Austin Community College District (ACC) played a crucial role in passing education legislation during the 89th Texas Legislative Session, including Senate Bill (SB) 1191, which passed both houses and is awaiting the governor’s signature. Its journey was mostly smooth sailing—until it wasn’t, and ACC had to pull out all the stops to get it through the Texas Legislature.
Dr. Chris Cervini, ACC Vice Chancellor of Community and Government Affairs, and Cassie Fitzgerald, Director of Government Affairs, Elections & Voter Registration, shared the play-by-play on what it took to keep the legislation alive.
“I have worked in and around the Texas Legislature for over 10 years,” says Fitzgerald. “I have never seen—or know anyone else who has seen—this kind of turnaround on a bill. It has to be some kind of record.”
SB 1191 Gets a Smooth Start
SB 1191 requires school districts to give grades earned in dual credit courses the same GPA boost as other forms of advanced academics. ACC’s College & High School Relations Associate Vice Chancellor, Mison Yun (formerly Zuniga), and High School Enrollment and Partnerships Manager, Zach Denton, both testified on the bill before the Senate Committee on Education K-16 in March.
After hearing Yun’s and Denton’s testimony, the Senate committee passed the bill unanimously on April 16.
The bill didn’t get a hearing on the House side until May 13. Yun returned to the Capitol to provide expert testimony on the impacts of unequal methodologies for GPA calculation on dual credit enrollment and achievement. The House Committee on Public Education unanimously approved the bill.
From there, the bill went to the House Committee on Calendars, a House body tasked with prioritizing bills for consideration on the House floor. When a bill gets to the floor, it must pass twice, known as “second reading” and “third reading.”
House members got to SB 1191 on May 26 around 12:30 a.m., less than 24 hours before the deadline for the House to take up Senate bills on second reading. It passed second reading on a voice vote (meaning votes were not counted individually and passage was instead based on the vocal response of the full body) as members hurried to get through as much of the May 26 calendar as possible.
Things Start to Go Downhill
SB 1191 was set for third reading the following day and was taken up just after noon on May 27. With more time available for debate, several questions came up about the bill’s inclusion of career and technical coursework and the potential impact of putting GPA weights for automotive and welding classes on par with AP Biology and other academically rigorous courses.
As questions continued to be raised about the bill, a record vote was requested, and SB 1191 failed by a vote of 50-84 on third reading.
“We were shocked by the bill’s sudden and unexpected failure, especially after so much work went into trying to pass this legislation. Once a bill dies, especially by such a wide margin, salvaging it is almost impossible,” says Cervini.
There is one mechanism that can revive a bill—a “motion to reconsider.” It is rare and usually only happens when a bill fails by just a few votes, not 34, but Cervini and Fitzgerald were not going to give up.
A Concerted Effort
They got the list of the 84 “no” votes and enlisted the entire community college coalition at the Capitol to help revive the bill and clear up misconceptions about it.
They went office to office seeking to flip every “no” to a “yes,” clarifying for the representatives that the bill’s intent was to level the playing field for dual-credit classes that are equally rigorous and meet the same, if not higher, standards as other forms of advanced academics.
“I called several community college chancellors and presidents to ask them to encourage their representatives in the House to help ensure that all college credit course options are valued equally in GPA calculations. Cassie worked with Texas Association of Community Colleges (TACC) staff to develop new SB 1191 explainers that specifically addressed previous confusion on the House floor and was in the Capitol working the “no” list until late into the night,” says Cervini.
On May 28, knowing that there were only a few hours left for a motion to reconsider to be made, Fitzgerald continued visiting members’ offices as Cervini worked with community college colleagues on an amendment to address concerns about giving CTE courses a GPA boost by excluding courses in the Workforce Education Course Manual (WECM) from SB 1191 requirements.
Cervini and Fitzgerald also developed friendly questions for supportive members to help the rest of the body understand the bill’s focus on parity for advanced academics during debate, should the motion to reconsider be successful.
With the help of countless other staffers and stakeholders, the coalition was ultimately able to build a groundswell of support behind SB 1191. The motion to reconsider the bill was made just before 1 p.m. on May 28. With the addition of the new amendment sharpening its focus on academic coursework, the bill passed 137-3. The legislature adjourned Sine Die on June 2.
In just over 24 hours, ACC’s team and allies turned more than 80 opponents into supporters.
“I had my doubts we could do it. Even as I was working on the amendment, I was thinking, ‘what are we doing, we can’t possibly turn this thing around, ’” says Cervini. “Boy, was I wrong. Beyond the hard work it took to revive this bill, this was proof of two things: One, community colleges and ACC have built up a lot of goodwill and trust at the Capitol; and two, community colleges never say die!”
The bill now goes to the governor, who has until June 22 to sign or veto the bill.