Weekly Summary
Sen. Dan Patrick is championing, in addition to school choice (vouchers), an expansion of charter schools. SB 2 eliminates the cap on charter schools in the state—currently at 215—and mandates that districts lease empty facilities to charter programs that request it. Debate will continue on this bill as a revised bill will be heard in about 2 weeks.
Graduation requirements have become a central component of overhauling the education system. Measures have been introduced by Rep. Aycock, Rep. Diane Patrick, Sen. Dan Patrick, and Sen. Kel Seliger to adjust the 4×4 curriculum and to focus on career readiness in addition to the current emphasis on college readiness. HB 5, heard in committee this week, makes changes to 4X4 high school course requirements, assessment for secondary students, multiple pathways to graduation, and proposes a new accountability system.
Many committees have met to discuss education funding this week. Last week, House members tried to add education funding to HB 10, the must-pass bill that funds the last 6 months of Medicaid payments for this year, but were unsuccessful in securing more than $630 million in appropriations to the Foundations School Program for the 24th month of public school funding.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Tommy Williams said that an additional $1.5 billion is needed for K-12, and rumors at the Capitol suggest that the Senate has found that much to restore to the education budget.
News of the Week
Texas Educators Unite Against STAAR Exams
Educators from across the state are uniting to speak out against the controversial STAAR that they say could cost many kids a chance at college.
-Read full article-
Bill Calls for Emergency Alarms at Texas Schools
While some state lawmakers have filed school safety bills aimed at increasing gun access or regulation on school property, one legislator is taking a different approach to protecting Texas’ schoolchildren.
-Read full article-
Texas Senators Slam State’s Testing Regime
State senators took turns publicly condemning Texas’ student assessment system — the implementation of which one lawmaker called a “colossal failure” — at a Tuesday Education Committee meeting.
-Read full article-
Battle Looms as Democrats Try to Restore Education Cuts
The Texas Legislature cut more than $5 billion from public education in 2011 to help balance the state budget. Then, last month, lawmakers were told previous revenue estimates were wrong — and that they had more than $8 billion left to spend on that budget.
-Read full article-
Veterans of lawsuit reform turn attention to education
Some of the power players who built Texans for Lawsuit Reform into a political juggernaut at the state Capitol are throwing their weight behind new efforts to shake up public education.
Amid Anti-Testing Furor, a Focus on High School Courses
As the Legislature tackles such reform, attention has also focused on another area of education policy: high school graduation requirements.
Senate bill would allow charter schools to multiply
Patrick’s sweeping legislation, filed Monday, would lift restrictions on the expansion of charter schools, which are privately managed schools that receive public dollars. State law currently caps the number of charter operators at 215.
-Read full article-
Reducing School Tests Draws Support in Hearing
Students, parents and educators overwhelmingly spoke in support of state Rep. Jimmie Don Aycock‘s HB 5, arguing that the current system forces teachers to teach to the test and stifles flexibility to provide career-orientated courses.
-Read full article-
Texas Senators Slam State’s Testing Regime
State senators took turns publicly condemning Texas’ student assessment system — the implementation of which one lawmaker called a “colossal failure” — at a Tuesday Education Committee meeting.
-Read full article-
Senate committee passes high school diploma bill
The measure calls on all students to get at least 26 credits to graduate and most students would be able to take more elective courses. Patrick said he wants to give high school students more options in choosing coursework and also wants to give all students a pathway to a college education.
-Read full article-
Legislators should focus on quality teaching
There’s no magic education fix, but clearly, strong teachers matter. A recent Gates Foundation report revealed that quality instructors can turn around struggling students, no matter their previous failures. The Texas Teaching Commission, a project of Educate Texas, has recommendations for how Texas can improve its teacher pipeline.
Texas Lawmakers Mixed on Charter School Proposal
At a Thursday Senate Education Committee hearing, Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, continued his push for school-choice reform by attempting to build consensus around his bill to expand charter schools.
-Read full article-
Bill Targets Domestic Partner Benefits in School
The first Texas school district to offer health insurance benefits to domestic partners is under fire from a state lawmaker, and the penalty could hit the school where it counts — in the pocketbook.
Interactive: 2011-12 STAAR Results, by District, for Grades 3 Through 8
Last spring, Texas students in grades three through eight took the STAAR exams for the first time. Using results from Pearson Education, the state’s testing contractor, this interactive provides the first look at how the state’s school districts performed.
Senate Finance Aim to Increase Education Funding
Chairman Tommy Williams of Senate Finance said the state spends nearly $1 billion for half of the per-student cost for prekindergarten and that the prekindergarten funding cuts to which many often refer are prekindergarten expansion grants. He urged the education workgroup to consider whether additional funding for prekindergarten should be in the form of grants or in the form of increased per-student allotments.
-Read full article-
Mega-States report shows strong gains for minority students in Texas
A new report that examines the country’s five largest states shows Texas students making the largest gains in math performance.
-Read full article-
Unlimited Charter Expansion, Nullified State Quality Standards Are Not “Reforms”
Sen. Dan Patrick’s charter “reform” bill, SB 2, was the subject of spirited debate in the Senate Education Committee today. Sen. Patrick (R-Houston), who chairs the committee, brought in a group of charter-school advocates from out of state to help him and a troop of charter-school operators to make the pitch for unlimited charter expansion and “charterization” of school districts.
-Read full article-
Houston ISD Exploring Solutions to Budget Shortfall Caused by State Cuts
The state of Texas’ unconstitutional school funding system has placed the HISD Board of Education in the position of considering two options for covering a projected $72 million deficit for the 2013-2014 school year: deeper cuts to classroom spending and/or a property tax rate increase.
-Read full article-
Villarreal Commends Crackdown on Tutoring Companies, Vows Legislative Action
Earlier this month, the San Antonio Independent School District announced that it was investigating five after-school tutoring companies suspected of defrauding the district of hundreds of thousands of dollars. This was only one of several allegations throughout the state that tutoring services were not following federal guidelines or were defrauding school districts.
-Read full article-
Leave a Reply