HB 710, on final House Reading, failed to pass by a vote of 71-73. This is the final House vote for this bill, so this should be it for this issue. Their is an identical bill in the Senate, SB 513, by Rodney Ellis. It has not moved at all so it is probably too late for anything happening on this in the Senate. You can count on us to keep our eye on this issue until the Legislative session ends!
While you were calling and emailing people, we were outside the House Chamber here at the Capitol in Austin talking to House Members about this issue. Thanks to all the organizations and grassroots supporters for helping to contact your elected officials to get this done!!
Click Here to see how YOUR Representative voted. http://www.legis.state.tx.us/BillLookup/RecordVote.aspx?LegSess=81R&Bill=HB710&RcdVtNo=588&Ch=H&Dt=05/06/2009
If your State Representative voted against HB 710, don’t call them. Instead send him or her a personal, handwritten letter saying “Thank You!” They will greatly appreciate it.
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Texas Legislative Update: A Liberty Institute Blog 
Thanks for the update, Jonathon the SBOE is getting some badly needed K-12 edu reform done, it is important that we loudly support them! This is a citizen elected board and we need to stand behind them and support them!
Wow, I bet those libs who tried to take away our vote are furious that liberty prevailed!
We, out here in the State, did work furiously at our keyboards and telephones trying to make a difference. Thank you to those who were out in the hallways of the Capitol Building, talking…furiously…to get across the message that the SBOE is our, The Citizen’s, opportunity for input as to how and what our children are taught. Our final comment is this: REFORM IS BADLY NEEDED IN TEACHER TRAINING INSTITUTIONS WHERE THE CURRICULUM SHOULD BE GREATLY STRENGTHENED, WHERE ALPHABETIC PHONICS AND THE SAXON MATH METHOD BECOMES ‘THE’..REPEAT ‘THE’ ABSOLUTE, FOOLPROOF ANSWER TO TEACHING READING AND ARITHMETIC/MATH TO ALL TEXAS CHILDREN. WITHOUT SUFFICIENTLY-TRAINED TEACHERS, PERHAPS EVEN MASTER TEACHERS, IN ALL TEXAS SCHOOLS/CLASSROOMS, OUR YOUNSTERS WILL BE SHORT-CHANGED AND WILL NOT BE EQUIPPED TO RIGOROUSLY USE THE TOOLS TO THEIR OWN AND THEIR STATE’S/COUNTRY’S ADVANTAGE. (ALPHABETIC PHONICS IS TAUGHT AT THE NEUHAUS EDUCATION CENTER, HOUSTON; SAXON MATH SERIES CAN BE OBTAINED FROM HARCOURT ACHIEVE.)
I received a reply from my representative, who I had telephoned and sent an email. He stated there was much misinformation regarding HB710. He reasoned that the Board should be under review as other elected Directors were. He also said Sunset could not abolish the Board. Is that not what the Sunset Commission does if “they” determine an agency is not accomplishing its mission? He said “The intent of HB 710 was to ensure greater public accountability for the SBOE as is done with other State agencies”. I responded to him that I felt the Board was very accountable to Texans right now as indicated by the recent vote on the “strengths and weaknesses” issue in Science. After the public spoke up in a loud voice, the Board came up with wording that would not restrict teachers and students from discussing, analyzing, and answering questions which is the way it should be. I believe “we the people” should retain our over-sight of the Board rather than 10 reviewers who may have other agendas.
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