House, Senate negotiators will write the final budget
Now that both chambers of the Texas Legislature have each passed their version of the state budget, it can be said with certainty that nothing is certain until the House and Senate conferees resolve the differences and a final vote is taken sometime before adjournment May 27.
The Senate approved a $195.5-billion, two-year financial plan in March. The House approved a $193.8-billion document after a day's worth of deliberation Thursday.
Though both documents drew opposition, the votes to approve in both chambers were overwhelming and also sent a couple of important messages. Senate and House members showed a willingness to restore some — but not all — of the deep cuts sustained by public education in the 2011 session.
The failure to restore the funding cuts provoked an exchange between House Appropriations Chairman Jim Pitts, R-Waxahachie, and state Rep. Lon Burnham, D-Fort Worth. Pitts noted that the House budget would increase public school funding by $2.9 billion above enrollment growth — reversing the 2011 budget vote that for the first time in the state's history did not cover the state's growth in student population. With a $500 million allotment in a supplemental budget bill, Pitts said, almost $3.5 billion of the 2011 cuts would be restored.
"We are not restoring the $5 billion that we took from the children," said Burnam, who spoke against the bill just before the final vote.
"Many of us feel like the bill we passed last session deserved an F." Burnham graded the current budget a D-minus.
State Rep. Donna Howard of Austin also expressed disappointment about the method the House proposes to distribute funds but ultimately voted for the budget.
Given that a legal challenge to the Texas method of financing public schools is making its way through the courts, a patch job is about as good as it's going to get. Travis County state District Judge John Dietz ruled the current system unconstitutional but has yet to issue a written ruling, and whatever he writes will be appealed either to the 3rd Court of Appeals in Austin or directly to the Texas Supreme Court.
Public education advocates should take heart in the House's loud and clear opposition to vouchers that would allow students to take public dollars to privately-run schools. The House voted 103-43 to ban the use of public dollars for private schools. That margin obviously means opposition to the voucher bill by Senate Education Committee Chairman Dan Patrick, R-Houston, is as bipartisan as it is overwhelming. Vouchers are also championed by Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, the senate's presiding officer, and Gov. Rick Perry, so the vote is a rebuke to them as well.
Patrick's voucher bill, embraced by Dewhurst and Perry, is being written off as dead in the House after the vote and isn't generating much enthusiasm in the Senate. Anything is possible, but this session is past the halfway point, so the rescue effort for Patrick's voucher bill will have to be both quick and thorough.
As we have expressed previously, the notion of school choice is appealing, but not without proper and thorough oversight to protect students from operations that are long on promise and short on public accountability. Public schools are far from perfect but are under high-powered public and private microscopes.
The Senate and House both boosted higher education-related spending. House members voted to increase money for the Texas grants program, assistance based on need given to students who successfully apply for it.
The willingness to invest in education is not only wise but appreciated.
Also appreciated is the House's reluctance to get sucked into a cultural spat over family planning funds. House members wisely avoided a brawl over that.
There is still a way to go before the Texas Legislature reaches agreement over what the final budget will be, but the versions passed by both chambers are good starting points for healthy, respectful negotiation of a state spending plan for the next biennium.