Blog Archive

One of the largest education-related bills the 86th Texas Legislature passed was Senate Bill (SB) 11 by Sen. Larry Taylor (R-Friendswood), the omnibus school safety bill passed in the wake of the tragic school shooting in Santa Fe, Texas, in May 2018.

The 86th Texas Legislature passed a number of measures that will have an impact on standardized testing of students in our public schools.

As the 86th legislative session came to a close yesterday, there were some significant changes made to the Teacher Retirement System (TRS) that warrant a closer look.

Tonight, the Texas House and Senate both gave final approval to compromise legislation that will spend more than $11 billion over the next two years on public education and providing property tax relief to Texans.

As the ATPE lobby team reported here on our blog yesterday, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, and House Speaker Dennis Bonnen, collectively known as the "Big Three" heads of government, held a press conference Thursday afternoon to announce that negotiators had finalized a grand bargain to address property tax relief, school finance reform, and funding for the Teacher Retirement System (TRS).

We're down to the final stretch of the 86th legislative session, and there's been major breaking news about education bills in the last 24 hours. Here's a look at this week's headlines from the ATPE Governmental Relations team.

At a press conference held this afternoon, Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, and Speaker of the House Rep. Dennis Bonnen announced that a deal has been reached on legislation to address school finance, property tax relief, and the Teacher Retirement System (TRS).

Four days remain in the regular session of the 86th Texas Legislature, and significant deadlines for bills attach to each day that passes.

A major mental health bill prioritized by the state's top leaders as a way to help prevent school shootings was partially revived late Tuesday night hours after it appeared to have been abruptly killed on a technicality during a dramatic night in the Texas House.

Here at the beginning of a week in which most bills in the Texas Legislature will die, the big priorities set out at the beginning, in January, are still alive: school finance, property tax reform, school safety and responses to Hurricane Harvey.