Special Session Call
On June 6, 2017, Governor Greg Abbott called a special session of the Texas legislature to begin on July 18, 2017. After the special session addresses critical “sunset” legislation to allow continuing authorization for several state agencies, the Legislature will move on to 19 other issues, including several issues that would impact K-12 public education. Issues that would impact public education include:
- Teacher pay increase of $1,000 [to be paid by districts without an increase in funding from the Legislature]
- Administrative flexibility in teacher hiring and retention practices
- School finance reform commission [SB 2144 by Senate Committee of Education Chair Larry Taylor did not pass in the regular session]
- School choice for special needs students [SB 3 by Larry Taylor to authorize vouchers did not pass in the regular session]
- Property tax reform [SB 2 by Bettencourt did not pass in the regular session]
During the June 6th press conference, Governor Abbott stated, “Texas does not need to spend more, we just need to spend smarter,” in reference to the proposed teacher pay raise. Abbott also stated, “We spend too much money on bureaucracy and overhead, and too little money where it is needed in the classroom,” in connection with establishing a school finance reform commission.
During a press conference at the end of the 85 Regular Session, Speaker Straus stated, “The issue that is most important to our state’s future is education. I wish the House’s plan to begin fixing education finance had made it into law, but we’ll keep working on it.”
TASBO hopes the legislature will give appropriate attention to true priorities that would impact all Texans and pass legislation that appropriately addresses public school funding challenges. The Legislature has an opportunity to provide true property tax reform by increasing state aid funding levels if it ends its overreliance on increasing property values as a default school funding mechanism. No other issues listed in the 20 special session topics will have as far reaching impact on the welfare of 5.4 million students and all Texans.
What Passed in the Regular Session
Select bills that passed in the 85th regular session of interest to school finance officials include:
- HB 1081 by Arevalo increases the New Instructional Facilities Allotment for traditional school districts and charter schools from $250 to up to $1,000 per student in average daily attendance in a new instructional facility. The bill also expands the types of new instructional facilities that qualify to include eligible renovations of existing instructional facilities and newly leased instructional facilities.
- SB 1882 by Menendez encourages partnerships between traditional school districts and open-enrollment charter schools and would provide the higher of the funding allocation for affected students under school district and open-enrollment state aid funding formulas.
- SB 195 by Garcia expands the types of school bus routes eligible for transportation allotment funding to include routes within two miles of schools if the students would be subject to hazardous traffic conditions or a high risk of violence if they walked to school.
- SB 295 by Hinojosa is a cleanup bill from the 84th legislative session (2015) that would allow capital appreciation bond debt to exceed 25% for the purpose of refinancing to achieve savings.
- HB 2442 by Ken King is a cleanup bill from the 84th legislative session (2015) that provides greater flexibility in making up time from missed school days due to extreme weather conditions. The bill also authorizes the Texas Education Agency to address various scenarios related to full-day and half-day minutes of operations eligible for state aid funding.
What Failed to Pass in the Regular Session
Select bills that failed to pass in the 85th regular session include:
- HB 21 by Huberty would have simplified Foundation School Program state aid calculation formulas, added $1.9 billion of additional funding, lowered Chapter 41 Robin Hood recapture and increased the basic allotment by $210 per student.
- HB 811 by Ken King would have reinstated and continued additional state aid for tax reduction (ASATR) through fiscal year 2021.
- HB 460 by Lucio would have required voter approval to expend the residual unexpended funds for different purposes after completion of a project financed by voter-approved bonds. This bill would have significantly increased the number of bond referendums for some school districts to establish separate authorizations for specific projects.
- HB 486 by VanDeaver would have provided needed flexibility to allow school districts to avoid an additional tax rate election if they their lowered tax rate below a voter-approved tax rate, approved in the 2007 or subsequent tax year. Similar bills also failed to pass in the regular session.