Across the Lawn – February 14, 2025

One Thing to Do: Gain a deeper understanding of high-quality teacher residency programs

Last week, Raise Your Hand Texas co-sponsored a webinar, Preparing and Retaining a High-Quality Teacher Workforce in Texas: The Promise of Teacher Residencies, alongside the Learning Policy Institute (LPI) and the Charles Butt Foundation. The event featured Jennifer Bland, a senior researcher at LPI, who outlined the key characteristics of high-quality teacher residency programs. She also discussed the implications of Texas’ recent investments in paid teacher residencies and how the state can maintain momentum in developing a well-qualified educator workforce, followed by a panel discussion. 

Four Things to Know:  

1. Speaker Burrows Names Committees, including the House Committee on Public Education

Speaker Burrows named committee chairs and committee members for the 89th Legislative Session on Thursday, February 13. Under the new House rules, only members of the political party that constitute a majority of the House membership can serve as chairs. 

Members of the House Committee on Public Education: 

Chair: Rep. Brad Buckley

Vice Chair: Rep. Diego Bernal

Members:

Rep. Alma Allen

Rep. Trent Ashby

Rep. John Bryant

Rep. Charles Cunningham

Rep. Harold V. Dutton, Jr.

Rep. James B. Frank

Rep. Gina Hinojosa

Rep. Todd Hunter

Rep. Helen Kerwin

Rep. Jeff Leach

Rep. Terri Leo Wilson

Rep. Alan Schoolcraft

Rep. James Talarico

For more information on all of the speaker assignments for each House committee, please visit the Texas House of Representatives homepage. 

2. Senate Finance Committee Hears Initial Texas Education Agency Budget Proposal

On Monday, February 10, the Senate Finance Committee heard testimony from Commissioner Morath on the initial Senate budget proposal for the Texas Education Agency (TEA). The members of the committee questioned Morath on a wide range of issues, including school funding, teacher compensation and the Teacher Incentive Allotment, and school safety funding. 

The new funding proposed by the Senate for the TEA includes a $4.85 billion increase in public education funding specifically for teacher pay increases, $1 billion for an Education Savings Account program starting in 2027, and $400 million for increased school safety funding. 

Once the full Senate Finance Committee hears from every state agency, members will break into workgroups to begin marking up SB 1, the Senate version of the state budget. The Senate Finance Committee typically votes on the state budget bill from the committee in early April.

3. Homestead Exemption Bill Passed from Senate on Thursday

The Senate Committee on Local Government passed SB 4 with a vote of  6-0 on Tuesday, February 11, and it was then quickly passed by the full Senate (30-0) on Thursday, February 13. The bill increases the current homestead exemption from $100,000 to $140,000. A homestead exemption lowers your property taxes by removing part of the value of your property from taxation. 

This legislation also needs a constitutional amendment, SJR 2, which will require voter approval in November if passed by two-thirds of the members in both the House and Senate. The Senate passed SJR 2 with a vote of 30-0. 

How does this homestead exemption interact with public school funding?  

As local school district tax collections are lowered by this exemption or any other tax reduction for both operations (M&O taxes) and facilities debt (I&S taxes), the state typically makes up the loss in revenue with additional state aid or hold harmless funding. 

There were amendments made on the Senate floor that appeared to clean up how school districts would be held harmless for the M&O revenue loss under the original bill language. In the language the Senate Local Government Committee passed on Tuesday, the new hold-harmless provisions were short by about $1.6 billion of fully keeping school districts held harmless for both M&O and I&S tax collections. 

4. The House Appropriations Committee Is Set to Discuss Public Education Funding Next Week

The House Committee on Appropriations will discuss public education funding, property tax relief, the Teacher Retirement System of Texas (TRS), and several other issues on Wednesday, February 19, at 8:00 a.m. For more information on how to watch, please view the posting.