House backs $1.8B school finance plan

But reform effort is uncertain in Senate as tension rises among legislative leaders

AUSTIN — Texas House members voted overwhelmingly Friday to spend $1.8 billion to begin reforming the state’s beleaguered school funding system, but it’s uncertain whether the measure can make it through the special session that ends in less than two weeks.

And they took a series of votes that sent messages to their comrades around the Capitol rotunda: school vouchers — even for children with special needs — are a no-go in the House, and providing therapy to young children with disabilities is more important than enacting tree-cutting policies.

Lawmakers have until the special session ends Aug. 16 to pass bills requested by Gov. Greg Abbott, but growing tension among leaders in the Republicanled chambers have hinted that little, if anything will pass.

The House voted 130-12 to tentatively support a bill that members say is the first step to fixing how the state funds public education. The $1.8 billion plan, passed for the second time in four months, would increase the basic allotment per pupil to $5,350 from $5,140. The proposal also would change how the state funds transportation, spend more money to educate bilingual students and students with dyslexia, extend career and technical education funding through eighth grade and provide $200 million in hardship grants for school districts phasing out of an outdated tax break, among

other changes.

“We’re here today to reform education. We want to take the first step,” said Public Education Committee Chairman Dan Huberty, R-Humble, who has championed changes to the state’s school funding system and threatened to torpedo the governor’s bill to study school finance during the interim. “Unless we get meaningful reform in HB 21, I don’t know what the point is in continuing to study this, because we have to have the will.”

Even though school finance is one of 20 items on Gov. Greg Abbott’s special session call, some members doubt the governor would sign the bill into law.

“I don’t have faith the governor is going to sign a $2 billion school finance plan,” said Rep. Ken King, R-Canadian, who sits on the House’s education committee and supports HB 21.

Lawmakers expect to take a final procedural vote on the bill Monday. However, it’s future is uncertain in the Senate.

Lawmakers say it is important to begin making changes to the system now, although the Senate would prefer to study the issue over the interim in hopes to come up with large-scale changes for the 2019 session. Huberty said he has sat on five such study commissions in past years and believes it is time the state begin addressing a system he has called “lawful but awful.”

School districts large and small have taken the state to court challenging the constitutionality of the school funding formula, often winning and forcing the legislature to make what people on all sides consider Band-Aid repairs. In the last such challenge, the Texas Supreme Court ruled the formula was constitutional but in dire need of repair after decades of patchwork fixes.

Fight over school vouchers

In a long-running feud, the Senate hijacked the House’s school finance bill during the regular session to create a program that would provide parents of children with disabilities public school money to attend private and parochial schools, offering parents greater school choice. The House refused to let the bill become law.

Before the Senate could do the same to HB 21 this special session, members of the House Public Education Committee voted 7-0 to dump the Senate’s voucher plan. The panel agreed to replace it with a $30 million state-funded afterschool programs, sending a signal to the upper chamber that it will not accept plans to subsidize private or parochial school tuition.

The education enhancement grant program, written into Senate Bill 2, allows children with disabilities to receive after-school help from private and nonprofit providers approved by the Texas Education Agency. The program would be open to students enrolled in special education or who have an “individualized education program.”

Acute attention on students with disabilities follows a 2016 Houston Chronicle investigation that found tens of thousands of students were denied access to special education because the state set an arbitrary enrollment cap at 8.5 percent of students, well below the national average of 13 percent enrollment.

“This is precisely for those students whose parents say, ‘Hey, the school district is a roadblock to what we feel our student needs,’ ” said Rep. Gary VanDeaver, a New Boston Republican who is sponsoring the bill. Examples include speech and occupational therapists, which could be private vendors or co-ops through other schools. “I think it’s the best of all worlds. We are providing the parents that they have asked for, we are providing the accountability that we as conservatives demand, and most of all, it is providing the

child the services they need.”

The move in the House dealt a swift blow to the Senate which has long sought to allow parents to send their child to private school using state funds. After repeated failure, Senate leaders narrowed their effort to children with disabilities in hopes of getting a program into law, saying parents of vulnerable special needs children should have options if their local schools are failing them.

The House is uninterested, with more than 100 members of the chamber voting to block any voucher funding in the budget during the regular session. They said the measure would siphon resources from public schools, which do not have enough money to help the state’s low income children with disabilities.

Demand to add agenda item

“I’m not surprised, but disappointed that some in the House chose to ignore and deny several thousand families with special needs children the opportunity to choose an educational opportunity for their child that works best for them,” said Sen. Larry Taylor, a Friendswood Republican who chairs the Senate Education Committee and is pitching the voucher bill. “I will continue working with my colleagues to make sure we improve the educational situation for all 5 million plus Texas students.”

The House sent another message

Friday, voting unanimously to give final approval to a bill that would add $70 million to reverse cuts to a therapy program for children with disabilities in hopes the governor will see the 140-0 vote as a call to add the issue to the special session agenda. Several members acknowledged the bill is absent from the governor’s to-do list, and cannot become law without him adding the measure to the official legislative list.

”Taking care of kids with disabilities is much more important than worrying about trees,” said Chairman Byron Cook, a Corsicana Republican, referring to one of the governor’s special session priorities to roll back municipal ordinances that limit homeowners’ ability to cut down trees on their properties in some cases.

Although the bill passed unanimously in the House, the Senate has considered only legislation asked for by Abbott. The governor’s office said this week he would consider adding issues to his special session call once all 20 of the issues on his special session wishlist are passed by both chambers.

“This bill is not germane to the governor’s call,” said John Wittman, the governor’s spokesman. “Once the House and Senate pass the 20 items on the governor’s agenda, he’ll be happy to consider adding other items to the call.”