RE: HOUSE PASSES EDUCATION BILL

An education-reporting FrontBurnervian adds her two cents:

The education bill, in a word, is bad. but it won’t matter. Word “on the street” is that the House and Senate are quite displeased that the governor vetoed what they did and are unhappy about being called back into special session. Some fear that the House/Senate will just pass something, anything, through to get this over with and to avoid voter wrath come this fall when schools will be unfunded (or next year, when the lack of school finance reform will really set in for districts around the state have to cut everything non-necessary). A prominent analyst called this “one of the most frustrating legislative sessions he’s been involved with.”

RE: HOUSE PASSES EDUCATION BILL

Well, for starters, Arlington’s Kent Grusendorf sure likes it. Of the bill, he told lawmakers, “When those of you who vote for this bill look back, you will know it was one of the best votes you made during your entire legislative career.” Unfortunately, this is how the Quorum Report described it: “What HB 2 appeared to suffer from yesterday, unfortunately, was a bad case of the runs.”

When it comes down to it, the bill includes less than $1 billion than the version that the House passed during the regular session. And recapture–or Robin Hood–will still be on the table, which will have to happen unless the state agrees to kick in more money. Right now I believe the state only pays for 30% or so of public education.

The main thing to remember, however (again, just like the regular session), is this bill is like us mapping out a plan for a new magazine by including everything we need to make the magazine run. What this doesn’t include is the funding for the magazine, which will be handled in a separate bill. That’s where lawmakers will have to figure out a way to pay for it, through a business activity tax, a higher sales tax, an array of taxes on other items, or–heaven forbid–an increase of state funding. In fact, a new tax plan was announced in the House this afternoon.

Tomorrow the Senate Education Committee will pick up HB 2, but I’ll tell you what Texas is ultimately going to get: a plan that doesn’t provide as much money as the schools deserve, property taxes that won’t be cut as much as homeowners would like, and politicians who will try to claim a major victory out of a tiny step toward improvement.