G/T Legislative News: SCR 9 has passed the Senate and has been received by the House. It will be referred to House Education and should be set for a hearing. We are halfway through the legislative process to get our resolution passed and have G/T Week recognized for 10 years.
Education Legislative News: The week in the House side is known as "Budget Week." All of the discussion around the building is about amendments and the upcoming floor debate that will happen today, April 6th. The House will debate two budget bills –
SB 30 (Huffman), the supplemental budget that traditionally shores up any outstanding obligations from the last biennium, and
HB 1 (Bonnen), the budget for the upcoming biennium. The House version of the budget keeps the formula funding for public education the same as the previous biennium.
Each of these bills will have amendments and will make for an interesting debate. At this time, there are 388 pre-filed amendments to HB 1 and 17 for SB 30. Rep. Abel Herrero has filed an
amendment that prohibits the use of public funds for private education or vouchers.
At the same time,
SB 8 which contains an Education Savings Account (ESA) will be heard on the Senate floor tomorrow.
The Senate passed
SB 19 (Huffman) creating the Texas University Fund (TUF). This fund would be similar to the Permanent University Fund (PUF) that serves the University of Texas and Texas A&M. The TUF would distribute funds to Texas Tech, the University of Houston, Texas State University, and the University of North Texas.
