Although the regular legislative session has concluded, Rep. Brooks Landgraf said there was some unfinished business in terms of education policy.
In a phone interview, the Odessa Republican said he fully expects Gov. Greg Abbott to call a special session at some point in the next few months to specifically address education issues.
Landgraf said Abbott has made education savings accounts in particular a priority and plans to call a special session for that.
Landgraf said the fight over school vouchers became intertwined with other important issues like teacher pay raises.
Broadly speaking, Landgraf said, teacher raises and increases to the basic allotment are two items on his wish list for any special session that deals with public education.
“My preference would be to address them separately. That way it doesn’t become kind of a grab bag legislative session. That’s really kind of what happened at the end of the regular legislative session is that ESA (Education Savings Account) language was added on to a bill that was offered for the purpose of increasing the basic allotment and giving teachers raises and so those very important issues that really have widespread and almost universal support in the state became conflated with ESA legislation that doesn’t have the same level of universal support,” Landgraf said.
“In Texas, unlike in (the U.S.) Congress, we try to keep issues separate. In fact, we have rules that limit bills to addressing one subject at a time. I think our system works better when we abide by those rules,” he added.
When it came to those issues, like Congress, the legislature didn’t get anything done.
“That’s a failure of the legislative process, in my opinion, and the people of Texas, especially our students, deserve better than that,” Landgraf said.
In the budget lawmakers adopted, there are funds available that have not been spent with “the anticipation that we are going to pass an increase in the basic allotment and teacher pay raises later this year.”
“We … basically left a portion of the budget untouched for that purpose. That money has been set aside, but we have to authorize it being spent for that purpose. That’s why additional legislation is needed, but there is money in the budget. That’s why we still have time to do what’s right for public education, for teachers and for students and the money to do what’s right so that’s why I’m confident that we’re going to be able to get that done,” Landgraf said.
Last week during the special session they are in right now, the House passed a “significant cut in ISD (Independent School District) compression that we would pay for using about $17.6 billion of the budget surplus.”
“We would basically be using that budget surplus to buy down property taxes all across the state and so when you do that, you increase state funding,” he said.
This would be for the first time in a long time and the first time since Landgraf has been in office that the state share would exceed the local share of public education funding.
“But also by doing that it also does smooth out the rough edges for rural districts and also for mineral rich school districts that have to pay an obscenely high amount of money under Robin Hood,” Landgraf said.
Asked how compression buyout would work since it would only last for a certain amount of time, Landgraf said that’s true for any state expenditure.
“We’re on a biennial budget cycle and so our budget only lasts for two years. We can only plan and account for two years at a time. This is a way to buy down these property taxes for the next two fiscal years and then … the idea is to continue that, but one thing I don’t think that we can always count on having is a $33 billion budget surplus … So of course with school finance we’re always having to look at efficiency in spending and different funding sources,” Landgraf said.
The idea is for property tax relief and the decrease in compression rates to be permanent or long-lasting.
“But it is something we have to address two years at a time,” he said.
On accountability, Landgraf said the House passed legislation that would lower the stakes of the STAAR exam.
“Of course I’ve proposed other legislation that has never been able to get support in the Senate even though we’ve had support in the House for doing away with STAAR and using a more effective and cheaper assessment tool (the Iowa Assessment) that I think 27 other states are using,” he said.
“It’s lower stakes in nature. It’s more economical and it seems to have better results. We have to have accountability for our public schools whenever we use taxpayer dollars, but I maintain that there are much better options than what we’re doing right now,” Landgraf said.
He noted that they have to have a certain number of standardized tests under the federal Every Student Succeeds Act.
“In order to be compliant with that, we have to have a certain number of standardized tests that are used for accountability measurement purposes. Under the STAAR regime … we’re testing more than is necessary to comply with federal law … We basically don’t need to administer any non-required standardized tests in Texas. My two goals are not to test any more than is necessary and to use a better testing method than we have under STAAR,” Landgraf said.
In other legislation:
- The legislature passed House Bill 3, a school safety bill that provides a new standard of emergency preparedness and response for school safety improvements.
“Importantly, it also provides additional state funding to make this happen. We’re basically funding and requiring more personnel and also to have better emergency operations plans for active shooter situations and any other threats to student-teacher safety,” Landgraf said. “I think what’s critical about this is we’ve passed other school safety measures before, but we didn’t always put our money where our mouth is. In the case of House Bill 3, we’re putting our money where our mouth is. … The money that we’ve allocated would spend an additional $100 per student for every student in the state of Texas to enhance the safety experience that they have in school,” he said.
Grants are also still available for items like security and safety window film.
- Additional funding for the Permian Basin Behavioral Health Center was allocated.
“We were able to work to get $6 million new funding for UT Permian Basin for programs that are designed to train behavioral health and mental health professionals and providers. That’s very good and that’s going to work in conjunction with the new Permian Basin Behavioral Health Center that is being built,” Landgraf said.
“We actually got $86 million in addition to the $40 (million) that was secured in 2021 for that center that we expect to be a first-class behavioral health center,” he said.
Landgraf added that it’s going to be a “game-changer” for the Permian Basin when it opens, but it will also create new opportunities for training programs at UTPB, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center and Odessa College.
- House Bill 8 also passed. It increases state funding for community colleges that are outstanding, like Odessa College.
“Of course as we know Odessa College for the last decade has consistently been the best in Texas, at least according to the Aspen Institute. The programs that they’re doing, the success that they’ve had, is finally going to be rewarded properly by the state. I was really proud to joint author that bill,” Landgraf said.
- The Texas University Fund, or TUF, also was passed. It is going to be a new permanent fund for the benefit of the Texas Tech system, which will benefit the TTUHSC school of medicine.
It also will provide a funding source that will allow Texas Tech University, for example, to reach the next echelon of the great research universities in the country, Landgraf said.
“Texas A&M and University of Texas have been at that level for quite some time because they’ve benefited from the Permanent University Fund. The Texas University Fund is designed to help Texas Tech, and also to some extent the University of Houston. I think that’s going to be transformative for higher education, particularly here in West Texas,” Landgraf said.
- They also passed Senate Bill 10 to get a long-awaited cost of living adjustment under the Texas Retirement System (TRS). It’s up to a 6 percent increase for most retirees and provides a supplemental one-time payment to retirees over age of 75.
“Texas retired teachers have been needing this cost of living adjustment for quite some time and I’ve been advocating for it because a lot of my former teachers from when I was growing up in Odessa constantly reminded me about that. Anyway, they’ve earned it and I’m glad we’ve finally been able to provide it,” Landgraf said.
