NexStar-late Thursday night, the Senate in Texas presented a large skirt version of Home Law 2 To a third reading, add 8.5 billion dollars in financing public schools over the next two years. The agreement was announced between the Senate and the Council of Journalists on Wednesday afternoon, more than a month after HB 2 was initially approved on the same day that the House of Representatives approved educational savings account legislation.
“This historical financing focuses on what succeeds: the best-backed teachers, the safest schools, and more opportunities for each student to achieve success,” Senator Brandon Creton, R-Conroe said in a joint statement with seven other legislators. “The majority of these funds are transmitted directly to the semester – not bureaucracy – lead to the success of students in every decision. HB 2 also enhances school processes and provides the resources they need to achieve a balance between their long -term budgets. The plan reflects our values in Texas: empowering teachers, investing in students, and securing the future of our state of state.”
Financing public schools
According to a version of the Speaker of Parliament DUSTIN Burrows, R-LUBBOCK, $ 8.5 billion is divided into several sub-categories instead of investing a significant increase in basic allocation.
HB 2 creates the updated “ABC), which the regions can use at expenditures such as insurance, facilities and a pension for teachers (TRS). $ 1.3 billion will go to the new ABC.
In addition, 850 million dollars will go to “private education repair”, and $ 430 million will go to school safety. A main amendment that has been added to the initial version of the HB 2, which creates a program before a full day, has been included in the final settlement.
“If the legislature is only one of the main components in HB 2- it is an increase in the salaries of teachers, or before the full kindergarten, or the comprehensive repair of special education-this will be a transformative victory against it.” Bernal authored the pre -kindergarten modification on the full day at home. “But HB 2 provides all these reforms and more, and when they collect, it represents a true historical achievement of public education in Texas,” said Bernal.
Increase the salaries of the teacher
One of the seven ruling emergencies at the beginning of the session was to increase the salaries of teachers. The updated version of HB 2 puts $ 4.2 billion for permanent teachers for teachers and employees.
Permanent increases for teachers over the age of three years come from experience, with an additional increase for those who have more than five years of experience. In addition, the HB 2 sows the teacher’s incentive allocation program, which can accommodate it to more teachers throughout the state.
Finally, the bill allows a bonus of $ 8,000 for rural teachers.
“This agreement represents a historic penetration of the Texas countryside-in very long regions, more small and medium regions have been requested with a larger number of size, and HB 2 directly responds to these challenges,” the state deputy in Trent Ashbi, RR Lofikin wrote.
Fears with HB 2
While the draft law obtained praise from both sides of the corridor, not everyone shares enthusiasm.
“This was a background. Members of the Legislative Council in the House of Representatives and in the Senate did not participate in the establishment of this new version of the school financing bill,” said MP James Talarico, Representative James Talarico, de Austin. Talarico is a member of the General Education Committee in the House of Representatives and a former school teacher. “This anger me, because I came here to represent my voter. I work with 150 members of the Legislative Council who are also here to represent their voters, and the fact that members of the House of Representatives have not had a chance to formulate the details of this law is anger.”
Like most of them, Talarico only could see the details developed by Burrow employees. You have a problem with the bill to take the money from the basic allocation and transfer it to less flexible allocations.
“I think the state legislature is behaving like the school council in Texas. They are trying to operate our local school societies throughout the state,” he said. “The only way we can keep schools open and we can increase students’ performance is if we allow local communities to do the task we ask them to do without the state looking for their shoulders and distorting everything they do.”
Talaico also has problems related to the raw amount of the upcoming new financing, especially after the state has allocated a billion dollars to ESAS – a program that helps families with special tuition fees – earlier this session.
“This school financing package does not reach the 2019 financing levels. We have spent six years of inflated inflation,” he said. “Most of our teachers leave the profession during the first five years, and within this package, these are the teachers who get an increase in wages-if they get anything at all. Teachers who are under the age of three years do not get any wage increase. Not enough for the crisis we face.”