The Texas Legislature is on the verge of passing a record spending increase for public schools and permanent pay raises for teachers. On Friday evening, the state Senate passed House Bill 2 unanimously, 31-0.  The measure now heads to the Texas House where it's also expected to pass. The vote in the Senate came days after Lt. Governor Dan Patrick, Speaker Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, and the two chairmen of the House and Senate education committees, Senator Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe and Representative Brad Buckley, R-Salado and other lawmakers struck a deal to spend $8.5 billion in new funding over the next two years.  That's a $500 million increase from the previous agreement struck the week before. The bill offers a maximum of up to $8,000 for teachers with five or more years' experience in school districts with 5,000 and fewer students.  

As part of the new spending, $4.2 billion of that will go to permanent pay raises for teachers with three-plus years' experience. Teachers with five or more years' experience will receive more.  During an interview for Eye On Politics on Thursday, Senator Creighton said this new funding source represents a major change. "This raise in our legislation for HB 2 includes provisions for a new teacher pay allotment that the Senate fought very hard for. It wasn't in HB 2 when it came back from the House. That permanent teacher pay allotment grows over time, where in the past, when we've given a teacher a pay raise, its been a two-year bonus or stipend."

While Senate Democrats joined Republicans in passing the bill, some House Democrats, including Representative James Talarico of Austin said he is not impressed by the spending increase, or the teacher raises. In an interview for Eye On Politics on Thursday Talarico said, "I will say I'm glad that some teachers are going to get a pay raise under this bill, but it does not give every teacher a pay raise. We see the most turnover with teachers who are in the classroom for five years or less. Most of the generous pay raises are going to go to teachers who have been in the classroom for five years or more, and that's great for those teachers. They desperately need a pay raise. But we really should be using this record budget surplus to give every Texas teacher a substantial pay raise in a lot of ways."

Other non-administrative school staff will also receive salary increases.

There's also more money for special education, full-day pre-K, and school safety. In a statement Friday evening, Governor Greg Abbott said he's looking forward to signing the bill, which he said will put "Texas on a pathway to be the best state in the nation for education."

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