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Between legislative sessions, the House Speaker and the Lieutenant Governor issue charges for legislative committees, directing them to study specific issues and report to the subsequent Legislature with recommendations.

While the recommendations often go unheeded, the list of charges and the eventual recommendations provide clues to the priorities of the leadership and likely topics to be addressed during the next session.

Speaker Tom Craddick has announced the interim charges for House committees, and the list of issues that touch education and school employees is long and varied. TCTA will be working with the committees throughout the upcoming months to ensure that the teacher voice is well-represented.

Following are the interim charges we believe could affect school employees and districts. Most committees named have additional charges unrelated to education. We do not yet know when Senate interim charges will be released.

PUBLIC EDUCATION COMMITTEE

  • Study best practices in instructional technology, including online course delivery, professional development, and supplementary instruction and course support. Examine the costs and benefits of these applications versus traditional delivery models.
  • Review the functions of the agencies and boards under the committee's jurisdiction. Evaluate the capacities of these agencies and boards versus their appropriate roles in supporting instruction in public schools.
  • Evaluate early childhood education programs in public schools and study the impact of different instructional and funding models on students' school-readiness and schools' operational efficiency. (NOTE: TCTA will work to include class-size limits for pre-kindergarten.)
  • Research and evaluate state-supported policies and programs designed to attract, train, and support effective teachers and instructional leaders, including programs designed to recruit and retain teachers in hard-to-staff schools.
  • Study innovations in state educational data systems. Develop recommendations for a comprehensive state educational data system that will ensure the best available information for educators and policymakers, include unique student records that may be transferred easily among authorized institutions, minimize duplicative or onerous reporting requirements, and meet federal privacy requirements in a manner consistent with the practices of leading states. Recommend statutory changes as necessary to facilitate the implementation of the new data system and to eliminate unnecessary reporting requirements. (Joint Interim Charge with the House Committee on Higher Education) (NOTE: Throughout the 2007 legislative session TCTA closely monitored related proposals, as a key component involved the development of measures to correlate student performance to individual teachers.)

PENSIONS AND INVESTMENTS COMMITTEE

  • Evaluate the possibility of requiring the state and employee contribution rate to meet the annually required contribution for the statewide retirement funds each biennium in order to prevent unfunded liabilities. (NOTE: This charge implies that legislators will be looking at proposals such as a “floating” contribution rate that would rise and fall dependent on the fiscal status of the system, which could have implications for the fund’s ability to afford benefit increases.)
  • Explore options for funding other post-employment benefits, and examine strategies employed by other governmental entities in addressing these obligations. (NOTE: “Other post-employment benefits” essentially means retiree health insurance.)
  • Study the impact of actuaries on public pension plans, and evaluate the need for legislation to ensure appropriate actuarial assumptions, actuarial audits or regulation of actuaries contracting with state pension plans.
  • Assess the representational proportion of each of the stakeholder groups, eligibility requirements, qualifications, and selection and election procedures of the boards of trustees of the retirement systems. (NOTE: Currently, educators/retirees are a minority of the TRS Board of Trustees, and are appointed by the governor after an election, rather than elected directly by members.)
  • Evaluate and make recommendations, if necessary, regarding state contracts with pharmacy benefit managers. Assess the feasibility of combining prescription drug programs of state health insurance programs. All recommendations should take into consideration any budgetary impacts. (NOTE: TCTA recommended this issue to the committee, and has long advocated combining programs and/or administrative functions of the various state health insurance and pharmacy systems.)

APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE

  • Study state employee compensation and benefit packages and recommend alternatives designed to attract and retain superior management personnel and other areas of potential professional shortages. Review executive director salaries, classification schedules, merit and bonus pay, pay ranges, and agency flexibility.
  • Review the Existing Debt Allotment and the Instructional Facilities Allotment to determine whether there is an ongoing need for two distinct programs. (NOTE: The EDA and the IFA are the two state programs that help fund the construction of school facilities.)
  • Explore the spreading or “smoothing” of state payments to school districts throughout the year to better manage the state’s cash flow.

CORRECTIONS COMMITTEE

  • Study Disciplinary Alternative Education Programs and Juvenile Justice Alternative Education Programs, including referral rates, age of students, whether parents have sufficient recourse to challenge a placement, funding, and course requirements. (Joint Interim Charge with the House Committee on Juvenile Justice and Family Issues) (Note: TCTA will be watching this charge closely. The DAEPs are the subject of a great deal of criticism. While TCTA supports efforts to improve funding for and the quality of instruction provided in DAEPs, we oppose any efforts to weaken Chapter 37, and we believe there should be greater enforcement of current teacher-initiated removal laws.)

ELECTIONS COMMITTEE

  • Research the current Texas law prohibiting the use of public resources for political advertising, and determine whether the law needs to be amended to clarify that publicly funded e-mail systems may not be used for political communications. (NOTE: We anticipate that this charge will specifically examine the use of school district e-mail for sending/forwarding political messages.)

GOVERNMENT REFORM COMMITTEE

  • Research, investigate, and make recommendations regarding litigation brought by school districts receiving state funds under Chapter 47, Education Code, for defective construction of instructional facilities and the state’s interest in ensuring the use of such funds for the repair or reconstruction of defective facilities or the return of state funds.

LAW ENFORCEMENT COMMITTEE

  • Monitor the impact of current Texas laws banning the carrying of firearms by holders of concealed carry licenses on the premises of educational institutions.

STATE AFFAIRS COMMITTEE

  • Research and recommend the best ways to require governmental entities in Texas, both state and local, to develop reasonable investment strategies that will help the Texas economy and increase jobs and resources brought to the state. (NOTE: TCTA will be watching this charge closely to determine whether legislators intend to encourage or require the Teacher Retirement System to invest in Texas-based companies.)
  • Study the cost/benefit to the state for projects approved by school districts for a limitation on appraised value under the Texas Economic Development Act (Chapter 313, Tax Code).
  • Study the issue of using state funds to advertise government programs and services to discern if taxpayer dollars are being spent appropriately, and to consider legislation that will ensure that these dollars are not spent to coerce, but rather benefit, the public through honest educative efforts.

Web posted: 12/12/07