House Public Education Committee discusses special education, teacher recruitment and retention

The Texas House Public Education Committee met June 1 to discuss ongoing implementation of House Bill 2, the comprehensive school finance bill from the 2025 legislative session. The committee also heard testimony on efforts to increase teacher recruitment and retention across the state, as well as the effect of recent investments in special education.

Each discussion began with panels of witnesses invited by members of the committee for their expertise, including representatives from the Texas Education Agency.

Implementation of House Bill 2

TEA staff reviewed implementation of provisions from HB 2, primarily those around teacher compensation and certification, as well as changes to how school districts receive state funding.

Teacher certification has become a major issue in the past decade. With the creation of districts of innovation (DOIs), almost all school districts adopted plans to allow them to hire uncertified teachers to fill vacant positions. Research has shown that these teachers tend to stay in the profession for a shorter amount of time than their certified colleagues and usually produce lesser or even negative student academic growth.

HB 2 created a requirement that teachers in core subjects must be certified by the 2026-27 school year, with an option for school districts to submit a plan to phase in that requirement by 2030; 570 school districts have had such plans approved so far. Many school districts have altered their hiring practices to prepare for the eventual cutoff.

Committee members expressed frustration with how they receive information on the potential effects of school finance legislation and how the murky information affects school districts' ability to plan their budget for each school year. During the legislative session, outside consultants produce estimates, commonly referred to as runs, of what each school district is likely to receive in state aid under new funding models. In reality, the timeline of when districts determine their budgets, submit their projected attendance to the state, and settle up any discrepancies can lead to massive funding differences compared to projections.

In voicing this frustration, Rep. Jeff Leach (R-Plano) said, "The one constant is that the runs are always wrong. Had I known then what I know now, it might have changed the way I voted on the bill."

Other members expressed interest in the Legislative Budget Board, the state government's office that generates cost estimates for proposed legislation, producing detailed runs for each school district instead of outside consultants.

Superintendents and school board members invited to testify echoed these concerns. A school board member from Boerne ISD testified that the new allotments from HB 2 resulted in a decrease in funding despite enrollment growth in the district. Other said that the increased funding helped but did not solve their districts' financial deficits, with many forced to eliminate jobs and close campuses.

El Paso ISD, for example, faces a nearly $53 million budget shortfall and declared financial exigency on June 5, while Crystal City ISD in South Texas recently told families that it has less than $500 in its bank account. Austin ISD is considering a plan to cut 558 positions across the district, including teachers, librarians, counselors and central office staff as it deals with a $181 million deficit.

Recruitment and retention

With more veteran teachers leaving the classroom since the COVID-19 pandemic, efforts to recruit promising candidates to the profession and retain those already in the classroom have taken center stage. Targeted raises based on years of experience and district size as well as support for the teacher preparation pipeline in HB 2 aimed to address both issues.

Dr. Jacob Kirksey, an education researcher from Texas Tech University, spoke to the committee about the details of how uncertified teachers affect school systems. He described a revolving door of uncertified teachers, particularly in rural school districts that have trouble attracting certified teachers; according to his research, around 80% of new hires in rural districts are uncertified.

Several higher education representatives spoke about how effective teacher residency programs have been in producing quality teachers who stick with the profession long term. HB 2 provides support for teacher residencies if school districts and institutions of higher education agree to certain terms set out by TEA.

A panel of current teachers also spoke about what supports they find most effective in retaining teachers. The Teacher Incentive Allotment has been successful in retaining teachers, but the panel hoped that it would be extended to include more teachers. One teacher said, "The best way to get new teachers is to take care of the ones you have now," indicating that if potential teacher candidates know that teaching is a rewarding job, both personally and financially, that the candidates will come.

TCTA provided written testimony to the committee; read it here.

Special education

The most significant change to special education in HB 2 is a shift to an intensity-based funding model. This means that special education funding is not allocated simply on how long a student is educated in a special education setting, but rather by the intensity of the services that student requires.

School districts have only recently received guidance from TEA on how funding will be allocated under the new model and some are scrambling to adjust their services to account for the changes. Many of those who testified asked for more time to adjust their special education programs to account for the delay in guidance.

A side effect of Senate Bill 2, the voucher bill, has been an increase in parents of private school students seeking special education evaluations at their neighborhood public schools. Any parent, whether their child attends their zoned public school or not, is entitled to seek special education screening at the public school. Because SB 2 prioritizes vouchers for students with disabilities, many parents have exercised this right to possibly push their own child up the priority list for receiving a school voucher.

Several school districts stated that the sudden influx of evaluation requests from parents have made it difficult to provide those evaluations for students who actually attend the public school and asked the committee for more funding to support special education evaluations.

The committee has more interim hearing planned ahead of the start of the 2027 session in January. TCTA will keep you updated on the latest as they occur.

Updates from the Capitol

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