State Adoption

No, really. The Board was about to vote on an RFQ for Real Estate Management Services for Real Estate. Geraldine "Tincy" Miller (R-Dallas, of the Henry S. Miller Realtors family) announced to the Board that she was recusing herself from any discussion or votes on the matter, according to recently approved policy. (Inside story: she shared reports about another member's apparent conflict of interest, which was the trigger that led to several months of controversy and a new ethics policy.)

The Board decided that this course was so similar to the "Communication Applications" course, that they decided to kill this one, and voted to do so unanimously.

All of the reading/literature programs were adopted so quickly and quietly that most observers missed it. After returning from break, Ken Mercer (R-The Faction, San Antonio) gave a grand "personal privilege" speech talking about how glorious it is that we've returned to phonics. "Our governor will be so proud," he said. "This is a historic moment in time."

Geraldine "Tincy" Miller (R-North Dallas) agreed and pointed out that nobody had signed up for public commentary on Reading. She says it's clear that hard work was done on committees to make sure these were solid curricula.

Pat Hardy (R-Weatherford) moves that the Board rules REQUIRE that ancillaries be provided electronically (digital or web-based) ONLY. She thinks the fact that the pre-K call is for a "system" will protect the unique needs of that grade. She believes that eliminating all of the shipping and expense involved will help publishers deal with the need for lower prices, given the state's budget woes. It is now forbidden for publishers to include print ancillaries.

Next, the Board took up the changes in rules necessary to deal with the recently passed legislation on open-source texts and spending on hardware and software. (See prior entries in this blog.)

The Textbook Coordinators Association of Texas point out problems with recent legislation mandating expansion of textbook funding to cover hardware and software as well. Their vice president pointed out that there has been much misinformation: many have forgotten that local School Boards are required to certify that TEKS are met before money be spent on hardware, etc.

The Board heard a gently worded but firm appeal from their Parliamentarian for a return to better adherence to Parliamentary rules of procedure as a way to manage their time. (He also deftly hinted that if there proceedings were exercised with more decorum, it would improve the outside opinion of the Board.)

The opening salvos of the 2010 election campaign were being fired loud and clear in yesterday's State Board of Education meeting, especially when Social Studies came up late--I had to leave before they started, and will review the public testimony later and add commentary to this space this weekend. But all the usual conservative suspects were there, from Texans for Prosperity to the Free Market Foundation to the Texas Eagle Forum, so it's not too hard to imagine what they had to say...

1:40 pm Board is back after lunch break. On a 12-item agenda, they've finally wrapped up item 4 and are ready for item 5--repealing old TEKS that were replaced by newly approved TEKS.

The State Board of Education is in session for the last time this year. (And in just a few weeks is the filing deadline for the 2010 elections, in which about half the members will be up for re-election.) As before, I'm blogging live today, and hope to do so for the rest of the week...

9:15 The Commissioner announced that the Education Agency is piloting a web portal for content delivery. (This will make it possible for the state to buy statewide licenses for online content and distribute it. He didn't connect these dots, but that's what's going on.)