In this week's issue I wrote a story on bills that take power from the elected State Board of Education. Due to space, I had to leave a few out. Here are some other key bills that affect the SBOE:
The bill makes elections for the State Board of Education non-partisan.
These are the omnibus accountability bills. Both versions strip authority from the State Board of Education to set the passing standard for state exams and hand that authority to the Commissioner of Eucation
HB 710 subjects the State Board of Education to the Sunset Advisory Commission review process at the same time as the Texas Education Agency. Unlike the agency, the board would not be abolished but its powers could be modified as part of that process. Under the bill, the Sunset Advisory Commission would review the board and its powers.
The Confirmation of State Board of Education Chairman Don McLeroy (R-College Station) was placed on hold by Democrats who don’t like his views on the theory of evolution or his vote for an eventually unsuccessful motion to place both strengths and weaknesses of evolution in the curriculum. At the confirmation, McLeroy was even questioned about a speech he gave at his church. Several senators apparently see his confirmation as a way to take a potshot at a conservative Christian.
If McLeroy is not confirmed, Gov. Rick Perry would have to select another board member.
Analysis: Elected State Board of Education facing unprecedented attacks
Analysis by William Lutz
The elected State Board of Education is popular with grassroots Republicans, especially social conservatives. The state Republican platform strongly supports an elected board with full power over the state’s education system.
But lawmakers – including some Republicans who campaign using socially conservative themes – often attack the board, trying to strip it of influence and power, instead granting that power to the commissioner and bureaucracy at the Texas Education Agency.
The new House leadership has given prominent placement on the calendar to several bills that strip power away from the elected State Board of Education (SBOE).
The board is facing the biggest threat to its influence since 1995. Attacks on it are yet another source of frustration to social conservatives already irked by slow progress on pro-life and pro-family bills under the current leadership.
Here’s a few of the bills that affect the SBOE and their current status. Also included is what the Republican platform says on the topic. The Democratic platform is silent on the SBOE, with the exception of one sentence included below.
HJR 77 by Rep. Donna Howard (D-Austin) (enabling legislation HB 2037)
This constitutional amendment strips the SBOE of the right to manage the Permanent School Fund, an endowment from oil royalties on state lands that pays for textbooks and a per-student allotment for public school districts
This bill is touted by its authors as merely a way to have investment experts manage the giant PSF. But there’s a lot more going on with this bill.
Legislators can free up funds for the budget by raising the payout from the Permanent School Fund, because there is a dollar-for-dollar offset between funds a school district receives from the Available School Fund and a district’s entitlement to tax dollars under the school finance formulas. But such budgetary flexibility comes at a cost – it erodes the purchasing power of the fund for future generations of schoolchildren.
This SBOE has resisted some legislative attempts to increase the payout percentage of the fund. Right now, if two-thirds of the board votes for a rate before the legislative session begins, that’s the payout for that biennium. Under HJR 77, management of the PSF is vested in an investment council, consisting of appointees of the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Speaker, Comptroller, the SBOE, and Commissioner of the General Land Office. The council proposes a rate, which the SBOE can approve by majority vote. But under HJR 77, if a stalemate develops, the setting of the rate would default to the Legislature.
The other issue with this concept is ethics. The enabling legislation contains no prohibitions of investing with major campaign donors or business associates of council members, though it does require the council to adopt an ethics policy.
In passing the bill, the House leadership had to rely on ghost voting. When the initial vote was tallied, a mere 99 House members voted for the constitutional amendment, instead of the required 100. So House Democratic Leader Jim Dunnam (Waco) requested and received a verification, which is normally a roll call vote to determine if everyone who voted was actually on the floor. But several members who were recorded as absent suddenly reappeared on the House floor and claimed their voting machines malfunctioned. They were recorded as yes votes and the measure passed.
Rep. John Smithee (R-Amarillo) went to the back microphone and said he had never seen verification used to add yes votes to a measure.
Using malfunctioning voting machines to “flip” the result of votes on the House floor was one of the critiques that former Speaker Tom Craddick’s (R-Midland) critics made, but the press corps and liberal Republicans seemed much more muted when that tactic was used to take power away from the socially conservative SBOE.
Status: Passed the House April 27. Awaiting committee referral in the Senate.
What the GOP Platform says: “The SBOE must retain constitutional authority over the Permanent School Fund.”
HB 4294 by Rep. Dan Branch (R-Dallas)
This bill allows school districts to select electronic textbooks, in lieu of printed books. For the first time ever, it allows the appointed Commissioner of Education, not the elected board, to prepare an approved list of electronic instructional materials. But the bill also requires every school district to keep a classroom set of state board-approved instructional materials.
Branch said his bill is not an attack on the elected State Board of Education. “We put a safety valve in there for the State Board,” he said. “Compared to some other bills this actually protects the State Board … I’m happy to keep them [SBOE members] involved in the curriculum process to the extent they are currently involved.”
Branch said his bill is designed to give flexibility to school districts to choose electronic methods of content delivery. “We need to move educational curriculum and content into the 21st Century. That’s what this bill does.”
The issue of electronic textbooks and whether they positively affect student performance is debated vigorously within education circles. This bill is heavily lobbied, with computer companies pushing the bill.
Current law allows for the state to purchase CD-Roms and other electronic versions of SBOE-approved books but does not allow the use of state textbook fund dollars to pay for computer hardware, which HB 4294 would explicitly allow.
In 2005, former Rep. Kent Grusendorf (R-Arlington) tried to push HB 4 to encourage electronic textbooks. The Grusendorf bill died in the Senate. That bill mandated that a portion of a school district’s expenditure on instructional materials must go toward technology. The Branch bill does not contain such a mandate but gives local districts complete choice between electronic and hard-copy books.
Status: Set on the House calendar for Sat. May 2.
What the GOP Platform says: “The SBOE must have sole authority over textbook content and state adoption, and this process must include public hearings. We urge the Legislature to give the State Board of Education authority to establish textbook adoption standards. We oppose the replacement of textbooks by laptops.”
SB 2275 by Sen. Kel Seliger (R-Amarillo)
This would remove all authority over textbooks and the curriculum from the elected State Board of Education and give it to the appointed Cmmissioner of Education.
Status: Hearing held. Pending before the Senate Education Committee.
What the GOP Platform says: “We support an elected State Board of Education (SBOE) with authority over the Texas Education Agency, selection and termination of the Commissioner of Education, and textbook adoption.”
What the Democratic Platform says: “stop extremists from controlling or censoring curriculum and textbooks” (the plank does not directly refer to the SBOE, but that is the body currently with purview over those areas). O