The Texas Senate keeps delaying a vote on increased school funding for 2018-2019 and now has recessed until 4 p.m. Monday. It may be just as well that they are still working out their stance, because what's on the table so far in the Senate is very little. The $311 million senators have included thus far in their version of HB...
Read MoreYou have one more day to send your message to the Texas Senate to support a sensible compromise on school finance, because the Senate has delayed action until Sunday evening on the key House bill, HB 21. Send your letter to your state senator now if you have not done so already! These letters matter. Just yesterday Senate Education Committee chair Larry Taylor...
Read MoreSpeaking in "optimistic opposition" today before the Senate Education Committee, Texas AFT President Louis Malfaro testified against a stingy Senate substitute for the substantial, $1.8-billion school-funding bill passed by the Texas House, HB 21. Malfaro noted that committee chair Sen. Larry Taylor (R-Friendswood) acknowledged there's room to negotiate up from the meager $311 million in the Senate substitute. Taylor specifically...
Read MoreWith six days left in the current 30-day special session of the Texas Legislature, not a single bill has been passed and sent to Gov. Greg Abbott, despite Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick's ardent efforts to push through many hot-button proposals, including private-school vouchers and transgender-discrimination mandates. Still alive in the special session are important school-funding and TRS-Care cost-relief measures. You...
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House Sends School-Finance Bills to Senate with Supermajority Support: The Texas House hardly could have made it clearer today—by overwhelming margins, House members sent the Senate a $1.9-billion school-funding bill (HB 21) by a vote of 130 to 13, and they passed a measure (HB 30) to pay for it from the state’s $10-billion-plus reserve fund, the Economic Stabilization Fund,...
Read MoreIt was a clean sweep in the Texas House today for three key bills on school funding: HB 21 to increase school aid; HB 30 to pay for the increase; and HB 23 to provide for autism grants within the public schools. All passed easily on second reading, with the first two garnering 131 and 130 votes respectively and the...
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 17, 2017 CONTACT: Rob D’Amico, 512-627-1343 Texans are fed up with the destructive course plotted by Abbott and Patrick Texas AFT President Louis Malfaro commented today on the rally for public education at the state Capitol: Today’s rally for public education is yet another clear sign that Texans are fed up with the destructive agenda...
Read MoreGov. Abbott’s call for a special session is long on diversions and distractions but short on the state funding needed to make real headway on neglected priorities: school finance, education employees’ pay and benefits, and property-tax relief. Act now to help legislators get their priorities straight!
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Please join tens of thousands of AFT members who already have answered the call to speak out against the disastrous education budget proposal from the Donald Trump administration. Send your e-letter now to Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos urging her to renounce this retrograde plan. Just look at what the Trump/DeVos budget proposes: While Trump and DeVos chose private schools...
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