Public Education

A Step in the Right Direction

I was proud to co-author and support HB 5, which passed in the Texas House of Representatives with nearly unanimous support. This piece of legislation offers meaningful solutions to key issues facing our state’s public high schools and students.

HB 5 reduces the number of end of course assessments from 15 to five, creates one standard diploma that allows every student the opportunity to apply to a four-year university in Texas, encourages students to pursue diploma endorsements in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math), and business, as well as arts and humanities. It also broadens school ratings so that factors other than standardized tests will contribute to measuring a school’s performance.

I am pleased that three amendments I proposed were added to HB 5. One will give special education teachers more one-on-one time to spend with their students, rather than prepping for tests. Another amendment promotes dual credit for career and technical education students to put towards an associate’s degree or a licensing certification. Finally, I offered an amendment that prohibits individuals connected with or paid by test vendors from serving on Texas Education Agency assessment committees.

State Representative Chris Turner

Public Education

Chris Turner will fight to reverse the Republican education cuts that have resulted in teacher layoffs and larger class sizes across Texas. Chris believes education funding was already inadequate and that Perry and the Legislature should have used the billions of dollars in the state’s Rainy Day Fund and closed tax loopholes in order to save schools from devastating cuts. Chris will fight for a more fair and better financed public education system for all Texas children. Chris also believes we must reform the school accountability system that has become entirely too dependent on standardized tests.