Here's your weekly wrap-up of education news from ATPE Governmental Relations:

• State leaders continue school safety discussions
• A closer look at the governor's stance on public education funding
• ELECTION UPDATE: Gearing up for the November general election
• ATPE responds to unions' lawsuit over district-charter partnership rules

State leaders have been busy talking about the issue of school safety this week. On Thursday, Gov. Greg Abbott's office released a "School Safety Action Plan Summary" as a follow up to its previously released "School and Firearm Safety Action Plan." It outlines measures being implemented by school districts to address violence in schools. Highlights include offering educators training in Mental Health First Aid to help them identify the signs and symptoms of mental health and substance abuse issues through a course eligible for eight hours of Continuing Professional Education (CPE) credit. Another program featured in the report is the School Marshal program that trains school employees authorized to carry arms on how to respond to violent incidents in schools.

State Board of Education Chair Donna Bahorich was a part of a separate school safety discussion earlier this week in Montgomery, Alabama. Bahorich participated in a federal panel facilitated by the Federal Commission on School Safety in which she spoke on the need to remove the stigma surrounding mental health and seeking mental health treatment. You can read more on these school safety discussions in our blog post from ATPE Governmental Relations Director Jennifer Mitchell here.

Gov. Greg Abbott has been making the rounds in recent weeks to visit with school leaders and others to discuss school finance and teacher compensation, in particular. Based on some of his comments, including those written in a new op-ed piece, the governor has seemingly become a proponent of increased school funding and property tax relief. ATPE Lobbyist Mark Wiggins explains why the governor's recent comments deserve a closer look in the context of recent legislative actions. Check out Mark's blog post here.

ELECTION UPDATE: Important races will decided in the general election slated for November. What can you do now to prepare? First, make sure you are registered to vote before the deadline. Ask friends, family members, and colleagues if they are registered.

Take the educator's oath pledging to vote and visit the website of our Texas Educators Vote coalition to find additional nonpartisan election resources.

Research the candidates to find out where they stand on public education issues. ATPE's Teach the Vote website features profiles of every candidate running for the Texas Legislature, State Board of Education, Governor, and Lieutenant Governor. Profiles include incumbents' voting records, responses to ATPE's candidate surveys, contact information for the campaigns, information about noteworthy endorsements by other organizations, and a calendar of events submitted by the candidates themselves or third parties. Have the candidates running in your area responded to our candidate survey? If not, ask them why not! Invite them to contact ATPE at government@atpe.org for additional information.

Dates to put on your calendar now:

• Last day to register to vote in the general election: Oct. 9, 2018
• Early voting: Oct. 22 – Nov. 2, 2018
• Election Day: Nov. 6, 2018

This week two national union-affiliated educator groups in Texas filed a lawsuit against Commissioner of Education Mike Morath over his interpretation of a new law regarding school district-charter school partnerships. Passed by the legislature in 2017, Senate Bill (SB) 1882 identifies a path for school districts to partner with an open-enrollment charter school or other entity to operate one or more of its campuses. While originally intended as a lifeline for campuses facing harsh progressive sanctions under Texas’s accountability system, the new law has been eyed by some districts as a potential strategy for accessing additional funding outside of the typical school finance structure, and in some instances at the expense of school employees’ rights and protections.

The unions’ lawsuit claims that commissioner’s rules adopted after SB 1882 was passed last year violate state law. While ATPE shares concerns about how the district-charter partnership law is being interpreted and used, we do not believe it is likely that the courts will intervene in this matter. For that reason, instead of pursuing costly litigation that is unlikely to produce a remedy, we’ve chosen to support the local advocacy efforts of our members while continuing to lobby for state-level legislative improvements to our school finance and accountability systems.

ATPE supports innovation but believes it need not come at the expense of educators. While maybe not as splashy as well-publicized legal filings, our success in defeating local efforts that could strip away educators’ rights proves the effectiveness of our strategy at the local level. ATPE is also working hard to shape the debate around school finance and bills that are expected to be filed in the 2019 legislative session, urging lawmakers and those vying to become lawmakers this election cycle to prioritize funding for such critical needs as educator compensation, protecting the TRS pension fund, and providing affordable healthcare for active and retired school employees.

Stay tuned to our blog here at Teach the Vote for the latest news about our advocacy efforts around this and other issues.