Brian Lopez | The Texas Tribune

Policy experts worry students will fall short of the state's future workforce needs. Educators hope the new curriculum will help them.

Senate Bill 5 would send an extra $800 million to public schools for security upgrades over the next two years. But the measure is at risk of becoming the latest casualty of the rift between the Texas House and Senate.

School officials in San Antonio announced earlier this week that they are looking at closing about 20% of their campuses while Plano school officials are starting those discussions.

Lawmakers this year didn’t approve extra money to help schools pay for raises despite having an unprecedented $32 billion surplus — even after Gov. Greg Abbott commissioned a task force last year to improve teacher pay and retention.

Phelan announced the formation of a House committee that could set the tone in favor of vouchers ahead of an expected special session on education. The move comes weeks after Abbott sided with Phelan on a plan to lower property taxes.

Texas senators have latched education savings accounts to a school funding bill in a last-ditch effort to avoid a special session. But some House members are furious at the revamped version and have vowed not to let it become law.

Abbott says if a school voucher bill isn’t expanded to include more students, a special legislative session will be the result.

Other legislation this session has targeted school library books, which are optional reading materials, but House Bill 1804 might be the first to go after textbooks that teachers use for their lessons.

More than 380 supporters and opponents signed up Wednesday to testify on the proposal, which would allow parents to use state funds to send their children to private schools.

The Texas Education Agency announced on March 15 that it would replace the current superintendent and its democratically elected school board with a new board of managers as soon as June 1.

The incident comes as lawmakers debate how to make schools safer after the Uvalde massacre and favor measures like arming more educators.

This comes two days after Gov. Greg Abbott voiced his most explicit support yet of a new school choice policy at a Parent Empowerment Night event in Corpus Christi.