The House Public Education Committee heard 12 bills Tuesday amid a backdrop of frustration as the full House prepared to hear House Bill (HB) 2, the school finance bill, and Senate Bill (SB) 2, the voucher, Wednesday on the House floor. 

Tension is high in the Capitol as members of the Texas House prepare to take what will likely be the most consequential vote of the session. On Monday evening, Chairman Brad Buckley (R–Salado) made what are known as “runs” available to House members. Runs are projections of how much money each school district in a member’s House district stands to gain or lose from a school finance bill. Unlike previous school finance bills, however, House members only had access to the runs for their specific district. This led to frustration from House members at Buckley’s handling of the entire process. 

Amid that tension, a bipartisan proposal has been gaining ground in the House to offer an amendment that will send the voucher question to the voters, allowing the public to weigh in on the issue. That amendment, according to reporting by Scott Braddock of the Quorum Report, could have 80-85 signatures, more than the simple majority (76) needed to add the amendment to the bill. Gov. Greg Abbott (R), however, caught wind of the plan, and scheduled a House Republican caucus meeting ahead of the vote in order to kill the proposal. ATPE has an Advocacy Central campaign open to encourage the House to send the issue to the voters. 

The Public Education Committee met Tuesday to hear 12 bills while all of this was swirling around them.  

The bills heard in committee Tuesday were:  

• ATPE-supported HB 1178 by Rep. Charles Cunningham (R–Kingwood), which creates a temporary one-year educator certificate for educators who are certified in other states. Under the current out-of-state credentials review process, once an educator’s out-of-state credentials are successfully reviewed, they may be issued a one-year temporary certificate. This certificate allows them to become employed to teach for a year, and during that year they must take and pass Texas certification exams to receive a standard teaching certificate. If they do not take and pass the Texas certification exams during the one- year temporary certification window, they would not be able to remain employed as a certified educator. 
• ATPE-supported HB 1411 by Rep. Alma Allen (D–Houston), which would give educators who do not get paid over holiday breaks the opportunity to use their personal days in order to get paid for that time. 
• ATPE-supported HB 1441 by Rep. Mihaela Plesa (D–Plano), which would require that school district police and school resource officers receive training in mental health conditions such as grief and trauma, as well as encourage the use of grief-informed and trauma-informed strategies when responding to incidents.  
• ATPE-supported HB 1773 by Rep. Salman Bhojani (D–Euless), which would allow school districts to create a non-voting student position on a school board.  
• ATPE-supported HB 1813 by Rep. John Bucy (D–Cedar Park), which would require districts to share information with parents about their right to have an attorney represent them in a special education due process hearing, as well as provide instructions for accessing the website listing individuals eligible to represent parents and instructions for filing complaints against non-attorney representatives. The bill would also update rules for such representatives, including requiring training in special education law. 
• ATPE-supported HB 2107 by Rep. Caroline Fairly (R–Amarillo), which would allow school districts to decide if their staff must complete certain training annually or can do so every other year. This would apply to annual trainings required by the state, such as the bloodborne pathogens training educators complete every year.   
• HB 2598 by Rep. Angie Chen Button (R–Richardson), which would change the name of LSSPs (licensed specialist in school psychology) from LSSP to school psychologist in the education code. Button said during her bill layout that the bill and its changes were necessary to align education code with the rules of the Texas State Board of Examiners of Psychologists (TSBEP), which amended their rules to allow for the use of the title “school psychologist.” 
• ATPE-supported HB 2911 by Rep. James Frank (R–Wichita Falls), which would provide a state allotment for districts that have chosen to opt out of TRS ActiveCare and self-fund staff health insurance.   
• ATPE-supported HB 2967 by Rep. Harold Dutton (D–Houston), which would create an allotment for vision care for economically disadvantaged students and require TEA to report information regarding vision screenings on the agency website. 
• ATPE-supported HB 3672 by Rep. Trent Ashby (R–Lufkin), which would create an extracurricular community education grant program. The bill would allow Texas students to access enrichment clubs and after-school and summer learning opportunities through outside community organizations such as the Boys and Girls Club that have partnered with school districts.  
• HB 5263 by Rep. Charlie Geren (R–Fort Worth), which is meant to make access to the Texas state assessment portal, www.texasassessment.gov, easier for parents.  The bill instructs TEA to simplify access and make information to parents available through one click on the website.  
• HB 3797 by Rep. Trent Ashby (R–Lufkin), which would update Texas Education Code with new terminology to reflect student satisfactory performance on an end-of-course assessment. ACT-Plan, which is currently in statute, was phased out in 2014 and replaced with the Pre-ACT. The bill would replaces ACT-Plan with Pre-ACT in order to make the code current. 

Additionally, the committee voted out two Senate companions to House bills already heard and passed through the committee this session: 

• ATPE-supported SB 260 by Sen. Joan Huffman (R–Houston) is the companion to HB 124 by Rep. Greg Bonnen (R–Friendswood). This bill increases the school safety allotment from $10 to $14 per student and $15,000 to $27,000 per campus. While ATPE supported both bills, we preferred the Senate language that provided $20 per student and $30,000 per campus. The committee substitute passed by the committee yesterday, however, contains the House language. 
• ATPE-opposed SB 569 by Sen. Paul Bettencourt (R–Houston) is the companion to HB 2196 by Rep. Keith Bell (R–Forney). This bill would replace the Texas Virtual School Network and expand full-time virtual education. ATPE submitted written testimony requesting three changes be made to HB 2196: (1) tying virtual students to a physical campus for purposes of tutoring, testing, and receiving services such as special education; (2) prohibiting full-time asynchronous virtual programs; and (3) strengthening language in the bill that gives the Texas education commissioner unilateral authority to determine which third-party vendors may provide full-time virtual services by adding clear, minimum standards to the statute. ATPE opposes the bills in their current form but hopes to be able to support legislation this session that would improve the current statutory framework for virtual education. HB 2196 is scheduled to be on the House floor Wednesday. 

The House Public Education Committee is expected to meet again April 22.  The Subcommittee on Academic and Career-Oriented Education, which normally meets on Thursdays, is not scheduled to meet this week.  

We are less than one month away from the May 12 deadline for completion of all committee reports on House bills. This means committees must finish hearing and voting on all House bills before that date. The committees will still be able to hear Senate bills through May 24. The House will adjourn sine die June 2.