HB 2 - A Road map to Results
                   More, Not Less

More Money, More Equity

• HB2 proposes more money and more equity than ever before without
  raising Texans’ net tax burden one cent.
  

• HB2 provides $3 billion in new money for schools, which equates to
  roughly $15,000 per classroom for the biennium on top of enrollment
  growth.
  

• Texas school districts will realize an average increase of 5 percent in per
  pupil funding and no school district will receive less than 3 percent.
  

• HB2 increases the state share of funding from 38 percent to 60 percent.
  

• This $3 billion commitment is in addition to the $7 billion the Texas
  Legislature has put into education since 1999.
  

• HB2 increases funding for technology and textbooks to $150 per
  student.
  

• HB2 requires districts to dedicate to teacher compensation at least 50%
  of new money distributed by the bill.
  

• Under HB2, 96 percent of all Texas students will be in an equalized
  system. Today only 81 percent of students are in an equalized system.
  

• Under HB2, an additional 600,000 students will attend schools with
  equalized funding.
  

• Under HB2, the state share goes up and local costs go down.  Overall
  funding goes up and the number of children left out of the equalized
  system goes down.  Bilingual funding goes up… The technology
  allotment goes up… Salaries for our best and brightest teachers go up.  
  And the only thing left to go down is the status quo.
  

More Taxpayer Protection

• HB2 allows local districts to seek additional funding for enrichment, but
  requires a vote of the people every time a school district seeks a tax
  increase.
  

• Instead of being on the receiving end of tax hikes, HB2 will give
  taxpayers the power to decide their taxpaying fate.
  

• Taxpayers should be the ultimate arbiters of what is right for their local
  schools.  HB2 will let them decide the wisdom of enrichment increases,
  which will require schools to justify additional expenditures to the public.
  

• HB2 moves school board elections from May to November.  Texans
  should elect school board members during high turnout elections so
  more Texans get to decide how their schools will be run.
  

More Transparency, More Accountability

• Texans not only want more money for education, they want more
  education for their money.
  

• School expenditures should be fully disclosed in clear terminology, not
  bureaucratic code, so local taxpayers can know where their education
  dollars are going.
  

• Today, 89 percent of districts receive the highest rating under our
  financial accountability system.  But 89 percent of districts do not receive
  the highest academic rating.
  

• HB2 will require campus-based reporting in addition to district-wide
  reporting.  Parents deserve to know if the school they send their child to
  receives less money per child then a school serving the same grade
  levels within the same district.
  

• We will not tolerate schools that fail our children and refuse to
  change…Under HB2 we will shut them down, and re-open them with
  new leadership.    
  

More Productivity, More Ready for College, More Money for
our Best Teachers

• HB2 will help keep our best and brightest teachers in the classroom with
  performance pay designed by local school leaders and local teachers.
  

• HB2 will also create a statewide incentive fund to reward teachers who
  help close the achievement gap for students who come from
  economically disadvantaged families.
  

• HB2 will expand the ranks of excellent teachers with additional
  investments in teacher mentoring.
  

• HB2 requires schools to report on the number of students that meet high
  performance indicators, and assigns an exemplary rating only to those
  schools that succeed on these indicators.
  

• Under HB2, the state will pay the fee for students to take college
  entrance exams. A four-year college may not be the destination for every
  student, but every student should be prepared as if it is.
  

• HB2 will establish high school end-of-course exams in core subject
  areas so that students will be tested not years after they take the course,
  but when the content is fresh.
  

• HB2 requires TEA to create an on-line clearinghouse of best practices in
  the classroom.
  

• HB2 leverages our investment in technology with on-line testing.  State
  tests will be administered online by 2006.
  

• HB2 encourages cost savings by encouraging districts to opt for shared
  services and cooperatives to reduce administrative costs.
  

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