The House Public Education Committee met Tuesday to discuss amendments to House Bill 2, the state's major proposal to reform school finance.
After committee chairman Rep. Kent Grusendorf, R-Arlington, filed the legislation Feb. 25, he asked his fellow representatives to contact him with any changes they would like to see within the bill. The adjusted version of the bill is scheduled for committee vote Monday.
State Rep. Mark Strama, D-Austin, asked for clarification and expansion of the teacher mentor program endorsed by HB 2. It stipulates 1 percent of a school district's maintenance and operations budget is set aside for mentor programs. The plan consists of identifying good teachers and giving them incentives to move to low-performing campuses as well as allowing superior teachers to mentor less outstanding ones. HB 2 provides more money for mentor programs already in place.
Strama asked exactly what types of programs does Texas have in place to get good teachers to educationally disadvantaged campuses and how effective are the programs at allocating teachers.
"Sixty percent of teachers quit in the first five years they are on the job, and when they do, they cite poor administrative support and classroom management as the top two reasons," Strama said. "No one wants to do a job they aren't able to do well. This is especially true when dealing with kids."
The bill also provides for the reconstitution of schools should they be deemed low performing for two consecutive years. This includes the immediate removal of the principal and possibly the staff, as well as the replacement of any teachers who failed to demonstrate "growth" over their time at the school.
Questions over who would replace the missing staff and faculty as well as who would be left with the responsibility of making the replacements came up in another amendment proposed by state Rep. Dianne White Delisi, R-Temple.
Robert Scott, chief deputy commissioner of the Texas Education Agency, said there are "turn around teams" as well as other entities like universities and high performing charter schools that would decide when a school needed to be reconstituted whether or not a school had been deemed low performing for two consecutive years.
Still other representatives have proposed throwing out HB 2 entirely, citing what they call a complete lack of equitable funding between school districts.
Controversy surrounding the level of equity HB 2 provides prompted Grusendorf to send a letter to his fellow legislators last week detailing the percentage of students and revenue in an equalized system once HB 2 is put in place.
Grusendorf contends that his bill increases the percentage of students in an equalized system from 81 percent to 96 percent.
An "equalized system" is a system of funding that combines local and state revenue such that substantially equal dollars are available for similar levels of tax effort, Grusendorf wrote.
State Rep. Eddie Rodriguez, D-Austin, joined other members of the Mexican American Legislative Caucus last week in criticizing the current version of the bill.
"There are at least 15 pages of obscure formulas that only a handful of policy wonks could understand," said Rodriguez. "HB 2 doesn't provide new money for schools or increase the level of equity in the education system."
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