Positive legislative changes are happening in Texas regarding public charter schools.

During the 88th Texas Regular Legislative Session, two charter bills passed that will grow the charter movement in the state. The first is a bill lawmaker filed during the last four legislative sessions, requiring political subdivisions to consider open-enrollment charter schools the same as school districts for zoning purposes.

Why is this legislation so important?

Over the past several years, multiple cities across the state denied or delayed building permits even though the Texas Education Agency (TEA) had approved a campus to operate. The denied building permits and zoning issues have affected both campus expansions and new charters, and, in some cases, permits were delayed for months, costing charter operators additional money in construction fees. The City of Dallas went as far as to have a moratorium on charters, and now, for years, no charters have been allowed to build within the city limits. With this bill’s passage, political subdivisions must treat charter facilities like school districts, and local politics will no longer stop charter growth in Texas.

The second bill passed extends the request and notification window to 36 months. Under current practices, public charter schools may not send a notification or request to TEA to open a new campus until 18 months before the campus is scheduled to open, which is not enough time to construct a new campus and prepare for opening, especially considering supply chain concerns. Extending the request and notification window to 36 months allows all parties more time to prepare and execute their plans.

Update from the State Board of Education (SBOE) meeting

During last month’s State Board of Education (SBOE) meeting, members passed a new law, changing the non-contact period for charter applicants. For years, charter applications were not allowed to connect with SBOE members during a no-contact period lasting from the day of charter application submission until the day the SBOE votes to approve the charter, which can last up to seven months. The board approved a new law, ending the no-contact period for charter school applicants on the date the applicant passes the external review. In the past, opponents of charter schools used the no-contact period to discourage members from supporting charter schools. With the new bill in place, charter advocates may contact members and seek support for new charter applicants, leveling the playing field for all parties involved.

Also, at last month’s SBOE meeting, four out of five charters were approved. State law allows the Texas Education Agency Commissioner to select applicants that have received the application cut score and passed TEA/SBOE capacity interviews. The SBOE has final approval authority and can agree with the Commissioner’s recommendations or veto. This time, Commissioner Mike Morath selected five Generation 28 Public Charter Schools to be granted, and the SBOE only vetoed one.

There is always more work to do, and becoming an advocate for public school choice is essential! We must let our local and federal elected officials know to continue supporting public charter schools in Texas and beyond.

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Important Updates for Charter Schools in Texas!

To help you get where you’re going, we’re sharing legislative and policy matters that affect the Texas public charter school community. By staying up to date with legislation, you can be empowered to advocate for your school.

Here’s what you need to know:

  1. After three sessions of trying, HB 1707, the bill aimed at ending city-level discrimination against public charter schools, has passed the State House with an impressive 101-45 vote. This victory is significant because it sets a positive trajectory for future support.
  2. HB 1707, which would exempt charter schools from local zoning ordinances, has now moved to the Senate Education Committee.
  3. HB 2102, which extends the timeline for charter schools to request new campuses up to 36 months in advance, has passed the House with a vote of 106-39.
  4. Increasing funding for charter school facilities remains a top concern for charter school advocates. Currently, there’s a significant funding gap of $966 per student between charter schools and ISDs, mainly due to facilities funding. HB 100, a bill that enhances school funding for both ISDs and charters, has passed the House. The Senate is now considering what components of the bill they want to keep or change.

Read more about current Texas education legislature here: https://txcharterschools.org/advocate/88th-legislative-session-for-advocates/

With week seven under our belt, we are close to the finish line of the 2023 Legislative Session. Below is a brief summary of activities that took place at the Capitol last week — including education and charter school-related bills that moved forward. If you have any questions, contact Ralph Arza who leads the FCSA advocacy team.

State Budget

The only requirement of the Florida Legislature is to pass a balanced budget. Formal negotiations/Budget Conference between the Florida Senate and House begins Tuesday, April 25. The budget will need to be agreed upon and published by Tuesday, May 2 for the session to officially close on May 5, 2023.

LocalTax Revenue Share

The Senate Appropriations Committee approved SB 1328, a bill that would require school districts to share revenues from local tax collections with charter schools. The bill is now headed to the Senate floor for a vote.

School Board Elections

A proposed constitutional amendment that seeks to shift to holding partisan school board elections passed the Senate last week and now heads to voters. The proposal would need support from 60% of voters next year to pass.

School Board Term Limits 

HB 477 would impose eight-year term limits on school board members. The bill passed the House and is headed to the Senate floor.

Social Media Bans

The Senate approved HB 379 which would ban TikTok, Snapchat, Twitter and other social media platforms on public school devices and require schools to teach students about the dangers of the Internet. Next stop: Governor’s desk for signature.

State Board of Education meeting on April 19, 2023:
Middle/High Schools and Gender identity 

The State Board of Education voted to bar middle and high school teachers from “intentionally” teaching students about sexual orientation or gender identity unless the lessons are part of a reproductive health course or are “expressly required” by the state’s academic standards. The Florida Department of Education is revising the state’s civics academic standards and textbooks. The standards would need to be followed by teachers in order to comply with requirements regarding discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity. More here. 

CTE program update

Thirteen new career and technical education (CTE) curriculum programs for the 2023-24 school year were adopted. The courses will expand access to high-wage, in-demand jobs for Florida’s high school and Florida College System students.

Click here to see approved amendments and all action items from the recent State Board of Education meeting.

Texas Legislative Updates

Texas public charter schools serve 375,000 students, with 66,000 more on waiting lists. Texas’ 88th Legislative Session convened on Tuesday, January 10, 2023, providing charter advocates the opportunity to make legislative changes that improve the charter footprint in the state. Lawmakers filed several charter bills this session, which will Sine Die on Monday, May 29, 2023, and below is a list of bills that have become a priority as the regular session winds down.

Senate Bill 472: Relating to the applicability of certain laws to open-enrollment charter schools.

Background—Over the last few years, cities have denied and delayed building permits for public charter schools even after the Texas Education Agency approves new charters or expansions. In fact, the Dallas City Council voted for a charter moratorium in 2016, and no new charters have been built in Dallas since. SB 472, which is making progress in both chambers, would require cities to treat charter facilities like Independent School Districts, meaning the same permitting and building codes that apply to ISDs would apply to public charter schools. There is opposition to SB 472, which will lead to a fight to get it passed before the deadline. The House companion bill is HB 1707.

House Bill 1572: Relating to instructional facilities funding for certain open-enrollment charter schools. 

Background—Qualifying public charter schools share a fixed $60M charter facility appropriation. One goal for this session is to change the facility appropriation to a per-student allotment, which would help charter operators budget for facilities by knowing the exact amount they will receive from the state. Even if it passes, it is unclear how much of an increase charters will receive because, historically, a fight ensues when they request additional funding. The Senate companion bill is SB 1722.

House Bill 2102: Relating to the establishment of a new open-enrollment charter school. 

Background—This bill would expand the timeline for expansion amendments from 18 months to 36 months, allowing charter facilities more time to build. With the legislative session nearing the finish line, getting it passed in the Senate will be tight.

House Bill 2890: Relating to the approval of open-enrollment charter schools. 

Background—Texas has one of the nation’s most rigorous charter application processes, and one hurdle for new applicants is getting past the State Board of Education (SBOE) veto. HB 2890 would raise the SBOE veto requirement from a simple majority to a supermajority.

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Texas Legislative Updates

Days until the 88th Texas Legislative Session Sine Die: 70 (May 29, 2023)

TEA & State Updates
DOE & National Updates
  • The House Education and the Workforce Committee passed two bills now heading to the House Floor for a full vote. H.R. 734 aims to prevent biological boys and men from participating in athletic programs designated for girls or women, while H.R. 5 would give parents more authority over educational decisions and add requirements for school systems to ensure parental engagement. Committee Democrats argued that these bills distract from student academic recovery, mental health support, and access to free school meals.
  • A conservative wing of the U.S. House announced its intention to roll spending back to 2019 levels and cancel President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan. If Speaker Kevin McCarthy agrees to their demands, it will eliminate most of the administration’s education budget requests, including a $2.2 billion increase for schools serving poor students and $.5 billion to address student mental health needs. On the other hand, the Biden administration wants to raise the $31.4 trillion debt limit to avoid what most economists anticipate would be a global economic crisis.
Articles of Interest
Important Dates
  • March 21 – House Public Education Hearing – Agenda
  • March 22 – Senate Education Hearing – Agenda
  • April 11-14 – SBOE Meeting
  • April 28 – SBEC Meeting
  • May 29 – Last Day of Regular Session

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Texas Legislative Updates

  • Governor Greg Abbott delivered a State of the State address, naming seven emergency items: school safety, bail reform, covid restrictions, fentanyl crisis, property taxes, border security, and education freedom. If a bill is related to the governor’s emergency items, members can vote on it earlier in the session.

  • Lt. Governor Dan Patrick announces his top 30 legislative session priorities. He said, “… tradition has been for bill numbers 1 through 20 to indicate the Lt. Governor’s and the Senate’s priorities. In 2017, I increased the low bill numbers to 30. Senators like to get a low bill number because it shows their bill is also a priority … and has a great chance of passing.”

  • House Appropriations Chairman Greg Bonnen announced the appropriations subcommittee chairs and subcommittees:

    Subcommittee on Article III

    Gary VanDeaver, Chair
    Barbara Gervin-Hawkins, Vice Chair
    John Bryant
    Mando Martinez
    Geanie Morrison
    Lina Ortega
    Carrie Isaac
    Carl Teppersad
    Kronda Thimesch

  • Doug Deason, a GOP megadonor, is teaming with former Chairman Larry Taylor and former Representative Ron Simmons to bring their perspectives to the school choice debate. They aim to give parents “a much stronger voice and say in the educational choices for their children.” They appear to be headed toward a clash with Texas House leadership on the matter.

Days until the 88th Texas Legislative Session Sine Die: 98 (May 29, 2023)

TEA & State Updates
  • TEA official Steve Lecholop admits public school funds could drop with voucher-like programs while advocating for voucher-like programs on behalf of Texas Governor Greg Abbott. Lecholop’s secretly recorded comments appear to be the first time a top TEA official has explicitly spoken in support of expanding voucher-like programs.

DOE & National Updates
Articles of Interest
Important Dates

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Texas Legislative Updates

Days until the 88th Texas Legislative Session: 1 (January 10, 2023)

TEA & State Updates
  • Governor Abbott announces career and technical education grants. The Texas Workforce Commission has awarded over $54 million in Jobs and Education for Texans grants to public colleges, school districts, and open-enrollment charter schools in the state. The grants will be used to purchase equipment for career and technical education programs in fields including nursing, welding, and dentistry. The grants are intended to defray start-up costs for programs that train students for high-demand occupations. The JET Advisory Board will administer the grants.
  • Governor Abbott has appointed Senator Jane Nelson as the 115th Secretary of State of Texas. She will serve as the state’s Chief Election Officer, assisting county election officials and ensuring that election laws are uniformly applied and interpreted. Senator Nelson has been a member of the Texas Senate since 1992 and has a long list of accomplishments, including establishing the Cancer Research & Prevention Institute of Texas, reforming medical liability, and passing numerous bills to protect victims of domestic violence and human trafficking.
DOE & National Updates
Articles of Interest
Important Dates

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Texas Legislative Updates
  • Last week, Texas Secretary of State, John Scott, the top elections official, stepped down. Gov. Abbott announced he will nominate retiring Senator Jane Nelson for the post.
  • The Texas House Democratic Caucus elected Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer as their new chair, replacing Rep. Chris Turner.
  • Days until the 88th Texas Legislative Session: 29 (January 10, 2023)
TEA & State Updates
  • On Friday, the State Board for Educator Certification received an update on Texas Teachers of Tomorrow, the state’s largest alternative teacher certification company under scrutiny for not meeting numerous key standards. TEA is recommending the revocation of its accreditation after it failed to meet the conditions of its improvement plan. TEA and the company will attend a hearing before a judge, a process expected to last months. Emily Garcia, associate commissioner at TEA, told SBEC they will inform districts about the program’s status. For the time being, the company is still on probation, meaning those aiming to become teachers can still progress through the program as usual.
 
  • Join the TEA Texas Education for Homeless Children and Youth (TEHCY) Program for a McKinney-Vento 201 Zoom webinar on Monday, December 12th from 2:00 – 3:30 pm. During this training, TEA TEHCY Program staff will dive deeper into the McKinney-Vento Act, including additional state requirements to support program implementation. This is the second training in the TEA McKinney-Vento training series. Register here
 
DOE & National Updates
  • Access to Head Start and Early Head Start for children living in poverty is too low and varies greatly across the states, according to the State(s) of Head Start and Early Head Start: Looking at Equity, a new report released last week by the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) at the Rutgers Graduate School of Education. Research showed significant drops in enrollment of children in poverty in Head Start and Early Head Start due to the Covid-19 pandemic, with 257,000 fewer children in Head Start and 22,000 fewer in Early Head Start enrolling nationally.
  • The DOE published new guidance to answer Frequently Asked Questions about how funding under the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) Fund, including the American Rescue Plan ESSER (ARP ESSER) program, and the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief (GEER) Fund may be used in response to the impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on students in pre-K–12 education. Read here.
Articles of Interest
Important Dates
  • December 14, 2022 – Commission on Virtual Education hearing

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TEA & State Updates
  • The SBOE has scheduled a special meeting on Monday and Tuesday, September 26–27, 2022, at 8:00 a.m. to consider proposed revisions to the social studies TEKS for first reading and filing authorization.At the laste SBOE meeting, the board determined that it would not move forward with new social studies standards. Instead, the board asked TEA staff to bring to the next meeting a draft of the current standards that only adds content to address requirements from SB 3 passed during the second special session.
  • Texas House Public Ed and Higher Ed committees held a marathon joint hearing on Tuesday to address the persistent teacher recruitment and retention problem. Some speakers drew attention to the sizeable proportion of instructors who enter the profession without credentials.According to testimony given by TEA Deputy Commissioner Kelvey Oeser, 40% of the newly hired teachers in the previous school year were either uncertified or had completed an alternative certification program.
  • U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona recognized 297 schools as National Blue Ribbon Schools for 2022, including 31 schools in Texas. The recognition is based on a school’s overall academic performance or progress in closing achievement gaps among student subgroups. Secretary Cardona made the announcement during his Road to Success Back to School bus tour. The list of schools in Texas can be found here.
  • The state subsidy provided through the Advanced Placement (AP)/International Baccalaureate (IB) Incentive Program for the May 2023 administration will be $39 for each AP and IB exam taken by an eligible student.  The Texas Education Agency (TEA) has provided subsidies for students taking AP and IB exams since 1993 with the enactment of the Advanced Placement Incentive Program. TEA is committed to ensuring AP and IB exams remain affordable for low-income students. More here.
  • According to a recent poll from The Dallas Morning News and the University of Texas at Tyler, the majority of Texas voters support voucher-like policies that permit state funds to be used to send kids to private schools. According to the poll conducted among 1,268 registered voters between September 6-13, 60% of respondents favored the school choice option, while 28% opposed it. When asked if they “support or oppose giving parents the option to use state funding to send their children to private school,” roughly 54% of respondents supported the option, compared to 34% who did not.
  • TEA’s Texas Partnerships benefits approval process has upcoming required webinars and deadlines in the coming months. A Partner Training is on Sept 30, and Performance Contract Trainings are on Oct 7 and Oct 14. LOIs and other required documents are due Sept 30. Texas Partnerships offer districts the opportunity to expand the diversity of school options, bring in targeted expertise for innovation and turnaround support, and empower school leaders and partners to give more students access to great schools. More information on the Texas Partnership opportunity here, and the webinars and deadlines here.
DOE & National Updates
  • A new bill sent to Congress on Wednesday by U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX) would force colleges and universities to be more open about their student transfer criteria. A list of all the institutions from which a student’s credits are guaranteed to be accepted is required to be posted on the websites of two- and four-year schools under the Transparency for Transfer Students Act. Castro noted, “at too many schools, convoluted transfer regulations make it tougher for transfer students to achieve a four-year degree.”
Articles of Interest
Important Dates
  • Monday and Tuesday, September 26–27, 2022 – SBOE Special Meeting
  • Friday, September 30 – Gubernatorial debate in the Rio Grande Valley
  • Tuesday, October 18 – Texas Commission on Community College Finance final hearing

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House Pub Ed Hearing on Assessment & Accountability

On Tuesday, House Pub Ed met to discuss assessments and hear the progress of implementing recommendations from the 2016 Commission on Next Generation Assessments and Accountability. Commissioner Morath provided invited testimony. Regarding HB 3906 he said, “The question isn’t whether STAAR is designed to accurately measure student knowledge and skills. We know the answer, and it is yes. The question is whether STAAR can be designed differently to more positively influence instructional practices.”

The next phase: TEA is currently conducting a Through-Year Assessment Pilot as required by HB 3906 for the 22-23 school year that someday could potentially replace STAAR as Texas’s summative assessment.

In a shock to many, only one person registered for public testimony.

TEA & State Updates
  • House Pub Ed announced their final hearing on interim charges will be held Tuesday, September 20. The committee will meet jointly with the Higher Education committee to hear testimony on the following interim charge:

Evaluate the impact of the pandemic on the state’s teacher workforce, and current practices to improve the recruitment, preparation, and retention of high-quality educators. Explore the impact of the educator preparation program regulatory environment. Make recommendations to improve educator recruitment, retention, and preparation throughout the state

  • School choice remained in the news with the release of new polling data. According to a new August poll from UT-Tyler and The Dallas Morning News, 62% of likely voters in Texas support using state funds for children to attend charter or private schools, while 25% oppose it. When asked, “Do you support or oppose school choice, which allows parents to use state funding to send their children to charter or private schools,” 69% of Republicans, 59% of Democrats, and 57% of Independents supported it. Reporting by race showed 67% of Black, 66% of Latino, and 61% of White likely voters support school choice. The full poll and results can be found here.
  • The Generation 28 Open-Enrollment Charter Application is now available. Visit the Charter School Applicants Page at to select the appropriate application. Each page will include all necessary application materials and information specific to that application. Email charterapplication@tea.texas.gov with questions concerning the Generation 28 application process.
  • TEA is offering a series of professional learning modules at no cost to LEAs for counselors, new administrators, and new CTE teachers. Follow the links for registration information:

New CTE Administrator & Counselor Professional Development Modules

New CTE Teacher Professional Development

DOE & National Updates
  • On Thursday, Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona issued the following statement on updated guidance from the CDC regarding the pandemic. “This latest guidance from the CDC should give our students, parents, and educators the confidence they need to head back to school this year with a sense of joy and optimism. While COVID continues to evolve, so has our understanding of the science and what it takes to return to school safely. Thanks to vaccines, boosters, new treatments, and commonsense safety precautions – as well as funding from the American Rescue Plan – our schools have more resources than ever before to provide the healthy learning environments our students need to grow and thrive academically, socially, and emotionally.”
  • At a webinar hosted by The Hunt Institute and Trust for Learning early childhood experts reported that longer and unstructured play time is key to early learning. Children’s play should be seen as an important learning tool rather than as a diversion from learning. More here.
Articles of Interest
Important Dates
  • Tuesday, August 23 – Texas Commission on Virtual Education hearing (rescheduled from May) focused on special populations
  • Wednesday, August 24 – Texas Commission on Virtual Education hearing, including public testimony
  • August 30 – September 2 – SBOE Regular Meeting
  • Tuesday, September 20 – House Pub Ed joint hearing with Higher Education committee on the impact of the pandemic on the state’s teacher workforce

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