Texas Public Policy Foundation
Capitol Watch
📅 Tuesday, October 6, 2026 to Calendar
📄 View Official Agenda
The Texas Senate Committee on Education has a hearing coming up. We reviewed the notice and the attached bill documents and flagged 4 items for the policy team.
WARNING (LEVEL 7)
Interim Charge: Maximizing Instructional Time and 4-day school weeks
📅 2026-10-06
The committee will study the ‘learning loss’ from 4-day school weeks and ‘create guidelines’ for academic schedules. This is a concern because it could lead to new statewide mandates on school calendars, but it is also an opportunity to highlight the importance of instructional time for student achievement and parental convenience.
Recommended Action

Register to testify at the Oct. 6 hearing. Argue against new state mandates while providing research on the negative academic impact of reduced instructional time.

💰 Fiscal Impact: No fiscal note provided
WARNING (LEVEL 7)
Interim Charge: Monitoring implementation of teacher pay increases
📅 2026-10-06
The committee will ‘review teacher pay increases’ from the last decade, including from House Bill 2 (89th Legislature). This is a concern because the discussion may focus only on the need for more across-the-board funding. It creates an opportunity to testify on the importance of tying future raises to performance and student outcomes.
Recommended Action

Register to testify at the Oct. 6 hearing. Provide research on the limited impact of across-the-board raises and advocate for expanding performance-based systems.

💰 Fiscal Impact: No fiscal note provided
✅ Items to Support
Proposals worth testimony or member contact so they advance.
Major Win (LEVEL 9)
Interim Charge: Shifting Enrollment and Right-Sizing school districts
📅 2026-10-06
The committee will examine declining public school enrollment and ‘identify strategies to maximize the efficient use of tax dollars’. This is a significant opportunity to testify that enrollment is shifting due to parents exercising educational freedom through options like the ESA program, and to advocate for funding to follow students and for districts to right-size their operations.
How to Support It

Register to testify at the Oct. 6 hearing. Brief the offices of Chair Campbell and Vice Chair Bettencourt with research on ESA growth and fiscally efficient school district models before the hearing.

✅ Why It Matters: No fiscal note provided
Win (LEVEL 6)
Interim Charge: Improving School Transformation Talent
📅 2026-10-06
The committee will study how to ‘strengthen and expand the current leadership pipeline’ for improving low-performing schools. This is a potential win to advocate for market-based solutions like principal autonomy, merit-based leadership policies, and alternative certification, rather than new state-run training programs.
How to Support It

Submit written testimony for the Oct. 6 hearing. Focus on the success of charter school leadership models and the importance of principal autonomy and flexibility from state mandates.

✅ Why It Matters: No fiscal note provided
Committee
District Website https://senate.texas.gov/cmte.php?c=530
Location Austin, TX, 78701
“Freedom, Prosperity &
Opportunity”
TPPF is a conservative think tank whose mission is to promote and defend liberty, personal responsibility, and free enterprise in Texas and the nation.

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