A lot of stuff gets done at the last possible minute in the Legislature. The two big education bills were examples of this. The session’s two biggest school reform bills, one from each chamber, have danced the House and Senate in the session’s closing days—a stalemate that broke Sunday night as both bills passed each [...]
Posts Tagged ‘SBOE’
House approves charter expansion bill SB2
A big step forward for those who would like to see more charters. Senate Bill 2 passed on a 105-34 vote on second reading. It now faces a third reading before it can be reconciled with a similar version the Senate passed last month. “I think the bill supports quality charters, helping them to expand [...]
The redistricting commission idea rides again
Jeff Wentworth is no longer in the Senate, but his signature idea for a bipartisan redistricting commission still lives, now in an expanded form. State Rep. Rafael Anchia (D-Dallas) filed a proposed constitutional amendment Wednesday that would move responsibility for both congressional and legislative redistricting in Texas to a 7-person, bipartisan commission. The proposed amendment [...]
Precinct analysis: Comparing 2012 and 2008, Senate and SBOE edition
To follow up on my previous examination of how the 2012 election returns looked in State House districts compared to the 2008 returns, I now have the data to look at other types of districts as well. You can find it as well on the Texas Legislative Council’s webpage – here are the reports for [...]
Patrick files his “school choice” bill
From the Trib: The State Board of Education currently oversees applications for charter school contracts, which state law caps at 215. Patrick’s Senate Bill 2 would create a new state entity to authorize the contracts and lift that cap, allowing for an unlimited number of charter school operators in the state. “There is no one [...]
Riddle wants to abolish the HCDE
From Big Jolly: State Rep. Debbie Riddle (R-150) filed HB945 [last] week. If enacted, it would abolish the Harris County Department of Education, transferring control of the assets to the Harris County Commissioners Court, and giving the commissioners one year to liquidate them. The brains behind this, if you can call them that, is former [...]
Soto’s parting gift on textbooks
Outgoing SBOE member Michael Soto will be missed. Soto, the Trinity University English professor who was knocked off in this year’s Democratic primary by the little-known Marisa Perez, spent much of his two years on the board grappling with frustration over the state’s cumbersome textbook mandates. So, in his final months in office, he quietly [...]
Some sanity on STAAR
This is a welcome development. A requirement that the state exams count toward 15 percent of a student’s course grade sparked a backlash last spring over the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, or STAAR, among parents whose ninth-graders were the first to take the more rigorous exams. A statewide parent group emerged out [...]
Overview of SBOE6
The Memorial Examiner takes a look at the race in SBOE6 between Republican Donna Bahorich and Democrat Traci Jensen. Bahorich is former district director for state Sen. Dan Patrick (R-District 7) and says her experience with the state legislative process adds to her qualifications for the post. A former manager at Mountain Bell, she home-schooled [...]
All the interviews for 2012
As we begin early voting for the November election, here are all the interviews I conducted for candidates who are on the ballot as well as for the referenda. These include interviews that were done for the primary as well as the ones done after the primary. I hope you found them useful. Senate: Paul [...]
Endorsement watch: For reason
In making their endorsements in State Board of Education races, the Chron “supports an incumbent who has fought for reason and clarity, and two challengers who would be fresh voices of reason”. As well they should. In District 4, Lawrence Allen, the Democratic incumbent, fought to see that slavery wasn’t downplayed as the chief cause [...]
Texas Freedom Network’s guide to the SBOE elections
The Texas Freedom Network has put out a useful little voter’s guide to the 2012 State Board of Education elections, which covers a range of topics from creationism and climate change to bullying and SBOE procedures. You might look at the answers that the candidates who responded submitted and think “Hey, cool, everyone is basically [...]
Traci Jensen’s challenge
I got the following from the Traci Jensen campaign the other day: This past Wednesday morning, Traci and her Republican opponent Donna Bahorich participated in the Greater Houston Partnership’s “Meet the Candidates: State Board of Education” forum. This was the first time Traci and Bahorich had ever met. Three candidates running in two other area [...]
Once again on charter school facilities
David Dunn of the Texas Charter Schools Association writes another op-ed about funding for charter school facilities. The Texas Charter Schools Association has looked at the needs of public school students whose parents have chosen the option of public charter schools for them, and we know that these Houston students deserve the same consideration as [...]
Fall interview season begins tomorrow
I know that we just finished the primary runoffs, but we’re also now more than halfway through August, so it’s time to start doing interviews with candidates for the fall. I’ll be up candid, I don’t know exactly how many interviews I plan to do. For the most part, I don’t anticipate re-interviewing candidates that [...]
We apparently will have a candidate in SBOE1 after all
The Trib reviews the bidding on the Martha Dominguez situation in SBOE 1. According to the Texas Election Code, primary candidates have until 63 days before the primary election to apply to have their name withdrawn (this year it was March 12), and they must withdraw with “the authority with whom the withdrawing candidate’s application [...]
School finance lawsuit #6
And then there were six. The Texas Charter School Association announced Tuesday that it would enter the legal fray, arguing that the state has short-changed charter schools because it does not provide funding for facilities. “Just because a parent puts his or her students in a charter school doesn’t mean that they deserve that funding [...]
The TFN on the SBOE
Hair Balls attended a session at the TDP convention held by the Texas Freedom Network about electing a less-embarrassing State Board of Education. More than 600 people packed a ballroom at the George R Brown Convention Center on Saturday morning for TFN’s session, “Ignorance Is Not a Texas Value: Electing a Smarter State Board of [...]
Martha and Marisa
Martha Dominguez, the accidental SBOE nominee from El Paso who had been telling people she wanted to drop out of the race before the primary, has decided to stay on the ballot for November, according to the Lion Star blog. He’s not exactly thrilled about it, and I can hardly blame him. I repeat my [...]
Why bother campaigning for the SBOE?
Here in Harris County, we were fortunate to have an active Democratic primary between three likable and well-qualified candidates for the nomination in SBOE district 6. All three actively campaigned, each garnered at least one endorsement from a Democratic organization, and in the end everyone is happy with the winner, Traci Jensen. Unfortunately, we seem [...]
More reactions to the election results
Enough about me. What are some other people saying about Tuesday’s results? Here’s a sample: Greg Juanita PDiddie Campos Mark Bennett EoW Neil Harold Stace Lion Star Texas Trib TM Daily Post TFN Insider There’s a certain amount of bitterness and disgust expressed in some of those posts about the more ridiculous results from Tuesday. [...]
Democratic results, Harris County
The good: – Lane Lewis won a full term as HCDP Chair by a 55-45 margin. If you heard a whizzing noise this evening, it was the bullet we all dodged in this race. – Sheriff Adrian Garcia easily won renomination with over 70% of the vote. – State Reps. Garnet Coleman and Borris Miles [...]
GOP results, statewide
Full, though not necessarily the most up to date, results, are here. The Trib and the Observer have good roundups as well. – Mitt. Yawn. He was at just under 70% statewide, with Ron Paul getting 11% and Rick Santorum 8%. You have to wonder what might have been if Santorum had held on through [...]
Races I’ll be watching for tonight
As noted this morning, I will be participating in a live chat tonight beginning at 7 PM at the Chron election blog. I hope you’ll come by and ask some questions about what happened today. There are many races to keep track of. Here’s a brief guide to some of the one’s I’ll be watching [...]
Three primary stories
TX Trib: 4 Democrats Vying to Replace Hochberg in HD-137 Observers say the winner of the contest for HD-137 is likely to be decided in the Democratic primary, whose four candidates are former Capitol staffers Joseph Carlos Madden and Jamaal Smith, Harris County prosecutor Gene Wu and Alief Independent School District board member Sarah Winkler. [...]
The Parent PAC slate
I mentioned some of the candidates that have been endorsed by the Texas Parent PAC in this post, but since then they have released their full slate of endorsees. Texas Senate S.D. 9: Rep. Todd Smith, R-Euless www.toddsmithfortexas.com S.D. 11: Dave Norman, R-Seabrook www.davenormanforsenate.com S.D. 25: Sen. Jeff Wentworth, R-San Antonio www.senatorjeffwentworth.com Texas House of Representatives H.D. 2: George [...]