullying that's being cited in these schools is it's gone up so much more." Dial: "Some North Texas school districts have implemented or are testing out a cellphone ban. How can the enforcement happen if this becomes law?" Fairly: "We've been really careful with our legislation to allow for as much local control as possible. I think it's really important to address this. And so you're right, about 20, 25 school districts, to my knowledge, have already started implementing this and they're seeing test scores increase. They're seeing student interactions with the teachers and even other peers is going way better than it was before. But when you talk about enforcement, the reality is, we've allowed in the bill for the school to adopt their own disciplinary policy. And so again, it's back to local control, like we want the school districts to make the best disciplinary policy they see fit." Dial: "I know it's a rare word in Austin: bipartisan. This bill has bipartisansupport. Can you just talk about why so many lawmakers are saying, hey, we're at a point where this is something that's needed." Fairly: "When you talk about policy and even politics in Texas, we tend to sometimes see polarization on two different sides and there's a lot of middle ground policy that both parties agree on. I'm encouraged that this is one of them. We have a wide variety of members who have co-authored this bill and I think it's because on both sides, both parties are realizing whether it's the mental health component, whether it's the classroom management, the teachers need support from the state, and also student academic outcomes, both parties agree. I think for the most part, that we want our kids to have the best education in Texas. The 5.5 million kids we have in Texas, we want it to be good." Dial: "What would your pushback be to a parent who says, I want to be able to contact my child in the event there's an emergency going on?" Fairly: "When you talk about school shooters, most officers that are experts in this field, we spent a lot of time talking to them. They would say we would suggest that the last thing you want is probably a kid on their phone during a school shooting. Yesterday in testimony, we had a lot of people talk about, even from a parental perspective, that it's as much of an emotional issue, that you want your kid and immediately to talk to them. When you think about a school shooter, as horrible as that is, when 30 7th graders are on the phone calling 911, videotaping, they're creating noise, which is a target for the shooter. So I think that we just have to be mindful of how we address this, because it is important. I'm encouraged that we have another really big priority bill that addresses school shooting. My bill is more about phones being up and away, but there's another piece of legislation that is about schools adopting policy so that next time, if there's a school shooter, we have a plan and process in place." Dial: "Is there a state funding component to this?" Fairly: "We have been really mindful. It is very important to me to not have unfunded mandates. I mean, I live in a rural part of Texas, and so there's a lot of issues where bills are passed, and they're not funded, and it's not fair to put that burden on our school districts. So I've been working really closely with Chair of Appropriations to be sure that if we need to allot for some funding, it will be there to be sure if schools want the option to purchase a pouch, that there's some funding provided for them to do that, because, again, this is about allowing school districts to adopt the policy that they see fit for the funds to be up, in a way. Texas is so diverse. I mean, so diverse. I represent a rural district, but when you look at your urban areas, there's thousands of kids that attend school versus mine, maybe a few hundred and so there will be funding provided. If we see that, there's a need to be sure that we do support these school districts. It's really important that we do keep that a priority." You can watch Texas: The Issue Is on FOX on Sunday nights or anytime on FOX LOCAL. The Source Information in this article comes from FOX 4's interview with State Rep. Caroline Fairly (R-Amarillo).
