Despite praising the bill's good intentions, the governor called HB 455 "bureaucracy for bureaucracy's sake." Gov. Alma Allen (D-Houston), which would have required the Texas Education Agency (TEA) to develop a model policy on recess that encourages age-appropriate outdoor physical activities. Abbott explained in his veto statement that the bill would have exempted up to 859 school districts, and suggested the legislature draft more targeted legislation in the future. Armando Martinez (D-Weslaco), which would have required charter schools to give students Memorial Day off as school districts are currently required to do, yet the bill exempted districts of innovation (DOI). The governor vetoed House Bill (HB) 109 by Rep. Greg Abbott vetoed three bills that were on ATPE's tracking list. In fact, there were more than 10,000 bills and resolutions filed this session, but only 1,429 House and Senate bills were finally passed. As a reminder, bills that do finally pass the legislature are still subject to review by the governor. However, bills rarely reach the finish line in the same form as they started, while most others don't make it at all. Indeed, this session's legislation included several pro-public education proposals such as a multi-billion dollar school finance and property tax reform bill, efforts to provide an across-the-board teacher pay raise, school safety enhancements, and measures to shore up the Teacher Retirement System (TRS), while mostly avoiding troublesome and divisive topics such as payroll deduction and tactics to privatize education. As the 86th Texas Legislature began its regular session in January 2019, it was dubbed the "session of the teacher" and was marked by abounding promises to fix school finance and provide pay raises to the most important in-school factor contributing to student success: our teachers.
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