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Votes at a glance: K-12 Subcommittee advances multiple bills on testing, pay, maintenance of effort and library material protections
Summary
The subcommittee forwarded several bills to full Education with mostly unanimous support. Key votes included measures on merit pay, standardized testing reductions, a study on growth‑area school capacity, maintenance‑of‑effort prioritization, and a library‑materials protection for religious titles.
The K-12 Subcommittee advanced a package of bills to the full Education Committee. These measures received little extended debate in committee and were approved by roll call or voice vote as noted.
Votes at a glance
- House Bill 759 (7‑59), Speaker Marsh — Merit pay flexibility: The bill allows future state funding to be used in a merit pay structure at the discretion of local school boards rather than constrained by current State Board of Education parameters. Committee recorded vote: 8 ayes, 0 noes. Outcome: advanced to full education.
- House Bill 11 35 (11‑35), Chairman Boyd — Align standardized testing with the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA): Sponsor said the bill would peel back testing to match federal requirements while preserving the ACT and career readiness assessments via a recent amendment. Committee recorded vote: 8 ayes, 0 noes. Outcome: advanced to full education.
- House Bill 67 (67), Representative Sparks — Task force / study on school capacity in fast‑growing counties: The bill was amended into a task‑force/study format (drafting code 4237) to explore alternative educational delivery and capacity strategies for rapidly growing counties; committee vote: 7 ayes, 1 no. Outcome: advanced to full education.
- House Bill 348 (3‑48), Chairman Hurd — Maintenance of effort: The amended bill requires that if a local funding body fails to meet the budgeted maintenance‑of‑effort for its LEA, the local body must fully fund education maintenance‑of‑effort before increasing funding for other maintenance obligations. Committee recorded vote: 8 ayes, 0 noes. Outcome: advanced to full education.
- House Bill 1085 (10‑85), Representative Martin — Library materials and religious content: The bill would prohibit an LEA or public charter school from removing library material solely because it is religious in nature. Committee recorded vote: 8 ayes, 0 noes. Outcome: advanced to full education.
Administrative notes: Several measures carried technical amendments that sponsors and legal counsel said would be corrected before the full committee. The subcommittee also rolled several other bills to next week’s calendar or “to the hill” for scheduling.
