Gavel To Gavel 87th Legislative Session: November 20, 2020
News from the Capitol was thin this week as everyone winds down for a Thanksgiving that will look very different from what we’re accustomed to. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has advised people to celebrate this holiday at home with the members of their household as the U.S. reaches almost 12 million cases of COVID-19. This will be a challenge for many families that have already gone too long without being able to see their loved ones. However, this guidance is tempered by not one, but two COVID-19 vaccine breakthroughs from Pfizer and Moderna. This morning, Pfizer announced that they will request an Emergency Use Authorization from the Food and Drug Administration for the BNT162b2 vaccine after it demonstrated an “efficacy rate of 95%, with no serious safety concerns observed to date.” Hopefully we will be able to follow this report by announcing that the FDA has granted this request, and that we can begin the process of vaccinating our frontline workers against a pandemic that has been raging since March.
One important update from the Texas Legislature was Presumptive Speaker Phelan’s announcement that Julia Rathgeber will serve as his Chief of Staff. Rathgeber has previously served as Deputy Chief of Staff to Governor Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, and as Insurance Commissioner for the Texas Department of Insurance from 2013-2015. Phelan said, “When it comes to solving big challenges in the legislature, from the budget to major policy issues, few people have the know-how and experience that Julia does. Julia’s leadership will be invaluable as we work towards achieving a successful legislative session.”
Additionally, on Tuesday, Republican Justin Ray conceded the election in House District 135, losing by just 300 votes to the Democratic Incumbent, Jon Rosenthal. “While we didn’t get the results as we all hoped for, I can’t help but feel incredibly grateful for the overwhelming amount of support that our campaign received over the course of this election cycle,” he said in a release published on his Twitter. “I wish Representative Rosenthal the best of luck during the upcoming legislative session and remain hopeful for the future of Texas.”
In other news, this week marked another evolution in the state’s efforts to provide safe and effective education for students in the context of COVID-19. Sixty-eight House Members signed a letter asking that the Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath seek the necessary federal waivers to cancel the State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness (STAAR) exam. These exams are designed to assess students’ academic progress and they are an important piece of Texas’ A-F Accountability System. Schools are assigned a grade for their overall academic performance, and poor grades can result in sanctions. The Representatives argued that given the uncontrollable and deleterious impacts of COVID-19 on students and families, the STAAR tests should be cancelled or “at most… only serve as a diagnostic instrument to see where our students stand academically as opposed to an assessment instrument to determine district and campus sanctions under the current A-F accountability system.” While the Commissioner has shown no intention of canceling the test, he indicated to the State Board of Education (SBOE) that the Texas Education Agency (TEA) will be looking for ways to adjust the Accountability System in response to the virus, according to the Quorum Report. He told the SBOE that the state will apply for a participation waiver so that students absent on the day of testing are not considered failures under the federal accountability system, and that adjustments to the A-F system will seek to provide fair representation of management’s efforts. However, he stated that TEA leadership continues to gather feedback and no final decisions have been made.
Lastly, Governor Abbott, the TEA, and the Texas Department of Emergency Management (TDEM) announced a $420 million reimbursement program for Texas schools to continue supporting remote learning during COVID-19. This program relies on federal CARES Act dollars and will cover districts’ 2019-2020 costs incurred by locally purchasing eLearning devices and/or WiFi hotspots.
This will be our last report until after the Thanksgiving holiday. We wish you and your families well, and we’ll see you in December.