80 days remain in the 87th Regular Legislative Session.

Today is the deadline for the unrestricted filing of bills.

Yesterday, President Joe Biden signed the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan into law, which (among other things) sends $129 billion to K-12 schools nationwide. The Texas share of Elementary & Secondary Emergency Relief (ESSER III) Funding is $12.4 billion. Of that amount, a minimum of $11.2 billion must go directly to LEAs.

If you add the $12.4 billion to the $5.5 billion from the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act (CRRSAA) in December 2020, that totals $17.9 billion for K12 Education in Texas that was not accounted for in the budget bills that were filed.

For the sake of comparison, in 2019 HB 3 invested $11.6 billion into public education (split between investments for schools and property tax relief). Of course how the funds will be distributed matters a great deal to individual districts, and that has not yet been decided. You can also probably count on some of that almost $18 billion going towards spending for schools that was already included in the budget (for the cost of enrollment growth and additional tax rate compression, for example). So the bottom line is this: no we don't yet know how much each district may receive. We also don't know how much local control and discretion you may have in how those dollars are spent.

But these dollars have come to districts in some way, so we once again encourage you to assess the greatest needs in your district and make plans for how you would use these dollars to meet those needs. Keep in mind that these are likely on-time funds, so spending should not be planned in a manner that relies on funding to continue. Plans should include how your district will address learning loss among students and other needs that may have come up due to the pandemic. These needs and plans should be communicated to your local legislators in the Texas House and Texas Senate.

To help the Coalition best represent the needs of our districts, we are asking that each district complete the brief survey that can be accessed via the link below. We won't hold you to your responses, but it would be very helpful to get some idea in regards to the plans your district is considering at this point in time.

On Monday, we let you know the the House State Affairs Committee would hear House Bill 3 of the 87th Legislature, which included some language regarding off-campus entities qualifying for ADA funding. A committee substitute for that bill was introduced this week that removed any and all language dealing with schools, so now HB 3 only pertains to pandemic response in a manner that does not largely impact schools. Whew.

So we can set that HB 3 aside for the time being and focus on some new legislation that was introduced this week that has been dubbed the "HB 3 Cleanup Bill" (in reference to the HB 3 from 2019). Senator Larry Taylor (R-Friendswood) and Rep. Dan Huberty (R-Humble) filed SB 1536 and HB 1525 as well as HB 3837, respectively.

As filed, the proposed bills (which are identical) would:

We will provide more details on these proposed bills in the coming days and weeks. These are bills to keep on your radar screen and monitor this session. This is the starting point. With a caption as broad as "relating to the public school finance system" any and everything is fair game.

Many of our Coalition member districts have entered into Chapter 313 Agreements for the purpose of economic development in their district. If you are a district that has used Chapter 313 Agreements in the past or that plans to utilize such opportunities in the future, then you need to be aware that Chapter 313 is subject to expiration December 31, 2022, unless the Legislature acts to continue it this session. 

Chapter 313 could be reauthorized absent any change (maintaining current law) or it could be extended with changes enacted. House Bill 1556 has been filed by Rep. Jim Murphy (R-Houston) that would extend the expiration date and keep the chapter in law, but it also includes some extensive changes that have caused some districts to say that with those proposed changes, the Chapter may as well expire as the Chapter 313 Agreements would no longer be a viable or valuable tool for districts. Partnerships don't work if they don't bring value for both partners.

You can read more background and details about this legislation here.

Currently, this bill has been referred to the House Ways & Means Committee. If your district would be impacted by this proposed legislation, now is a good time to share what that impact would be with House Ways & Means Committee Chairman Morgan Meyer at 512-463-0367 and the bill's author, Rep. Jim Murphy, at 512-463-0514.

We always love to share great resources produced in our Coalition districts. This week, we are highlighting a document from Frisco ISD titled "The Case for Prioritizing Traditional Public School Districts" that examines the fiscal impact of Frisco ISD students moving to charter schools. Many districts have struggled with this same challenge, and this document helps to spell out the issue using district-specific data in a very compelling fashion. Frisco ISD was happy to share in case this example is something you would like to adapt and use in your district.

The Texas House and Texas Senate both stand adjourned and will reconvene on Tuesday, March 16.

The House Public Education Committee will meet on Tuesday, March 16, at 8:00 a.m. They will hear 10 bills, including:

The Senate Finance Committee announced Working Groups this week, and Senator Larry Taylor (R-Friendswood) will chair the Working Group on Article III Public Education. He will be joined in that work by Senator Paul Bettencourt (R-Houston), Senator Eddie Lucio (D-Brownsville), and Senator Charles Perry (R-Lubbock). That group of senators will be hard at work hammering out details in Article III, but those are not usually publicly posted meetings, and they are also not meetings that are broadcast.

To view any House committee hearings click here to watch live or view archives.

Or to see a Senate hearing click here to watch live or view archives.

The Texas School Coalition will host another virtual legislative update for members on Wednesday, April 7, at 2:00 p.m. We hope you can make plans to join us. Click on the link below to register for the event and add those details to your calendar.

Also, if you missed our update from earlier this month, a video of that presentation and the presentation slides can be found at the March Update on the 87th Legislative Session page in the Members Area of our website.