House concurs with changes to major school finance bill

Possibly the most consequential education bill of the session, HB 2 by Rep. Brad Buckley (R-Salado), returned to the House last week with significant changes from the Senate. In the days since, dozens of other bills were voted on and education advocates waited for HB 2 to be called up in the lower chamber. 

Late this afternoon, Buckley laid out the bill, describing the Senate amendments. Rep. James Talarico (D-Austin) appeared at the back mic to ask Buckley questions about why only some teachers would receive raises and why the legislature had failed to provide more state funding to schools since 2019. Buckley explained that the raises for teachers were targeted at experienced teachers because Texas ranks highly in starting pay for teachers but has fallen behind in average pay, indicating that salaries are not meaningfully increasing with a teacher's experience; he demurred on the latter question.

Buckley moved to concur with the Senate amendments, and the motion passes, 122-13. The bill will now head to the governor's desk to be signed into law.