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Introduction
It is hard to disagree that education plays a significant role in the lives of Americans. Consequently, public schools have to be accessible and provide young students with high-quality services. Thus, their work is controlled and adjusted with the help of yearly bills and other essential pieces of legislation. Generally, these bills are focused on increasing inclusivity and solving diversity issues, reviewing the roles of educators and parents, or addressing schedule concerns. Probably one of the most crucial focuses of the Texas Legislature is public school finance. This aspect has already been considered numerously during the previous legislative sessions, and the purpose of this paper is to discuss some important bills related to budgeting from the Spring 2021 (87th) session of the Texas Legislature.
House Bill 1 – The State Budget
As seen from the title, the aim of this bill is to allocate the state budget’s resources regarding public schools. According to the Coalition for Education Funding (2021), “the legislature adopted a budget of $248.5 billion for the 2022-2023 biennium” (para. 2). The bill allocated about $46.5 billion for public education, increasing the schools’ resources (Texas Association of School Boards, 2021). What is more, “House Bill 3 – the school finance bill from the previous session – was fully funded in this budget” (Coalition for Education Funding, 2021, para. 2). The basic allotment was not increased during the 87th legislative session.
House Bill 1525
It is quite essential to discuss HB 1525 since many researchers mention it as one of the most important bills affecting public school funding. As stated by the Coalition for Education Funding (2021), it is “known as the cleanup bill for HB 3 – the major school finance bill of the 86th legislative session” (para. 3). It is noticeable that several points were added to House Bill 1525 during the session’s final few days but then removed (Texas Association of School Boards, 2021). For example, some of the points that could have been added to the piece of legislation included “outcomes-based funding and a provision requiring school districts to retain 40% of their ESSER III funds for five years” (Coalition for Education Funding, 2021, para. 3). This final decision indicates that this bill is indeed crucial and may have caused disagreements between the members.
As for the actual essence of the bill, it now allows for drop-out recovery programs, attendance officers, instructional coaches, and social-emotional learning expenses of public schools to be covered by compensatory education funds (Lloyd, 2021). Further, Restorative Justice discipline costs are now included in the school safety allotment (Coalition for Education Funding, 2021). House Bill 1 additionally “ensures every LEA can cover their COVID costs with Federal Funds” and makes the Gifted and Talented Allotment restored (Coalition for Education Funding, 2021, para. 3). Finally, the salaries of public school teachers from 2019 to 2020 levels cannot be reduced. These are the main aspects of Texas House Bill 1 concerning the funding of public schools.
Senate Bill 1716 – Supplemental Education and Special Education Services
Furthermore, it is necessary to explore how the 87th session addressed the needs of special education students. After the CEF and the advocacy community staged a protest, the bill was amended, and the service selection process involved the ARD committee. Thanks to Senate Bill 1716, special needs students in public schools can now receive $1,500 to buy the necessary supplemental educational tools and services (Coalition for Education Funding, 2021). Educational service centers manage this funding and allocate the available resources.
House Bill 3610
The final bill to be discussed in relation to public education funding is HB 3610. As mentioned by researchers, this bill makes sure that open-enrollment charter schools are finally exempted from the necessity to pay property taxes. The latter only refers to those properties that had been renovated, built, leased, or purchased with a state budget later than September 1, 2001 (Lloyd, 2021). As a result, this measure will provide these schools with additional money that they will be able to spend on needs other than taxes.
Online Education Remains Unaddressed
Unfortunately, Texas authorities failed to address public schools’ needs related to online education during the Spring 2021 session. Thus, according to Smith (2021), those students who were engaged in virtual learning will have to return to their classrooms, notwithstanding the availability of public schools’ resources or the general situation. The reason is that lawmakers did not pass any legislation that would secure online education funding for the next academic year (Smith, 2021). Consequently, public schools’ funding will continue to depend on average daily in-person attendance, and most of them will not afford to provide their students with distance learning. This is probably the main concern that has been ignored during the 87th session.
Conclusion
To draw a conclusion, one may say that the 87th Spring 2021 Texas Legislature introduced a number of essential measures and decisions that will positively affect public education funding. While there were some disadvantages, including the unaddressed need to fund online education or increasing basic allotment, the session may be considered successful. Children with additional support needs can receive grants, open-enrollment chart schools taxation burden is reduced, some other aspects of public schools are strengthened, and the general picture promises future positive development of public education.
References
Coalition for Education Funding. (2021). Recap of the 87th Texas Legislature. Web.
Lloyd, D. (2021). 12 public education bills approved by the 87th Texas Legislature. Community Impact Newspaper. Web.
Smith, E. (2021). What the Texas Legislature did for public education. El Paso Matters. Web.
Texas Association of School Boards. (2021). What you need to know about public education and the 2021 Legislative session. Web.
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