What's Your Point? - Texas education reform, 'bathroom bill'

Your panelists this week include Bob Price - associate editor for Breitbart Texas, longtime Super Neighborhood leader Tomaro Bell, educator and Chicano activist Tony Diaz, Majic 102.1 Sunday Morning Live radio show host Marcus Davis, political consultant Wayne Dolcefino and Republican strategist Jessica Colon join host Greg Groogan for a lively discussion about the Texas House-approved $1.8 billion education finance bill that does not include a school choice component for special needs students.

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - The Texas House has again approved a sweeping, $1.8 billion plan to begin overhauling the state's troubled school finance system.

Republican Rep. Dan Huberty's proposal increases per-pupil funding while offering extra money for school transportation and educating dyslexic students.

Friday's 130-12 vote mirrored House support during the regular legislative session. The original bill died after the Texas Senate attached a plan offering taxpayer-funded vouchers letting students attend private schools.

It's back for the special session, but still faces Senate uncertainty. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who oversees the Senate, has bashed the plan as a "Ponzi scheme," saying it relies on state budget gimmicks.

Still, Huberty says it's the "first step in fixing school finance."

Full school finance reform is required since Texas' Supreme Court ruled the system minimally constitutional.

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - More than 50 Houston business leaders, including the heads of some of the nation's top oil companies, are opposing a Texas "bathroom bill" targeting transgender people - adding to an already long list of powerful and lucrative firms opposing it.

In a letter to Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday, the leaders wrote that they support "diversity and inclusion" and that "any such bill risks harming Texas' reputation and impacting the state's economic growth." Its signers included executives from Chevron, Shell, ConocoPhillips and ExxonMobil.

Abbott has called state lawmakers into a special legislative session after a bill requiring transgender Texans to use public restrooms corresponding to the gender on their birth certificates failed in May.

Apple, IBM, Facebook, the NFL and scores of other companies have previously opposed the bill.