As the Texas legislative session kicks off, Rep. Brooks Landgraf, R-Odessa, says more funding for public education is in the offing and he will continue to work toward reducing high-stakes testing and eliminating Robin Hood.
“During the last session, we did increase public school funding by 4.5 percent, which was on top of a big $9 billion infusion the state made in 2019,” Landgraf said in a Jan. 23 phone interview. “We have to continue to make those investments in public education and we also have to be strategic about it. I think the best way that we can help Texas schools and Texas school children with state funds is to put that money directly into the classrooms in the form of teacher raises so that we can attract and retain the best and brightest teachers in the state.”
“I know that’s something that I’m looking forward to doing as we iron out the details of this budget,” he added.
Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick have recently said they were all in on school vouchers. Landgraf said there will be a lot of proposals out there on that concept.
Historically, there have been for years.
“There are seemingly hundreds of proposals that include some kind of voucher component and there’s quite a bit of talk about school choice. It’s hard to identify one particular proposal that everybody’s talking about. I think it’s important to bear in mind as we have these conversations that everybody seems to have a different idea of what they mean by school choice, or vouchers, or what types of strings are attached. It’s important in the conversation to know exactly what we’re talking about,” Landgraf said.
“I know there have been quite a few bills that have been offered that conflict with one another. Trying to figure out which one, if any, is going to gain momentum in the legislature I would say it’s a guessing game at this point,” he added.
Property tax cuts are also figuring prominently in articles about the legislature. Landgraf said there is a bit more clarity on that one.
“As far as the property tax relief discussion is concerned, there is a provision in the base budget that was filed last week in House Bill 1, which is basically the first draft of the state budget. There is a $15 billion property tax cut provision … and a large portion of that is dedicated to use state funds to basically purchase an increase in the homestead exemption up to I believe $70,000. In other words, that would be property tax revenue that would become off limits for the school districts. But that hole would be filled in by the state, so the ISDs (Independent School Districts) are still being made whole with that funding, but it’s designed to reduce the property tax bills of Texas homeowners,” Landgraf said.
Retired teachers have been advocating for a cost of living adjustment and Landgraf said he thinks chances are good it will go through.
The version of House Bill 1 that was filed last week increases funding for the Teacher Retirement System by 16 percent.
“I’ve long been in favor of a cost of living adjustment for retired teachers and I’m going to continue to advocate for that position. But I do think that we have a unique opportunity under this budget to finally get that meaningful increase,” he added.
Teachers don’t get a uniform retirement check across the board and the majority don’t get Social Security because of the windfall elimination provision in federal law, Landgraf said.
Landgraf has long been in favor of reducing or eliminating the STAAR test. However, the state cannot eliminate standardized testing completely because it could jeopardize about 10 percent of public education funding.
“That’s the portion that comes from the federal government, and in order to be eligible for those federal funds, we have to have some sort of standardized testing in place that complies with federal law. Currently with STAAR, we are doing more than is required under federal law and so what I want to do is reduce the over-testing, or eliminate the over-testing … I want to do away with the tests that are not required for any reason outside of the state. That’s what virtually every other state in the country does and it seems to work well, at least in terms of … (reducing) the high-stakes nature of standardized testing. I think at a minimum that’s where we need to be here in Texas. I’m working on legislation, whether it’s mine or somebody else’s, to achieve that,” he said.
“I think there have been key leadership changes in both the House and the Senate that increase the likelihood that we’ll finally be able to do away with the STAAR exam. I am confident about that,” Landgraf said.
He said it’s hard to handicap the chances of eliminating Robin Hood, or recapture.
“In terms of Robin Hood, I think … the larger symptom is we’re just relying too much on property taxation. I think the more we pivot away from detrimentally relying on property taxes to fund public education the better that will be for the flawed policy of Robin Hood and recapture. I think if we do increase the amount of state funding again here in 2023 similar to the way that we did in 2019 that allowed us to actually rely less on Robin Hood. I think by taking that same approach we can again reduce the need. That’s one of a couple of reasons why ECISD hasn’t had to pay into recapture because of the increase in state funding,” Landgraf said.
He noted that STAAR can be eliminated, but standardized testing cannot without violating federal law.
“Texas is the only state where the STAAR exam is administered, but there are quite a few states that use the Iowa Assessment. I think STAAR is the most expensive and least effective standardized test in the country,” Landgraf said.
“The high-stakes nature places an undue amount of stress on teachers, students, parents, administrators, so that’s one. Second is it eliminates creativity within the teaching profession and it forces teachers to teach to a test that assumes that all children are exactly the same; and then third when we have the STAAR model (it) de-emphasizes any opportunity that’s not on the test. There are other ways that we could be better preparing students for their future, but we don’t focus on that because it’s not tested. If it’s not tested, the state is basically daring school districts to not pay attention to that, or to plug resources into those other opportunities,” Landgraf said.
Asked about hot button issues like pulling books from libraries, Landgraf said there are going to be 7,000 to 8,000 bills filed.
“I’m sure every idea under the sun in Texas is going to be at least proposed. I don’t know how much momentum there is, but obviously public education issues always gets a great deal of attention from members of the legislature and from the public, so I don’t expect that 2023 is going to be any exception to that,” he said.
Landgraf said he is looking forward to supporting efforts and policies that make Texas public schools a place where teachers want to teach and students want to learn.
“We as a state and I as a state representative have a constitutional responsibility to have a strong system of public schools. That’s a duty that I take seriously as a lawmaker and as a father and as a taxpayer. I want to make sure that we have the best and strongest schools possible because the future of Texas is worth that investment,” he added.
