On the Senator’s desk....
Senator Eliot Shapleigh has been named to the Conference Committee on SB 6, which is the bill that reforms and improves APS and CPS. The conference committee is needed because the Senate version and the House version have significant differences. The Senate version is critical to the safety and well-being of Texas children. The CPPP has just released an analysis of the bills.

Chamber echoes...
The Senate is getting ready to release and debate its version of the school finance bill. The Senate bill has a sales tax increase of half a cent on the dollar, compared with the full cent approved by the House. The Senate plan may increase alcohol taxes, which the House didn't do. The bill is still being finalized so expect more changes.

Among those who visited Austin this week ...
Jeff Bacher from the Nolan rehabilitation Center, and other El Pasoans in Austin were Larry Schneider, Bertha Orona and Melanie Posey.

In Committee this week... Senator Eliot Shapleigh’s SB 426 was approved in committee this week and sent to the local and uncontested calendar. The bill would better use schools to address the issue of obesity and to improve the health and productivity of school-age children. It requires TEA to collect best practices and develop incentives to provide access to school camp uses after regular school hours and allows comp-ed funding to be used for transportation. It also creates a Texas Fruit and Vegetable Pilot Project to provide free snacks for students throughout the school day in Tarrant County and another district to be determined in the lower Rio Grande Valley.

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