The ATPE Governmental Relations team recaps the past week’s education news, legislative and election updates, and regulatory developments. ATPE members: Share your thoughts and ask our lobby team questions in The Rotunda on the ATPE Online Community. 

If you are on spring break March 10–14, we hope you have a safe and well-deserved rest!

• School finance issues, including educator pay, receive two lengthy days of House attention
• House Public Education Committee will consider priority voucher bill next Tuesday
• Subcommittee hears testimony on CTE bills
• Senate committees take action on Ten Commandments and other education-related bills
• Texas House version of DOGE holds first meeting
• Secretary of education confirmed, immediately issues memo about the Education Department’s “final mission”
• Retroactive benefit payments begin for those affected by GPO and WEP
• Texas Tribune examines exorbitant charter school executive pay
• Thank you to the members who attended ATPE’s third Capitol Expedition
• Best wishes to a former ATPE lobbyist

HB 2: The House Public Education Committee spent long days Tuesday and Thursday taking invited testimony on Chairman Brad Buckley’s (R–Salado) omnibus school finance legislation, House Bill (HB) 2. Buckley and Vice Chair Diego Bernal (D–San Antonio) indicated the 148-page bill as currently written is a starting point and that changes would be made before the committee votes the bill out to the full House March 18. ATPE Governmental Relations Director Monty Exter testified before the committee, focusing on the bill’s educator pay provisions. ATPE Lobbyist Tricia Cave reports on the two days of hearings here and shares ATPE's written testimony as well as a video of Exter's oral testimony.

VOUCHERS: House Public Education Committee Chairman Brad Buckley (R–Salado) will lay out the House’s priority voucher bill, HB 3, during what is sure to be a marathon committee hearing next Tuesday. ATPE encourages all public education supporters to send their input on HB 3 to the committee using the House Public Comment System. This video tutorial explains how to use the system. 

CTE: The House Public Education Subcommittee on Academic and Career-Oriented Education met for the first time Wednesday and heard two bills related to career and technical education (CTE): ATPE-supported HB 120 by Rep. Keith Bell (R–Forney), which focuses on enhancing CTE and establishing support programs for high school students, and HB 20 by Rep. Gary Gates (R–Rosenberg), which would establish an Applied Sciences Pathway Program in Texas. ATPE Lobbyist Tricia Cave has a recap in this blog post. 

SENATE: Committee work is picking up quickly, and ATPE Lobbyist Heather Sheffield has a report here on six education-related bills passed out of Senate committees this week pertaining to display of the Ten Commandments, requiring ISD and charter school boards to adopt a policy allowing students and employees the opportunity to pray or read religious texts on campus, parental access to library materials, expansion of virtual education, affirmative defenses to prosecution for certain offenses involving obscene materials, and increasing the school safety and security allotment. 

DOGE: The Texas Legislature’s committee version of DOGE, the Committee on the Delivery of Government Efficiency, held its first meeting Wednesday and heard invited testimony from a variety of state agencies, including the Teacher Retirement System (TRS) and the Texas Education Agency (TEA), in an effort to streamline state government, make it more efficient, and curtail waste, fraud, and abuse. Read more in this blog post by ATPE Lobbyist Tricia Cave.  

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION: Linda McMahon, the co-founder of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE)  and the head of the Small Business Administration during the first Trump Administration, was sworn in as the secretary of education Monday. Media outlets, including Education Week, are reporting that McMahon’s first order of business may be carrying out President Donald Trump’s campaign promise to dismantle the very agency she now leads, the U.S. Department of Education. McMahon has published a memo to agency employees titled “Our Department’s Final Mission” that details plans to “restore the rightful role of state oversight in education and to end the overreach from Washington” and “[eliminate the] bureaucratic bloat here at the Department of Education—a momentous final mission—quickly and responsibly.” McMahon listed three “convictions”: “Parents are the primary decision makers in their children’s education”; “Taxpayer-funded education should refocus on meaningful learning in math, reading, science, and history—not divisive DEI programs and gender ideology”; and “Postsecondary education should be a path to a well-paying career aligned with workforce needs.” President Trump is expected to sign an executive order on the future of the Education Department in the very near future. 

SOCIAL SECURITY: The Social Security Administration (SSA) has released an FAQ on implementation of the Social Security Fairness Act, the legislation signed into law by President Joe Biden in early January that contains the long-awaited, long-advocated for repeal of the Government Pension Offset (GPO) and Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP). On Feb. 25, SSA began paying retroactive benefits and increasing monthly benefit payments to those whose benefits had been reduced by the WEP or GPO. Beneficiaries who are due retroactive benefits will receive a one-time direct-deposit payment by the end of March that covers their benefit increase back to January 2024. 

CHARTER SCHOOLS: The Texas Tribune published an article this week about Salvador Cavazos, leader of the Valere Public Schools, a small Texas charter network. On paper, Cavazos earns less than $300,000, but taxpayers likely aren’t aware that his total pay makes him one of the country’s highest-earning superintendents. Read more in this story republished here on Teach the Vote. 

MEMBER ADVOCACY: Thank you to the ATPE members who participated in our third Capitol Expedition of the session Tuesday: ATPE Past State President Stacey Ward, Humble; Emily Acker, Allen; Michael Biasini, Aubrey; ATPE Past State President Karen Hames, Lewisville; Shaleah Rose, Lewisville; Callie Dawson, Hutto; Kristin Shelton, Round Rock; and John Milner, Bandera. These members were eligible to attend the Capitol Expedition because they have earned the new ATPE Member Advocate Program (ATPE-MAP) State-Level Advocacy Microcredential. Although Capitol Expeditions are nearly full for the session, you may continue to enroll in ATPE-MAP to earn the state-level and recently released local-level microcredential, as well as earn continuing professional education (CPE) credit. ATPE-MAP is included in your member benefits, so check it out today. (Be sure to log in to the ATPE Online Community to find the latest Regional Advocacy Challenge standings.) 

BEST WISHES: ATPE bids a fond farewell to Mark Wiggins, a member of the ATPE Lobby Team for more than eight years. Wiggins has taken a new position with the Dallas Regional Chamber. Best wishes, Mark, and thank you for your hard work on behalf of Texas public education.