Legislative Update (2/17/22)

The House and Senate began considering their respective appropriation bills this week, as February 23 is the deadline for original floor action on appropriation bills.  General bills are being transferred from their chamber of origin to the other chamber and assigned to committee.  Committees have until March 1 to consider and pass general bills that originated in the other chamber, so committee meetings will ramp up again next week.  Click here for this week’s bill tracking spreadsheet which reflects action as of noon today.

Please contact your respective legislators regarding the following:

• Pay Raise:  Please contact your representative and your senator to remind them of the importance of passing a significant teacher pay raise this session, as well as to caution them in passing any tax cut plan that threatens funding for education and other critical state services.  A teacher pay raise should not get caught up or held hostage to other issues.  Legislators must prioritize and pass a teacher pay raise.
• SB 2706 (Third Grade Gate):  SB 2706 provides that any third grader scoring between 2 and 3 on the 2021-22 third grade reading assessment may be promoted to the fourth grade but must be provided remediation. SB 2706 reverts the minimum required score for this school year only to that of the program as it was initially implemented. While SB 2706 had not been referred to committee as of noon today, it will most likley be referred to House Education and Chairman Bennett has indicated he may not bring the bill up in committee which would kill the bill.  Click here for contact information for Chairman Bennett, Vice Chairman McCarty, and other members of the House Education Committee. 

Click here for contact information for legislators by school district.  You may leave a message for any legislator with the capitol switchboard at 601-359-3770.