TFA Legislative Roundup

A summary of the 80th Legislature's actions on bills affecting higher education

The 80th Legislature proved to be a challenging one for the Texas Faculty Association as we fought battles on several fronts. Without a doubt, TFA's biggest challenge was battling Governor Rick Perry's plan to institute performance incentive funding and exit exam testing in the state's public institutions of higher education. We supported some bills relating to the affordability of textbooks and opposed others. We battled bills that weakened the Texas Public Information Act. And, we lobbied on a myriad of other issues impacting higher education.

On the funding front, the 80th Legislature proved frustrating. For the first time in many years, the state's coffers were awash with tax dollars. However, with the legislature solidly under the control of fiscal conservatives who would rather cut taxes than build a first class system of higher education, huge amounts of money was siphoned off to pay for current and future property tax relief. In the final analysis, funding for the state's two-year institutions, universities and health science centers did improve over the current biennium, but a splendid opportunity was lost to make a major investment in Texas higher education. The governor's perfidious veto on June 15 of $154 million in funding for community college's group insurance delivered a devastating blow to the two year institutions' funding in the new biennium.

Below is a brief summary of important substantive legislation in the 80th Legislation impacting higher education. We will report on funding later.

INCENTIVE FUNDING AND EXIT EXAM TESTING

In February 2007, Governor Rick Perry announced an ambitious proposal for reforming Texas higher education. The plan had many features that TFA wholeheartedly endorsed such as dramatically increasing funding for financial aid. TFA also supported the main objective of the reform proposal: meeting the Coordinating Board's statewide goal of increasing the number of students completing bachelor's degrees, associate degrees and certificates by 171,000 by 2015. However, from the outset, TFA was vehemently opposed to the means by which the governor proposed to reach his goal: a plan that rewarded public institutions of higher education with cash incentives for every student they graduated and mandated exit exam testing of graduating students. Since institutions of higher education would be receiving cash for every student they graduated, the governor argued that the exit exam testing was necessary to ensure that they maintained standards. In the public universities, for example, the governor proposed that extra money would be awarded to schools for students who scored well on either a major field assessment or licensure exam. The governor asked the legislature for $300 million to fund his performance incentive /exit exam testing program. A news release issued by the governor stated that "The incentive program is not designed to reward inputs—it rewards outputs." (Gov. Rick Perry’s Higher Education Reform Proposal 80th Texas Legislature)

When TFA Executive Director Dr. Charles Zucker was contacted by the national online higher education journal, Inside Higher Ed, about the governor's plan, Zucker said that he was pleased that the governor had put higher education on the front burner but that he would have to give a flunking grade to the exit exam testing proposal. Zucker opined that the proposal would lead to a "cookie cutter" approach to higher education since professors would be facing pressure to "teach to the test" like their colleagues in the state's public schools.

In early March, identical bills were filed containing the governor's proposals regarding performance incentive funding and exit exam testing: SB 1029 authored by Florence Shapiro (R, Plano), chair of the Senate Education Committee; and HB 3828, authored by Geanie Morrison (R, Victoria), chair of the House Higher Education Committee. Interestingly, although the bills did require graduating students to take an exit exam, they did not require that the students achieve a certain score on the exam to receive their degree. TFA's vociferous objections to the exit exam testing provisions of the bills caused Sen. Shapiro and Rep. Morrison to announce that those provisions would be removed from the substitute bills when they came up for a hearing in committee. Although TFA was happy that a big battle had apparently been won without much of a fight, we remained wary—as it turned out, with good reason.

In mid-April, the committee substitute for HB 3828, as substituted, was voted favorably from the House Higher Education Committee. Shortly thereafter, Zucker obtained a copy of the revised bill. What he learned did not make him happy. Although the offensive sections of the bill containing the exit exam provisions had been removed, the substitute bill cleverly granted authority to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to establish the very exit exam testing which TFA had been assured had been removed. Sec. 61.9806, ADJUSTMENT OF FUNDING BASED ON QUALITY OF DEGREES AND CERTIFICATES AWARDED," stated that the board, in consultation with institutions of higher education "by rule shall develop as an additional criteria by which points are assigned…a methodology to assess the quality of the degrees and certificates for which points are awarded." Further, the committee substitute added that the "methodology" must "be designed to promote the maintenance or enhancement of the quality of the degrees and certificates awarded by the institutions; and include minimum standards of quality that a degree or certificate awarded by an institution must satisfy in order to qualify for an assignment of points."

Fortunately, when HB 3828 came up on the House floor for a vote, the Legislative Study Group, chaired by Rep. Garnett Coleman (D, Houston) came to TFA's assistance. The LSG is an official caucus of the Texas House of Representatives; it counts among its members many of the House's more progressive legislators. Rep. Coleman was able to negotiate a compromise with Rep. Morrison effectively taking exit exam testing out of the bill. The two co-authored an amendment stating that a "student's performance on a standardized test may not be required from an institution of higher education, used as a measure of an institution's accountability, or used as an indicator or criterion under this section." After the amendment was adopted, HB 3828 passed the House of Representatives and was sent to the Senate. However, by the time it reached the Senate, time was running out. In spite of strenuous efforts by the Sen. Shapiro to move the bill through the Senate, it died when the Senate adjourned sine die on May 28.

In the meantime, SB 1029 had received a hearing before the Senate Subcommittee on Higher Education. In explaining the committee substitute for SB 1029, Senator Shapiro stated that it removed "the most controversial part of the bill, having the students take exit testing." She added that instead of exit testing, the coordinating board would be "in charge of ensuring that quality is maintained." Testifying against the bill, Zucker argued that the committee substitute merely transferred the authority for setting up the exams from the bill itself to the coordinating board. Under questioning by Sen. Royce West (D, Dallas), Raymond Paredes, commissioner of the coordinating board stated that as a former professor, he would not support anything that established "teaching to the test." However, when Sen. West asked the commissioner to provide him with a letter indicating that the committee substitute could not be used to establish end of course exams or comparable exit exams, the commissioner declined to submit the letter. Following the testimony, Sen. Zaffirini left the bill pending; it would remain pending until the legislature adjourned.

Thus, both HB 3828 and SB 1029 had failed to pass. It looked as if the TFA had won the battle in the 80th Legislature against performance incentive funding and exit exam testing had been won; but that was before the governor weighed in.

With one week remaining in the session, Governor Perry threatened to veto the proposed $21 billion budget for higher education, unless lawmakers linked funding to his plan for performance incentive funding and exit exam testing. After intense negotiations between the governor's office and Sen. Steve Ogden (R, College Station), chair of the Senate Finance Committee, a compromise was reached: a rider was placed in House Bill 1, the General Appropriations Act, allocating one hundred million dollars to governor's plan. Once the agreement had been reached, HB 1 passed both houses and was sent to the governor. The "Higher Education Performance Incentive Initiative" states:

(HB 1, Special Provisions Relating Only to State Agencies of Higher Education, Sec. 55, Higer Education Incentive Funding, #4, III, 234.)

What does this mean in terms of exit exam testing? TFA received assurances during the negotiations between legislative leaders and the governor that the rider did not include any provision for exit exam testing. However, the language stating that the coordinating board in conjunction with the governor's office "shall develop an incentive program for the improvement in teaching and educational excellence" at Texas public general academic teaching institutions is somewhat worrisome. (Emphasis added.) TFA intends to monitor closely the development of the "incentive program" and will oppose vigorously any attempt to sneak in exit exam testing. Another point needs to be made. The $100,000,000 is targeted only for the state's public universities: two-year institutions and health science centers are not included. This is particularly bad news for community and junior colleges in light of the governor's veto of $154 million in group insurance funding for them. (See story below.)

TEXTBOOKS

The 80th Legislature presented TFA with issues surrounding textbooks. Below is a brief summary of the provisions of the more important textbook bills and TFA's position on them.

HB 956 by Rep. Scott Hochberg
Status: Left pending in House Calendars Committee.

TFA opposed HB 956 because it contained provisions our association found onerous and perhaps even dangerous. In our view, it required faculty members to waste valuable time tracking down information about the price of textbooks and the publisher's plans for issuing a new edition of a textbook without demonstrating that it would actually save students any money. Moreover, the original version of the bill contained a provision authorizing the Texas Building and Procurement Commission to negotiate the price of textbooks with publishers. TFA was concerned that this provision would undermine the academic freedom of professor since there was no guarantee in the original bill that the Commission would not be given the authority to block the sale of textbooks in Texas if a publisher would not agree to negotiate a reduced price. Opposing HB 956 was made all the more difficult by the fact that TFA considers Hochberg to be a true friend of education—both K-12 and higher education. We did everything we could to work out a compromise with the representative, but in the end were unable to do so. Among TFA's objections to the bill were:

1. It required faculty members to know the publisher's suggested retail price for a textbook or the approximate retail price that would be charged by a college or university-affiliated bookstore before faculty members could require or recommend a textbook for their courses;
2. It prohibited faculty members from requiring or recommending an edition of a textbook unless they had information that the publisher of the textbook would not release a later edition of the textbook until at least three years from the date of the initial release of the most recent edition.

The committee substitute for HB 956 received a favorable recommendation from the House Higher Education Committee, but it died in the House Calendars Committee.

SB 49 by Sen. Judith Zaffirini
Status: Died in House Higher Education Committee.

TFA supported SB 49 exempting books purchased by university and college students from the sales tax. TFA considered this bill to be a "no brainer" in light of the fact that the state has had a back to school "tax free holiday" law in place for many years which exempts most clothing and footwear priced under $100 from sales and use taxes when purchased August 17-19. However, SB 49 failed to pass in spite of strong support from student groups and TFA.

HB 2009 by Rep. Patrick Rose
Status: Left pending in House Higher Education Committee.

TFA also supported HB 2009 that would have ensured that students had access to purchasing books required for classes at stores other than the "official" college bookstore. The bill was left pending in the House Higher Education Committee.

The Public Information Act

The Texas Public Information Act (PIA) is one of TFA's most useful tools. We use this remarkable "sunshine" law to investigate budgetary issues at our public institutions of higher education, to assist members who have salary related problems, to challenge promotion and tenure denials, and for many other purposes. TFA will oppose vigorously any bill that weakens the PIA. In the 80th session of the Texas Legislature, we had our hands full.

HB 2564 by Rep. Kelly Hancock
Status: Passed; Signed by the Governor.

TFA opposed HB 2564 but was unable to stop its passage. Rep. Hancock authored the bill because of abuses by individuals who had filed literally hundreds of complicated PIA requests over the course of a year in a school district. Supporters of HB 2564 argued that these abuses threw a serious monkey wrench into the operations of the school districts in question and cost the districts many thousands of dollars in personnel time. HB 2564, which became effective immediately upon its passage, states that once a governmental body has spent 36 hours gathering information for a requestor during a fiscal year, the governmental body may charge the requestor the full personnel cost for complying with the request. TFA's major concern is that even before HB 2564 was amended, we have been frequently over-charged by institutions of higher education for information that we had requested. Now, we fear that we will be gouged even worse once the 36-hour threshold has been reached.

SB 889 by Sen. Jeff Wentworth
Status: Left Pending in House Calendars Committee.

TFA opposed SB 889. This bill was similar in its intent to HB 2564, but took a different approach. It provided that once a requestor had in any calendar month been provided with at least 100 pages of responsive paper records by a governmental body, that body could charge the requestor for any and all costs associated with any subsequent requests in the same month.

SB 1045 by Sen. Jeff Wentworth
Status: Failed to receive affirmative vote in House Higher Education Committee.

TFA also opposed SB 1045. This bill provided that the performance evaluation of the chancellors and presidents would be confidential. The bill passed the Senate but failed to receive an affirmative vote in the House Higher Education Committee where it died after TFA Executive Director Zucker testified against it.

OTHER BILLS OF IMPORTANCE

Select Commission on Higher Education and Global Competitiveness

HCR 159 by Rep. Geanie Morrison
Status: Passed, Signed by the Governor.

TFA did not take a position on HCR 159. This resolution requests that the governor, lieutenant governor, and the speaker of the house of representatives create a select committee on higher education and global competitiveness to draft a Texas Compact that reflects a long term vision and step-by-step plan to attain certain goals by 2020. The resolution directs the commission to examine a number of issues, including "structuring higher education funding to reward student and institutional outcomes that are aligned with state and regional priorities, increasing the quantity, quality, and commercialization of university-based research, and objectives and accountability measures related to the state's educational attainment goals, including performance benchmarks." TFA will be watching the progress of the commission closely once it has been established.

Diversity of Opinion

SCR 3 by Sen. Jeff Wentworth
Status: Left Pending in the Senate Subcommittee in Higher Education.

TFA opposed SCR 3. The resolution appeared to be an innocuous measure supporting academic freedom and diversity of opinion. The resolution stated in part that "it may be justifiably expected that colleges and universities would periodically review their policies with respect to faculty and student rights and grievance procedures to ensure that intellectual and political diversity of opinion is recognized, valued, and protected" and that therefore, the 80th Legislature should "encourage the state's colleges and universities to implement policies to safeguard the academic freedom of faculty and students alike and to ensure the diversity of opinion not only in the classroom and campus but beyond;" In reality, the measure was a stalking horse for the attack of right wing ideologues led by David Horowitz against the alleged liberal bias of the academe. TFA opposed SCR 3 because it would have disingenuously placed the views of students and professors on equal footing in the classroom. For example, if SCR 3 had passed, a student in an astronomy class who argued on a final exam that the earth was flat could conceivably file a grievance and win if a professor were to give the student a bad grade.

Adjunct Faculty Benefits

HB 543 by Rep. Mark Strama.
Status: Referred to House Insurance Committee.

TFA supported this measure which would have made major improvements in the ability of adjunct faculty members to receive benefits. However, the bill did not receive a hearing.

Leave for Faculty and Staff Assaulted while on Duty

SB 51 by Sen. Judith Zaffirini
Status: Died in House Higher Education Committee.

TFA supported SB 51 which would have provided leave benefits to junior college district or university employees who were assaulted and injured while on duty. Although the bill passed the Senate, it failed to receive a hearing in the House Higher Education Committee.

 

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