Texas Lawmaker Who Almost Quit After Failed School Overhaul Bill Back With Transformative Plan

AUSTIN -- In 2017, Dan Huberty thought he was done with the Texas Legislature.He became a state representative in 2011 with the goal of fixing the broken system that educates the state’s 5.5 million students. But politics got in the way, and the Legislature faltered on a bill that would have given a modest boost of much-needed money to Texas schools. It wouldn’t have fixed everything, Huberty acknowledges, but it would have been an encouraging start.“It was awful,” Huberty, R-Humble, said in an interview with The Dallas Morning News. “Think about taking four to six years worth of work that you’ve done. You focus entirely on trying to get this done, and it ends up getting flushed down the toilet.”Despite the frustrating setback, Huberty returned. And now he is on the precipice of passing what education leaders consider to be the most transformative piece of school legislation for Texas in recent history.Huberty’s bill pumps billions of new dollars into public schools, boosts the salary of all teachers and staff members, lowers property taxes, and redirects money toward vulnerable students in an effort to improve student achievement.  Continue reading...