The final day of the 2nd called session is less than a week away. Legislators must conclude their business by Sunday.

Today that House goes into session at 2:00 p.m. and the Senate will convene at 4:00 p.m. Several committee hearings are also scheduled for today.

The Texas House gave preliminary passage to SB 15 (Taylor/Keith Bell), the remote instruction bill, on Friday. They will consider that bill for third reading and final passage in the House this afternoon.

As you may recall, passage of SB 15 would allow districts rated with a C or better to offer a local remote learning program for up to 10% of the district’s enrollment. Students participating in such a program would count towards ADA for funding purposes. This program and funding would expire September 1, 2023.

On Friday, the House adopted an amendment by the bill's sponsor, Rep. Keith Bell, that made some pretty significant changes to the bill (a 6-page amendment to an 8-page bill). One of those changes is to exclude students who failed a STAAR test in the previous year from eligibility for funding in a remote learning program.

To help clarify what the bill originally proposed and what changes were adopted in the amendment, please see our Section-by-Section of SB 15 for more details.

If you have thoughts or concerns about the Bell amendment to tie funding to performance on the STAAR assessment or another matter in this bill, time is running out to communicate that to elected officials. The House will vote on final passage this afternoon, and then it is up to the Senate to either concur with the House changes or take the bill to conference committee to work out the differences.

Click here if you need help finding contact info for your elected representatives in the Texas House and Texas Senate.

The Senate Finance Committee will hear SB 91 (Bettencourt) today in a hearing scheduled to begin at 10 a.m.

SB 91 was filed Friday, and the bill seeks to provide temporary property tax relief in the 2022-23 school year. Following that one-time temporary rate reduction, tax rates would return to previous calculations in the 2023-24 school year (on track with the rate compression from HB 3). The bill appropriates the lesser of $4 billion or $2 billion plus 50% of any budget surplus estimated by the Comptroller to cover the cost of funding reductions experienced by schools when less local taxes are collected. This is estimated to deliver property tax rate reduction somewhere in the range of 6-12 cents.

The Texas School Coalition will testify on SB 91 today, voicing support for the concept of property tax relief but concern over the temporary nature of this measure. Taxpayers are likely to be angry when rates increase again in 2023-24. Tax relief that is lasting and sustainable over multiple years would be more meaningful to taxpayers.

It is challenging for a bill just now being heard in its chamber of origin to make it all the way to final passage at this point in the session, but certainly not impossible. Unusual things can happen in a special session.

The House Public Education Committee will take up three bills at their hearing this afternoon at 4:00 p.m. or once the House adjourns:

Here is a quick rundown on where other bills state that we've been following:

At this time, none of these bills have been voted out of committee.

Please join us for a (virtual) Texas School Coalition meeting and update on Wednesday, September 15, at 2:00 p.m. Click below to register. We hope to see you there!