Texas Educational Bills of the week, HB 1605 and SB 10
Hello SAISD Parents and San Antonio Community Members,
This week our Educational House Committee reviewed HB 1605, which would use $1 billion to pay out-of-state private curriculum companies. During the pandemic, our TEA Commissioner Mike Morath awarded no-bid contracts to private companies that provided our state with their curriculum. Yet as Mike Morath took control and started giving money to these out-of-state companies, he never asked them for proof that their curriculum met our Texas academic standards. The good news is that all of our school districts used this curriculum. This House Bill 1605 is just a way for any corporation to make millions from our state as they provide their idea of what they believe is the best curriculum for our children. Yet this year, Governor Abbott has been telling parents here is your “Bill of Rights”. Instead, he never once gave parents the right to review these course materials. So, parents, it seems that he failed to provide us with this information, and instead, he allowed TEA the freedom to spend millions on these private companies. Remember that we always have the right to review our child’s curriculum and check out textbooks from the library.
I have some good and bad news for retired teachers as Senate Bill 10 passed this past week. First, the saddest issue is that Texas’ surplus this year is larger than the entire budget of 24 states. SB 10 will give our retired teachers a cost of living adjustment. The amount a former teacher will receive depends on when they retire. If any teacher retired before 2004, they will receive a 6% increase, those that retired in 2004-2013 will receive a 4% increase, and those that retired in 2014-2020 will receive a 2% increase. These small increases are still needed for our retired teachers, as some live on $2100 a month.
Roughly 96% of our retired teachers did not pay into Social Security. These teachers dedicated their lives to teaching and now have to choose if they can afford their medications or pay their electric bills and figure out if they will have enough to buy food. As each retired teacher gave their testimonies, our politicians have forgotten that our teachers gave hours of their time to teach our children. Sadly, Texas has the lowest Mission contribution rate to the teacher’s requirement system in the country despite having the ninth-largest economy. We need to find a way to help all of our retired teachers because they deserve better and shouldn’t have to go without the necessities.
There are a plethora of educational bills to go over that it could lead to a special session. I understand that there is a need for laws to get all this money into the right hands, but we should give all our teachers a raise. As I was reading some comments that were made about how Texas is not giving our retired teachers a better raise it was John Bryan, a Democrat from Dallas, who said it well, “Until we get this right on teacher retirement, we’re going to have a hard time drawing people into this great profession. We hear so much about the great state of Texas yet we are not willing to meet its moral responsibility to those who made us great.” This statement should remind our politicians that teachers work on the front lines, and do so with a passion to make a change in our children’s future.
This week both the House and Senate will go over many more educational bills so I will keep you all updated. Lastly, if anyone has any questions or concerns please email at lena.lopez@saobserver.com
Have a Blessed Week, Lena Lopez
