State Rep. Diego Bernal, a Democrat from San Antonio, listened to school leaders in all 55 schools in his District 123.
READ: Diego Bernal's listening tour report
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The former San Antonio city councilman, now holding two public hearings based on his findings in his report titled, “What They Said,” said he has narrowed down the three specific bills he thinks he could successfully carry or advocate directly or indirectly. Bernal and his staff emphasize that there are many more pressing issues facing the state and they will focus on those matters as well.
They are:
The one issue he's especially hopeful will receive bipartisan support is based on the widespread amount of hungry children at school. He said he will help connect hungry students with the extra food from their cafeterias. It won’t take any extra money, but Bernal said it will untie the hands of districts that are currently required to throw away good, edible food. If his bill is passed, schools would then be able to take good unopened food and give it to students to eat at home.
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Bernal wants to sponsor, co-author or advocate for this issue that would place more social support staff in schools. In his report, Bernal wrote that sometimes, life gets in the way. That’s true even for students. Once those issues are resolved, more learning can take place. This particular bill would require funding. If there is no money in the education budget, then Bernal said lawmakers could prioritize the issue and find money elsewhere. Otherwise, if lawmakers passed a bill and required schools to put more support staff in their schools and did not provide a way to pay for it, it would become what’s called an unfunded mandate.
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Special education accountability
What Bernal found in schools in his district was that special needs students get tested multiple times before it's determined if they are held back or continue to the next grade level. While that's not mandated by the state, Bernal wants to change the practice. He would like to carry or help another lawmaker bring a bill to the House floor to give special needs students progress based on their growth for the year, instead of a test score.
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Other bills that Bernal would be interested in sponsoring include tracking and responding to teacher turnover, and increasing state funding for homeless students.