Financing Texas public schools is the issue just about every lawmaker campaigned on.
Now House Bill 2, authored by Rep. Kent Grusendorf, R-Arlington, moved to the House floor for the first time on Tuesday.
Political observers are expecting a heated debate on how Texas should pay for its schools.
HB 2 is the House's only comprehensive education bill on the table right now. House Speaker Tom Craddick has spoken in support of it since it was unveiled a month and a half ago.
But House support may not fall exactly along party lines.
"The education community looking at HB 2 doesn't see anything in it for them. It's not going to repair broken buildings, it's not going to improve their ability to recruit good teaching staff,” political analyst Harvey Kronberg said.
Lawmakers have school administrators, teachers and superintendents in their home districts to keep happy. However, many education groups are united in their opposition to the education bill.
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Education bill
The House is finally taking up the controversial school finance bill.
 
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"If they go back and say ‘Representative X voted against our schools,’ you can spend the next two years trying to defend that," Kronberg said.
HB 2 calls for some items Democrats and Republicans agree to, such as uniform financial reports and end-of-course exams.
"We're not touching most of that and I don't think you'll see a lot of debate about those items," Rep. Scott Hochberg, D-Houston, said.
HB 2 also calls for a uniform start date for all Texas public schools. Under the plan, schools would begin the year on the Tuesday after Labor Day.
Lawmakers say a uniform start date would save the state millions of dollars in electric bills.
Allocating teacher pay raises could be a more divisive issue. HB 2 calls for incentive and reward-based pay.
An amendment Democrats plan to introduce this week would ask for an across-the-board pay raise for teachers.
Another amendment asks for a total of $5 billion in new money for schools. Currently, HB 2 calls for $3 billion in new money.
"Most of these school districts, especially rural Republican school districts, are struggling to make ends meet. That means the swing vote's going to be rural Republicans and the question is going to be, are they going to like the leadership's plan or are they going to like the Democrats' alternative?" Kronberg said.
Lawmakers will consider more than 100 amendments to change HB 2 this week.
So the education bill that comes out of the House later this week might be completely different.
