Who Voted for SB8 Which Cut Funding to Schools and Decimated Teacher Rights?

Who is responsible for SB8 and the attack on teacher pay and contract safeguards in Texas? 

"...For the first time in Texas' known history, student enrollment growth will not be funded. The approximately 170,000 new students entering the school system during the new two years will have to be absorbed with fewer resources and fewer teachers....Already ranked 44th nationally in what it spends on education per pupil, Texas' further funding decrease will have a consequence in the classroom, there is no doubt.  Perhaps it will have another consequence as well. Just perhaps, in the next election, everyday Texans will let us know that their voices, those of the greater good, are more important than those extremists who currently hold sway in the halls of the Texas Capitol." - Texas Senator Wendy Davis

These congressmen and women are counting on the fact that we will forget what happened on June 29, 2011 when we vote in 2013.  When teachers see their colleagues being let go in the middle of the year with little or no recourse to challenge their administrations, remember which congressmen made this happen.  When they see districts lowering pay and stipends to make up for the $4 billion loss to education in Texas, remember that it was our votes that put these people into office.  Senate Bill 8 will be devastating to education in the coming years.  This will affect how teachers teach and who they teach.  It will lower the power of our workforce in Texas and thus our business strength and competitiveness.  Remember who made the decisions to do this in the name of "fiscal responsibility".  Rob Eissler and Florence Shapiro are the parties responsible for authoring this devastating legislation and vehemently supporting it.  Ironically, Eissler has in the past been supported by teacher unions.  This betrayal will likely not go unnoticed.  Even seventeen Republicans voted against this bill and for their conscience. 

In the Texas Senate, the final vote to pass SB 8 was 19 to 11.  In the House, the final vote to pass SB 8 was 80 to 63.  

If you would like to know who the legislator is in your area, click here.

 

First, we cannot ignore the politician who called these special sessions until he got exactly what he wanted and who will ultimately sign and support this legislation, Governor Rick Perry.  Don't forget Perry also appointed the AUTHOR of the bill, Rob Eissler to be the Chair of the House Public Education Committee.  

Texas Lawmakers Approve Bill That Cuts School Funding

LEGISLATORS WHO VOTED FOR SB8 AND AGAINST TEACHER RIGHTS IN TEXAS:

HOUSE

Rob Eissler of The Woodlands (House author of SB 8);

Jose Aliseda of Beeville; 

Charles Anderson of Waco;
Rodney Anderson of Plano;
Jimmy Don Aycock of Killeen;
Marva Beck of Centerville;
Leo Berman of Tyler;
Dennis Bonnen of Angleton;
Dan Branch of Dallas;
Cindy Burkett of Mesquite;
Angie Chen Button of Richardson;
Erwin Cain of Como;
Bill Callegari of Houston;
Warren Chisum of Pampa;
Wayne Christian of Nacogdoches;
Byron Cook of Corsicana;
Tom Craddick of Midland;
Brandon Creighton of Conroe;
Myra Crownover of Lake Dallas;
John Davis of Houston;
Sarah Davis of Houston;
Gary Elkins of Houston;
Allen Fletcher of Tomball;
Dan Flynn of Canton;
John Frullo of Lubbock;
John Garza of San Antonio;
Charlie Geren of River Oaks;
Larry Gonzales of Round Rock;
Kelly Hancock of Fort Worth; (wrote article justifying the cuts)
Rick Hardcastle of Vernon;
Patricia Harless of Spring; (declared would vote "no" but voted "yes" instead)
Linda Harper-Brown of Irving;
Will Hartnett of Dallas;
Harvey Hilderbran of Kerrville;
Charlie Howard of Sugar Land; (declared would vote "no" but voted "yes" instead)
Dan Huberty of Humble;
Bryan Hughes of Marshall;
Todd Hunter of Corpus Christi;
Jason Isaac of Dripping Springs;
Jim Jackson of Carrollton;
Jim Keffer of Granbury;
Phil King of Weatherford;
Tim Kleinschmidt of Lexington;
Lois Kolkhorst of Brenham;
John Kuempel of Seguin;
Lyle Larson of San Antonio;
Jodie Laubenberg of Rockwall;
George Lavender of Texarkana;
Ken Legler of Pasadena;
Lanham Lyne of Wichita Falls;
Jerry Madden of Plano;
Dee Margo of El Paso;
Doug Miller of New Braunfels;
Sid Miller of Stephenville;
Geanie Morrison of Victoria;
Jim Murphy of Houston;
Barbara Nash of Arlington;
Rob Orr of Burleson;
John Otto of Dayton;
Tan Parker of Flower Mound;
Ken Paxton of McKinney;
Charles Perry of Lubbock;
Walter “Four” Price of Amarillo;
Charles Schwertner of Georgetown;
Connie Scott of Corpus Christi;
Kenneth Sheets of Dallas;
Ralph Sheffield of Temple;
Mark Shelton of Fort Worth;
David Simpson of Longview;
Todd Smith of Bedford;
Wayne Smith of Baytown;
John Smithee of Amarillo;
Burt Solomons of Carrollton;
Larry Taylor of League City;
Vicki Truitt of Southlake;
Randy Weber of Pearland;
Beverly Woolley of Houston;
Paul Workman of Spicewood (Austin);
Bill Zedler of Arlington,
John Zerwas of Simonton.

SENATE

Florence Shapiro of Plano (author of SB 8);
Brian Birdwell of Granbury;
John Carona of Dallas;
Robert Deuell of Greenville;
Robert Duncan of Lubbock;
Kevin Eltife of Tyler;
Craig Estes of Wichita Falls;
Troy Fraser of Horseshoe Bay;
Chris Harris of Arlington;
Glenn Hegar of Katy;
Joan Huffman of Southside Place (Harris County);
Mike Jackson of La Porte;
Jane Nelson of Flower Mound;
Robert Nichols of Jacksonville;
Steve Ogden of Bryan; (actually advocated that schools raise taxes to make up the difference)
Dan Patrick of Houston;
Kel Seliger of Amarillo;
Jeff Wentworth of San Antonio;
Tommy Williams of The Woodlands.

Eleven of the 12 Texas Senate Democrats voted to defend teachers against the SB 8 attack on educators’ pay and rights:

Wendy Davis of Fort Worth; (helped the cause with a successful filibuster) (wrote article about harms of SB8)

Rodney Ellis of Houston; 

Mario Gallegos of Houston; 

Juan Hinojosa of McAllen; 

Eddie Lucio of Brownsville; 

Jose Rodriguez of El Paso; 

Carlos Uresti of San Antonio; 

Leticia Van de Putte of San Antonio; 

Kirk Watson of Austin; 

John Whitmire of Houston; 

Judith Zaffirini of Laredo.

One Democratic senator was absent:  Royce West of Dallas.

63 members of the House who voted to defend teachers by voting no on SB 8 on final passage:

Fred Brown of Bryan; 

Stefani Carter of Dallas; 

Drew Darby of San Angelo; 

Lance Gooden of Terrell; 

Mike Hamilton of Mauriceville; 

Chuck Hopson of Jacksonville; 

Susan King of Abilene; 

Jim Landtroop of Plainview; 

Tryon Lewis of Odessa; 

Diane Patrick of Arlington: 

Aaron Pena of Edinburg; 

Larry Phillips of Sherman; 

Jim Pitts of Waxahachie; 

Debbie Riddle of Houston; 

Allan Ritter of Nederland; 

Raul Torres of Corpus Christi;

James White of Woodville.

Alma Allen of Houston; 

Roberto Alonzo of Dallas; 

Carol Alvarado of Houston; 

Lon Burnam of Fort Worth; 

Joaquin Castro of San Antonio; 

Garnet Coleman of Houston; 

Yvonne Davis of Dallas; 

Joe Deshotel of Port Arthur; 

Dawnna Dukes of Austin; 

Harold Dutton of Houston; 

Craig Eiland of Galveston; 

Joe Farias of San Antonio; 

Jessica Farrar of Houston; 

Pete Gallego of Alpine; 

Helen Giddings of Dallas; 

Veronica Gonzales of McAllen; 

Naomi Gonzalez of El Paso; 

Ryan Guillen of Rio Grande City; 

Roland Gutierrez of San Antonio; 

Ana Hernadez Luna of Houston; 

Scott Hochberg of Houston; 

Donna Howard of Austin; 

Eric Johnson of Dallas; 

Tracy King of Eagle Pass; 

J.M. Lozano of Harlingen; 

Marisa Marquez of El Paso; 

Armando Martinez of Weslaco; 

Trey Martinez Fischer of San Antonio; 

Ruth Jones McClendon of San Antonio; 

Jose Menendez of San Antonio;

Borris Miles of Houston; 

Sergio Munoz Jr. of Mission; 

Elliott Naishtat of Austin; 

Rene Oliveira of Brownsville; 

Joe Pickett of El Paso; 

Chente Quintanilla of El Paso; 

Richard Pena Raymond of Laredo; 

Ron Reynolds of Missouri City; 

Eddie Rodriguez of Austin; 

Mark Strama of Austin; 

Senfronia Thompson of Houston; 

Sylvester Turner of Houston; 

Marc Veasey of Fort Worth; 

Mike Villarreal of San Antonio; 

Hubert Vo of Houston; and 

Armando Walle of Houston.

And this is a summary of what the bill will do and when it will take effect:

–The bill will not take effect until September 28, by our reckoning. Current law remains fully in force until that day. Note also:  Statutory changes made in SB 8 cannot alter the substantive terms of contracts that are already in place before the bill takes effect. These pre-existing contracts will continue to be governed by the law as it existed at the time the contracts were initiated.

–SB 8 authorizes districts to impose unpaid furloughs of up to six days and unlimited additional pay cuts, with no meaningful expiration date on this authority.  All contract personnel in a district would be subject to the same number of furlough days, including administrators. All administrators and other professional employees also would be subject to any additional percentage pay reductions imposed on teachers due to a district’s financial condition.

–Neither furloughs nor other salary reductions could be imposed until a district conducts a public meeting explaining the proposed action and describing what consideration has been given to a local tax increase or use of local fund reserves. The school board and administrators also would have to explain how the pay cuts would help to avert layoffs. And the public and employees of the district would have to be given an opportunity at the public meeting to voice their opinions on the proposed action.

–SB 8 repeals the salary floor in state law that prevents rollback of state pay raises such as the one granted in 2009.

–SB repeals the provision in state law requiring layoffs of continuing-contract teachers to be based on seniority. The bill requires such layoffs in the future to be based on teacher appraisals and other factors established by the local school board.

–SB 8 permanently changes the deadline for notice of nonrenewal of a term contract (or termination of a probationary contract at the end of the school year) to the 10th day before the last day of instruction. Current law places that deadline at the 45th day before the last day of instruction.

–SB 8 deprives teachers, in any case of termination based on “financial exigency” in the middle of their contract’s term, of their right to an impartial hearing in front of an independent hearing examiner. The hearing on a disputed termination in such cases can be delegated under SB 8 to an attorney chosen and paid by the school district who will make a recommendation that the board is free to reject. (The attorney cannot be one who represents school districts, school employees, or associations of school employees, school administrators, or school boards.)

–SB 8 also will permanently alter the legal standard of “good cause” for mid-contract termination in all cases, granting school boards broad discretion to override the findings of the hearing officer who actually has heard and weighed the evidence.

For Houston-area schools, the impact of these cuts is terrible:

• Houston ISD receives a $205 million cut, which translates to per student cuts of $308 in 2012 and $490 in 2013;
• Fort Bend ISD receives a $45.6 million cut - per student cuts of $334 in 2012 and $213 in 2013;
• Stafford MSD receives a $3.3 million cut - per student cuts of $323 in 2012 and $481 in 2013;
• North Forest ISD receives a $3.1 million cut - per student cuts of $287 in 2012 and $76 in 2013, and;
• Alief ISD receives a $22.6 million cut - per student cuts of $312 in 2012 and $82 in 2013;
• HISD has laid off nearly 800 teachers, and more are expected in the months ahead. 

Despite all those deep cuts and all that pain, this budget doesn't truly address the core of our budget crisis.  According to the non-partisan Center for Public Policy Priorities, Texas will face another huge budget shortfall next session, anywhere from a low of $10 billion to a high of more than $20 billion.

As a reminder of what happened this month, this will be re-posted every two months on the anniversary of the date of the bill's passage.

Commentary by Fred Martin, voting records collected by the American Federation of Teachers.