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89th Legislative Session Updates
STRIVE Writing Staff
Believe it or not, the 89th Texas Legislature is ending, and with crunch time upon us, the outcome of this legislative session is starting to take shape. Still, just one major piece of education policy has passed to date, and much is still left to do. Funding for schools in HB 2 is among the pending legislation.
The school finance bill is poised to significantly impact school personnel and staffing. Various school finance proposals involve teacher compensation; educator training and certification requirements; special education funding; compensation for nurses, counselors, and librarians; school safety allotments; and increased funding for rural schools, among others.
First, let’s look at the approaching deadlines, which give the House until May 15 to hear House bills and then until May 27 to hear Senate bills.
Upcoming Deadlines
As of May 11th, there are approximately three weeks left of the 89th regular session; sine die is June 2nd.
• Monday, May 12: Last day for House committees to report House bills (HBs) and House joint resolutions (HJRs).
• Thursday, May 15: Last day for the House to consider House bills and House joint resolutions on second reading on the House Daily or Supplemental Calendar.
• Saturday, May 24: Last day for House committees to report SBs/SJRs.
• Tuesday, May 27: Last day for House to consider 2nd reading SBs/SJRs on daily or supplemental calendar.
• Friday, May 30: Last day for House to act on Senate amendments.
• Sunday, June 1: Last day for House to adopt CCRs or discharge House conferees and concur in Senate amendments. Last day for Senate to concur in House amendments or adopt CCRs.
• Monday, June 2: Sine Die.
Legislative Session Dates & Data
March 14th marked the 60-day bill filing deadline for the 89th Regular Session. When the deadline passed, a total of 8,898 bills and joint resolutions had been filed.
According to the Legislative Research Library, as of May 2nd:
• 1,247 bills have been passed by their chamber of origin.
• 976 bills have been referred to the committee in the opposite chamber.
• 78 bills have passed the opposite chamber.
As of May 8:
• 8 bills have received signature or approval from the Governor.
• 0 bills have been vetoed by the Governor.
During the 88th session over 60% of the bills finally passed in the last week of session.
We can also examine the legislature’s overall progress so far.
SB 1 (Huffman) is the general appropriations bill. The conference committee is working to finalize the negotiated bill, which is working from each chamber’s proposal that increased school funding by roughly $6.5B and $8B, respectively.
HB 2 (Buckley) is the school finance bill. The House proposal directs approximately $7.7b into public education and has been referred to the Senate Education K-16 Committee. The official Senate proposal has not been shared as it waits to be heard in committee. Conventional wisdom is that leaders are working to negotiate a bill that can be agreed to by the House before moving forward. The overall bill is expected to incorporate any number of finance-related proposals pertaining to compensation, general funding, special education, school safety, certification, and more.
HB 6 (Leach), relating to discipline in public schools, passed the House on May 8. The bill has been referred to the Senate Education K-16 Committee.
SB 27 (Creighton) has been coined the Teacher Bill of Rights and covers topics like duty calendar, contract abandonment, teacher time, and student discipline. The bill is pending in the House Public Education Committee.
HB 610 (Leo-Wilson) involves severance payment to a superintendent of a school district. It has been referred to the Senate Committee on Senate Education K-16.
HB 1178 (Cunningham) creates a temporary educator certificate for educators certified by other states. It has been referred to the Senate Committee on Senate Education K-16.
HB 2243 (Oliverson) creates the Texas Commission on Teacher Job Satisfaction and Retention. It has been referred to the Senate Committee on Senate Education K-16.
HB 2249 (Bernal) establishes the Texas Teacher Recruitment Scholarship Program and the Texas Teacher Retention Incentive Program. The bill has been received in the Senate but not yet referred to committee.
HB 4623 (Little) involves the liability of public schools and professional school employees for certain injuries to students. The bill is on the House calendar for a floor vote.
HB 5627 (Capriglione) creates the Texas Commission on Public School Teacher Retirement Funding Transparency. The bill has been received in the Senate but not yet referred to committee.
SB 965 (Parker) involves the right of a public school employee to engage in religious speech or prayer while on duty. The bill is being heard in the House State Affairs Committee on May 12.
SB 2253 (Creighton)covers many aspects of preparation and certification for public school educators, and certain allotments under the Foundation School Program. The bill has been referred to the House Public Education Committee.
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