State rep. John Garza pushing bill to reduce teachers' paperwork by 50 %

P.A System: Attention teachers, all forms are due immediately, immediately!

AUSTIN - State Rep. John V. Garza (San Antonio) today will lay out the “Teacher Paperwork Reduction Act of 2011” before the Government Efficiency & Reform Committee of the Texas House of Representatives.

“Teachers are presently overburdened with paperwork to such a degree that it negatively impacts their ability to teach. While there are legitimate purposes for record keeping, state and federal mandates on teachers have grown too large,” said Garza.

H.B. 1423 establishes a mandate to cut teacher paperwork by 50% and requires the commissioner of education to develop a plan to do so. Reductions will be achieved through consolidated forms, elimination of unnecessary or redundant information gathering, reduction in the frequency of periodic reporting, synchronizing district, state and federal data and the use of technology.

“We need to maximize the time teachers have to teach and leave the paperwork to the bare necessities. Every minute of time we save Texas teachers can be used for classroom instruction and preparation,” said Garza.