Dear friend:
This week’s newsletter discusses school district accountability and transparency. First, however, I want to let you know that my office is hosting a Town Hall this weekend. I am very much looking forward to the opportunity to provide an overview of District 29 activities in 2013, as well as highlight some great work being done by District Advisory Committees. The event is from 10-noon Saturday at the EPCC Administrative Offices, 9050 Viscount. Please attend, and bring a friend!
Getting right into it
One of my priorities this session was addressing school accountability and transparency. The recent cheating and public corruption issues at the EPISD and elsewhere required a response at all levels of the community. My office, consulting with stakeholders and with the agencies, identified several legislative items to help protect students and strengthen public oversight.
One of those items was HB 343, which Rep. Marisa Marquez passed from the House and I sponsored in the Senate. It appears that some El Paso area school board members object to the new law, for reasons that aren’t quite clear. I wrote a letter that summarizes the history and the process that led to this bill,which you can read here.
Over the past several years, at least 10 people have pleaded guilty to either bribing or taking bribes in relation to contracts in El Paso County’s three largest school districts.
HB 343 simply requires El Paso County school board members to file personal financial statements with their district and the El Paso County Commissioners Court. The language of the law mirrors the requirement for other local and state elected officials. However, the requirement for El Paso County school board members applies only for the next five years; the law sunsets in January 1, 2019.
Notably, H.B. 343 passed the Senate unanimously (30-0) and overwhelmingly passed the House (141-5). The bill was supported by the Texas State Teachers Association, the City of El Paso, the Texas Press Association, and the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas. Once the bill was modified to apply only to school boards in El Paso County, no one opposed it; this includes the Texas Association of School Boards, which took a neutral position on the bill in recognition of the past corruption of school board members in El Paso.
The fact of the matter is that school board members are directly responsible for setting property tax rates and managing substantial budgets, which are often in the range of millions of dollars and larger than many city or town budgets.
Their decisions affect thousands of school children and their parents as well as taxpayers. Consequently, I can find no legitimate reason that school board members should be held to a lower standard than City Council Members, County Commissioners, or State Representatives and Senators.
Meanwhile, what about our kids?
The corrupted contracting process is a separate issue from the serious issue of school administrators cheating students out of a quality education in order to manipulate accountability measures.
You may know about the State Auditor’s Office report on the TEA. The report essentially confirmed that TEA failed the students it’s supposed to protect by failing to adequately investigate the allegations of cheating at EPISD. As a result of the report the TEA is rearranging its investigative processes. Although I am appreciative of those efforts, I have serious concerns that TEA simply does not have sufficient financial resources to adequately implement these recommendations.
In a letter to TEA Commissioner Williams I offered support for added resources and asked for support to strengthen whistleblower protection. I also urged the Commissioner to take appropriate action against those TEA leaders and staff – past and present — who allowed this to happen.
I also wrote a letter to DOE Commissioner Arne Duncan with two requests: First, given that the June 2013 USDE audit was limited to EPISD, I asked him to open a statewide investigation of all Texas school districts to determine how many other districts have implemented policies similar to those used at EPISD to circumvent the federal accountability system; Second, I asked him to conduct a comprehensive review of TEA’s existing policies and procedures.
Given the hundreds—possibly thousands—of children who were cheated by the very people that we entrust our schools to, we must closely examine why the TEA and, to a certain extent, the USDE, were unable to properly investigate these allegations in a timely manner and whether it reflects systemic, institutional failure that needs to be addressed.
What happened to hundreds of students at EPISD and other school districts in Texas is a tragedy. To ensure that it does not happen again, it is vital that the USDE conduct a comprehensive investigation of Texas school districts and TEA. It’s the only way that we can protect our children and the integrity of our educational system.
Sincerely,
