Feb. 2-3 SBOE Meeting Highlights

Here are summaries of what happened during the SBOE’s first meeting of 2023.

• Resources: Click here for the Feb. 2 committee minutes and here for the SBOE web page for agendas, a list of board members, meeting webcast links, and more.

The board:

• Was sworn in by the governor, elected officers, learned whether they will be serving two-or-four year terms, and took care of other organizational business. (article)

• Approved a controversial item, by a 8-5 vote, to drop an anti-voucher position from the legislative recommendations that the prior board had approved last November. The removal of the item means that the SBOE takes no official position on vouchers. (Texas Tribune)
  
  
• Approved this petition (see also agenda) submitted by the Texas Public Charter Schools Association — and agreed to start the rule making process on — eliminating the SBOE’s “no-contact” rule prohibiting applicants for new charter districts from communicating with SBOE members. The vote was 9-4. See next item.
  
  
• Heard TEA charter staff report (to the SBOE Committee on School Initiatives) that 19 of the 25 applications for new charter districts that met the November application deadline are still in the running for consideration, and are now undergoing an extensive process of being evaluated by external (non-TEA staff) reviewers.
  
  Applicants that survive the external review process will be interviewed by TEA staff and SBOE members in early May. The commissioner will announce his selections for new charter districts later in May, subject to possible veto by SBOE members at their June meeting.
  
  The TEA maintains an updated database of the status of charter applications — click here and enter Gen 28 in the search field.
  
  The other six applicants were eliminated either because their applications were incomplete, or for technical reasons.
  
  
• Transformed what is usually a routine discussion and vote on new courses into a controversial item, thanks to a slate of newly elected conservative Republican board members. The issue was the approval (agenda) to add a new one-credit AP Precalculus course to the state’s curriculum offerings.
  
  Opponents expressed concerns about AP courses being products of The College Board (CB) due to the CB’s affiliation with the Common Core curriculum, which is outlawed in Texas. Critics also complained that the CB has not yet posted detailed information about the content of the course.
  
  This led veteran SBOE member Will Hickman, R-Houston, to plead with the board members to approve the course — saying that he has vetted the AP courses his daughter is taking, and that he has found nothing wrong with them.
  
  The AP Precalculus item passed, on 2nd/final reading, via a 10-4 vote.

• Took action that will result in the Permanent School Fund Bond Guarantee Program having an extra $6 billion to guarantee school bonds while the state looks to Washington for a permanent fix to the bond guarantee crisis. (article)
  
  
• Rejected, via a 13-1 vote, a request from GED Testing Services for increases in the prices (listed here) for certain Texas Certificate of High School Equivalency tests and to reduce the number of retests that can be taken at a discounted price. (agenda)
  
  
• Revised the instructional materials calendar (available here) due to delays regarding the scheduled adoption for Career and Technical Education (CTE) TEKS in certain subjects, and the decision to cancel plans to issue state adopted Social Studies instructional materials that were scheduled to be introduced in School Year 2025-26.
  
  The board also postponed the planned final adoption of a rule revision to repeal two existing middle school CTE courses and add a new middle school CTE course, Flight Plans, that would combine elements from the two existing courses. (agenda)
  
  
• Discussed, in a committee, the possibility of revising rules governing independent hearing examiner qualifications. (article)