Lone Star Report Recent Blog Posts

Apr 13

Written by: Mark Lavergne
4/13/2011 1:54 PM 

Sen. Rodney Ellis (D-Houston) today tried to amend the Sunset Scheduling bill SB 652 to place the State Board of Education under the review of the Sunset Commission starting in 2013 and every 12 years thereafter. Although the amendment was ultimately struck down 19-12, it made for one of the more lively discussions of the day.

The amendment was "not about politics," or curriculum standards regarding sex education, or American exceptionalism, Ellis insisted, but rather "about efficiency, transparency and good government." He said that under his amendment the "Sunset Advisory Commission will not review the members … Just the procedures under which they operate can be reviewed."

The Sunset review process already occurs for agencies that have statewide elected officials, including the Texas Department of Agriculture and the Railroad Commission – the latter of which the Senate has recently voted to substantially change.

SBOE's authority over curriculum content is explicitly given to it by the Legislature, Ellis argued. He said it is "absolutely critical" that the Legislature review how those powers are exercised. Only the authority to manage the Permanent School Fund and provide free textbooks to Texas students is afforded to the SBOE under the Texas constitution, he said.

Of course, Republican Senators disagreed.

Senate Education Committee Chair Florence Shapiro (R-Plano) called Ellis' amendment "misplaced" and "absolutely, in my view, disingenuous." Curriculum standards were the issue "even if you say they're not," Shapiro told Ellis on the Senate floor. We don't want to give other elected bodies instruction as to how they are to run their entities, which is part of the constitution.

Shapiro defended the SBOE, saying they are "as open and above board as any of us are." Shapiro said the way to affect how the SBOE operates is "at the ballot box."

Shapiro argued that unlike the Agriculture Commissioner or Railroad Commissioners, SBOE members do not run the agency – the agency being the Texas Education Association. TEA is, she observed, subject to sunset.

Shapiro argued also that Ellis' sunset review of SBOE would look not at what its members do mechanically, but how they do their jobs individually.

Senate Health and Human Services Chair Jane Nelson (R-Lewisville) argued that Ellis' amendment ought to be a stan-alone bill rather than attaching to a Sunset scheduling bill. Ellis said there are stand-alone bills in both chambers that have not gone anywhere, including Ellis' own SB 452.

Sen. Glenn Hegar (R-Katy) said it would be difficult to review the SBOE in 2013 given that the Health and Human Services Commission is up for sunset that year. He also said that the stand-alone House bill is expected to cost the State $115,000, and that kind of money would be best focused on the classroom itself. But when Ellis offered to delay the review for two years, Hegar said that that discussion would be best put off until next session.

Shortly after the Senate tabled Ellis' amendment 19-12, the bill finally passed the Senate. Currently the bill is simply a shell to be filled later on in the process. The idea at this point is to get the bill moving through the process to ensure that no agency is abolished against the intent of the Legislature, which would force a special session like in 2009.

For now, the bill moves the sunset dates of the Interagency Task Force for Children with Special Needs and the Windham School District of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice up from 2015 to 2013. It also postpones the sunset of the Licensed Court Interpreter Advisory Board from 2013 to 2019.