By State Rep. Brooks Landgraf
It’s back-to-school season! It’s the wonderful time of year when school buses reclaim their place on the streets, backpacks are loaded with freshly sharpened pencils, and the sounds of bells and laughter echo through hallways once more. I know for many of us this return to the world of learning can be a mix of emotions. So, whether you’re a student eagerly preparing for the year ahead, a parent waving your child off to the classroom, or an educator with a heart full of enthusiasm, I’d like to share with you a few legislative updates that I hope you’ll find meaningful and reassuring.
As your state representative, at the top of the list of my priorities this session was school safety.
Texas students and teachers deserve to be safe in the classroom and no Texas parent, student or teacher should have to worry about knowing if our public schools are safe, full stop. For that reason, I worked tirelessly with my colleagues to achieve viable solutions to make schools safe and reduce mass violence all while protecting the constitutional rights of law-abiding Texans.
I was proud to support a state budget that dedicates $1.4 billion in new funding for school safety measures for the next two years – which consists of $300 million in school safety allotment and $1.1 billion for school safety grants. This is in addition to the $400 million in school safety funding that was already provided through budget execution in the fall of 2022, for a total of $1.8 billion in new funding for school safety.
I was also proud to support House Bill 3 which further defines the roles and responsibilities of the Texas School Safety Center and requires the Texas Education Agency to provide oversight and strict enforcement of new school safety standards. The bill establishes various provisions related to school safety which require both the hiring of armed security officers and the establishment of emergency operations plans at every school.
These accomplishments bring me peace of mind and I hope you will find them comforting.
However, the work continues. I expect to be back at the Texas Capitol later this fall for a special session to address both public education and teacher pay raises.
Earlier this year Texas House Speaker Phelan established the House Select Committee on Educational Opportunity and Enrichment to study issues surrounding educational opportunities for K-12 students in Texas. In anticipation of the special session, the committee has released an interim report after conducting a hearing of 17 hours of testimony and conversation with over 50 members across the education community.
The report contains recommendations by the committee aimed at ensuring equal educational opportunity for all students regardless of circumstance, meaningfully supporting educators and educational institutions, and modernizing the assessment and accountability measures for Texas schools.
This included the recommendation to continue identifying opportunities to expand choice in the public school system via the availability of specialized schools, STEM academies, career and technical education, and early college high schools. The committee also recommended establishment of clear eligibility criteria and safeguards for any parental school choice program in order to ensure fiscal responsibility and accountability — should the legislature choose to enact one. The committee recommended such a program must not come at the expense of public school funding.
As the father of a young daughter, I share every parent’s desire to provide the best education for their children. In my view, every parent has a right to decide where their child goes to school, whether it’s public, private or at home. I also believe Texas children—especially those who don’t have access to private schools—should have the opportunity to attend a properly-funded public school in their own community. I look forward to the opportunity to continue fighting for our West Texas schools during the anticipated October special session.
Texas students are the future of our great state, and each of them deserve the opportunity to achieve their full potential through a quality education. For that reason, I look forward to continuing the work to improve K-12 education in our state and fighting for public school teachers.
God bless Texas!
