May 26, 2011

Thanh Tan

A proposal adopted by the Legislature's budget conference committee Thursday would provide funding for TEXAS Grants — the state's main source of higher education aid for financially needed students — for about 33,100 incoming freshmen. That's far less than the estimated 53,000 graduating high school seniors who would qualify for the grant, but substantially more than the budget originally approved by the House.

May 25, 2011

Kate Alexander

The pursuit of a happy medium on school finance continued Wednesday as a key deadline approached for state House and Senate negotiators.

The two sides have staked out disparate approaches for how to lower by $4 billion the amount the state owes to school districts over the next two years.

May 24, 2011

Terrence Stutz

AUSTIN — With less than a week to go, the always-volatile issue of school funding could make for a rough conclusion to the 2011 legislative session.

After House efforts to pass a school finance plan were short-circuited Monday night, House and Senate leaders began searching Tuesday for common ground on how to distribute $2 billion a year in funding cuts — $4 billion over the next two years — among the state’s 1,030 school districts.

May 25, 2011

Gabe Semenza

Since State Rep. Geanie Morrison filed House Bill 2556 - to realign Victoria's university with the Texas A&M University System - a key question has loomed.

Does the A&M System want the University of Houston-Victoria?

More than 100 pages of Aggie system correspondences, requested and received by the Advocate, offered no clear cut answer but do show UHV is high on its radar.

May 24, 2011

Erin Mulvaney

The Senate passed a measure Tuesday that would link part of higher education funding to the student and university "outcomes" and performance.

The bill carried by Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, in the Senate would reconfigure the universities' formula funding to allow the state to tie no more than10 percent of the funding to graduate rates and other outcomes.

Currently, funding is based on enrollment at the beginning of each semester.

May 24, 2011

Reeve Hamilton

A bill that could alter the state's formula funding for institutions of higher education to allow some of it to be based on outcomes such as graduation rates rather than simply enrollment cleared the Senate this evening.

Gov. Rick Perry has made outcomes-based funding one of his legislative priorities with regard to higher education, and the bill —House Bill 9 by House Higher Education Chairman Dan Branch, R-Dallas — appears to be moving toward the governor's desk.

The bill, which already passed the House, was kicked out of the Senate this evening with minor alterations. Now, the House must either concur with the changes or head to conference before it can finally be sent to the governor.

May 25, 2011

Jason Embry

Harsh words and hurt feelings on the floors of the House and Senate as bills hit critical deadlines.

(Happy birthday to Randy Chapman.)

House is in at 10. Senate is in at 9.

Lots of activity on both sides of the building last night as critical deadlines loomed. The time has passed for the House to pass House or Senate bills for the first time, and the Senate is starting to run into some important deadlines as well.

May 24, 2011

Emily Ramshaw

After a testy exchange, House lawmakers gave initial approval to a voting bill that would push up the election filing period in order to give military voters more time to get absentee ballots.

The outcome wasn’t what Rep. Van Taylor, R-Plano, wanted. The original bill carried by the military veteran, along with Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, D-San Antonio, would have moved Texas’ primary from March to April, and moved runoffs from May to June. It was an effort to bring Texas in line with a federal rule granting overseas citizens at least 45 days to cast absentee ballots.

Rep. Dan Branch, R-Dallas, amended Taylor’s bill to keep the primary date the same — the first Tuesday in March — but push the filing period from January into December to meet the terms of the federal MOVE Act. He said moving Texas’ already late primary date back would make the state a non-player in the presidential campaign season. And it would also bleed into spring break, complicating voting for many.

May 24, 2011

Karen Brooks

I know it seems like we have a lot of these types of anecdotes this session. But hey, we have a lot of freshmen in our Texas House this go-round.

And that includes some who got here all empowered-like and loaded for bear - only to be reminded of the fact that that while they may be extraordinarily popular with the grassroots in their districts ... nobody in the Texas House gives a flip about Who They Are yet.

Which brings us to Van Taylor, a freshman GOP rep from Plano, who worked hard all session to try and do what the RNC is asking Texas to do - move the primaries from March to April. In fact, they've threatened to remove half of Texas' delegates in the 2012 national convention if Texas keeps its March primary.

May 24, 2011

Aman Batheja

The Texas primary would continue to be on the first Tuesday in March under a bill that passed the House Tuesday night.

Texas needs to tweak its election calendar to comply with federal law that requires military and overseas voters have more time to vote.

State Rep. Van Taylor, R-Plano, had wanted to move the primary to the first Tuesday in April which would push runoffs into June. The Senate version proposes leaving the primary date in March and moving the filing deadline up a month to December (which requires amending the Texas constitution).