Senate Ed hearing includes civics education discussion

Thursday’s Senate Education Committee agenda included a number of bills of interest, among them the Senate counterpart of the teacher training revamp that was heard in the House Public Education Committee on Tuesday.

TCTA supported Sen. Royce West’s SB 1267, which would streamline continuing professional education and professional development requirements for educators. The bill would establish simplified but meaningful educator training requirements and enable educators to more freely select training opportunities that meet their own needs.

TCTA also supported the following bills on the Thursday agenda:

• SB 369 by Sen. Lois Kolkhorst provides an exception to the new requirement that students complete a FAFSA or TAFSA, if a parent declines to complete the application.
• SB 462 by Sen. Eddio Lucio would allow for reimbursement of mileage for transportation of meals or instructional materials, as became necessary at times during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Others scheduled for the hearing include:

• SB 1063 by Sen. Carol Alvarado, which would add a half credit in personal financial literacy and economics as an alternative to the required half-credit in economics.
• SB 1696 by Sen. Angela Paxton, addressing coordination of cybersecurity information among public schools.
• SB 1697 by Paxton, which would allow parents to make the decision to repeat a grade or course.
• SB 2026 by Chair Larry Taylor, a civics instruction proposal requiring that educators cultivate in students an “informed patriotism”.
• SB 1776 by Sen. Donna Campbell, requiring school boards and charter schools to post in classrooms and buildings a copy of the founding documents of the United pbell, requiring school boards and charter schools to post in classrooms and buildings a copy of the founding documents of the United States.