Good voting; bad outcome

In Saturday's Star-Telegram, there was an article titled "Texas Senate easily passes $4 billion in revenue measures".  The title sounded promising.  Then the hope of additional revenue and decreased cuts to education quickly faded.  "The bill, which emerged from a special (Senate) subcommittee, would speed up tax collections, sell underused state property, defer state payments to school districts and take other steps to generate revenue for the 2012-13 biennium."  Defer payments to school districts...to the tune of $1.8 billion!  Delaying this revenue to school districts would mean that in order to finance the beginning of the school year in August, districts would have to generate other revenue (not likely that they could generate enough to make up for the shortfall) or dip into their savings (if they have it).  GCISD has savings, but many districts do not.  If GCISD dipped into its' fund balance and additional cuts to education revenue passed after this legislative session, or if this bond package doesn't pass, then GCISD's fund balance would quickly be depleted.  Then where would we be and how many staff cuts would it take to operate?

On a positive note, our local Senators are voting against bills such as this and tried to pass amendments to this bill which would make cuts in areas other than education.  Their focus is truly on education our public schoolchildren in Texas.  Here's a summary for you:

• Senator Jane Nelson (represents GCISD area) - voted against the above-referenced bill.  She tried to pass an amendment which, instead, would impose a 2-year hiring freeze on nonessential state personnel (no harm there), a temporary 10% pay cut for state employees making over $200,000 per year, and a suspension of "longevity" pay for longtime state workers.  These are very reasonable cuts compared to those for education!  She stated that "it's not unreasonable to ask our state agencies not to grow for 2 years while we're in touch times so we can educate our children."  However, Sen. Robert Duncan (R-Lubbock) said "Nelson's proposed hiring freeze would further damage the morale of state employees and 'take away the flexibility of state agencies' to manage their workers."  Unbelievable.  What about the morale of our teachers and school staff?  What about the ability of school districts to employ, much less manage, its workers?  It's hard to imagine the mindset that would oppose Senator Nelson's amendment.  What a mess.
• Senator Wendy Davis (from Fort Worth) - voted against the above-referenced bill also.  She tried to pass a measure that would divert all but $10 million from each of Gov. Perry's two major job creation funds, the Texas Enterprise Fund and the Emerging Technologies Fund.  She also called on lawmakers in the House to look at lifting a tax exemption on the production of natural gas (this was a bold move from a FtW senator whose area includes the Barnett Shale.  Davis told senators that "it's shared-pain time and transferring money from the governor's funds could have a significant impact on education."   

Please call or e-mail Senator Nelson and express appreciation to her for listening to her constituents and keeping public education funding a priority in her work and voting in Austin.  With such opposition from legislators, she needs to feel like she has an army of support from "her people".  

"4 Day Instructional Week" Bill Moving to House Floor Vote

Crazy Legislative Alert: HB1326 passed committee today and now moves to vote on House floor. This is the bill that would change the entire public school week (and work week) with 8.5+ hr days/4 days per week. Call or e-mail Vicki Truitt to urge her not to support this bill.  How in the world could the districts, and the businesses and child care centers, change their schedules to a 4 day week and 8.5 or more hours each day?  The "operational costs" that this proposes to save districts aren't defined.  However, what are defined are the costs to the TEA (Texas Education Agency) which are approximately $60,000 to implement the changes in the accounting of schools if this bill passes. 

GCISD Bond Package

This is a good article explaining the $1.24M bond package that is being proposed on the May 14th ballot.  Please vote "YES" and vote early beginning next Monday, May 2nd.

http://impactnews.com/grapevine-colleyville-southlake/583-news/12281-gcisd-voters-consider-1245m-in-projects

Senate Finance Committee passes school finance bill

From the "Texas Association of School Administrators" website on April 21, 2011:  Senate Finance passes school finance bill

Sen. Florence Shapiro earned support for her school finance plan, which was voted favorably out of the Senate Finance Committee Wednesday. The bill now goes to the full Senate.

Several who testified on the bill thanked the senators for providing more money for public education than the House has currently proposed, though the bill still represents $4 billion in cuts to public schools. Shapiro said she believes the bill represents a best-case scenario in what “could have been a catastrophe” for public education.

“I truly believe this is the best that we could do,” Shapiro said. “We’ve said again and again that public education is our highest priority…If there is more money my hope would be the first place we put it is in our public schools.”

Shapiro said the bill goes a long way toward fixing a broken school finance system by moving from 127 districts on formula funding to 650 on formula funding by 2013. Shapiro, who also chairs the Senate Education Committee, said her plan allows for a phase-out of the current system without decimating school districts – a potential outcome if the legislature attempted to do away with target revenue in one fell swoop at a time when they’re cutting funding from the system.

Shapiro said the average cut for districts would be 6 to 7 percent, with the highest cuts at around 9 percent and some as low as 1 to 2 percent.

Sen. Kel Seliger, who had said he would offer up a substitute bill that would eliminate target revenue by 2013 bringing all districts under formula funding in two years, did not offer up his plan Wednesday.

Amendments to the bill, which were rolled into the committee substitute that was approved, were:

1. Restoring the $250 / $500 supplement

2. Modifying the pre-k language so that the commissioner can withhold up to $65 per pre-kindergarten student from Foundation School Program funding in the first year of the biennium only.

3. Modifying the pre-k language to create a pre-k accountability system through TEA rather than the state center.

4. Repealed ASATR (hold-harmless) beginning in 2016-17.

This bill will now go up for vote in the full Senate.

No Action on School Mandates Bill in House

http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/politics/entries/2011/04/21/house_adjourns_with_no_action.html?cxntfid=blogs_postcards
This Bill proposes to raise the class size of Kindergarten through 4th grade as well as give greater flexibility to school districts to fire and/or cut teacher pay.

Warnings of school funding problems ignored by Perry

A very insightful article, written by the Superintendent from Bryan/College Station, explaining how the problems with school finance and funding began with a change in revenue and how Gov. Perry ignored the warnings.  Not surprising.
http://www.theeagle.com/columnists/Education-funding-a-house-of-cards-

Senator Davis to hold Town Hall Meeting Saturday

Senator Davis in Colleyville Saturday to Discuss the Budget

I hope that you can attend Senator Wendy Davis' Town Hall meeting on Saturday in Colleyville, where she will discuss what's going on in Austin with the budget.  Click on the link above for more information.  She needs to hear from the masses, her constituents, about what we want and expect from our elected official in Austin!