Saturday, April 18, 2009
Good News Re: School Finance
posted by Susan Peterson at 05:57 AM
School finance reform is emerging as a nouveau priority this session, if House members’ reactions to school finance-related amendments during Friday’s budget debate are any indication.
First indication: Rep. Mike Villarreal filed an amendment which would eliminate existing merit pay programs for teachers, currently administered through TEA. If one of the school finance bills passes (such as Diane Patrick’s or Scott Hochberg’s), then the $350 million currently appropriated to the merit pay programs would flow to schools through the new school finance formulas.
Villarreal’s amendment passed unanimously.
Later, Villarreal told me, “It’s a signal that the membership wants to give schools more money through the formulas. It raises the stakes on that [school finance] bill.”
Second indication: Rep. Larry Phillips filed an amendment that would provide a way for schools to receive additional money if school finance reform didn’t pass. His amendment was killed on a point of order raised by Trey Martinez-Fischer. Phillips’ subsequent speech indicated that his amendment was an honest stab at a back-up plan. “I hope that those who wanted to see this amendment go down will work with us - will commit to working on this school finance issue,” Phillips said. “Mr. Hochberg, you tell me that’s what you want to do. I just ask the rest of you to do that, too.”
Phillips got a bipartisan round of applause.
Those are pretty big hints, if you ask me, that the House is largely supportive of school finance reform. I chatted with Diane Patrick - who is a newer legislator and a school finance genius, as it turns out - and she told me that school finance has been her priority since the beginning of the session. But it didn’t look like would be the Legislature’s priority until the federal dollars appropriated to Texas by the stimulus act allowed the legislators the leeway to take up the issue.
And none too soon: “A lot of [schools] are going into their fund balances,” Patrick said. “They are in a crisis.”
Patrick also pointed out that passing school finance reform legislation before Texas gets sued for would be, like, unprecedented. (No, seriously.)
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