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

• ELECTION UPDATE: Are you ready to vote?
• Learn about recent charter school bills in our ongoing series "New School Year, New Laws"
• TEA talks about extending the school year though HB 3 in their latest "HB 3 in 30" video

ELECTION UPDATE: Early voting is set to begin on Monday, Oct. 21, for the upcoming constitutional amendment election on Nov. 5, 2019. Are you ready to vote? ATPE encourages educators to vote in every election, and we've got the info you need to make informed choices at the polls. Check out our new blog post aimed at helping you understand what's on the ballot in this year's election. ATPE Political Involvement Coordinator Edwin Ortiz and Senior Lobbyist Monty Exter have broken down the proposed constitutional amendments related to public education and the other items you may see on your ballot. Learn how to print out a sample ballot ahead of time and find other election resources. Every vote counts!

As we gear up for the 2019 election to get underway next week, ATPE Lobbyist Mark Wiggins has also written about the 2020 elections for our blog this week. In his latest election roundup post, Mark shares insights from recent campaign finance reports for various congressional elections that will take place next year. Check it out here.

In case you missed it, check out this week's installment of our "New School Year, New Laws" blog series here on Teach the Vote. This week, ATPE Lobbyist Andrea Chevalier gave an overview of 2019 bills that were passed dealing with charter schools. Read it here. Next week we'll be wrapping up our series with a final post about educator compensation changes that have come about as a result of House Bill (HB) 3.

As a reminder, you still have a few more days to share your feedback with the commissioner of education on his proposed rules to implement the new "Do Not Hire Registry" required under HB 3. The deadline for public comments is Monday, Oct. 21. Learn more and submit your comments here.

The Texas Education Agency (TEA) released a new “HB 3 in 30” video and PDF presentation this week on designing and funding an extended school year. The extended school year provision put into law by House Bill (HB) 3, while less heralded than some of the bill’s other provisions, is seen as a potential game changer by TEA.

In this latest video, TEA details the impact of the "summer slide" and the burnout experienced by many Texas teachers due to the extremely high levels of time that teachers work directly with students. For children of poverty, summer slide can create a cumulative academic gap of as much as three years as compared to their wealthier peers. Additionally, many Texas teachers work up to 12 hours a day because they are not given time during the school day to do integrated planning and preparation, unlike many of their peers globally. This results in a system where teacher planning is done mostly in isolation, as compared to the more optimal situation of team planning. In the video, TEA lays out three scenarios for how districts might use the new extended year funding to begin to address both of these issues. The video also highlights additional "planning grant" funding available to districts that want to implement this new program.

TEA's ongoing video series is intended to make this year's omnibus school finance bill, HB 3, more digestible by breaking out key provisions and explaining them in 30 minutes or less. Visit TEA’s HB 3 in 30 video website to watch the newest video and access others in the series.