Texas Education Policy Alert
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IDRA's weekly email alert includes legislative updates, opportunities for action to make your voice heard, bills to watch and other information through the session until it closes in late May.
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And please tell your friends!
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Coming Up: Week of April 3, 2023
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Hearings this week will address:
- Ban on corporal punishment in schools
- Improvements to data collection on school discipline and chronic absenteeism
- Stronger support for bilingual education programs, training and high school pathways for prospective bilingual education teachers
- Proposals toward teacher compensation and enrollment-based funding in some allotments
- Criminalization of students with e-cigarettes or vapes in schools
- Prohibitions against diversity, equity and inclusion in higher education institutions
- House budget debates on Thursday
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Hearing Monday on HB 772
Time to Ban Corporal Punishment in Schools
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Texas is one of only 23 states in the United States that still allows corporal punishment in schools (including charter schools). Thousands of young Texans are hit in their schools every year, despite research showing that corporal punishment harms students physically, emotionally, socially, and academically and creates unsafe school climates.
The Texas Legislature has the power to stop this outdated, harmful and unnecessary form of school-based violence and must use that power immediately.
See IDRA's New Issue Brief
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See IDRA's New Interactive Map on Corporal Punishment in Texas
IDRA’s newest map shows corporal punishment data for public school districts in Texas. You can see the number of incidents in each school district or legislative district.
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Monday
Youth Health & Safety Select Committee
Tuesday
Public Education Committee
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Thursday
Subcommittee on Higher Education
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Senate Education Committee Held Hearing on Classroom Censorship Proposals
The House and Senate education committees heard bills related to school censorship last week, particularly of LGBTQ+-related celebrations, texts and materials. Legislators continue to discuss these bills in relation to harmful material and obscenity, though the proposals are part of a deeper push to undermine protections for students based on their racial and gender identity. The Senate Education Committee voted 10-2 to pass SB 8 on to the full Senate, a bill that censors discussions of gender and sexuality as well as creating private school vouchers (education savings accounts).
Relatedly, the Senate Subcommittee on Higher Education discussed SB 18, which would discontinue academic tenure for instructors in high education institutions. This would disproportionately affect faculty of color and those who teach and research in subjects related to race, gender and ethnic studies.
IDRA and TLEEC submitted testimony against HB 1507, which targeted school district celebrations of LGBTQ+ Pride Weeks and other acknowledgments of diverse relationships, SB 2089 which imposed additional censoring language on instructional materials, and SB 13 which authorizes subjective book-banning protocols in school libraries.
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Testimony Presented Last Week
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IDRA is an independent, non-profit organization whose mission is to achieve equal educational opportunity through strong public schools that prepare all students to access and succeed in college.
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