Current Legislation in the Texas House of Representatives

Proposed Legislation Regarding Charter Schools

Propose Legislation Regarding Home Schools

Proposed Legislation Regarding Private Schools

Proposed Legislation Regarding Vouchers

The following pieces of legislation and analysis concern charter schools in some form or fashion and were heard in the House Public Education Committee.

HB 2101 WONG
Committee: House Public Education
Creates the Texas Professional Teacher Academy Program to allow
Certified teachers to create and operate independent schools; operation rules to be determined by Ed Commissioner. Rep. Wong’s intent is to provide entrepreneurial opportunities for teachers. Teacher and administrator groups opposed with concerns that these schools are essentially charter schools with even less oversight and no stated accountability or assessment standards, including TAKS testing and class size restrictions; takes public dollars for private enterprise; teachers can already form charter schools; would encourage private schools to convert to “academies” b/c of less oversight. (Negative Fiscal Note)

HB 2527 MADDEN
Committee: House Public Education
Makes it easier for school district to grant charters; provision requiring a majority of parents and classroom teachers to petition the school district for a charter is changed to only one parent of each student and every teacher at the campus requesting the charter. Teacher groups oppose. Houston ISD supports, saying it allows school boards to create charter schools; Houston currently has 25 charter schools.

HB 1554 GRUSENDORF
Committee: House Public Education
Status: Failed to pass to engrossment
Authorizes the State Board of Ed to grant a new class of open-enrollment virtual school charters to public senior colleges and universities; such charters would not be subject to a limit in current law and the funding is effectively the same per student in attendance as a more traditional charter. Former U.S. Secretary of Ed, William Bennett testified in favor of the bill; Proponents cited benefits such as research-based methods, resources and innovation that could be brought to bear with university involvement. Teacher and administrator groups opposed the bill stating it would subsidize home schooling; remove badly needed funds from public schools; research does not yet exist to prove virtual programs are effective as stand alone programs (they have proven effective as supplemental); funnel public money to private companies; effective learning requires face-to-face contact between students and teachers.

HB 2218 GRUSENDORF
Committee: House Public Education
Status: Reported favorably out of committee
Permits school boards to grant a contract charter to establish a virtual campus. A school district would be eligible to receive federal, state, and local funds for a student enrolled in a virtual campus at the same level of funding as the district would be otherwise entitled to receive. Houston ISD testified in favor, stating that such campuses would help students not reached by traditional school means. Teacher and administrator groups opposed the bill stating it would 1) subsidize home schooling; 2) remove badly needed funds from public schools; 3) research does not yet exist to prove virtual programs are effective as stand alone programs (they have proven effective as supplemental); 4) funnel public money to private companies; 5) effective learning requires face-to-face contact between students and teachers.

HB 859 MADDEN
Committee: House Public Education s/c Charter Schools
Status: Pending

Repeals current provisions and replaces it with a law making it much
Easier to charter a "home-rule" district and exempting such districts from virtually all state education standards. No testimony taken – previous concerns: teachers, administrator groups, Hispanic orgs were against this bill as it removes state-mandated requirements for school districts to have in place bilingual, special ed programs, class size caps for lower grades. Their argument was that to remove these provisions would gut the accountability system as each district would determine its own standard.

HB 348 DUTTON
Committee: House Public Education s/c Charter Schools
Status: Pending

Permits charter school employees to participate in the Texas Retirement
System as public school employees now can. Charter school advocates
testified that their teachers should receive the same benefits for the
same work as public school teachers. Teacher groups testified that it is unfair to provide these same benefits when charter school teachers are not subject to the same standards as public school teachers. (Negative Fiscal Note)

HB 933 DUTTON
Committee: House Public Education s/c Charter Schools
Status: Pending

Provides an exemption for colleges, universities to grant charters for
open-enrollment charter schools. Currently, TEA has in effect a moratorium on the number of charter schools that can be in operation. Charter school advocates testified in favor of the bill, citing benefits such as research-based methods, resources and innovation that could be brought to bear with university involvement; UT Austin’s East Austin charter school was cited as an example of interest. Teacher groups testified in opposition stating that interested universities can currently request charter-granting authority; unlimited number of charter schools would drain public school dollars even as their effectiveness has not been proven; universities would have conflict of interest as an administrator and oversight agency of their charter schools. (Negative Fiscal Note)

HB 1146 DUTTON
Committee: House Public Education s/c Charter Schools
Status: Pending

Limits the number of audits to 1 financial, 1 administrative that
Charter schools can be subject to annually. Charter school administrators testified their schools often seem the target of an unreasonable number of audits, each of which drain needed dollars and staff time. Teacher groups testified against this bill stating the need for audits to ensure that public dollars are spent effectively.

HB 1202 DUTTON
Committee: House Public Education s/c Charter Schools
Status: Pending

The Ed Commissioner may not recover funds given to charter schools for
exceeding the number of prescribed students if the school is in fact
teaching these students. Charter school advocates testified in favor
of the bill stating that if you educate a child you should get the money for it. TEA testified that charter schools need to be required to stay within the prescribed number of students until the school’s effectiveness has been proven – then the school can request to have more students.

Questions? --Zoraima Diaz zoraima26@yahoo.com, David Morales gator23105@aol.com