TX Bd of Education & the Legislature

Today, the Texas State Board of Education meets to cover a host of issues, none of which are as controverisal as the recent science standards battles. (The room is 4/5 empty instead of standing-room only.) While nobody mentioned anything about Chairman Don's resurrected nomination, the Board started by examining the Legislative picture. To put it mildly, they're hopping mad...

On the one hand, House Bill 3 (on the student high-stakes testing and accountability) are in conference committee to resolve differences between the Texas House and the Senate. But both versions would loosen the connection between shutting schools down and their failure rates on science and social studies TAKS tests. Pat Hardy (R, Weatherford, not "The Faction"), who is a social studies teacher and supervisor, believes that schools will just adjust and scale back on science and social studies to emphasize math and reading. "Why let go of the end-of-course tests we worked so hard on? We haven't even given them a chance to work before we're eliminating them! This makes no sense?"

On the other hand, House Bill 4294 (the "Branch" bill, named after its sponsor) looks like it may pass the Senate before adjournment, and would allow textbook money to be spent on instructional technology and hardware. This gives the Board members fits for several reasons:

• Geraldine "Tincy" Miller (R-Dallas, not "The Faction") pointed out that when this same idea was floated last legislative session, the Attorney General issued an opinion that a laptop did not equal a textbook, and the law says textbook money can only be spent on textbooks.
• Another point that Ms. Miller made was that the bill as currently amended has the Commissioner of Education and the Education Agency certifying that electronic material meets state requirements. She is concerned that this creates a loophole for content to avoid the Board's rigorous scrutiny.
• Terri Leo (R-"The Faction," Spring) is equally furious that the bill's author assured everyone that it would be amended to include the State Board of Education, but that it hasn't been yet. She wants the same rules to apply to print and digital-tized content.
• Ken Mercer (R-"Th Faction," San Antonio) is a software engineer, and pointed out that this expansion to include tech did not include figuring costs for maintenance, security, and setting up a bunch of student accounts on a bunch of laptops.

The final "insult" that the Board addressed was that they requested money for textbook funding, and only got $812M (85% of the original request). Ms. Miller plans on having the entire Board write a letter to the Legislature emphasizing why full funding (especially for reading) is crucial. "[The Legislature doesn't] understand. They're trying to replace the textbook with the Kindle, but publishers don't just send a textbook, they send a whole package, CD, DVD, online, and classroom sets."

Robert Scott, the Commissioner of Education, had the final word: "The transition to digital media is going to happen. Just look at how this impacting newspapers. We'll fight for our textbook money, but we have to find a balance somewhere."