| On January 9, Rodney Ellis (D-Houston) filled Senate Bill 440 that would strip the Texas State Board of Education of all authority except that outlined in the state constitution. The constitution gives the SBOE control over the Permanent School Fund only. Other duties, such as the board's ability to set curriculum standards and adopt textbooks, would revert to the control of the Texas Education Agency.
The full text of the bill is available here.
Theoretically, this would reduce the politicization of the SBOE. Populated by ideologues and extremists such as chairman Don McLeroy, Cynthia Dunbar from District 10, Ken Mercer from District 5, and David Bradley from District 7, the SBOE has become a battlefield for the culture wars rather than a governing body.
For years, the SBOE hasn't been able to get anything done besides fighting about creationism, changing the dates of the Ice Age, removing references to safe sex in textbooks, griping about "overly disparaging" slavery, and counting the number of brown faces in social studies textbooks. It basically just gives aspiring ultra right-wing politicians a stage for their political posturing. It's time to move on from the culture wars, or at least handle them in an arena that is not at taxpayer expense and on the backs of Texas students.
Ellis's bill looks like a move toward good government. Giving the TEA a shot at handling these matters more neutrally would be a step forward for all Texans - we can re-focus on educational excellence and preparing our students for college.
The consequences of this bill are potentially huge, but it hasn't picked up a lot of attention on press or blogs so far. Donna Howard's HB 420, which would make the SBOE races nonpartisan, has gotten some attention. Given all the hubbub about the SBOE meetings last week, it might be time to take a look at this bill and whether it has a chance. The political climate under the new Speaker, and the general trend of using unity, transparency, good government, and bipartisanship as buzzwords would seem to favor this type of legislation. I'd love to know if anyone else thinks it stands a chance. |
