SEN. KOLKHORST DISCUSSES PRIORITY LEGISLATION BILLS IN SPECIAL SESSION

  

As the Texas Legislature’s third special session continues, State Senator Lois Kolkhorst and other senators have passed five bills dealing with school finance and education reforms, illegal immigration, and COVID vaccine mandates pertaining to private employers.

Four of the bills are on Governor Greg Abbott’s agenda for the special session.  Senate Bill 2, the school finance and teacher pay raise bill, falls outside the scope of the governor’s proclamation, but has still been sent to the House along with the four other bills for consideration. 

Senate Bill 2 includes an across-the-board $3,000 pay raise for all Texas teachers, as well as an additional $7,000 for teachers in small-to-medium size districts with fewer than 5,000 students.  Since teachers have already signed their contracts for the 2023-24 school year, the extra pay is being billed as a “retention bonus” this year; it will be included as a pay raise for the 2024-25 year.

Also part of Senate Bill 2 is a doubling of the school safety allotment from $10 to $20 per student, plus an increase in the amount of per-campus funding from $15,000 to $30,000.  Additionally, the basic allotment is raised from $6,160 to $6,235 per student, while the teacher incentive allotment and acceleration grants are increased by nearly $120 million.  With the teacher allotments, Kolkhorst says teachers can earn up to $36,000 above their current salary. 

If fully passed, a portion of the teacher compensation funding could be available to school districts as soon as this December.

The Senate also passed Senate Bill 1, providing eligible students the opportunity to access an $8,000 per year Education Savings Account administered by the Comptroller’s Office directly to the chosen school facility using a parent’s tax dollars.  The program will be capped at $500 million for the biennium, with about 62,500 students expected to potentially be eligible.

If there are more applicants than available positions in the ESA program, eligible students will be prioritized in the following order:

1. Forty percent of the available positions will be drawn by lottery of those who qualify for free and reduced lunch, also known as Economically Disadvantaged.
2. No more than 30 percent of available positions by lottery will be for students whose parents’ income is between 185 and 500 percent of the Federal Poverty Level.
3.  20 percent of the positions will be selected from students who have a disability.
4. The remaining 10 percent will be for anyone not qualifying in the other three tiers.

Kolkhorst says the bill contains a “hold harmless” provision to prevent smaller school districts from losing funding for up to three years.

Hear Kolkhorst’s full comments on Senate Bills 1 and 2 below, visiting with KWHI’s Joshua Blaschke.

The Senate also moved forward with Senate Bills 4 and 11, concerning the southern border.  Senate Bill 4 raises the minimum term of imprisonment for smuggling and continuous smuggling to ten years.  It also increases the minimum term of imprisonment to five years for the offense of operation of a stash house, punishable as a third-degree felony or as a second-degree felony under certain conditions.

The bill also provides felony punishment enhancements and consecutive sentencing for offenses when committed while smuggling persons into this country in violation of federal law.  Similar legislation was passed out of the House and Senate as House Bill 800 during the regular session, but died in the House as a point of order due to the differences between the versions.

Senate Bill 11 authorizes state law enforcement to arrest individuals who illegally cross the border anywhere in the state, other than a lawful point of entry.  It creates penalties of a minimum Class A misdemeanor, with increases if the person has prior convictions. This was also passed out of the Senate in the regular session as Senate Bill 2424, before it died in the House.

Kolkhorst’s comments on Senate Bills 4 and 11 can be heard below. 

Senate Bill 7, co-authored by Kolkhorst, prohibits all private Texas businesses from adopting or enforcing a COVID-19 vaccine mandate on any employee or contractor.

Kolkhorst’s remarks on Senate Bill 7 are available below.