AUSTIN, Texas — Texas House lawmakers are considering bills to make it easier for schools to increase elementary school class sizes and streamline firing teachers to ease budget strains.

Those ideas were considered during the regular session but did not pass. They have resurfaced in the special session that convened this week.

School districts say they need flexibility to deal with the unknowns of what their budgets will be under pending cuts and changes in school funding formulas.

One of the bills before the House Education Committee Friday allows larger classes in kindergarten through fourth grade. The current limit is 22 students and has been state law for nearly 30 years.

Lawmakers are considering plans to raise the limit to 25 or allow districts to average 22 students per class in those grades.