Legislative Priorities

Legislative priorities help guide the district and its stakeholders to areas of importance; this includes funding, school safety, accountability, and teacher recruitment and retention. By setting legislative priorities, Comal ISD can focus its efforts on the most important issues and goals. Find more information on these priorities below.

Funding:

1. Escalating costs of goods and services due to rising inflation challenge districts’ ability to provide high-quality education to our state’s over five million students. Funding formulas should be updated and basic allotment increased every legislative session using a nationally recognized third-party economic statistic.
2. The school finance system should be based on student enrollment to create stability and predictability that would sustain school districts even during times of public emergencies.
3. The special education funding formula should be updated to provide adequate fiscal support to fully fund all federally required services.
4. Any plans to divert public tax dollars to private entities by utilizing vouchers, tax credits, taxpayer savings grants, or tuition reimbursements with no academic or financial accountability or transparency to the state, taxpayers, or local communities should be directly opposed.

School Safety

1. The State of Texas, along with public school administrators, should determine the suitable amount of ongoing funding necessary to meet required standards of security, school hardening, and armed officer personnel that every school is now expected to maintain annually.
2. To ensure educators, parents, teachers and students have comprehensive health support and proactive communication, including responding to any incidents that result in behavior management and threat assessments, school districts need dedicated funding to fulfill the health and safety requirements of SB 11 (86 R).
3. Service agreements between community mental health providers and school districts need to be funded and supported by the state. Students should have access to comprehensive multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS) that meet their needs, provide a continuum of care as a student moves between educational settings, and cut down on the time students spend waiting on services.

Accountability

1. In order to prioritize instructional time and reduce high-stakes testing, the State of Texas should replace state testing with a formative universal screening tool and eliminate state testing to only those areas required by ESSA.
2. All educational institutions receiving public funds should be held to equitable and transparent accountability standards.
3. Expand and diversify accountability measures by including a school climate indicator and school quality components that align to community needs and values.

Teacher Recruitment and Retention

1. The State of Texas should guarantee all children have continuous access to high-quality educators. This can be achieved by ensuring that educators’ base salaries increase with inflation and by providing them with affordable healthcare insurance that resembles benefits packages offered to state governmental employees.
2. The State of Texas should remove retirement-related penalties to ensure all students experience reasonable class sizes and experienced teachers.
3. The State of Texas, due to the national teacher shortage, should increase financial support to districts that run alternatively certified teacher placement programs and certification assistance programs to decrease the barriers for potential teachers to successfully begin a career in education.