As quoted in the Express-News, Democratic Sen. Leticia Van de Putte of San Antonio offered this comment: "I'm glad the lieutenant governor is doing this. Desperation requires you to get creative." But Van de Putte noted that a real solution to the state's long-term fiscal problem requires a fix for the business margins tax, which has produced billions of dollars less than its backers projected when it was enacted in 2006.
Education Commissioner Eases Path to Use of School Districts' Local Reserve Funds: Commissioner of Education Robert Scott announced this week that he will ease financial-accountability rules that encourage districts to maintain substantial funding reserves. The commissioner in a guidance letter to school administrators said the current state budget situation calls for the adjustment because districts will be under great pressure to tap those local reserves to make up for shortfalls in state revenue.
Proposed Funding for Discretionary Grants: For the past several legislative cycles, there has been a trend toward delegation of decision-making to the commissioner of education. That trend was in evidence again this week, as Sen. Florence Shapiro, the Plano Republican who chairs a key subcommittee on education funding, proposed that lawmakers give new discretion to the commissioner over the allocation of some significant pots of money. For instance, the commissioner would decide how to spend $90 million allotted for "prevention" of academic problems. Under this heading the commissioner would get to decide whether or how much to fund programs such as algebra-readiness grants, a middle-school initiative, professional-development academies to prepare for end-of-course testing, and more. The commissioner also would receive $20 million to parcel out among dropout programs, deciding how much would go to Communities in Schools versus other efforts, for example. The overall effect would be to shift the power to make specific allocations from the legislature to the commissioner. Not just coincidentally, this approach also insulates legislators from direct responsibility for the specific cuts that many programs within these categories will suffer because of the overall cut of more than one billion dollars from discretionary grants.
Capitol Action Next Week: The session reaches its halfway point Monday, with 70 days left to go. Days at the capitol are about to get much longer, with many more bills scheduled for committee hearings and floor action. Here are a few examples:
- HB 387, by Democratic Rep. Sylvester Turner of Houston, would grant parents a right to time off from work to attend school meetings related to their child's special-education program. The bill will be heard in the Business and Industry Committee on Monday.
- SB 504, by Democratic Sen. Wendy Davis of Fort Worth, would save money for school districts by giving them the same utility discounts granted to institutions of higher education. The bill comes up Tuesday morning in the Senate Business and Commerce Committee.
- Four bills on bullying come up in the Senate Education Committee on Tuesday, and that's just for starters. Among a dozen bills on the committee's agenda are two especially troubling ones. SB 738 by Sen. Shapiro would enable many districts to exempt themselves from most state quality standards by declaring themselves "home rule charter school districts." SB 127 by Sen. Dan Patrick, Republican of Houston, would allow proliferation of charter schools without making much-needed improvements in quality standards and state oversight.
- Twenty bills are up for a hearing in the House Public Education Committee on Tuesday afternoon. Among them is the House companion to Sen. Patrick's charter-expansion bill, HB 936 by Republican Rep. Patricia Harless of Spring. Other charter-school bills also will get a hearing, as will several more measures on educators' contract issues.
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