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The 89th Legislative Session Ended on June 2
Over 8700 bills were filed of which about 800 were passed. Most are not considered in committee. During the legislative session, when specific bills were moving, we sent Public Policy Alerts so you could advocate for our position on many issues. These included requests that you contact your legislators or they had links for you to contact by email your legislators.
From the start, the Texas legislative session focused on education with vouchers/Education Savings Accounts and increased public education funding being the big issues. The first bill taken up was vouchers/ESA which had to pass before the legislature could move on to other issues. While many surveys indicated that vouchers are not popular with the majority of Texans, it was backed by our state officials and the US president.
When our AAUW Texas members went to the capitol and met with their legislators on March 17th on our Legislative Day, most of us did not foresee that the public school funding bill would be worked on most of the session. AAUW Texas supported efforts to provide adequate and equitable state funding for public schools as contained in SB 26 and HB 2. However, we supported a more substantial increase to the basic allotment and other funding. We favored HB 2 as it provided more funding. We learned that advocacy works for compromise as the Senate at first reduced and then reconsidered the house bill’s increased funding. Now the school districts will receive a $55 per student increase to their base allotment funding — far short of the $395 per student hike proposed by the House earlier in the session and much less than the roughly $1,300 that school officials said they needed to keep up with inflation. The basic allotment, provides districts the most flexibility to address the range of needs on their campuses, from salaries and maintenance to instructional materials and athletics. After extensive negotiations, the Senate added substantial increases to specific funding categories. It limits flexibility. The total funding is not at the level it should be based on inflation. The bill finally was passed the end of May.
The other bills we supported that passed included:
SB 31 Life of the Mother Act clarifying when doctors can make emergency exception to the abortion ban
HB 713 Replaced HB 3339. The Maternal Mortality & Morbidity Review Committee is allowed to study maternal deaths in a more-timely manner.
We strongly opposed the following bills which passed:
SB 2 Vouchers/Education Savings Accounts
SB 10 Ten Commandments in the Classroom
SB 11 Period of Prayer in Schools
SB 13 Permits school districts to adopt policies and assemble local school library advisory councils to make recommendations on restricting books that students can read; and allows parents and school boards to challenge any school library material
SB 33 Prohibiting Local Government Support of Abortion Assistance
SB 412 Allowing prosecution of librarians for allowing materials or conduct that is obscene or possibly harmful to children
SB 1596 Deregulating Short Barrel Rifles (the weapon used at Uvalde)
We followed bills that didn’t make it out of committee or failed when Senate and House members didn’t agree on a single version of the bill.
HB 4 Change the assessment of public-school students from the STAAR test
SB 16 Proof of Citizenship to Vote which requires documents that prove their citizenship, such as a passport or birth certificate to register to vote. Many of you voiced your opposition to this bill. AAUW Texas opposed
HB 220 Minimum Standards of Care for Sexual Assault Survivors AAUW Texas supported
HB 3225 Restriction access by minors to sexually explicit materials in municipal public library collections; providing a civil penalty. AAUW Texas opposed
SB 2880 Prohibiting abortion inducing medications with civil and criminal penalties for facilitating AAUW Texas opposed
SB 1798 Repealing the Texas Dream Act which would have eliminated access to in-state tuition and state aid for undocumented students in Texas, impacting millions of immigrant students and weakening Texas’ commitment to education for all students made in 2001. AAUW Texas opposed
Others bills and actions that passed which are of interest:
SB 12 It places new restrictions on classroom instruction and student activities, limits diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts in public schools, and places constraints on curriculum.
SB 37: Increases state oversight of public universities, and reduces faculty's influence over curriculum and hiring.
SB 462 will improve the supply of child care by helping child care providers secure care for their own kids.
The Legislature approved an additional $100 million in the budget for additional child care scholarships which will help reduce the number of children on the Texas Work Force child care wait list.
Moving Forward
Looking forward, the legislature voted for items that require voter approval such as, property tax cuts, estate tax changes, automatic denial of bail for some repeat offenders, funding for Texas State Technical College, and funding for water infrastructure. Also, an amendment to the Texas Constitution clarifying that voters must be US citizens (which is already the law) and another constitutional amendment “protecting the right of parents to raise their children.” You can vote to establish and allocate $3 billion in general revenue to the Dementia Prevention and Research Institute of Texas for research.
The next AAUW Texas quarterly Public Policy Zoom meeting will be held on August 7. We will be considering how to incorporate the new AAUW Public Policy Priorities into our efforts. Our committee welcomes your ideas. We will evaluate the level of public policy advocacy which has been achieved and plan for our future legislative actions. Please plan to participate.
Georgia Kimmel
Public Policy Chair
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