Across the Lawn – January 17, 2025

One Thing to Do: Sign Up for Text Alerts

The 89th Texas Legislative Session began this week. Over the next 137 days of the Session, our elected officials will focus on an array of public policy issues, including public education. 

Raise Your Hand Texas will send out timely text alerts at key moments in the legislative session, encouraging you to take action. Your one thing to do this week is to sign up for our text alerts and be ready to advocate at the right moment and time.

Five Things to Know:  

1. Comptroller Releases Biennial Revenue Estimate, which includes a $23.8 billion beginning balance and an estimated $28.5 billion in the Rainy Day Fund

At the beginning of each legislative session, our state constitution requires the Comptroller to submit a statement showing the state’s financial condition and the revenue it can expect to receive during the next two-year budget period. 

On Monday, January 13, Comptroller Hegar announced that for the 2026-27 biennium, the state can expect to have $194.6 billion in funds available for general-purpose spending, a 1.1% decrease from the corresponding amount of funds available for the 2024-25 biennium. 

This decrease is attributable to a smaller beginning balance in the 2026-27 biennium compared to 2024-25. The last session’s beginning balance was $32.7 billion. Coming into the 89th Legislative Session, the beginning balance is $23.8 billion. This includes $4.5 billion appropriated for public education and education savings accounts, for which no legislation was enacted last session. 

In addition, the Comptroller announced there will not be any transfers to the Economic Stabilization Fund, or Rainy Day Fund, in the 2026-27 biennium since the balance of the fund will be above its allowable cap at the start of fiscal 2026. The projected ESF balance will be $28.5 billion at the end of the 2026-27 biennium. 

2. Texas House Elects New Speaker, Rep. Dustin Burrows 

Rep. Dustin Burrows was elected Speaker of the Texas House on Tuesday, January 14. Speaker Burrows won by a vote of 88-55, with 36 Republicans and 49 Democrats coming together in the second round of voting to secure his victory.   

In the coming weeks, the new Speaker will assign members to committees and name committee chairs. The first order of business, however, will be to adopt the House rules, which will dictate how legislative business is conducted during the session, including if Democrats can be named as committee chairs. 

3. Texas Senate Committee on Education Releases Interim Report

The interim report for the Senate Committee on Education was released prior to the start of the legislative session. The report contained numerous recommendations. Some of the recommendations to watch this session include:  

Early Childhood:

• Expand the Early Education Allotment so that pre-K 3 and pre-K 4 students generate additional funding to provide school systems more resources for evidence-based acceleration strategies from pre-K to 3rd grade.

Testing and Accountability

• Reinstate the release of annual A-F accountability ratings to campuses and school systems to ensure transparency of education outcomes that allow for responsive decision-making and resource allocation to improve student achievement.
• Continuation of the Texas Through-Year Assessment Pilot to evaluate remaining questions and feasibility of applying evaluations statewide, and consideration of potentially implementing and scaling the alternative model identified by Texas Education Agency.
• Maintenance of a valid and transparent summative testing system that evaluates student proficiency on Texas’ educational standards and provides critical insights to inform instructional practices. Consider reforms to reduce the length of summative assessments and enhance the current optional interim assessments to assess and monitor student learning.

Funding Related 

• Further consideration of enhanced funding for Open Education Resource (OER)-approved materials might help defray any newfound additional implementation costs. 
• School safety: The Legislature should continue to explore the appropriate balance between a mixed state and local funding partnership in a heightened environment of increased threats in school settings.
• High Quality Instructional Materials (HQIM): Require the Texas Education Agency to monitor and report annually on the implementation of approved HQIM by Local Education Authorities (LEAs). This report should include costs incurred by districts to implement the specific products districts purchase to be used in classes, the outcomes the district has while implementing these materials, and, if able, the fidelity of implementation by LEAs.

4. Raise Your Hand Texas Policy Issues for the 89th Legislative Session

Raise Your Hand Texas is committed to our 5.5 million public school students and 380,000 teachers. To find out more about where we stand on key policy issues related to school funding, assessment and accountability, early childhood, and our state’s teacher workforce, please visit our website.

5. Raise Your Hand Texas Releases Intersect Ed Podcast on Teacher Workforce Issues

In this episode of our Intersect Ed podcast, experts will discuss how our state’s leaders can start this session ready to act on essential education policy items and focus on one area you’re likely to hear a lot about as the session gets underway—how teacher workforce issues, including a shortage of certified teachers, are affecting Texas students.This episode features Myrna Blanchard, Ph. D., Talent Acquisition and Policy Director at Castleberry ISD, J. Jacob Kirksey, Ph. D., Assistant Professor of Education Policy at Texas Tech University, Lori Powell, M. Ed., GT Specialist & Social Studies Facilitator at Northside ISD, Bob Popinski, Senior Director of Policy at Raise Your Hand Texas, and JoLisa Hoover, Teacher Specialist at Raise Your Hand Texas.