What is to come of Texas Education?

There has been a lot of concern these past couple of weeks about education in Texas. This past week it came to a head when TASA and TASB held a news conference during the TASA Midwinter Conference. The big push is to put education first and make it a priority this year during the legislative session.

Over half of the Texas school districts have committed to the Make Public Education a Priority pledge. The pledge is a chance to give legislators insight into the different districts. It talks about the funding cuts, what the cuts will mean to that particular district, what the district has done in the past and what the district plans to do in the future with school funding. This information will help legislators have first hand knowledge of what the funding cuts are doing to each district.

During the news conference last week, the blame for the budget cuts was put on the 2006 legislative session, when legislators altered the state code by reducing property taxes and revised business franchised taxes. The complaint is that business franchised taxes could not offset the property taxes, creating a smaller pool of money for schools.

Representative Rob Eissler, who is the House Public Education Committee Chair, met with superintendents last week. He said the budget shortfall may not be as bad as previously mentioned. He is hopeful for federal money that Governor Perry had passed up on last year. Representative Eissler is also in support of additional changes that will help educators, such as changing the cap of 22 students to one teacher in kindergarten through 4^th grade classrooms; giving districts the ability to reduce pay for teachers to avoid layoffs, and to stop unfunded mandates for districts.

There will be changes to Texas education made during this legislative session. Stay tuned to see how they will affect you and your district.

Please feel free to answer the questions below:

1. What is your district’s plan to cut its budget?

2. How will your position be affected by the decisions that are being made in the 2011 Legislative Session?