Make it Matter Monday 5/19

"So keep fightin' for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don't you forget to have fun doin' it. Lord, let your laughter ring forth. Be outrageous, ridicule the fraidy-cats, rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can produce."   Molly Ivins

Learn

The Senate substitute for HB 2 is concerning for a number of reasons. One of many is how it, once again, fails to address the funding needed to meet the needs of Special Education in Texas and the costs of evaluations. 

Click below for background and information about how you can help advocate.  

Learn more about this SPED CTA  

Do

Raise your Hand Texas has a letter you should sign and share, demanding sensible and responsible school funding and teach pay. Please don't skip this important message to our policy makers. 

Sign the letter here  

Share

This is one of the best explanations I've heard about how why the Senate version of HB 2 is not the right path forward. Please watch and share with your communities. It's essential we all understand how school funding works. Knowing this info helps us ensure funding bills actually work for our communities. 

And then call the Senate Education Committee Members!

Watch the Temple Supt. Explain Funding  

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SPILLING THE CAPITOL TEA

Updates

SB 2 - Voucher bill 

The voucher bill was signed by the Governor with his billionaire benefactors by his side. According to AFT, the bill will go to court. 

HB 2 - School Funding

The Senate Committee Substitute for HB 2 was unveiled and immediately heard this week in the Senate K-16 Education committee. This version of the bill was vastly different from the House version and included some shenanigans like: 

• Reducing the Basic Allotment to $55 (from $395, which was also completely inadequate)

• Eliminated the Fine Arts allotment proposed by the House

• No additional funding for bilingual education

• Extra teacher pay for rural districts and experienced teachers, none for new teachers

• Continued gap in Special Ed and Evaluation funding

There was a lot of push back on all those items and the bill didn't make it out of committee. They are taking it back to make changes but we're asking they go back to the original House version of HB 2 and move the bill forward. Here is a synopsis of the Senate version of the bill. 

HB 4 - Accountability bill

The bill passed the House. It is sitting in the Senate Education Committee, waiting for a hearing.  Rep. James Talarico was able to get an amendment included in the engrossed (the version passed out of the House and sent to the Senate) states the commissioner may not take action under that section against a campus ordered to prepare and submit a campus turnaround plan during the 2024-2025 school year until the second anniversary of the date on which the campus implements a campus turnaround plan. That would give campuses like Dobie extra time to recover. 

CALL TO ACTION

Please contact the Senators on K-16 Education committee and ask that they 

"Hi, my name is ____________, my zip code is _________. Thank you for your attention to public education funding. Please move back to the House version of HB 2 and vote it out schedule a hearing on HB 4, the accountability bill, so our schools and teachers can start to plan for the future."

This Week

There is a House Pub Ed hearing on Tuesday, May 20, 2025, at 8am in the Reagan Building Room 140. 

I've included links to each of the bills that will be heard this week. They're all bills that originated, and have passed out of, the Senate. Unlike the Senate, there is an opportunity to comment on these bills now that they're being heard by a committee in the House. There are some doozies, so please don't hesitate to comment: https://comments.house.texas.gov/home?c=c400

Reminder: Please go to the Text tab and Analysis link to understand each one in more detail. The latest analysis you can read might be for the Introduced or be for the Senate or House Committee Report version of the bill and will give lots of info about the author's intent and specific language. Reading the analysis should get your advocacy writing juices flowing. 

A live video broadcast of this hearing will be available here: https://house.texas.gov/video-audio/ 

Join us at 8am in the Reagan Building, or whenever you can get there. We do not a room for the day. 

NOTE: We will be at the Capitol on Tuesday to drop a card (register a position and/or to testify) on the Pub Ed committee bills. We will also be walking around talking to Senate offices about moving back to the House version of HB 2 and pushing to get a hearing on HB 4. 

School Consolidation Survey

Austin ISD is struggling with a historic budget deficit and it looking for options to help save money. They've been having community conversations with campuses who are potentially affected by school consolidations and have now released a survey for everyone in AISD. Please read this information and take the survey so they know how you feel. Don't sit this one out, y'all. 

https://www.austinisd.org/consolidate

SPED Update (HB 2 Senate Committee Substitute)

HB 2 is a $8 billion school funding package, marking the largest investment in public education in the state’s history. The bill includes $1.3 billion dedicated to special education and introduces a $1,000 reimbursement for each special education evaluation conducted by school districts.  

While this funding represents a significant step forward, it still falls short of addressing the estimated $1.7 billion gap between what Texas school districts spend on special education services and what they receive from the state . 

What We Need — In Plain Terms — for Special Education in Texas

• Texas still has a huge gap in special education funding. We need lawmakers to increase funding beyond the proposed $1.3 billion to meet actual student needs.

• Evaluations cost school districts thousands of dollars. While the proposed $1,000 reimbursement per evaluation is a step in the right direction, we’re urging lawmakers to increase that to at least $2,500–$5,000. This would help districts perform timely, high-quality evaluations and hire the qualified staff needed to do them in-house, reducing costly delays and unnecessary outside referrals.

Read more about it and how to advocate in our SPED Call-to-Action. 

Library Bills Update (SB 13 and SB 2101/ HB 3225)

SB13 (the “book banning” bill which would require a parent advisory group to approve all school library book purchases and to decide on all book challenges) is still alive and will be heard on the House floor sometime this week, if it passes it goes to the governor’s desk.  There are some amendments in the works and have been told that Buckley doesn’t have the stomach for the bill but Angela Paxton has yet to agree to the amendments.  Calls and letters are helpful to keep the pressure up.  Carolyn Foote and Laila Green Little are planning a press conference in the Capitol rotunda at 9am this morning (Monday).

SB2101/HB3225 is also live.  Last Thursday evening tons of people spoke against it and only one registered person speak for it.  This is the bill requiring all PUBLIC libraries to not allow anyone under 18 into the adult section of a library: both fiction and non-fiction.  They have submitted an amendment for a parent opt-in option but the bill would still be cost prohibitive to all libraries and carries a $10K fine for each instance of not following it. A similar bill went into law a year ago in Idaho and small libraries are just closing to ALL minors because they can’t wall of their little branches or small town libraries or card everyone coming in.  That means no story times or summer programming.  This bill is in the Senate State Affairs committee and it would be great to keep the pressure on them as well.  

You can read more details and get a link to the Texas Freedom to Read Project's email tool to send a message to your legislator about SB 13 here and get the same for SB2101 here.   

Mark Your Calendar: Sine Die, June 2nd

The last day of the session is June 2 and it's called Sine Die (last day). We will join Texas leaders down at the Capitol over our lunch hour. It's apparently quite the party and something everyone should experience at least once. We will spend out lunch our thanking the legislative heroes who fought valiantly for public education this session.We have reserved the House Member's Lounge so put Noon - 2 on your calendar on June 2nd and plan to join us for some good trouble and a ton of fun. 

Mark Your Calendar: Advocacy Celebration June 14th

This has been a remarkable session, with stunning amounts of engagement and a constellation of stars who have popped up out schools all over the district to shine a light on our problems and solution, help communities find their voice, and spoke truth to power at every opportunity in the Capitol hearings and School Board meetings. 

Join us from 6-9 for a potluck grill and celebration. We'll have hot dogs and sausages and fixin's. Bring a sidedish to share (and other protein if hot dogs are not your thing) and whatever you want to drink. We have a giant kid-friendly yard so bring your family and some extra camp chairs. 

More details to come.