By Sahar Chmais
In a tougher than normal budget year, State Rep. (D-45) Erin Zwiener has been appointed as the vice chair of the appropriations subcommittee Article 3, handling the education budget for PreK-12 and university students.
This time-consuming position is not her only role – Zwiener is also serving on the Public Health committee. She is the youngest member in both of these positions, potentially bringing in a diverse perspective on student loans that Generation X and older have not experienced. Both positions will come with their own set of challenges, brought forth by the one-year-old pandemic.
“I’m really grateful for this position because we have to prioritize student wellbeing,” Zwiener told the Hays Free Press/News-Dispatch. “We have a lot of work to do to counter the loss from the pandemic and address the school needs. We want to make sure school districts stay whole because of the expenses from COVID.”
Some of Zwiener’s biggest concerns are creating additional education days to make up for lost time and not penalizing districts for lower attendance. In Texas, school districts are funded based on attendance and not on enrollment. COVID-19 has made attendance volatile due to virtual school challenges, people moving because of lost jobs and more, Zwiener explained.
School costs have gone higher and not all of them are reimbursable. A big cost that is not reimbursable is the need for extra substitute teachers. There has been an increased demand for substitute teachers because of COVID-19, but because it is not a reimbursable expense, schools are dipping into their financial reserves, Zwiener said.
The challenge with being on the Article 3 board is that they cannot make new laws.
“I can’t go into the budget document and say we’re going to switch from school funding based on attendance to enrollment,” Zwiener said. “That has to be done by law. What we can do is allocate dollars for things.”
Much of Zwiener’s time is being spent serving on the school budget committee with meetings that sometimes last eight hours. Soon, her focus will have to shift to public health issues when that committee begins to meet.
In this position, she will aid in overseeing medical and healthcare issues in the state. Zwiener said she is excited to serve on this committee, especially in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We have an opportunity to make our infrastructure more robust,” Zwiener said, “and have a strong reaction to be more prepared.”
And of course the job will come with its challenges. Zwiener said one of the biggest challenges the state and legislature have is with COVID-19 response.
Zwiener believes that coming from a family with many connections in the medical world made her medically literate. She has also followed the pandemic closely and continues to publicize COVID-19 information through her social media pages. These attributes are what made her a good candidate for the position, Zwiener said.
“I have notes on how we could have handled COVID better and would like to be part of the conversation as we move forward,” Zwiener said. “I worked really hard to get elected, it would not make a lick of sense to stop working once I’m in the building. I am honored by the opportunity to serve in some of the two hardest committees in the building. I am going to be tired – I am tired.”
