Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

AUSTIN - Fast-growing El Paso ISD is hoping that Sen. Frank Madla, D-San Antonio, who represents part of their area, will follow the lead of other border lawmakers in opposing House Bill 2.

EPISD Legislative Liaison Luis Villalobos said he was encouraged by comments he read by Sen. Eddie Lucio, D-Brownsville, about a strategy to block school finance legislation if the needs of border school districts were not met.

Villalobos said his district and others in El Paso usually looked to Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso, to defend their corner in school finance negotiations. However, Villalobos said he agreed with Lucio's analysis, given to Cameron and Willacy county school superintendents last Friday, that Lucio, Madla and Sen. Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa, D-McAllen, could play a pivotal role in what school finance plan, if any, emerges from the second special session.

"If the Senate is trying to get closer to the House version on school finance, then we are in trouble," Villalobos told the Guardian Monday. "We are in 100 percent agreement with Senator Shapleigh's position on school finance, as well as that of other border school districts and that of Senator Lucio."

Villalobos said there was no question that House Bill 2 does not benefit EPID. He said the bill cut compensatory education funding, gave school districts a block grant on bilingual education, and put scant resources into facilities funding.

"We hope that our discussions with Senator Shapleigh reach Senator Madla's ears," Villalobos said. "If he is not aware of the consequences HB 2 will have on EPISD, we have a serious gap in communications."

Madla could not be reached for comment at press time Monday.

At a meeting with some of his school superintendents in San Benito Friday, Lucio explained why he, Madla and Hinojosa could play a key role in negotiations with House and Senate leaders.

Lucio said the three border senators could join eight other Senate Democrats to block any school finance legislation from reaching the Senate floor. The price for allowing the Senate Bill 2 to reach the floor, Lucio said, would be a firm commitment that Senate conferees would not 'roll over' when negotiating with their House counterparts.

On Monday, Lucio said he wanted the Senate's two-thirds rule, which only applies to Senate bills awaiting floor debate, to apply to the conference committee substitute.

The two-thirds rule means a bill cannot be heard on the Senate floor without the agreement of two-thirds of the 31-member body. The rule gives minority Democrats some influence in shaping legislative policy. If the two-thirds rule applied to the conference committee report, Lucio said, it would ensure that significant parts of the Senate version of the school finance bill were kept in the conference committee report. In the first special session, the House version dominated.

Also Monday, Lucio had a lively exchange with Sen. Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, Senate Education Committee chair and author of SB 2, on the Senate floor. Shapiro said she wanted her bill to more closely resemble that backed by the House leadership. The House version is a replica of the conference committee report produced in the first special session. Lucio responded that his school superintendents were strongly opposed to that report.

Villalobos said that as with Valley school districts, EPISD favored the Senate version.

"The Senate has always had a more favorable position with respect to EPISD and all school districts along the border that have high numbers of socio-economically disadvantaged students and high numbers of Limited English Proficient students," Villalobos said.

"We also have a high number of students that are recent immigrants. These students are not supported in House Bill 2. The bill does not provide the resources for these school districts that have unique populations with unique challenges."

Villalobos said EPISD's consultants in Austin were telling the district that wealthy districts were much more favorably treated than property poor districts under HB 2. "That is not a definition of equality, rather it's a dysfunctional definition of equality in Texas," Villalobos said.

Villalobos said he agreed with comments made by South Texas Association of Schools spokesman Martin Peña and Brownsville ISD Superintendent Zolkoski at the meeting with Lucio.

The school officials explained that un-funded mandates contained in HB 2 more than outweighed a three-percent increase in funding. Peña calculated that Brownsville ISD and Harlingen ISD would lose more than $1 million as a result. "We think El Paso ISD will get less also," Villalobos said.

Villalobos praised the way Shapleigh had educated and united El Paso area school districts on the subject of school finance legislation.

"Senator Shapleigh has done a great job, a yeoman's task," Villalobos said. "We are in agreement with nearly all his proposals. He has unified the districts and gone the extra mile in tying us all together with districts in the Valley and other school districts across Texas."