All,

We are sorry to have to come back to you so quickly with BAD NEWS.
 
While HB 3 was amended, through clever wording,they  changed a critical wording – from “shall” to “may”, which dramatically changes the implementation of the bill.

H3 will eventually cause drastically increased tuitions, greatly reduced available spaces, thousands of lost jobs and the bankruptcy of hundreds of small businesses.

It appears that our legislators either don't believe us when we warn them of these effects, or that they don't care. Each of you will need to judge your Representative and Senator in this regard.
 
I don't see any possibility of changing the bill through the rest of the process but will continue to monitor for opportunities.

Since the amendment has been adopted into the bill going into conference, it cannot be changed. Therefore, it is critical that we influence the writers of the rules to implement this bill, most likely TEA. So we need to find the influencers inside the TEA and start making those connections. Otherwise our efforts thus far would have been fruitless.

We should take advantage of the next 2 years to plan, grow our numbers and influence with the goal of being included in delivery of state funded prekindergarten in the next Legislative Session in 2021.

Thanks again for your hard work.