Austin, TX

This past week the Texas House of Representatives tackled critical House Bills, such as House Bill 5 regarding public education reform and House Bill 4 relating to plans for financing water management strategies. House Bill 5 addressed long time concerns of excessive high-stakes testing and focused on improving students curriculum to allow for more flexibility for students when choosing what classes they want to take in high school. House Bill 5 would eliminate the requirement that End of Course exams count as 15% of a student's grade and instead leave it to the discretion of that particular school district to decide how an End of Course exam should affect a student's final grade. The bill also revamped the Minimum, Recommended, and Advanced programs and replaced it with the Foundation Program and the Distinguished level of the Foundation program. Under the Foundation Program and Distinguished level, all students would be eligible to apply for a Texas public four-year university, as opposed to under the current law, where students under the Minimum program are not eligible to apply to a state public four-year university. "Public education is one of the most important issues facing this State," states Nevárez. "It is critical that we stop over-testing our children and allow our teachers the flexibility to spend more time teaching and less time testing." Representative Nevárez also helped pass a significant piece of legislation Wednesday that would use $2 billion to start funding water projects in the state. House Bill 4 would create a water bank that would offer loans for projects like new water reservoirs, pipelines and conservation projects contributing to an ongoing fight with the drought. The bill requires prioritization of the state projects where regionalization will be a key factor of the process bringing the West Texas region into high consideration. "Water conservation is a necessity in this State because of the cards Mother Nature has dealt us," Nevárez states. "I am happy that the West Texas region will be strongly considered during the prioritization process because that is a portion of the state that has been hit hard by the drought and I am honored I could contribute to pass this bill." Nevárez faces another important piece of legislation next week when the Texas House takes on Senate Bill 1, which includes the state's appropriations. This bill includes both Sul Ross State University at Alpine and Rio Grande campus' funding.

Representative Poncho Nevárez is currently serving his first term in the Texas House of Representatives. He represents District 74. He also serves on the House Culture Recreation and Tourism, International Trade & Intergovernmental Affairs and Rules and Resolutions Committees.