11 days remain in the 87th Regular Legislative Session.

Quid pro quo literally means "something for something." And this is the time of the legislative session when everyone wants something. In particular, the House wants their House bills to pass, and the Senate wants their Senate bills to pass. And when either chamber thinks that their priority bills are not moving in the other body, they sometimes take action to try to motivate their counterparts on the other side of the Capitol.

Today the House recessed until Sunday, meaning they will not meet and pass the Senate bills on their Friday and Saturday calendars. All that business will be pushed to Sunday instead. House leaders are waiting to see what action the Senate will decide to take between now and then. And the rest of us get to watch and wait as well. 11 days to go!

The Senate's version of CSHB 1525 (Huberty/Taylor) is expected to be considered as soon as today, but more likely on a later date, as the Senate leadership is waiting for the House to pass SB 1365 (Bettencourt/Huberty) before they consider HB 1525. Things could change though, and the bill could be heard at any time in the Senate.

We've sent you a lot of information about this bill, so here is a quick list of all that info (that focuses primarily on concerns regarding Section 24 and Section 25 of the bill):

Click here to look up contact info for your Senator.

In case you missed the information posted to our social media channels today, you might be interested in the video regarding how much local funding CSHB 1525 would require districts to set aside and not spend to help students until 2024-25.

You can check our per-district list to how much local funding CSHB 1525 would require your district to put in your fund balance and not use until 2024-25.

You may recall that SB 1365 is the bill would provide broad and sweeping commissioner authority for a school district takeover. That bill was scheduled for debate on the House floor today, but it was postponed to allow House members time to review the complete re-write of the bill as represented in a heavily negotiated floor substitute. If that substitute is adopted, SB 1365 would include the following:

On School District Investigations and Authority:

On school district accountability:

SB 1365 was postponed until Friday, meaning that it will likely now be considered on Sunday. You can see the language of the amendment that will become the floor substitute here: Pre-filed amendment to SB 1365

The 10-member conference committee for SB 1, the General Appropriations Act, announced yesterday that they have reached consensus on a deal combining the two versions of the bill. Decisions were formally adopted and didn't include many changes or surprises for public education.

Something that some folks found surprising (and some would argue not...) is the removal of any mention of legislative appropriations oversight for the many billions of federal dollars to be distributed over the next two years. Amendments added unanimously by the Texas House to require such oversight disappeared from the final agreement for the budget bill.

One change to highlight for school funding is that the $100 million per year for the New Instructional Materials Allotment (NIFA) was reduced to $70 million each year for a total reduction of $60 million. Conveniently, the proposed budget also includes a contingency rider in the amount of $60 million in new spending on supplemental services & materials for special education students (as determined by each student's parent), as proposed by SB 1716 (Taylor/Bonnen).

You can see all the details that are available regarding the decisions for the Conference Committee Report (CCR) on SB 1 here:

In a related note, the Senate Finance Committee is hearing the Supplemental Appropriations bill, HB 2 (Bonnen/Nelson) today, likely after the Senate concludes their business on the floor today. This is the bill that addresses appropriations for the 2020-21 biennium and as it was adopted by the House, reduces Foundation School Program funding by $5.5 billion (in part due to the $1.3 billion increase in recapture above 2019 projections). The Texas School Coalition will testify on HB 2 to ensure that provision doesn't go unnoticed.

The House Public Education Committee met in a formal hearing upon adjournment of the House today. They approved three bills:

Deadlines loom for bills in the House. Senate bills must be reported out of committee by Saturday (not just passed but fully reported out), and in order for a bill to survive, it must be reported out and placed on a calendar for consideration by 10:00 p.m. on Sunday evening. Tuesday, May 25, is the last day on which Senate bills may be considered on 2nd reading in the House, and all bills must pass on third reading by May 26.

The Senate Education Committee will meet tomorrow at 9:00 a.m. to hear 23 bills (and it's possible that more could be added to the list). You can see the committee posting for the full list, and we are highlighting a few of the bills from that list below.

The Senate Committee on Economic Development & Natural Resources met on Tuesday to hear HB 4242 (Meyer/Birdwell), which would extend Chapter 313 of the Tax Code for a period of two years. Without passage of HB 4242, Chapter 313 will expire and cease to exist. The extension of two years punts the issue to the next legislative session when officials may consider reforms to the program. A vote could be taken on this bill by the Committee later today or on Friday.

As reported above, the Senate is expected to take up HB 1525 for consideration as early as today. The Senate is expected to meet every day between now and the end of the session (unless they choose to adjourn or recess like the House).

Wednesday, May 26, is the final day when the Senate may consider bills on second or third reading. A bill may not be passed by the Senate after May 26. Following May 26, the members of both chambers will only be considering amendments adopted by the other chamber and conference committee reports.

We hope you can join us as we rehash the good, the bad, and the ugly from the 87th Irregular Session at our Post-Legislative Workshop on Wednesday, June 9, from 10:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m. in Dallas at the DoubleTree by Dallas Love Field.

You can register via the link below to attend in person and also find the info you need to make hotel reservations for a discounted rate if you plan to stay overnight.

If you are not able to join us in person, but still want to join in on the fun, please click on the button below to register and attend virtually via Zoom.