Texas Politicians Could Vote for 42 Tests a Year Instead of 15, Uvalde Families React to the Failure of AR-15 Bill
Hello SAISD Parents & San Antonio Community Members,
The worst part of this week was seeing all the families from Uvalde that had lost a child or a loved one in the school shooting on May 22, 2022. As the families watched the bill that would change the law in Texas to buy an AR-15 or Rifle from 18 to 21 failed…was gut wrenching to say the least. It seems Governor Gregg Abbott let these families down by promising to change the law, or was this just another empty campaign promise? So did our Governor use these victims’ loss and grief as a part of his political campaign so he could remain in office? The bigger question is how many shootings need to happen before he changes the law? After all, he stated he didn’t want this to happen again. This is not complicated.
This week has also been filled with many arguments over different House and Senate bills, as May 11th was the deadline for any House bills to pass for a second reading. So, all the House bills that didn’t make it are now dead. Now, this rule doesn’t apply to the Senate Bills. They have until the 23rd to be approved for a second reading. As I watched the debates and heard all the amendments, it felt like a moment of insanity as the votes came in, the bells rang, and another amendment failed. Then late Wednesday, the Senate House Committee of Education had a late-night meeting behind closed doors to pass a new version of SB8. The new SB8 is like a cake with too many layers and toppings that only looks delicious to the Republicans. But they got caught, and now this new version that is 80 pages long is going back to the House Educational Committee on Monday.
The latest version has too many different laws in one bill, just like HB 3, which they passed in the 86th Texas Legislature in 2019. It seems that once again their filing another Bill with a lot of fine print. This new version would change the number of tests all grades must take. For example, 3rd-8th would have to take 3 tests a year and that would be spread out throughout the school year. This means that our kids in 3rd-8th would have to take a total of 42 tests instead of the 15 tests they take now. Then high school students would have to take six tests; in reality, only three are required by federal law. In addition, the new SB8 designates a small amount of money for our special ed kids and would also help the 504 students that are dyslexic. They would now treat dyslexia as learning disability and would provide more resources for the special ed students. But now that these Senators got caught trying to pass this new SB8, they are upset that the House wants to review the 80 pages and ask more questions. It’s time for the hard questions of why they are willing to spend billions of dollars on printed curriculum from unknown sources, school vouchers, and use chaplains to act as school counselors, and the list goes on. But in many ways it seems that they have placed us behind bars, and now they’re demanding that we vote in their favor, which could cause Texas to lose more teachers.
Lastly, we could go into a special session so that Governor and Lt. Governor can pass what they believe will help our schools, teachers, and children. Yet, the help we need is in raises for our teachers and staff along with giving our teachers more respect. But instead, we’re going down another path of destroying our schools. Parents, we were once told by those in charge that our children need “consistency” when they walk into school daily. Yet, the only consistency we can guarantee in this state is that our Texas politicians change how our children learn every year and put more stress on our teachers.
Parents, know that I will be checking on all of these bills. Until next week if anyone has a question or concern please email me at lena.lopez@observer.com
Have a Blessed Week,
Lena Lopez
