Education Chiefs Present Budget Requests
Resources:
- Archived hearing webcasts — Scroll down to the Nov. 5 Public Education and Higher Education webcasts.
- Click here for all state-agency budget requests for the upcoming biennium.
Education Commissioner Mike Morath said the bulk of the TEA’s budget request (available here) seeks to maintain the baseline budget that funds what is required in current law, while incorporating the 5 percent budget cuts legislative leaders told state agencies to make in their budget requests for the upcoming biennium (with the Foundation School Program exempted).
COVID-19 Impacted Academic Declines
Morath said the only “exceptional” item being requested by the TEA focuses on what he said were targeted investments to help reverse the COVID-19 impacted academic declines in students, especially for low-income students that studies have shown will be impacted the most and over a longer time. The TEA’s exceptional item budget request totals about $2.9 million for each year of the upcoming biennium.
The superintendents of the Texas School for the Deaf (budget request) and the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired (budget request) advocated for their schools to be exempted from the 5 percent budget reduction — arguing that their programs, which are mandated by federal special-ed laws, will be significantly and negatively impacted otherwise.
They noted that they have programs serving students not only in the greater Austin area, but statewide.
College Financial Aid
Texas Higher Education Commissioner Harrison Keller said his agency (budget request) is also asking to be exempted from the 5 percent funding cuts, and that the budget requested includes $110 million in funding that is needed to maintain current needs-based financial aid programs that assist low-income students — and additional funds to expand an “upskilling” and “reskilling” program aimed at getting adults back in the workplace.
The Texas State Technical College (TSTC) Chancellor Mike Reeser asked for increased funding for financial aid for the institute’s students, who are all adults, especially those participating in “fast-to-work” training programs to provide students with the skills needed to find employment quickly in light of the pandemic. TSTC was largely exempted from closure orders affecting other colleges. (TSTC’s budget request is included in the overall higher-ed budget request in the paragraph above.)
Representatives of the state’s public colleges and universities also provided testimony about their individual budget requests.
TRS
TRS Executive Director Brian Guthrie testified that unlike in prior years, the TRS — due to a variety of factors — isn’t asking for supplemental appropriations to shore up the TRS-Care health insurance program for retirees. But he said that could change in future bienniums. (TRS budget request)
Guthrie reported that COVID-19 related health insurance claims, as of the fiscal year that ended on Aug. 31, 2020, totaled $31 million for TRS-Care and $86 million for the TRS-ActiveCare program for current school employees. See related story in TEN, Oct. 26.
The two plans fully fund the COVID-19 costs of testing and any therapeutic measures needed.
Guthrie said the LBB and legislative leaders will be apprised monthly of the COVID-19 related costs to the TRS health care insurance programs.
Guthrie said the TRS budget request asks for $3 million to open a pilot customer service office in El Paso and $5.8 million to increase its in-house investment staff by 25 employees, which he said would result in significant savings by relying less on the need for external investment managers.
The hearings before legislative staff were only the first of many steps leading to the approval of a state budget next session.