89th Texas Legislative Session - Updates

April 3, 2025

The House Public Education Committee met Thursday in a formal meeting to take action on HB 2 (Buckley), related to school funding, and SB 2 (Creighton), related to education savings account vouchers. After much discussion, the committee passed HB 2 by a vote of 13 to 2 and SB 2 by a vote of 9 to 6. The bills now go to the full House for consideration.

CSHB 2 (Buckley) provides $7.7 billion in public education funding to do the following:

• Increases the basic allotment (BA) by $395 to $6,555.
• Includes an ongoing, automatic increase to the BA every biennium.
• Increases automatic teacher pay increases by mandating that 40% of new BA funding go to raising salaries.
• Prioritizes salary increases for teachers with 10+ years, then 5+ years experience.
• Includes a formula transition grant to ensure every district receives at least $200 per student.
• Adds prekindergarten to the early education allotment.
• Increases funding weights for emergent bilingual students.
• Provides one-time funding to expand teacher certifications.

Chair Buckley removed provisions from the original bill that provided funding for high school advising because it is addressed in another bill and that funded a teacher preparation allotment in favor of grow your own programs.

CSSB 2 (Creighton) establishes an education savings account (ESA) voucher program that would allocate state funds to an account for a family to use for approved educational expenses such as private school or home school. Read more about HB 3 (Creighton), which was substituted into SB 2.

The committee substitute for SB 2 includes the following changes from HB 3:

• Caps the ESA program at $1 billion for the first biennium.
• Limits ESA funding for students without disabilities or from non-low-income households to 20% of the program until after the 2026-27 school year.
• Exempts private school students below 3rd grade from testing requirements.
• Makes various changes suggested by the Comptroller for program implementation.
• Requires students to be U.S. citizens or lawfully admitted to the U.S. to be eligible for the program.
• Excludes from accountability students returning to school districts in the middle of the year after using an ESA.

April 2, 2025

House Public Education Committee
This committee is scheduled to meet on April 4, 2025 at 8 AM. They will discuss, but take no public testimony, on the following bills:

  • HB 2 (Buckley) increases public education spending by almost $8 billion through a boost to the basic allotment, the small- and mid-size allotments, and special education funding among other items.
  • SB 2 (Creighton) creates an education savings account voucher program that would allocate state funds to an account for a family to use for approved educational expenses such as private school or home school.

Senate Education K-16 Committee
This committee voted several bills out of committee on April 2nd. Committee substitutes were not publicly available during the hearing.

  • SB 1191 (Creighton) requires the commissioner to develop and school districts to use a standard method for calculating high school GPA that provides for an equal amount of additional weight for AP, IB, and dual credit courses.
  • SB 1786 (Creighton) with respect to the Financial Aid for Swift Transfer (FAST) program, clarifies that high school students who are educationally disadvantaged at the time they are taking dual credit courses may not be charged tuition and fees for those courses.
  • SB 226 (West) states that the parent or guardian of a child who is the subject of a parental child safety placement may establish residency within a district by providing a letter to the school from the Department of Family and Protective Services required by the department in any safety placement proving the child's residence.
  • SB 326 (King) would require schools to consider whether a public school or higher education student's code of conduct violation was motivated by antisemitism.
  • SB 570 (Bettencourt) requires each school district to establish and implement an attendance policy to inform parents and students at the beginning of the school year about the importance of attending school. The attendance policy must inform parents and students about the benefits and possible detriments of not attending school, including any criminal repercussions. SB 570 also requires the school to adopt a notification system to notify parents whenever there is an excused or unexcused absence via text, email, or first-class mail. The bill requires a meeting between a parent of a student enrolled in the district or school with a school counselor, principal, or appropriate administrator at the school when a student becomes at risk of being truant. If the parent fails to attend the meeting, then a school attendance officer can make a home visit or contact the parent to investigate the student's behavior and living conditions to report back to the appropriate staff member at the school. SB 570 requires schools to establish guidelines to identify students in need of additional support and refer the student to in-school or out-of-school services aimed at addressing their failure to attend school regularly.
  • SB 870 (Birdwell) allows a school marshal to openly carry a handgun if they are wearing a uniform identifying them as a school marshal.

  • SB 991 (Bettencourt) adds chronically absent students to the list of students at risk of dropping out of school, which has many implications including funding under the compensatory education program and accelerated instruction. The bill defines chronic absenteeism as being absent more than 10% of the school year or 6-weeks grading period. SB 991 also requires districts to report data on chronically absent students to TEA.