Governor’s Directive
Gov. Abbott directed (Feb. 13) the state Tri-Agency Workforce Initiative (consisting of the commissioners of education, higher-ed and the workforce commission) to marshall the combined resources of the three agencies to carry forward the reforms the Legislature adopted via 2019’s HB3 by developing strategies focused on specific, multiple education and workforce goals.
“It is imperative that we build upon the resources of House Bill 3 and accompanying legislation to ensure today’s students and tomorrow’s workforce are prepared to meet Texas’ long-term workforce needs in a comprehensive and efficient manner,” the governor said in a statement.
A final report is to be delivered to the governor by Sept. 1 of this year.
Property Tax News:
- Property values — The Reform Austin website looked (here) at the recently released state Comptroller’s School and Appraisal Districts’ Property Value Study (PVS) 2019 preliminary findings and concluded that it is likely that Texas homeowners “will get less [tax relief] than expected.”
A Texas Taxpayers and Research Association official told the website that it remains to be seen how much tax relief there will be, if any, this year and that if the preliminary values hold for the final values, “it will more than likely reduce overall tax relief that we were looking towards with rate reductions.”
- Audits — The state Comptroller is proposing to repeal current rules concerning audits of school district taxable property values and to adopt new rules to replace them. Comments are being accepted for 30 days after publication in the Feb. 14 Texas Register.
- Poll — A new UT Austin/Texas Tribune poll of Texas voters concluded that most (54 percent) believed they are paying “too much” in property taxes and about a quarter said their property taxes were “about right.”
Note: The same poll reported that a plurality (46 percent) of Texas voters believed the quality of public education was either “excellent” or “good.”
- No reappraisals — In a move that could cost Austin area ISDs millions of dollars in revenues for their upcoming budgets, the chief appraiser for Travis County’s appraisal district announced (Feb. 12) that residential properties won’t be reappraised this year, meaning that residential property values for 2020 will be based on 2019 values.
The chief appraiser said she’s unable to perform new residential appraisals because of a cease-and-desist letter received last May from the Austin Board of Realtors demanding that the appraisal district stop using property sales data derived from the Realtors’ proprietary
Multiple Listing Service (MLS), which the appraisal district had been using for several years under a contract with a third party vendor. The appraisal district has no other reliable source on which to base market values of property in the county.Texas is one of several states in which actual real estate sales prices are not public information for use in appraising property for taxation purposes.
Safe Schools News
The National Education Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), in conjunction with the Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund, have called for schools to reassess the use of active shooter lockdown drills.
Said Texas AFT President Zeph Capo to a Houston TV station: “I have not seen any reason to re-enact the violence … where you have people simulating being shot. We really need to step back and rethink how we’re doing it.”
Among other things, the groups — in a jointly issued “white paper” — recommend that if schools do choose to do these drills with students, the drills should not mimic an actual incident, and parents, students and educators should have advance notice.
School Nutrition News
The state’s 1,250 ISD and charter school cafeteria programs can expect to be the subject of routine Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA) reviews about once every four years instead of about once every three years, under terms of a statewide waiver that the department announced it is seeking from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
On a three-year cycle, TDA conducts about 415 reviews each year. On a four-year cycle, TDA’s goal is to complete about 315 reviews each year.
The USDA recently announced that it will likely grant waivers requested by states seeking to move from three-year to four-year review cycles.
Parenting/Pregnant Foster Children
New state data (statewide /county) for Fiscal Year 2019 (ending Aug. 31, 2019) reflects that among youth (under age 18) in foster care: 1) 289 were parenting their own children, 2) 43 children born to young parents in foster care were placed in foster care themselves by their first birthday and 3) 322 were pregnant.
2019’s HB475 requires the Department of Family and Protective Services to provide children in conservatorship who are pregnant or who are minor parents with information on and support in providing safe environments for children.
Four-Day Calendar
You can add the 200-student Rochelle ISD, located near San Angelo, to the small, but growing list of Texas ISDs that will operate under four-day calendars. The RISD school board reportedly voted (Feb. 12) to implement a four-day calendar starting next school year.