Teach the Vote's Week in Review: March 31, 2017

Date Posted: 3/31/2017 | Author: Jennifer Mitchell, CAE
Wrapping up a full week at the Texas State Capitol, here are stories from ATPE that you might have missed while you were STAAR testing:
Two major pieces of anti-public education legislation hit the Senate floor this week. First, the Senate passed Senate Bill (SB) 13 by Sen. Joan Huffman (R-Houston), an anti-educator bill that prevents school district employees from using payroll deduction for their association dues at no cost to taxpayers. ATPE Governmental Relations Director Jennifer Mitchell Canaday provided a summary of Wednesday's debate of the bill on second reading, during which a number of Democratic senators questioned the author's decision to exempt "first responders" from the punitive bill and tried unsuccessfully to expand that exemption to cover educators, too. The lively debate highlighted ATPE's advocacy against the bill before senators voted on party lines to approve the measure, ironically just hours after take time to honor retired teachers visiting the Senate that day. Those voting for the anti-educator SB 13 were Sens. Bettencourt, Birdwell, Buckingham, Burton, Campbell, Creighton, Estes, Hall, Hancock, Huffines, Huffman, Hughes, Kolkhorst, Nelson, Nichols, Perry, Schwertner, Seliger, Larry Taylor, and Van Taylor. Those voting against SB 13 were Sens. Garcia, Hinojosa, Lucio, Menendez, Miles, Rodriguez, Uresti, Watson, West, Whitmire, and Zaffirini.

While the Senate was focusing its attention on questionable "priorities" of the lieutenant governor that would harm public education, the House Public Education Committee was attempting to find solutions to real problems, such as improving the state's malfunctioning school finance system. As ATPE Lobbyist Mark Wiggins reported on our blog, the committee passed Chairman Dan Huberty's (R-Kingwood) school finance measure, House Bill 21, by a vote of 10 to one on Tuesday. The committee also heard a number of bills relating to charter schools this week and resumed discussion of Huberty's HB 23 aimed at improving the A-through-F accountability system. Next week, the committee plans to consider bills dealing with health and safety, as well as special education. The committee's Subcommittee on Educator Quality also met this week for further discussions of bills dealing with improper relationships between teachers and students. Again, Mark Wiggins has a blog post with details on Monday's hearing.


The Senate Education Committee also met yesterday, hearing bills pertaining to virtual schools, special education, and the scheduling of teacher work days. ATPE Lobbyist Kate Kuhlmann provided this blog update with full details on the hearing.
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