HB2 Be or Not To Be

HB2 Be or Not To Be

By Abel Cruz

In a clear party line vote reminiscent of the battle between affluent and poor Texas school districts, the Texas legislative Public Education Committee approved House Bill 2 by a Republican majority 6-3 vote on Wednesday, March 2. The committee will now send the bill to the full House where Republicans hold a party edge.

Authored and introduced by Rep. Kent Grusendorf, R-Arlington, the bills aim is to increase school funding by about $1.5 billion per year. This funding would be in addition to the money that will be needed for future student enrollment.

But in an indication of how passionate special interest groups are and how contentious the battle over school funding is, organizations representing tax payers and teachers groups quickly lined up to attack the bill. In Austin, the Texas PTA, Texas State Teachers Association, and the Texas Association of School Boards among others quickly held a news conference reiterating their opposition to HB2.

In an email sent out on Wednesday, March 02, 2005, Johnnie Jones, Chair of the Lubbock County Democratic Party urges recipients to do “everything possible to stop this nonsense legislation”. She urges recipients to call the offices of Lubbock area

Representatives Carl Isett and Delwin Jones and urge them to vote against this bill.

But proponents of the bill, and specifically committee chairman Grusendorf, argue that the bill focuses on the children of the state. They also point out that the bill provides for tougher oversight and penalties for poor performing districts and incentives for exemplary teachers.

Much of the argument revolves around the more than $3 billion in cuts imposed by the Legislature last year. Democrats say the $1.5 billion is not enough to offset those cuts and that the majority of the money will wind up in wealthier school districts. To illustrate that fact, they point to a provision in the bill that would cap at 35%, the amount of local property tax money that wealthy districts would have to send to poorer ones. The beneficiaries: about 12 smaller and wealthier Texas school districts that would be able to keep a larger share of tax revenue designated for education financing; one of which is in the Dallas suburb of Highland Park.

According to Dawson Orr, Wichita Falls school district superintendent, “the bill fails because it does not restore the program cuts from ...