HB 400 misses House deadline, dies but…

House Bill 400, the bill that would have increased class sizes, cut teachers salaries and weakened teacher employment rights, failed to win House approval before a midnight Thursday deadline. Public Education Chairman Rob Eissler, the sponsor, was recognized for a motion on the bill at mid-afternoon. He moved to postpone it to 6 p.m. and never was recognized to bring it up again. Thanks to all our TSTA members and other friends for all your calls to your state representatives urging votes against the bill. Your calls obviously were a factor in stopping the bill. But there are 18 more days in the legislative session, and all or most of the features of HB400 could be resurrected as amendments to other legislation in the Senate. We will keep you posted on future developments, and you may soon need to start calling the Capitol again.