November 30, 2010

J.C. Derrick

Rep. Fred Brown, R-Bryan, has pre-filed a bill which would eliminate the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board while merging its responsibilities with the Texas Education Agency.

“The main reason for the bill is that we need to be thinking about students K through 16, not K through 12 and then college,” Brown said. “We have two agencies that barely speak to each other.”

The higher education board currently oversees all public post-secondary education in the state, including budget recommendations and evaluation of degree programs. Although some other states have already moved to combine public and higher education boards, Brown said H.B. 104 is not patterned after any current system.

Rep. Dan Branch provided a post-election analysis for Fox 4 News following the signficant turnover of legislators in the U.S. and Texas Houses of Representatives.

The Branch family, joined by volunteers, friends, and members of the Park Cities Republican Women celebrated Dan's election night victory at the Hotel Palomar. Representative Branch received 65% of the vote in District 108.

November 16, 2010

Andrea Leptinsky

Looking ahead to the start of the 82nd Legislature, the Legislative Review Board met Nov. 15 to set its constitutional spending limit at $71.7 billion and discuss the upcoming budget.

The constitutional spending limit is one of several spending limits used by the Legislature in creating and adopting a new budget.

November 16, 2010

Holly Hacker

Offer more online classes. Help students graduate faster. Seek extra dollars from outside sources.

Texas' public universities are brainstorming ways to survive the state's looming financial crisis, and leaders shared ideas Monday at a national higher education conference held in Dallas.

"Our goal is to keep the momentum going while we get through the difficult budget challenge," said Rep. Dan Branch, a Dallas Republican and chairman of the House Higher Education committee.

November 16, 2010

Reeve Hamilton

With a budget shortfall of historic proportions looming and legislators looking desperately for savings, state Rep. Fred Brown, R-Bryan, is proposing a drastic step: the elimination of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.

"If there was ever a time to get this done, now's the time," says Brown, who has filed a bill that would shutter the agency. "There is going to be some really nice savings for the state, but that shouldn't be the justification for the bill."

November 15, 2010

Ross Ramsey

Most of our insiders — 92.6 percent — think Joe Straus will still be the speaker after January 11, but they don't sound confident that a Republican supermajority will bring peace and harmony to the Pink Building.

Only a dozen of this week's 163 respondents think there will be a new speaker, and their choices varied between Warren Chisum, who's declared, Larry Taylor, who hasn't, and "someone else." Tom Craddick got a vote, and so did Dan Branch, a Straus supporter. Neither has indicated any interest in being speaker in 2011.

Morgan Smith

THE BIG CONVERSATION:

Want a straw poll in the Speaker's race? Not so fast, says state Rep. Dan Branch, R-Dallas.

In a letter circulated to House Republican Caucus members yesterday, the Joe Straus loyalist said before talk of a poll turns into any action, he wants to make sure everything's above board.

Texas Republicans — including Gov. Rick Perry, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and House Speaker Joe Straus — ran and won on a platform that promised a balanced state budget without new taxes.

State budget and politics experts said Wednesday the legislative session may be just as painful for Republicans as election night was for Democrats if they balance the budget with huge cuts to education and healthcare. The budget shortfall could be as much as $25 billion, or about 30 percent of state spending based on the current budget.

November 09, 2010

Mary Tuma

While anti-immigration bills flood the 2011 legislative agenda, several education-related bills ranging from concealed carry of handguns on campus to textbook affordability made it into the list of nearly 400 pre-filed bills on Monday. With a long way to go before enacted as law — though a better conservative climate could hardly be imagined — the proposed legislation highlights the direction state lawmakers intend to steer Texas education.