Texas Eagle Forum
State Legislative Alert (May 26, 1999)
by Cathie Adams, president, cathieadams@texaseagle.org
IN THIS ISSUE:

Contact your State Legislator

Capitol switchboard: 512-463-4630

Legislator’s e-mail:

    House member: firstname.lastname@house.state.tx.us
    Senate member: firstname.lastname@senate.state.tx.us

You can obtain the full text of the bills at http://www.capitol.state.tx.us

ABORTION
VICTORY AT LAST!!!! The Senate voted 21-8 to concur with the House amendments to SB 30. Victory did not come easy. First the House clerks sent over a version of the bill that included amendments that had failed in the House. Those clerical (yeh, right!!) errors had to be corrected. Then, Senators Moncrief, Gallegos and Bersen made Sen. Shapiro walk through the entire process of bypass and generally ragged on her for awhile. A point of order was raised against the bill. This is highly unusual in the Senate. After a group gathering around the Lt. Gov., the point of order was withdrawn. Could it have been the look Lt. Gov. Perry gave the Senator raising the point of order??? Governor Bush says he welcomes the bill and will sign it so all the obstacles seem to have been passed. To God be the Glory.

READING AMENDMENTS
Texas House passes historic reading legislation:
Sunday, May 22, Representative Charlie Howard amended SB4, a school finance bill in the house with an historic measure.

Amendment 66 to SB4 requires the Texas reading curriculum (The Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills or TEKS) to be: The amendment also requires reading textbooks to include the same provisions.

Representative Howard also filed an amendment that will require pre-reading instruments used by the state to include phonemic awareness, sound-letter knowledge, and letter knowledge.

Texas Eagle Forum applauds the Texas House for passing these amendments. They will help ensure that more Texas students learn to read and spell.

This bill now heads to Senate concurrence or a conference committee. Calls are desperately needed to all Senators, Governor Bush and Lt. Governor Rick Perry to assure that these desperately needed measures remain in the bill. This is a historic opportunity that many conservative groups have worked toward for a long time.

These measures will affect: the quality of learning in public schools, dropout rates, the prison population, and school violence more than any other single action could.

PLEASE MAKE THE CALL:
Capitol Switchboard, 512-463-4630 - Ask for your Senator
Governor's office 1-800-252-9600 or 1-800-843-5789
Fax any state Senator: 512-463-0326
Fax any state Senator: 512-463-0326
Faxes and calls are better!

TELL THEM TO KEEP THE HOWARD READING
AMENDMENTS (AMENDMENTS 66 & 67) ON SB4

SCHOOL-TO-WORK
BIG STW PROBLEM IN SB 4
Legislature Mandates Designation Of A Career Track

Sunday, May 22, Representative Todd Staples amended SB4 with a measure that will require the State Board of Education to designate a career track for Texas Students.

The amendment (Amendment 68 by Staples) requires the SBOE to identify vocational courses or series of courses that satisfy graduation requirements.

In other words, students can meet all graduation requirements by taking only the specified vocational courses rather than a combination of academic and vocational courses (a vocational track).

LET YOUR SENATORS KNOW YOU OPPOSE THIS AMENDMENT.

TELL THEM TO OPPOSE THE FEDERALLY DEVELOPED STW VOCATIONAL TRACK FOR STUDENTS. (Amendment 68 by Staples) KEEP THE FOCUS ON ACADEMICS.

LETTER TO GOVERNOR BUSH ON STW BILLS
The following letter was sent to the Governor on Friday, May 21, 1999:

May 21, 1999

The Honorable George W. Bush
Governor
Austin, Texas
Letter By Fax

Dear Governor Bush:

We share your commitment to improving the education of all Texas students. We also affirm the commitments that you made to the people of Texas regarding local control and restricting the regulatory power of the Texas Education Agency. For this reason, we would like to express our concern about legislation that may soon arrive at your desk that would violate these commitments.

As you know, School-to-Work has become a controversial subject in Texas. Because of the controversy, you and the Texas Workforce Commission have issued statements that confirm that School-to-Work is to be a totally voluntary, locally selected program and that Texas will not attempt to certify the workforce skills of it's students.

Several pieces of legislation seek to expand or mandate onerous components of School-to-Work.

Our greatest concern is with HB 921 by Ehrhardt (SB 255 by Armbrister).

This bill would mandate that districts provide instruction in every essential knowledge and skill in the state defined enrichment curriculum as a condition for accreditation. Districts are now only required to use the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) of the enrichment curriculum as guidelines. In other words, they have local discretion as to how to teach vocational programs. This bill would mandate that local schools provide vocational programs as prescribed by the state, eliminating local discretion and therefore local control.

We oppose this bill and are greatly concerned that it may be attached to other legislation. We ask that you work to see that this legislation does not get to your desk. If it does, we ask you to veto it.

We are also greatly concerned with HB 2401 by Keffer.
This bill would regulate "workforce training" for students by codifying locally controlled components for Tech-Prep programs. Ara Merjanian of your office testified that portions of this bill served to bring Texas Tech-Prep into compliance with federal legislation, which is inconsistent with local control.

In addition, this bill would give the TEA the regulatory authority to "certify" only those vocational programs that meet the criteria listed in the bill. These criteria include requirements that local programs "comply with all state and federal laws." The TEA and the Texas Workforce Commission would be granted new rulemaking authority "as necessary" to implement the new law. Local workforce development boards will be required to provide information and technical assistance in the implementation of the law.

Again, this bill violates commitments to local control, reducing the regulatory authority of the TEA and local decision making regarding School-to-Work programs. We ask you to veto this bill.

We also oppose SB 1027, which is similar to SB 2401.
This bill prescribes that a tech-prep program must integrate academic and vocational instruction and teach "workplace skills."

It also decrees teaching methods and instructional arrangements for local schools, mandating that they must use "applied, contextual academics and integrated instruction" and teach "a coherent sequence of courses."

While these might be the preferred arrangements for vocational programs, these decrees are a flagrant infringement on local control. No other Texas law prescribes teaching methods for local teachers.

In addition, the law states that the programs must "lead to appropriate employment," an ambiguous and precarious duty for the state and the schools.

Finally, this bill mandates that counselors must be trained to "ensure that tech-prep students are placed in appropriate employment." We are totally opposed to requiring counselors and schools to serve as employment agencies.

We believe your commitment to local control precludes the acceptance of this bill. We would like you to veto it.

We are also concerned about HB 3431. This bill was changed from an innocuous bill to include egregious provisions. It will increase the regulatory power of the TEA and eliminate the authority of the State Board of Education for the state plan for vocational education.

It also requires all agencies to fund vocational tracking, which is quickly leading to lifetime government data tracking for all individuals.

The bill requires Texas to not only "validate" (which is the currently existing language), but also to "recognize" national skill standards and "recognize the skill standards and certification procedures" of industry groups. Also, the Texas Skills Standards Board will be required to enter into agreements to recognize other states "standards."

These provisions are far from local control. We ask for your veto on this bill.

Lastly, we are concerned about the message sent by HB 1418 by Seaman and HCR117 by Keffer. HB1418 would authorize a school district to offer a program in which the student can obtain a "certificate" issued by the district. You and your staff have consistently stated that you do not support, nor have any intention of creating, "certificates of mastery" in Texas.

The bill also authorizes school boards to provide insurance to protect a business "against liability for a bodily injury . . . or the death" of a student working at a job site off of school campus.

The bill requires local vocational programs that offer certification programs to consider the state vocational plan, something they can already do if they so desire.

This bill also places a new requirement on districts to submit local plans to the TEA "in accordance with criteria established by the agency:" a dubious and threatening requirement.

Since local schools already have the power to decide these matters, this bill is anti-local control and would serve as an endorsement and inducement from the Legislature (and from the Governor if you sign it) for School-to-Work programs in general and specifically for certifying students' work skills.

A legislator on the education committee noted that districts could already implement these programs if they desired and that putting this language in the education code serves as an inducement to require programs to comply with the listed criteria. Testimony from the advocates of this bill made it clear that they needed the endorsement, permission, incentive, and encouragement of the Legislature because otherwise districts are hesitant to implement these programs.

We sincerely desire you to veto this bill should it get to your desk.

HCR117 is a resolution that would put the full force of the Legislature behind the expansion of vocational programs. These programs are already being marketed by Texas with various state and federal funding. Local districts have full access to these programs and may implement them if they so desire. As stated in the resolution, "far too many school districts have opted not to" implement these programs. This resolution will be used to force districts to further consider these programs, an unnecessary pressure.

We hope you will not let this resolution be used to coerce local schools into doing things they have already decided not to do.

We would like to reiterate that in each one of these cases, the local school districts can and are implementing the programs or curricula specified in each bill. Therefore, we encourage you to retain the maximum amount of local control by vetoing these bills.

Sincerely,

Cathie Adams, President
Stephanie Cecil, Education Liaison
Texas Eagle Forum

Diane Hensley
Concerned Women for America (Texas)

Anne Newman, President
Texas Family Research Center

Jeff Judson, President
Texas Public Policy Foundation

Chuck Anderson, Executive Director
Texas Christian Coalition

Rev. "Curt" Tomlin, President
The Christian Alert Network (TCAN)

Jeanne Donovan, Coordinator
Texas Education Consumers Association

Chris Patterson, Director
Education Connection of Texas

JoAnn Fleming, Vice-President
Smith County Association of Taxpayers

John Nichols, Executive Director
Parent's Coalition of Texas

CC: Lieutenant Governor Rick Perry
Margaret LaMontagne


Legislative Advertising, Texas Eagle Forum, Cathie Adams, P.O. Box 795354, Dallas, TX 75379.

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