The House Public Education Committee held a hearing on Tuesday, March 4, to hear invited testimony on HB 2, the House school finance bill filed by the committee’s chair, Brad Buckley. Last week, we shared highlights of HB 2, which increases the Basic Allotment (BA) by $220 per student.
After Chairman Buckley laid out the provisions of the bill, committee members debated whether district “runs” (data that shows how the bill provisions would affect individual school districts) should be available before the merits of the bill were discussed. Buckley said that district runs will be available before the committee substitute is voted out. A substitute bill is expected prior to the bill being voted out of committee, which is expected to be March 18.
Committee members discussed:
- the bill’s $220 increase to the BA in comparison to the $1,340 needed to increase the BA to keep up with inflation and 2019 funding levels
- the bill’s focus on increasing the Teacher Incentive Allotment (TIA) when the TIA funds only 6 percent of Texas educators’ salaries
- the bill’s provisions that provide a larger funding increase for charter schools than for independent school districts
The committee heard testimony from 10 panels of individuals on the bill, which would infuse more than $8 billion of new funding into schools. Testimony centered around the sections of the bill related to TIA/teacher compensation, educator preparation, compensatory education, ADSY, targeted funding supports, and special education. The invited testimony was either “on” or “for” the bill and included people representing stakeholder organizations and administrators representing their school districts.
Public testimony on HB 2 will be taken in a separate hearing at 8 a.m., Thursday, March 6.
Watch Thursday’s hearing online.
