Three Republican candidates vie for their party’s nomination for State Board of Education (SBOE) District 9, the East Texas seat long held by Thomas Ratliff (R-Mt. Pleasant). Ratliff currently serves as vice chair and is oft times, the reputedly outspoken voice on the Texas SBOE. He was first elected in 2010 and is not seeking re-election.
Top Texas officials named 11 of 15 appointees to the newly created public education Commission on Next Generation Assessments and Accountability, authorized through the passage of House Bill 2804 during the 84th legislative session. The short-term 15-member commission’s sole purpose is to write a report that develops and makes recommendations “for new systems of student assessment and public school accountability” which is due by September 1, 2016.
Texas House leadership squashed education reform legislation that would have sped up the time to “repurpose” chronically failing public schools during the recent 84th Legislature. Instead, they aggressively pushed for progressive community schools.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott vetoed an estimated $193,000 annual membership to the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) as part of the state’s discretionary spending budget last month.
Four Texas State House Republicans sided with Democrats yesterday and voted against a pro-life amendment to H.B. 2510 which would have banned abortions after 20 weeks where there is an alleged genetic disability of the fetus. The amendment, offered by Rep. Matt Schaefer (R-Tyler), passed by a vote of 83-46.
The daughter of a Texas State Representative has withdrawn her registration as a lobbyist, after an outcry over the potential for conflicts of interest between her work lobbying for education clients and her father’s role as chair of the House Public Education Committee. The announcement was made on a Friday afternoon, just two days after a Breitbart Texas article describing the conflict.
The increased prominence of a Texas State Representative’s daughter as a lobbyist on education issues is raising questions about the propriety of him serving as chair of the House Public Education Committee.