The House Public Education Committee hearing began at 8 a.m. on March 18 and continued well past midnight on March 19 as members heard public testimony on 9 bills.
Many superintendents were at the hearing to support Rep. Leach’s HB 6 related to school discipline, including TASA President-Elect Dr. Chris Moran, who testified in support of the bill on behalf of TASA and San Angelo ISD.
See video of Moran’s full testimony, along with a transcript.
Another bill of interest was HB 610 (Leo-Wilson) related to superintendent severance pay. TASA’s general counsel, Cory Hartsfield, submitted written testimony against the bill on behalf of the organization.
The last bill of the evening to be heard was HB 123 (Dutton) that would add high stakes testing for students in grades K-3 by requiring a student, who doesn’t perform satisfactorily on two consecutive administrations on a new early literacy test adopted by the commissioner, to receive 12 months of reading intervention. The bill would also establish new reading and math intervention academies and teacher training requirements on top of current academy training mandates. In addition, HB123 would establish a new tutoring grant program that would provide a parent who has a grade 3 child struggling in reading a $750 grand stipend to hire a tutor outside of the school district. Districts would bear the costs of the outside tutoring grant payments that would be taken from district funding in subsequent years. Members of the committee expressed concerns that the fiscal note for the bill would not cover the new mandates and that the bill authorized the commissioner to make decisions about the instructional needs of young students that should be made locally. Chairman Dutton said that his office was working on a committee substitute for the bill. TASA submitted written testimony on the bill and we provided a full summary of HB 123 as filed last week.
Archive of Part One of the hearing.
Archive of Part Two of the hearing.
Superintendent Severance Bill Heard in House Intergovernmental Affairs
In addition to the superintendent severance bill heard in the House Public Education Committee, HB 762 (Leach) was on Tuesday’s agenda for the House Intergovernmental Affairs Committee. TASA’s general counsel, Cory Hartsfield, submitted written testimony against HB 762 on behalf of the organization.
