TEXAS, USA — Temple ISD Superintendent Dr. Bobby Ott is meeting with three local lawmakers on Wednesday, March 8 to support and initiate legislation for five areas of focus during the 88th session of the Texas Legislature.
The points include safety allotment, funding schools based on total student enrollment instead of student attendance, a state endorsed local accountability system, school vouchers and tax compression with local discretion.
Lawmakers say this meeting will be vital for the future of education.
"Education is the most important asset and most important resource that business has," Texas State Representative Hugh Shine said.
Dr. Ott breaks down the five points on the agenda, the first being safety allotment.
"The safety allotment in Texas is $9.72 per kid," Ott said. "None of us want to see any type of tragedy take place. The commissioners put out proposed rules on safety standards and financially we're going to need revenue to accomplish that, so I'd like to see that go way up. Maybe $100, $150 a kid across the state and then certain provisions that we're supposed to spend the money on."
Next is funding schools based on total student enrollment. A total of 44 states in the US fund public schools based on total enrollment and Texas is not one of them. They fund based on student attendance. Shine co-authored House Bill 31 which relates to this.
"When you build schools, you hire teachers, you outfit with equipment, you don't do that based on how many you think are going to show up," Ott said. "You base it on how many you're responsible for that or a role. That would require about a 5% increase in public school revenue across the state."
Dr. Ott hopes to discuss reforming how the state grades schools and districts as well.
"The state accountability systems generalize," Ott said. "It assigns a letter per campus, the same standards across the whole state. Truth is community types are different. What our rural community values may be much different than suburban, urban and so forth."
School choice is another hot topic of debate, which Gov. Abbott has been pushing for. However, Dr. Ott strictly opposes school vouchers and says they promote a false narrative.
"The choice of that is one that resides in the selective admissions process of the receiving school," Ott said. "We will divide our kids and therefore you divide your future. It's that simple."
And lastly, giving districts more control on how to spend its local and student funding.
"If you're going to give more money as a state, we want to have the autonomy to discretion to spend that based on our local needs," Ott said.
Overall, Dr. Ott is excited to provide information, data, research and support to local lawmakers. He wants to remind lawmakers of the importance of teacher retention and recruitment as well as the safety and well being of students and staff.