Legislative Updates
July 2007
New Textbook Law Took Effect June 18, 2007
On June 18th, 2007 House Bill 188, the law affecting the way school districts acquire new textbooks, became law. The new law mandates some fundamental changes in how the State Board of Education and the Texas Education Agency fulfills the state constitution’s provision to provide free textbooks to the schoolchildren of Texas. House Bill 188, authored by State Rep. Scott Hochberg (D-Houston), is designed to introduce more market competition among textbook publishers and provide the state a vehicle for more predictable budgeting for instructional materials.
Highlights of House Bill 188:
May 2007
Textbook Bill Passes the Senate and House and is headed
to the Governor's desk
House Bill 188 by State Rep. Scott Hochberg (D-
Houston) authorizes the State Board of Education (SBOE) to adopt
textbooks during mid-cycle and adopt supplemental textbooks.
It also provides access to the complete replacement purchasing
cycle for those participating in the regular proclamation process and
allows small publishers to introduce new books "off-cycle",
while providing access to a smaller add-ons market.
HB 188 expands the textbook credit pilot
program statewide and allows school districts to use textbook
credits to order supplemental materials adopted by SBOE.
This bill provides school districts with the flexibility to group supplemental
materials together to use in place of the regular textbook if the combination
of supplemental materials contains the entire TEKS required for all students
and is within the maximum cost of the regular textbook
or if the school district makes up the cost difference with textbook
credits.
This bill
also allows the state to appropriate additional funds for
credits to facilitate the cost savings process.
HB 188 requires proclamations to
be designated by the school year in which the textbooks
are intended to be made available and requires the SBOE
to consult with the Legislative Budget Board and the Governor's office
to consider cost factors and to limit the cycle to those textbooks that
can be purchased with available funds before releasing a proclamation.
HB 188 repeals the moratorium
on proclamations put in place during the last legislative
session. A proposal last month to replace the textbook
adoption process with an allotment system (House Bill 3419) died in the
Calendars Committee.
March 2007
Click here to read the Feb. 2007 letter to the Governor
Rick Perry introducing Texas Textbooks' briefing book,
Helping Children Learn. Each state representative and each
senator, along with Lt. Governor David Dewhurst, received an identical
letter.
March 2007 - The $495 million for new instructional materials
for Mathematics is included in the Texas Education Agency's budget
item and, as such, is part of the big budget bill for the
state. Click
here to read testimony submitted by Texas Association of Supervisors
of Mathematics, and
here to read the past president of Texas Council
of Teachers of Mathematics to the Texas House of Reprsentatives
Appropriations committee on March 1.
State Rep. Scott Hochberg (D-Houston)
has introduced a bill (HB 188), that would create a credit
system by which school districts receive credits for ordering
materials that are priced below the state’s maximum cost allowed
for textbooks. The savings would be split between the districts
and the state. The concept was tested in a pilot project
through the Texas Education Agency (TEA) in selected school
districts over the past several years. Click
here to see a copy of the bill.
Sen. Florence
Shapiro (R-Plano) filed legislation to put an end to the
Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills exit-level exam, proposing to
replace the high-stakes test with a dozen end-of-course exams. Click
here to read about the Quorum Report article about this legislation.
Textbook Funding - 2007 Texas Legislature
During the 2007 session which convenes in January, the Texas Legislature is charged with funding textbooks for elementary and secondary mathematics - subject matter critical to Texas school children. Without this funding approval, math and other subjects such as reading (originally scheduled for adoption in 2008) could be delayed, leaving kids with outdated books that are not aligned with the testing standards in Texas. Learn more about math funding. It is important to note that in the final days of the 2006 Special Session, an amendment by Senator Shapiro and cosponsored by Senators West and Van de Putte removed the language in House Bill 1 that would have delayed elementary math books from reaching classrooms around the state. Read the Textbook Coordinators Association of Texas release applauding the Senate on this issue.
May 4, 2006
Senate Finance Committee version of House Bill 1 would delay elementary math books. Learn More...
Background on School Finance Debate
Late last year, the Texas Supreme Court ruled in the school finance case that Texas Legislators must take action by June 1 to reform the way Texas schools are financed. The school finance debate is critically important to all children in Texas, and the Legislature’s solutions will lay a marker for where Texas will stand nationally in the education arena.
Read the Texas Supreme Court's Opinion. As part of the education reform debate, preserving the Permanent School Fund, a constitutionally set endowment not dependent on taxpayer funds, is critical to ensure that every child in Texas receives instructional materials that arrive on time each year, contain the information needed to succeed in school, and are paid for. Learn more about why the Texas Legislature must protect the Permanent School Fund.