Recap of the 88th Texas Legislative Session

A Session Out of Balance: What Happened with Key Education Issues and Where We Go From Here? 

The 88th Texas Legislative Session tells a story of great potential, reliable roadmaps, and disastrous detours, concluding with a dead end for many critical public education issues as the legislature left the future of public education in the balance of political trades. The group that suffered the most from the political twists and turns of the 88th? Texas teachers and the 5.4 million Texas public school students they currently serve. 

The legislative session kicked off with high hopes that bills and funding would pass to strengthen public education, including an increase to the basic allotment and teacher salary increases, but in the end, Texas teachers remain underpaid, the basic allotment did not increase, and special sessions are looming on vouchers and school funding.  

There were other critical issues lost along the road to final passage, like school finance and reforming our testing and accountability system. What was the factor that caused so many good intentions and legislative efforts to go off-course?

The Great Potential of $33 Billion 

The 88th Legislative Session kicked off with a massive $33 billion in surplus funds, with much speculation regarding how legislators would allocate resources to support Texans. The sheer size of the surplus was impressive, surpassing the entire budgets of many other U.S. states. But more importantly, policy experts wondered how legislators would choose to use this taxpayer-derived funding to support

the state’s greatest needs. As reported, if the entire surplus were spent on teacher pay raises, every teacher could receive a 9.3% raise throughout a 20-year career. Legislators like James Talarico (D-Austin), wanted to “go big” on teacher pay, proposing legislation for a $15,000 teacher pay raise in HB 1548. 

But those working with the legislature knew many issues would compete for the $33 billion worth of support, including property tax cuts, state infrastructure for water and the electric grid, public school funding, broadband access, border security, higher education, and much more. 

Public Education Legislative Recommendations 

Going into the 88th Legislative Session, the legislature had plenty of reliable reports, and comprehensive data, from seasoned experts on public education issues. 

The Texas Education Agency (TEA) released its Teacher Vacancy Task Force Report in February 2023, which included recommendations for increased overall compensation, teacher incentives, expansion of teacher mentorship, and support for high-quality instructional materials and schoolwide culture and discipline resources. One of the only items to pass from the TVTF recommendations was High-Quality Instructional Materials (HQIM) in HB 1605.   

Just prior to the legislative session, TEA’s Commission on Special Education Funding released its report, calling for changes to the special education formulas, increased resources for evaluations, transportation, rehiring educators, salary stipends, and more to improve special education funding that hadn’t seen a substantial increase in nearly three decades. It also included considerations around ESAs. 

Also prior to the session, Raise Your Hand Texas released its report with recommendations to add additional indicators and reform assessment and accountability for our public schools. As part of the Measure What Matters campaign, the council’s report made recommendations to deemphasize standardized testing as the only measure for high-stakes accountability and expand accountability indicators to consider student-centered services provided by schools. 

The Voucher Imbalance

The issue that derailed many public education policy priorities, including teacher pay and assessment and accountability, was school vouchers.

School vouchers, an issue with a long and unsuccessful history in Texas, was the key negotiation tool for legislative leadership and was the reason many important bills and funding initiatives did not pass during the regular session. Even with clear evidence that many legislators would not support ESAs or any type of school voucher, such as the April 6 passage of the House budget’s Herrero Amendment by a vote of 86-52-11, legislative leadership continued to hold hostage teacher pay raises, school funding, and other issues.

News outlets reported widespread doubt about vouchers among Texans, especially in rural communities and among business leaders. This did not stop legislative leadership from pushing the passage of an unpopular ESA into the final weeks of the session.

After the Texas Senate pushed for a House hearing to pass ESA legislation without proper notice, House legislators voiced their concerns. This included House Republican Ernest Bailes, who decried the lack of opportunity for public comment on the updated bill language when it was set to be voted out of committee.

On May 14, 2023, Governor Abbott shared a public statement saying, “[The] failure to expand the scope of school choice…will necessitate special sessions.” Public education policy experts expect a special session about school vouchers to be announced sometime, with the potential to address school funding and teacher pay raises at the same time.

The Status of Raise Your Hand Texas’ Four Key 88th Session Policy Issues

How to Stay Involved and Impact Change 

Make sure you are signed up for our Across the Lawn newsletter, listen to our Intersect Ed podcast, and connect with your Raise Your Hand Texas Regional Advocacy Director to learn how state policy affects you locally, and what you can do to have a positive impact on your public schools. 

Follow our social media channels and stay updated, especially during future special sessions, to learn more about the education issues that impact your communities most. 

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