And we have our first curveball of the legislative session. The House voted Tuesday to defeat a must-pass bill reauthorizing the Texas Lottery Commission, a stunning move that casts doubt on the lottery as a whole and may potentially cost the state billions in revenue. House Bill 2197 began as a seemingly routine proposal to [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Permanent School Fund’
Patrick teases his school choice proposals
He doesn’t want to call it “vouchers”, but if it walks like a duck… “If there’s one message that I want to send, it’s that I want to champion public education,” said Patrick, the new chairman of the Senate Public Education Committee. Whether the education community is ready to embrace Patrick in that role is [...]
Land Board throws the Lege a curveball on school finance
Oops. In the waning days of the 82nd Legislature, state lawmakers came up with a plan to help cushion the blow of $5.4 billion in cuts to public education. State Rep. Rob Orr, R-Burleson, proposed a constitutional amendment that he said could bring an additional $300 million to public schools. It unanimously cleared both the [...]
What next for Sugar Land prison property?
Now that the Central Unit in Sugar Land has been closed, what will happen to the empty facility? The fate of the Central Unit site will be decided by the three-member School Land Board, which oversees real estate investments on behalf of the $26 billion Permanent University Fund. The board is chaired by Texas General [...]
House moves forward on school fund money
Last week, I noted a bill filed by Rep. Rob Orr that would direct some money from the Available School Fund into the public schools. His legislation has now been approved by committee and is likely on its way to passage; this will include a Constitutional amendment that you’ll see on your ballot this November. [...]
So what is the point of the SBOE, anyway?
Here’s another story about the difficulties of SBOE redistricting, and it’s got me wondering why we bother having an elected body called the State Board of Education. This legislative session, lawmakers are working on redrawing the 15 districts based on new census data — released every 10 years — but a rise in population has [...]
How does school finance work, anyway?
The Trib has a useful guide to this incredibly complex topic. Here’s our layman’s guide to figuring out the current system, compiled with the help of experts at the Texas Taxpayers and Research Association, the Equity Center and the Texas Education Agency. The state’s 1,030 traditional school districts operate with a combination of federal, local [...]
SBOE wants its new textbooks
But it may not get them. State board members are growing increasingly anxious that lawmakers might not provide funding for new textbooks and instructional material – even though they’re giving the Legislature $1.9 billion from a 157-year-old endowment established to help schools, including providing free textbooks for students. Board member David Bradley, R-Beaumont, warns that [...]
Still going through the couch cushions
The Senate is looking for funds wherever it can find them. Hoping to cushion the impact of proposed state budget cuts to public education and health care, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst said Wednesday that a special subcommittee will be named Monday to find $5 billion in nontax revenue for use in the next two-year budget [...]
What to do with the SBOE?
The Lege has many ideas about what to do with the state’s most embarrassing branch of government, some of which are better than others. State Rep. Roberto Alonzo (D-Dallas), wants the SBOE abolished under his House Bill 881 and all the board’s responsibilities directed to the Texas Education Agency and the commissioner of education. The [...]
What the funding cuts to public education will mean to your school district
Read this and see. Summary of HB 1 (Public Education Reductions) The House introduced its initial version of the General Appropriations Act (House Bill 1) for the 2012-13 biennium on Wednesday, January 19. While it is the first draft of the state budget with many hearings and floor debates to come, it does indicate that [...]
The Pitts budget
Here it is, and if it is a shock to you, you haven’t been paying attention. The House’s starting-point budget proposal would provide for a total budget of $156.4 billion in state and federal money, a decrease of $31.1 billion, or nearly 17 percent, from the current budget period. The budget proposes nearly $5 billion [...]
True culture warriors never sleep
There’s no possible way that this can end well. The [State Board of Education] will consider a resolution next week that would warn publishers not to push a pro-Islamic, anti-Christian viewpoint in world history textbooks. Members of the board’s social conservative bloc asked for the resolution after an unsuccessful candidate for a board seat called [...]
The charter schools make their case
Specifically, David Dunn, the executive director of the Texas Charter School Association, makes the case for public funds for charter school facilities in this op-ed from the weekend. One of the major obstacles to critical education reform in Texas is the lack of facilities for the thriving charter school movement here. Even though charter schools [...]
The SBOE and charter schools
Some members of the State Board of Education want to get into the charter school business. Representatives for Texas’ 460 independent charter schools asked the State Board of Education on Wednesday to tap into the state’s education trust fund and for the first time provide them classrooms and facilities for their students. The charter school [...]
The SBOE is more than just a clown show
The clown show part we know about, but the State Board of Education is also responsible for managing the state’s $20 billion Permanent School Fund, and as they politicize scholastic issues it seems politics may be playing a role in that important function, which was nearly taken away from them this year, as well. Read [...]