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November 20, 2009
Investment firm ousted over SBOE gift dislosures
The real estate investment firm entangled in a dispute with State Board of Education members Rick Agosto and Rene Nunez over gift disclosures got the heave-ho from the board on Friday.
AEW Capital Management LP had qualified as one of the 68 firms that could be tapped for making future real estate investments for the $22 billion Permanent School Fund.
But on Friday, the board plucked AEW from the list and approved only 67 eligible firms.
“As a public fund, we needed someone who could be a little bit more accurate,” said Board Member David Bradley, chairman of the Permanent School Fund committee.
“At a minimum, it was sloppy,” Bradley said. “At the worst, it was intentional.”
Disclosure forms submitted as part of AEW’s application indicated the firm had given gifts to Agosto and Nunez gifts, including football tickets, golf games and meals. Agosto and Nunez disputed that they had received the gifts; AEW subsequently amended its gift report.
Several board members abstained from the AEW vote, including Geraldine Miller. Her family’s company, Henry S. Miller Realty Services LLC, has a direct business relationship with AEW, according to a document submitted to the Texas Education Agency.
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November 18, 2009
Frustration over dearth of Latinos in social studies standards
State Rep. Norma Chavez, D-El Paso, ticked off the number of Latino historical figures who will be required learning under the new social studies curriculum standards.
In kindergarten: none. In grade 1: none. In U.S. government: none.
“You are truly not looking at the entire history of this state and accurately reflecting individuals who should be included,” Chavez told the State Board of Education. “Your government section has none, as if we don’t exist.”
In total, there are only 16 Latinos among the more than 160 historical figures who must be taught, she said, yet Latinos represent over 40 percent of the state’s population.
“This is no longer just about Cesar Chavez. This is about an entire community,” Norma Chavez said.
But Board Member Pat Hardy, a former social studies teacher herself, said aiming for a certain number of Latinos in the standards to mirror the size of the population would be arbitrary and not necessarily historically accurate.
“I contend that that is revisionist,” Hardy said.
Chavez retorted that the historical revisionism is on the other side by “neglecting the true reflection of our great state.”
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November 17, 2009
Bradley calls SBOE gift reports "grossly inaccurate"
The sting of the criticism has yet to subside for two State Board of Education members who say they were unfairly slapped by media reports in October that they received gifts from a firm vying for Permanent School Fund work.
The lingering effects were evident Tuesday when the committee that oversees the school fund approved a pool of 68 qualified real estate investment managers, including the firm that claimed it provided gifts of meals, football tickets, golf games and more to Rick Agosto, D-San Antonio, and Rene Nunez, D-El Paso.
Committee Chairman David Bradley, R-Beaumont, said the gift reports from AEW Capital Management were “grossly inaccurate” and he offered an apology to Agosto and Nunez because the disclosure had cast them in a bad light.
“We can’t fix stupid,” Bradley said.
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November 5, 2009
Agosto will not run again for SBOE
State Board of Education member Rick Agosto will not seek re-election next year, he said.
Trinity University literature professor Michael Soto, 39, announced Thursday that he will seek the Democratic Party nomination for District 3, which stretches from San Antonio south to the border.
And several top Democratic Party leaders from San Antonio, including state Sen. Leticia Van de Putte and former State Board of Education member Joe Bernal, are backing Soto.
Agosto, who was first elected in 2006, said he needs to spend more time with his family and investment business.
“I’ve enjoyed my time there,” but being a state board member basically can be a full-time job, Agosto said.
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November 2, 2009
Long history between lawyer, State Board members
When State Board of Education Member David Bradley had a legal question about investing the Permanent School Fund, his first stop was not the lawyer hired by the board to answer such inquiries. It was Austin lawyer Kevin O’Hanlon.
A former general counsel for the Texas Education Agency, O’Hanlon was asked by Bradley to explore the idea of investing a small portion of the $22 billion public school endowment in charter school facilities, the Statesman reported Monday.
O’Hanlon has represented charter schools, including American YouthWorks in Austin, and his involvement in this issue stems from his strong personal and professional ties to several board members, including Bradley, Rene Nunez and Rick Agosto. All three serve on the Permanent School Fund committee.
On the charter school issue, O’Hanlon’s involvement started well over a year ago with a presentation promoting the idea to a State Board committee in July 2008, according to the meeting’s minutes.
At the same time, O’Hanlon was part of a team of lawyers bidding for a Permanent School Fund contract to pursue securities litigation, records show. A board rule prohibiting contact between board members and bidders would have been in effect since the bid was submitted in May. The prohibition continued through this August when the bid process was ended without a hiring decision.
Bradley said he asked O’Hanlon to make the presentation and did not discuss the securities litigation job.
The relationship with board members extends beyond State Board business.
O’Hanlon has has provided legal services to Bradley, R-Beaumont, Agosto, D-San Antonio and Mary Helen Berlanga, D-Corpus Christi, according to disclosure forms filed as part of the bid. Nunez, D-El Paso, has been a friend for a long time, O’Hanlon said.
His law firm also paid a $300 treasurer filing fee for Agosto in 2005 and O’Hanlon gave the candidate another $1,500 that same year, campaign finance records show.
Agosto said O’Hanlon’s firm represented his company, Aureus Partners, but no longer has a business relationship with him. They met when O’Hanlon was a lobbyist for Agosto’s employer, Fortis Investments, which was a money manager for the Permanent School Fund several years ago.
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October 23, 2009
Texas' School Fund returning to health
The state’s Permanent School Fund, now at nearly $22 billion, is up almost 40 percent from its low-point last spring and finished the 2009 fiscal year in good enough shape to produce a little bit of money for public education this year.
Legislators wrote the 2010-11 budget assuming there would be no money available from the public school endowment given the fund’s steep slide in 2008.
That meant that more than $1 billion had to be found elsewhere to pay for textbooks and other education spending. Some of the $3.2 billion in federal stimulus money was used to close that hole.
Now, there is almost $58 million that could free up money elsewhere in the state budget, assuming the State Board of Education approves the disbursement.
That amount is a relative pittance compared to the $577 million that would have gone to the state’s education budget in 2010 if the tanking economy had not wreaked havoc on the fund.
But the availability of any money for 2010 is an auspicious sign that the fund might be healthy enough next year to perhaps spin off the full amount or more.
“For all the clutter that has been going on, no one can say we haven’t been doing a good job,” said David Bradley, chairman of the State Board of Education committee that oversees the fund.
As of the end of August, the fund’s annual return was -8.56 percent, which was a respectable performance given the ugly economic environment. The Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index was down 18.16 percent return over the same period.
A month later, the fund is now up 2.55 percent for the year.
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October 16, 2009
Ethics revision underway at State Board of Education
The barrage of negative headlines about the State Board of Education’s oversight of the $19.5 billion Permanent School Fund was fresh in the minds of the board members who set out on Friday to tweak the board’s ethics policy.
They said they want to streamline disclosure rules and establish a process for the board to address potential ethical concerns when they surface.
“I’m just trying to eliminate the confusion and the gotchas,” said David Bradley, R-Beaumont, chairman of the board’s Permanent School Fund committee.
Board Chairwoman Gail Lowe, R-Lampasas, said it will be important for the revised policy to not only address clear conflicts of interest but also the potential for and appearance of conflicts.
The full board will discuss the policy changes in November and take an initial vote in January.
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September 17, 2009
Board members want to save Christmas, Chavez in social studies curriculum
The State Board of Education sought to quiet some controversies on Thursday as the state’s social studies curriculum standards for public schools undergo revision.
Board members made clear that they would not embrace some politically unpalatable recommendations, such as no longer explicitly listing Christmas and Cesar Chavez in the standards.
Both recommendations had prompted public outcries even though the changes never meant the subjects would not be taught in Texas classrooms.
The board members, who are scheduled to adopt the standards in March, set out to leave their imprint on the framework for the next generation of textbooks and lessons in history, government, economics and geography.
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September 11, 2009
No "war on Christmas" in social studies curriculum
The conservative Free Market Foundation warned on Friday that a “war on Christmas” has been declared in Texas’ social studies curriculum standards that are undergoing revision.
“Christmas out, Diwali in for Texas Social Studies,” reads a blog headline posted Friday, referring to a change made in the first draft of the new standards that adds the Hindu celebration of Diwali to a study of significant religious holidays while removing Christmas.
But the group’s call to arms ignores that the sixth-grade curriculum in question is about contemporary world cultures. And the curriculum-writers were trying to add some balance among five major world religions: Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism and Hinduism.
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September 10, 2009
Social studies fight ready to heat up again
The next round in the State Board of Education battle over the social studies curriculum standards is about to begin.
Next Thursday, the board-appointed expert reviewers are scheduled to testify before the board about the standards written this summer by groups of educators and interested community members. The reviewers’ suggestions for changes are now available online.
Some of those same experts touched off a firestorm in July with their first round of recommendations for what Texas students should learn about history, politics, economics and civics.
To help monitor this process, a history professor at the University of Texas at El Paso has launched a Web site to help the public easily follow the ins-and-outs of the board’s decision-making.
Keith Erekson, the director of the Center for History Teaching and Learning at UTEP, said the implications of the board’s decisions are far-reaching. He would like the site to help people understand the process and how they might participate.
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August 5, 2009
McLeroy swats back criticism on social studies
State Board of Education member Don McLeroy was clearly unswayed by a letter from the American Humanist Association last week criticizing the ongoing rewrite of social studies curriculum standards.
He offered this one line answer in an e-mail to the association: “Here are some reasons I disagree with your statement.”
Then McLeroy attached an essay he wrote entitled “The Gift of Medieval Christendom to the World” and a YouTube video of his July appearance on Fox News discussing, as the caption reads, “how much faith belongs in U.S. History.”
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July 30, 2009
State Board advised to keep religion out of social studies
A special disdain seems to drip from the lips of some members of the State Board of Education when they utter the words “secular humanist,” so the letter and petition sent to the board Thursday from the American Humanist Association is not likely to be warmly embraced.
But that didn’t stop the association, which promotes an ethical philosophy free of theism, from offering their two-cents in the ongoing social studies curriculum battle.
The letter encourages the board members not to craft social studies curriculum standards that would “present the United States as having biblical foundations and would minimize our nation’s strong tradition of separation of church and state.”
Three board-appointed reviewers recommended that the state’s social studies curriculum focus more on the role of the Bible and religion on the founding of the country.
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July 24, 2009
UPDATED: Texas' $3.2 billion education stimulus plan OK'd
The U.S. Department of Education has approved Texas’ application for using $3.2 billion in federal stimulus money, Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin, said.
That money will be used to pay for textbooks and a $1.9 billion increase in school funding, which covers an $800 raise for all Texas teachers.
There had been concerns that the Texas application might not win federal approval.
Congressional Democrats had complained loudly that Texas misused its stimulus money by filling the state’s budget holes with the federal dollars while leaving untouched the $9.1 billion rainy day fund.
“While I am pleased that our hardworking Texas teachers are each assured a well-deserved raise, we could and should have done much better by our local public schools,” Doggett said.
UPDATE: Gov. Rick Perry offered this statement Friday afternoon:
“I’m pleased that the U.S. Department of Education has approved Texas’ application for State Fiscal Stabilization Funds, which will help increase public school funding, providing each school a minimum additional $120 per student,” Perry said.
“Providing quality education to our state’s school children continues to be a top priority. Texas lawmakers appropriated this money, along with more than $30 billion in state funds, to enhance educational excellence in our state.”
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July 20, 2009
TEA releases 2008 dropout information
The annual high school dropout rates in Texas fell across-the-board in the 2007-08 school year compared to the previous years, according to figures released on Monday by the Texas Education Agency.
But the dropout rates for African-American and Hispanic students — 16.1 percent and 14.4 percent, respectively — still were about three times that of White students.
The picture was even more dire for student in bilingual and English as a Second Language programs, where almost 31 percent have dropped out.
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July 17, 2009
Unexpected charter vote shows deep SBOE tensions
Any hope that State Board of Education Chairwoman Gail Lowe would usher in a new era of peace and harmony on the board was quashed Friday on the final day of her first three-day meeting.
The full board rolled over a decision by the Committee on School Initiatives to delay awarding the state’s sole available school charter. Four members of the committee are often dissenting votes on key board decisions.
The charter was given to Koinonia Community Learning Academy in Houston.
The academy’s proposal was one of seven considered Thursday evening by the committee, whose members said they wanted more time to mull the lengthy applications.
“Everything can change on Friday,” when the full board gets to act on committee decision, said Board Member David Bradley, R-Beaumont, and he said there was no need to wait until September.
But Board Member Geraldine Miller, R-Dallas, said the move “makes it very obvious that there is a power issue here and I resent it.”
Miller is not a member of the committee.
The unexpected decision means that a dual-language charter school proposed for Southeast Austin missed out on the open spot for a new charter school.
The state last year hit its cap of 215 public charter schools and a bill to lift that cap failed to clear the Legislature this past session. That situation set up the stiff competition for the one available charter, which was freed up when another school closed.
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July 15, 2009
Board backs Scott on shunning national standards
The State Board of Education gave its assent after-the-fact to Education Commissioner Robert Scott’s decision not to participate in the drafting of national standards for math and English.
It was hardly a surprising position for the board members, who covet their authority to craft the curriculum standards that drive what makes it into textbooks and Texas classrooms.
“Stay firm,” said Board Member Barbara Cargill, R-The Woodlands. “Our standards are awesome and we appreciate your support of that.”
The national standards effort, which is being led by the governors and state education leaders across the country, is also a top priority of President Barack Obama’s education team. Participation in that process will be one consideration when some $4 billion in grants are doled out to states.
Texas is one of four states that have chosen not to participate in the drafting of those national standards.
“My goal is, regardless of what comes out of the common core, ours will always be better,” Scott said.
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July 10, 2009
Lowe to lead State Board of Education
Gov. Rick Perry on Friday named Gail Lowe, R-Lampasas, as chairwoman of the State Board of Education.
Lowe, co-publisher of the Lampasas Dispatch Record, was first elected to the board in 2002 after serving on the Lampasas school board.
Perry’s pick avoids the controversy that would have followed if he had selected one of the members whose names have been floated as likely candidates, including Cynthia Dunbar, R-Richardson.
Lowe consistently votes with the conservative wing of the 15-member board but she has typically been a quiet presence.
She will succeed Don McLeroy, R-Bryan, who confirmation was scuttled this spring in the Texas Senate.
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June 19, 2009
UPDATED: Pre-K bill vetoed
Gov. Rick Perry has vetoed a bipartisan bill aimed at improving the quality of pre-kindergarten classes in Texas, bill author Rep. Diane Patrick, R-Arlington, said Friday afternoon.
“It’s a bad day for public education and for Texas’ youngest and neediest children,” Patrick said.
House Bill 130 would have put in place new quality standards for pre-kindergarten classes, including teacher training and class size limits. The classes serve children who are homeless or in foster care, have a parent in the military, have limited English-speaking skills or whose families are low-income.
The original bill would have expanded pre-kindergarten classes from half-day to full-day for the children who now qualify for the program. But the initial $623 million price tag proved too much for the Legislature to swallow in a tight budget.
The final bill that cleared the Legislature, while keeping the quality standards, provided $25 million in grant money for districts that already have full-day pre-kindergarten but were slated to lose state funding.
UPDATE: Perry wrote in his veto statement that the money would be better used to expand the number of children served in the existing program.
“Under the funding formula for the existing grant program, $25 million would serve more than 27,000 students over the next biennium, which is 21,000 students more than the estimated 6,800 students that would have been served under the bill’s proposed program - or a 305 percent increase,” Perry wrote.
But Patrick noted that the $25 million does not provide the districts the full amount needed to offer full-day classes, so the districts will still bear significant costs.
Even with the veto, those districts will get the money but the quality standards will not take effect.
One-hundred House members had signed on to the bill, which had the strong backing of House Appropriations Chairman Jim Pitts.
“More Republicans supported the bill than not,” Patrick said. “Clearly, many Republicans as well as Democrats understand that pre-k education is an investment for which there is a great return.”
Advocates on both sides of the issue minced no words in responding to the veto.
“Gov. Perry was correct to veto HB 130, which created an additional and unnecessary government full-day pre-k program,” said Brooke Terry of the Texas Public Policy Foundation. “This legislation wrongly focused on inputs rather than results, and did not include the private sector as a full partner in providing early childhood education.”
But Jason Sabo of the United Ways of Texas said the veto was a “a willful neglect of the future.”
The research is clear that needy children greatly benefit from high-quality, full-day pre-kindergarten classes, Sabo said. And everyone benefits from those students doing better in school, he added.
“We are making the conscious choice not to abide by what researchers tells us work,” Sabo said.
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UPDATED: Electronic textbook bill signed into law
School districts will be able to tap state textbook money for buying laptop computers or other technology needed to access electronic teaching materials, under a bill signed by Gov. Rick Perry Friday.
State Rep. Dan Branch, R-Dallas, the sponsor of House Bill 4294, has said the objective was to give school districts the flexibility they need to make to update how students get their lessons.
But some members of the State Board of Education had strongly objected to the bill because they said it diminished the board’s authority and turned it over to the Education Commissioner. They launched a vigorous campaign calling for a veto.
Another significant Perry constituency, however, saw it differently.
Bill Hammond, president of the Texas Association of Business, came out in favor of the bill.
“Schools need access to every resource and tool available to ensure they can reach and inspire Texas students because if our children aren’t prepared to be a vital part of a 21st century Texas, we will all suffer the consequences,” Hammond said in a news release this week.
UPDATE: Despite signing the bill, Perry did give a little something to the State Board of Education.
He issued an executive order that says “changes must be made to clarify that the State Board of Education has the responsibility to review and approve content by” the next Legislature.
In the meantime, Perry ordered that the board members have an active role in the review of digital content, including seats on the panels that will recommend materials and the opportunity to weigh in before the Education Commissioner approves an electronic textbook.
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June 17, 2009
Congressional move to redirect Texas education money falters
Texas Democrats in Congress failed to get into law a provision that would have forced Texas to change how it will distribute $3.2 billion in federal stimulus money for education.
U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin, said a couple months ago that he planned to use an amendment to a budget bill to clarify that the money should go directly to the school districts, not help the state plug its budget holes. The state has used that money to increase funding for school districts by $1.9 billion and pay for textbooks.
But the supplemental spending bill for the nation’s wars, which was supposed to be the vehicle for the provision, cleared the U.S. House on Tuesday without the Texas-specific directive.
Doggett said in a statement that “Congress could and should have provided clear guidance to block the diversion” of the education stimulus money.
“It did not, which is one of the reasons why I voted against the bill,” Doggett said.
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May 31, 2009
School accountability bill to governor
The bill overhauling of the state’s school accountability system won unanimous assent both the House and Senate Sunday night and is now headed to governor.
House Bill 3 aims to increases students’ “college readiness,” reduce the reliance on high-stakes testing in the lower grades, and students more flexibility in their course schedule.
The final product was the result of an “intense and robust” negotiation process, as House Public Education Chairman Rob Eissler, R-The Woodlands put it.
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May 26, 2009
Senate kicks out $1.9 billion school finance bill
A minimum $800 across-the-board pay raise for teachers was grafted into the $1.9 billion school finance bill unanimously adopted by the Senate Tuesday night.
The Senate version had included money in House Bill 3646 for a pay raise, but it gave school districts discretion over how to distribute that money.
Sen. Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, said the school districts, not the state, are the teachers’ employer and “they have the teachers’ best interests at heart.”
“What we’re giving them is a lump sum of money for those teachers,” said Shapiro, chairwoman of the Education Committee.
But Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, argued that it is basic fairness to ensure that every teacher got something and pushed to add the same language that was in the House version that won unanimous approval.
Shapiro told members as debate got underway that the $1.9 billion was not the answer to the state’s “school finance woes.”
“It is going to get us out of this session with more money to every school district in the state of Texas,” Shapiro said.
Austin ISD does a little better under the Senate’s approach, getting $14 million in additional funding rather than the $10 million in the House version.
Several education bills that had already been approved by the Senate but stuck behind the House train wreck were added to the school finance bill.
“Is it Christmas?” Shapiro quipped.
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School leaders urge moving forward on accountability
Addressing the veto specter surrounding the school accountability bill, school leaders said Tuesday the worst thing that could happen for students is nothing at all.
“My concern is that we do nothing,” said Salem Abraham, president of the Canadian ISD Board of Trustees and member of the interim committee that examined the accountability system.
“I’m hopeful that we wouldn’t do all this work and take all this public input and in the end have this thing vetoed,” Abraham said on a conference call organized by several school groups.
Gov. Rick Perry has indicated that he is displeased with the direction of the school accountability bill, particularly a change in the rules for promoting kids the next grade even if they fail the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills.
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May 20, 2009
McLeroy confirmation back on track
Senators on Wednesday breathed new life into the confirmation of State Board of Education Chairman Don McLeroy.
Nominations Committee Chairman Mike Jackson, R-La Porte, had left McLeroy’s confirmation languishing in committee for weeks because there was said to be enough opposition on the Senate floor to block the confirmation. A two-thirds vote of the 31-member Senate is needed to confirm the governor’s nominee.
But in a hastily called meeting at a senator’s desk, committee members voted 4 to 2 to send McLeroy’s confirmation to the floor. Democratic Sens. Kirk Watson of Austin and Eliot Shapleigh of El Paso were the nays.
Jackson said Wednesday that McLeroy had been meeting with the members to change some minds and had reportedly been successful.
The floor debate, which is expected to be lively, could come on Monday or Tuesday, Jackson said.
Watch the committee meeting - and post-meeting comments by Watson and Jackson - below.
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May 14, 2009
The Stephen F. Austin, Sul Ross, Sam Houston Preservation Act

The Texas House on Friday, probably, will strike a blow to preserve the names of some of the state’s all-time greats.
HB425 by Rep. Wayne Christian, set for Friday’s local, consent and resolutions calendar, would bar changing “the names of certain public institutions of higher education that are named after state historical figures.”
Here’s what the bill analysis says: “Some colleges and universities in Texas have been renamed, either to reflect an affiliation with a university system or for other reasons. In certain cases, renaming has resulted in the loss of a name with historical significance and has caused an adverse reaction on the part of some aggrieved alumni.”
It’s one thing to change Southwest Texas State University to Texas State University. But it would be another if a change took Stephen F. Austin’s name off the state university in Nacogdoches (that’s Steve on the right) or Sam Houston’s off the state university in Huntsville or Sul Ross’ off the state university in Alpine.
Hence, HB425, which bars a name change “in a manner that removes the name of (an) established historical figure from the name of the institution.”
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April 30, 2009
McLeroy confirmation blocked
The confirmation of State Board of Education Chairman Don McLeroy is dead in the water, Sen. Mike Jackson, R-La Porte, said Thursday.
Jackson, chairman of the Senate Nominations Committee, said McLeroy will be left pending in committee because there is enough opposition on the floor of the Senate to block his confirmation, which requires approval of two-thirds of the senators.
There are too many other important issues to take up on the floor to waste time on a doomed confirmation, Jackson said.
After a contentious confirmation hearing last week, Jackson said he would take the temperature of his colleagues before determining whether to give McLeroy a committee vote.
McLeroy, R-Bryan, was first elected to the State Board of Education in 1998 and would retain his seat as a board member even if not confirmed as chairman by the end of the legislative session. Gov. Rick Perry would then pick a chairman from among the other board members who would not face Senate confirmation until 2011.
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April 29, 2009
Unanimous consent on HB 3
The House version of the school accountability bill followed its Senate companion with a unanimous vote Wednesday evening.
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Effort to end school closures goes nowhere
State Rep. Dawnna Dukes, D-Austin, made an impassioned but ultimately unsuccessful plea to remove school closure as the ultimate sanction in the state’s school accountability system.
Dukes argued during the debate of House Bill 3 that the threat of closure undermines a school’s ability to improve and punishes students and communities, particularly low-income communities.
Several schools in Duke’s district have faced the specter of closure.
Webb Middle School teetered on the edge of closure until the community rallied behind the school and performance dramatically improved. Johnston High School, however, did not improve enough and last year was one of the first schools closed by the state under the accountability system.
Two other Austin schools, Reagan High School and Pearce Middle School, could also be closed under the existing system if their performance does not turn around this year.
But the bill’s author Rep. Rob Eissler, R-The Woodlands, said removing closure from the Education Commissioner’s quiver of sanctions took away a key motivation for communities to do something about failing schools.
He added that the sanctions provisions in the accountability system have been loosened. No longer is closure mandatory and schools have been given extra time to improve.
“It still puts a burden on a local community that hasn’t’ be able to force (the school district) to give them what they need,” Dukes said.
Dukes’ amendment, which was co-authored by Donna Howard, D-Austin, was tabled and no action taken.
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School achievement bill gets Pearce amendment
Debate on Senate Bill 3, the accountability reform plan for public schools, just got an amendment added at the request of Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin.
Watson’s Amendment 6 would allow the state education commissioner to immediately implement some provisions of the new law “related to interventions and sanctions” against under-performing schools, even before the bill — if approved by the Legislature and signed into law — takes effect.
Pearce Middle School is under the gun for being underperforming, and faces a fast-approaching deadline to improve.
“There are a lot of provisions in this bill that could benefit that situation at Pearce,” Watson said. “This amendment would allow (the commissioner) to use them now.”
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April 28, 2009
School punishment bill passes
Legislation that would require public school districts to consider mitigating factors before they punish students for misbehavior was approved today by the Texas Senate.
The author: State Sen. Mario Gallegos, D-Houston, who admits he got booted from his third-grade classes for fighting.
“I had it coming. I admit that,” said Gallegos, the author of Senate Bill 2270. “But there are a lot of cases that have come out where schools use zero tolerance policies and kids are being disproportionately punished.
“We want schools to think twice when they punish a student, take everything into consideration.”
Current law authorizes but does not require that school districts take mitigating factors into account before they mete out punishment to students —Â including suspension, removal or expulsion.
Mitigating factors can include such things as self-defense, intent or lack of intent at the time of the incident, a student’s disciplinary history or a disability that substantially impairs the student’s capacity to appreciate the wrongfulness of their misconduct.
Gallegos said the measure was prompted, in part, by the story of a 10-year-old Tomball boy who was booked and photographed by police for pulling a fire alarm on a dare from classmates.
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April 27, 2009
Squeaker of a vote on School Fund constitutional amendment
Texas voters could soon have a say in who manages the investment of the state’s $22 billion Permanent School Fund that is dedicated to public education.
The Texas House of Representatives agreed put a constitutional amendment on the ballot that would move investment decisions from the elected State Board of Education to an appointed body of financial professionals named by high-level elected officials, including the governor, land commissioner, House speaker and comptroller.
In a display of parliamentary high drama, the initial tally fell one vote short of the critical 100-vote threshold needed to allow the measure to skip another House vote and go straight to the Senate.
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April 22, 2009
McLeroy nomination in jeopardy
State Board of Education Chairman Don McLeroy, R-Bryan, faced searing questioning during his uncommonly long confirmation hearing Wednesday at the Senate Nominations Committee.
And Chairman Mike Jackson, R-La Porte, said McLeroy’s nomination is on shaky ground because he might not be able to get the required two-thirds vote from the Senate.
Democratic senators Kirk Watson of Austin and Eliot Shapleigh of El Paso challenged McLeroy over his leadership during a number of controversial Board of Education decisions, including the recent adoption of new science curriculum standards that critics say undermine the teaching of evolution.
Shapleigh said he plans to have McLeroy separated from the others when his nomination comes up on the Senate floor so that it could be debated and voted on individually.
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April 17, 2009
Once again, House says no to school vouchers
The House of Representatives once again enacted a prohibition on using state money for private school vouchers late Friday night in a 122 to 23 vote for an amendment introduced by Rep. Joe Heflin, D-Crosbyton.
The same measure was attached to the appropriations bill in 2007 but was stripped during the conference committee with the Senate.
Nevertheless, the vote was cited repeatedly in the intervening months as an indication of the Legislature’s intent on the controversial issue as the Texas Education Agency allowed non-profit groups to get state money for bringing dropouts back into school. Critics said that move opened a backdoor for school vouchers.
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March 31, 2009
Austin schools ask for some Social Security relief
Here’s a question for the TAKS test: How can the same teacher salary in Austin actually be 6.2 percent less than in Round Rock?
Answer: Austin is one of the few districts in Texas that is still part of Social Security so its employees pay 6.2 percent of their salary into the federal retirement system each year in addition to the contributions to the Teacher Retirement System of Texas.
The effect is a reduction in take-home pay for employees and a big tab for the district, which matches the employees’ contribution. Last year, the cost to Austin $37 million.
Austin school officials say they are at a competitive disadvantage in hiring new teachers because other local districts’ employees do not have that expense and they want some state help to even the playing the field.
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March 30, 2009
House approves bill to put video online of State Board of Education meetings
The Texas House today tentatively approved a bill by Austin Democrat Donna Howard that would require live video webcasts of State Board of Education meetings.
The Texas Education Agency now puts only an audio feed of board meetings online. With just the audio, it’s sometimes difficult for members of the public to understand who is talking, Howard said.
“This would allow you to actually see what’s going on,” Howard said.
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March 24, 2009
Over half the House signs on to PreK bill
A $300 million effort to move to full-day prekindergarten for eligible children has already won the support of more than half the Texas House of Representatives.
By Tuesday, 79 co-authors, both Republicans and Democrats, had signed on to House Bill 130, sponsored by Rep. Diane Patrick, R-Arlington.
So the political stars seem to be aligned for the bill, which sets standards for class sizes, curriculum and teacher qualifications as well as extending the school day.
The big key question will be whether the money can be found in a tight, tight budget.
The substitute bill introduced Tuesday, mirroring a change in its Senate companion, has cut the price tag in half by delaying the start date a year to 2010 to make the cost less daunting.
Eligibility for prekindergarten does not change under the bill. It would still be restricted to about 200,000 children, including foster children, those that are learning English, or come from low-income, homeless or military families.
Rep. Jerry Madden, R-Richardson, offered a less expensive approach in House Bill 1891 to provide prekindergarten for the same groups of kids through private providers.
The $12.9 million proposal, which would serve about one-fifth of the children and provide funding for half-day classes, would complement Patrick’s bill by targeting those children who are eligible but not participating, Madden said.
Both bills were left pending in committee.
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March 18, 2009
'Biggest Loser': Educate kids to stay fit
Texan Michelle Aguilar is a role model to many after dropping 110 pounds to win the reality TV show “The Biggest Loser” last year, but she says she doesn’t want kids to have to be like her.
She wants them to know how to make the right food and fitness choices early, before they reach the level of 242 pounds, which is what Aguilar weighed before joining the show with her mother as a teammate.
Aguilar came to the Capitol today (honored in the Senate this morning) with the American Heart Association to promote legislation to improve physical education programs in school.
For “Biggest Loser” fans: Keep an eye out for Aguilar’s upcoming appearances on the show, now in its seventh season for a “couples” edition. Aguilar said she returns for an episode for a challenge while host Alison Sweeney is away giving birth, and again when the field narrows to the final four.
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March 17, 2009
Does accountability system offer path to a career or a track to nowhere?
The proposed overhaul of Texas’ school accountability system sought to give students different paths that lead to graduation as a way to keep school relevant to all kids and reduce dropouts.
But to some people, those paths are seen as tracks that would direct kids - particularly low-income, minority kids, they say - away from college, according to committee testimony Tuesday.
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March 16, 2009
Teachers: Don't close Reagan High School
Hundreds of teachers and school workers lobbied for changes in accountability, increased funding and better salaries around the Capitol today.
Among the sea of bright blue t-shirts, Reagan High School teachers, parents, alumni and supporters held signs pleading to keep the Austin school open.
Reagan High School, along with Pearce Middle School in Austin, is in danger of closing after the state rated it academically unacceptable over the past few years. While teachers and advocates have pushed for eventually overhauling the accountability system that grades the schools’ performances, there are other proposed bills that could actually save the school from shutting its doors. State Rep. Dawnna Dukes, D-Austin, filed House Bill 1238, which would remove automatic school closure as a sanction and help the community stay involved in improving the school. Houston Democrat Sylvester Turner authored a similar piece of legislation.
Watch the video below of Reagan advocates at the rally.
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March 9, 2009
Big sticks left in accountability bill
School closure and other sanctions against low-performing schools were left intact in the school accountability overhaul filed last week.
And for-profit operations would now be eligible to operate schools that had repeatedly failed to meet the state standards, according to the legislation written by the education committee leaders in both chambers, Rep. Rob Eissler, R-The Woodlands, and Sen. Florence Shapiro, R-Plano.
Those provisions in the long-awaited accountability legislation left Allen Weeks, president of the St. John’s Neighborhood Association, disappointed that the state’s system will still be used to shame communities and put their schools in the hands of others.
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March 5, 2009
School accountability bill out
The long-awaited accountability overhaul bill has been filed. It is a 142-page tome so get comfy.
Here is the Senate version.
More to come later today. Presser scheduled for 2 p.m with Sen. Florence Shapiro, chairwoman of the bill’s parents Senate Education Committee, and Rep. Rob Eissler, chairman of the House Public Education Committee.
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March 3, 2009
Money for mid-sized schools finance fix in question
Mid-sized school districts such as Wimberley ISD came to the Senate Education Committee Tuesday seeking a little financial relief and walked away with a partial victory.
In a 5-0 vote, the committee gave its assent to repealing a portion of the school finance law that stops property-rich, mid-sized school districts from getting the extra money that other similar sized school districts get.
The “mid-sized adjustment” is intended to help districts with 1,600 to 5,000 students because those districts don’t enjoy the same cost-saving economies of scale as do large school districts.
About 35 mid-sized school districts, however, have been prohibited from accessing that money even though they have the same economy-of-scale issues as less wealthy districts, said Clayton Downing, executive director of the Texas School Coalition, which advocates for property-rich schools.
But the substitute language that was approved by the committee left a big question about whether the districts would get any new money as a result. The senators said they hoped to address that issue when they rewrite school finance rules this session.
“It’s a little bit better than nothing but not much,” Downing said.
Wimberley Superintendent Dwayne York said he was frustrated about the sudden switch in bill language but this vote was an important first step to getting the district the financial help it needs.
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February 16, 2009
Stimulus money might fill textbook void
With no money coming from the Permanent School Fund at this point, the State Board of Education has been fretting for some time that the Legislature would not find the $913 million needed for textbooks in the upcoming 2010-2011 budget.
But Education Commissioner Robert Scott said Monday that the economic stimulus legislation awaiting President Obama’s signature could provide a ready source of money for the textbooks.
Texas can expect $3.2 billion to $3.9 billion from a pot of “fiscal stabilization” money for education in addition to another $2 billion split between programs for economically disadvantage student and special education students.
That “fiscal stabilization” is specifically closing holes in state education spending, such as the $1.2 billion that will most likely not be available for school funding because the Permanent School Fund taken a big hit in the market tumult. The yield from the PSF usually covers the cost of textbooks plus a little more for general education spending.
Scott told the House Appropriations Committee using that federal money would ensure that give the PSF a little time to heal.
The federal money could also help pay for echnology and repair of some hurricane-battered schools, among other items, Scott said.
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February 4, 2009
Steroid testing $6 million tab a lot to swallow
An incredulous Sen. Chris Harris, R-Arlington, needed some clarification.
Was the state planning on spending another $6 million on a high school steroid testing program that yielded a grand total of four positives out of 10,500 tests?
“Do you really think we need that?” he asked.
The response from the other members of the Senate Finance Committee seems to indicate that the answer was, uh, no.
Sen. Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa, D-McAllen, noted that his son was among the students randomly selected to be tested.
“I’m really glad to hear your son was not one of the four,” Harris said.
Hinojosa suggested that the program might be better focused if used in cases where there is a suspicion of steroid use or probable cause.
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February 2, 2009
TAB: Toughen up education standards
Texas needs to toughen its school accountability standards and provide a more “honest” picture of how well schools are educating students, Bill Hammond, executive director of the Texas Association of Business, said at a news conference Monday.
It is a refrain often heard from TAB that Texas schools are failing to produce graduates with the basic skills they need to succeed in the workforce. And the state hides that fact by using low passing standards on its tests and continuing to pass students along to the next grade even if they fail the required tests, Hammond said.
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January 30, 2009
TEA gets stay on court-ordered bilingual ed plan
A court-ordered plan for how the Texas Education Agency would remedy constitutional problems with the state’s bilingual education programs will not be coming this week as anticipated.
The U.S. Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit, this week granted TEA a stay pending oral arguments in June. U.S. District Judge William Wayne Justice last summer mandated the plan and set a due date of Jan. 31. TEA appealed the ruling.
The plan was to outline how the state would fix Texas’ secondary school programs for students with limited English-proficiency beginning in the 2009-2010 school year and develop monitoring the bilingual programs in all grades.
In its appeal, the state argued that TEA would have to “implement changes that…are not likely to be insubstantial,” such as creating a monitoring plan for all of the Texas’ school districts and developing a new language program for secondary students.
“If defendants ultimately prevail on appeal, they will be faced with a dilemma: either continue the severe disruption of completing the change or revert to their previous system,” the appeals court order reads. “The former option, they contend, might render meaningless whether defendants prevail on appeal. The latter option could mean ‘eliminating staff positions added just to comply with the order.’ “
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January 21, 2009
Kress joins TAB
Former Bush administration education adviser Sandy Kress will be the education point man for the Texas Association of Business during this legislative session.
A strong advocate of school reform, Kress will likely be deeply involved in the rewrite of the state’s accountability system. Kress, who has a long history in Texas education circles, served during the interim on a select committee addressing the accountability system.
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January 13, 2009
Uncertainty of textbook funding worries SBOE
The financial market conditions have probably rendered the Permanent School Fund unable to spin off any money for state education spending in the upcoming budget.
And that has members of the State Board of Education worried that finding money for textbooks will not be a priority for legislators given the state’s budget hole.
On Tuesday, the board members gathered, some by video conference, for a special meeting to vote on one item: allowing the fund to make up any lost payments if the fund conditions improve.
Board Chairman Don McLeroy, R-Bryan, said the vote shows a “willingness to try to help them as much as possible.”
They hope it will encourage legislators to cover the $900 million tab for textbooks in the next budget.
“These reading books are absolutely critical and to put this off…that’s unacceptable, absolutely unacceptable,” board member Geraldine Miller said. “We need to fund the reading books.”
Books for the elementary grades, Miller said, were particularly important. That tab would run about $273 million.
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January 7, 2009
Craddick's top education aide leaving for UT
Harrison Keller, the top education policy advisor to outgoing Speaker Tom Craddick, has taken a post at the University of Texas as the vice provost for higher education policy and research. He will start Friday.
The job has long been in the works and the timing of his departure is not related to Craddick ceding the speakership earlier this week.
Keller is widely respected in education circles for his understanding of difficult issues facing education.
House Public Education Chairman Rob Eissler, R-The Woodlands, said Keller “has been a very strong influence (on education issues) because of his technical knowledge and ability to synthesize information,” Eissler said. “I hate to see him go.”
Another education leader, Rep. Scott Hochberg, D-Houston, said he has a computer folder of “stuff Harrison has sent me.” It is a veritable research library of key education issues from around the country and around the world.
“His greatest contribution has been really to focus us on using measurable data to drive policy decisions,” Hochberg said, rather than policymaking by anecdote.
In his new role, Keller will focus on big-picture higher education policies, such as affordability. It is rare, he said, for an institution such as UT to take a proactive approach to difficult policy issues.
“It’s an exciting place to be,” Keller said.
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December 5, 2008
Some new money for education promised
At a gathering of school leaders Friday, Texas Education Agency Commissioner Robert Scott asked the group how many were from districts with a budget deficit this year.
Hands shot up across the room, illustrating the difficult financial position in which school districts across the state find themselves under the current school finance system.
Legislative leaders promised the educators a little bit more money in the upcoming budget.
There will be $2 billion of new education money in the base budget, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and House Speaker Tom Craddick said at a pre-session seminar of the Texas Association of School Administrators and Texas Association of School Boards.
That amount will be in addition to the $1.5 billion in additional money needed to pay for the new students who will come into the Texas public schools during the 2010-2011 budget.
Such an increase could boost the per student spending by 2 percent.
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November 19, 2008
School Fund will provide $300 million less for education
The financial market turmoil has taken such a toll on Texas’ Permanent School Fund that it will provide about $300 million less for public education in the upcoming 2010-2011 budget than the $1.4 billion it will produce for the current budget.
The practical effect of the smaller distribution is relatively small. But the symbolic effect is huge.
The fund has dropped from $26.5 billion last October to $17.5 billion today, erasing many of the returns of the past 10 years.
The State Board of Education on Wednesday was in the untenable position of protecting the fund for the state’s future students and providing something for today’s students.
Those two guiding principles of managing the fund are “at war with each other,” said James Voytko, president and chief operating officer of RV Kuhns & Associates Inc., the financial consultant for the fund.
Board Chairman Don McLeroy said the compromise of sending a little something — 2.5 percent of the average market value over the past four years — is the right thing to do.
“We have to pay something. It’s not fair to the current students,” McLeroy said.
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November 10, 2008
Shutting the door on school vouchers
Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin, is looking to close what some public school advocates say was a back door to private school vouchers.
SB 186, submitted on Monday, removes language from the education code that allows nonprofit organizations to get certain public grant money.
The inclusion of that language in the 2007 law allowed nonprofit private schools to compete for the public grant and made the relatively small $6 million program to help dropouts the focus of intense criticism.
Three nonprofit organizations were among the recipients, which prompted a lawsuit from the Texas State Teachers Association. The association failed in an effort to block the Texas Education Agency from disbursing money to the nonprofits but the overall lawsuit continues.
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November 3, 2008
Board of Education member's Obama commentary criticized
Here is some pre-election commentary on the Christian Worldview Network Web site by State Board of Education Member Cynthia Dunbar, R-Richmond.
Needless to say, she is not a supporter of Sen. Barack Obama’s bid for the presidency.
But her rhetoric that an Obama administration will likely lead to martial law has been criticized as “reprehensible” and “reckless” by the Texas Freedom Network, an organization that advocates for religious freedom in the public schools.
Dunbar, who was elected to a four-year term in 2006, is a graduate of Regent University Law and has written a book called “One Nation Under God: How the Left is trying to Erase What Made Us Great.”
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October 2, 2008
Biz groups want improved education system
A newly formed coalition of business groups on Thursday called for tougher student accountability standards and more money for performance-based payments to teachers as a way to improve Texas’ workforce.
“The public education system in Texas needs to be strengthened in order to meet the needs of employers,” said Bill Hammond, president of the Texas Association of Business, one of the founding groups of the Texas Coalition for a Competitive Workforce.
“We need to keep more kids in school and graduate more children who are career or college ready,” he said.
As an example of shortcomings in the education system, Hammond pointed to the large number of first-year college students — about half, according to a 2007 report — who must take remedial courses.
The other coalition members include the Texas Institute for Education Reform, Texas Public Policy Foundation, Governor’s Business Council and the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce.
The coalition is silent, however, on how to pay for higher standards and their other demands.
Among the other priorities are flexibility in course requirements so that students can learn some core lessons while also getting career-skills training.
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September 10, 2008
UPDATED: Combs launches new Texas college tuition plan
State Comptroller Susan Combs launched a new Texas college-tuition savings plan today, encouraging parents to check out an online calculator intended to demonstrate how much college that participants in the Texas Tuition Promise Fund can buy.
“It’s actually kind of entertaining,” Combs said of the calculator.
Combs offered examples of how much parents might need to pitch into the fund to cover future college tuition for a newborn or 7-year-old child.
The online calculator—here—wasn’t viewable from my computer at about 11 a.m., but the Web site opened later.
UPDATE: On the calculator, I checked on what it would cost a late-starting parent to assure four years’ tuition at the state’s most expensive four-year public colleges and universities through the plan for a child who turned 13 in August 2008.
Sitting down? The expected payment would be $955.50 a month, accumulating to $45,863.96 over four years.
There’s a reason Combs stressed the significance of families investing early.
In her example, parents of a newborn would be expected to pitch in $60.36 per month over 18 years—just for the kid to afford one year of the average cost of tuition and required fees at a Texas public college or university.
Parents of a 7-year-old child would be asked to contribute $81.53 a month over 10 years to afford one year of the average cost of tuition and required fees at a Texas public college or university.
Thanks to an astute reader for guiding me to correct my reporting on Combs’ examples.
The enrollment period for the new program, which was authorized by the 2007 Legislature, starts today and runs through February. Combs noted that participants don’t have to start paying in until May.
The program is Texas’ second try at a prepaid tuition plan.
The new plan offers families the choice of buying “units” in three types of plans that can be used as currency at schools. The units lock in tuition at current prices.
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August 28, 2008
AG rules on whether Bible course is mandated
Texas school districts are not required to offer a Bible elective course created by the Legislature last year, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott said in an opinion issued Thursday.
But districts will still have to offer some kind of instruction in religious literature, whether integrated into an existing course or offered separately.
The ruling has advocates on both sides claiming victory.
The Liberty Legal Institute said in a news release that Abbott agreed with their assessment that schools must include instruction on the Bible’s impact on literature and history.
Dan Quinn, spokesman for the Texas Freedom Network, said most schools already meet that requirement.
TEA officials said Thursday afternoon they were still sorting through the opinion and did not have a definitive answer.
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August 19, 2008
Bilingual ruling appealed
As expected, a federal court ruling on bilingual education in Texas was appealed by the Texas Education Agency on Monday.
Senior U.S. District Judge William Wayne Justice found in July that the state had not properly educated middle school and high school students with limited English proficiency. The order, part of a decades-old case claiming violations of the Equal Education Opportunities Act, called for TEA to develop a new language program for students in secondary school and improve monitoring of the program.
The appeal kicks the decision up the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal.
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August 11, 2008
Judge allows dropout grants to go forward
The Texas Education Agency was cleared on Monday to send up to $1 million to three nonprofit organizations that won grant money to help dropouts finish school.
The Texas State Teachers Association, which sued the agency last week over the inclusion of nonprofit recipients in the $6 million dropout recovery grant program, had sought a temporary injunction.
State District Court Judge Stephen Yelenosky denied the request but the case will proceed.
At the heart of the case is whether the agency had the authority to give public money to private nonprofits. The teachers group maintains this move creates a “stealth voucher program” by diverting public money to private interests.
Lawyers from the Texas Attorney General’s office argued that the legislation creating the dropout grant program states explicitly that nonprofits are eligible for the money.
TEA awarded grant money to 22 entities, including school districts, charter schools, community colleges and others. Each grant recipient will get up to $150,000 for startup costs, plus additional money for every student they move toward a high school diploma.
The Christian Fellowship of San Antonio could earn up to $510,000 while both the Community Action Inc. of Hays, Caldwell & Blanco Counties Inc. and Healy-Murphy Center Inc. could get $270,000 each.
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August 7, 2008
TAB wants tougher accountability system
The Texas school accountability system is not doing a very good job holding schools accountable, Texas Association of Business president Bill Hammond said at a news conference Thursday.
“We can’t have a first-rate education system in Texas with a second-rate accountability system,” Hammond said.
He took issue with the recent decision by Education Commissioner Robert Scott to give school districts another one-year reprieve on tougher dropout rules. That decision kept some districts being labeled academically unacceptable.
And the standards are too low, said Hammond, adding that schools can be deemed “academically acceptable” if only 50 percent of their students pass math.
Texas businesses — Hammond’s membership — are the ultimate consumers of the Texas education system’s product and they are finding the product lacking, he said.
Hammond called on the Texas Education Agency and legislators to be more “honest” about how the education system is performing. But he didn’t have any specific recommendations to improve the system.
He did make clear that more money for schools is not the answer, according to TAB.
“If money were the solution, the problem would have been solved long ago,” Hammond said. “The public schools system in Texas needs to do better with what they have,” Hammond said.
There was a roomful of school superintendents last week who would probably disagree.
At a school finance summit organized by Scott, superintendents complained that the state is ratcheting up the performance standards but not given the districts the resources to improve the schools.
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August 5, 2008
Teachers group sues over dropout grant
The Texas State Teachers Association has sued the Texas Education Agency over dropout recovery grants awarded Monday to three private, nonprofit entities.
The group argues in its TSTA lawsuit 080508.pdf

