Call to Action: Contact Senate Ed Cmte TODAY

The Senate Education Committee is hearing a committee substitute to HB4 today, on updates to the school accountability system. They have made several changes that make the bill worse. Make your voice heard by contacting the committee members TODAY. Here's a script to start with:

I am writing to express my strong support for the House version of House Bill 4 (HB 4), particularly the provision for a two-year pause in accountability ratings. This pause is urgently needed, as school districts across Texas have already been negatively impacted by the current A–F accountability system—despite widespread recognition of the deep flaws in STAAR testing.

Key issues with STAAR that this bill seeks to address include:

• Misalignment with Curriculum: STAAR questions often fail to align with what is actually taught in Texas classrooms, leading to misleading conclusions about student performance.

• High-Stakes Consequences: The current model places excessive pressure on students and educators, resulting in anxiety and narrowing of curriculum without corresponding gains in real learning outcomes.

• Delayed and Unactionable Data: Test results are often delivered too late in the year to support timely instructional changes, limiting their usefulness to educators.

• Equity Gaps: The current system disproportionately harms under-resourced districts and campuses, ignoring contextual challenges beyond the control of students and teachers.

The House version of HB 4 addresses these problems by introducing shorter, formative assessments that can be administered throughout the year and provide actionable data within 24 hours. It also ensures that school ratings are based on a broader, more accurate set of indicators—like student engagement, college and workforce readiness, and extracurricular access.

Most critically, the House version includes a two-year pause in accountability ratings—a necessary provision given that more than 111 districts have already been negatively affected by recent accountability changes. It is neither fair nor productive to hold these districts accountable under a system that the state itself acknowledges is in need of reform. A pause allows time to implement improvements without inflicting further harm on schools, students, and educators.

I urge the Senate Education Committee and the full Senate to work in committee and accept the House amendments to prioritize the best interests of Texas students and schools. We need thoughtful, transparent, and research-informed reform—not an accountability system that punishes districts for systemic issues the legislature is actively working to fix.

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Senate Education Committee member emails are: brandon.creighton@senate.texas.gov; donna.campbell@senate.texas.gov; paul.bettencourt@senate.texas.gov; brent.hagenbuch@senate.texas.gov; adam.hinojosa@senate.texas.gov; phil.king@senate.texas.gov; jose.menendez@senate.texas.gov; mayes.middleton@senate.texas.gov; tan.parker@senate.texas.gov; angela.paxton@senate.texas.gov; royce.west@senate.texas.gov