Normally, we would wait until the Friday before the meeting to preview the upcoming State Board of Education (SBOE) meeting on Nov. 18-22. But we wanted to alert Hotline readers to some recent news and an opportunity for action.
First, some election news: Aicha Davis, the former SBOE member for District 13, resigned earlier this year to run for Texas House District 109, a race she won Tuesday. We congratulate the new Rep. Davis and look forward to working with her in January! To fill the vacancy in District 13, Dr. Tiffany Clark, a former school counselor and De Soto ISD school board member, was placed on the November ballot and ran uncontested in this week’s election.
However, the governor has the authority to appoint a member to a vacant seat until the newly elected member can be sworn in for their term in January. Gov. Greg Abbott has chosen to exercise this power, and on Nov. 1, announced that Leslie Recine will serve for exactly one meeting on the SBOE. Recine is long-time Republican consultant and fundraiser with no direct experience with public education.
Abbott could have appointed a new member as soon as Davis resigned this summer. We suspect that the appointment anticipates a close vote on the approval of the Bluebonnet Learning materials,
the Texas Education Agency-developed open education resources (OER) stemming from the passage of House Bill 1605. At the previous SBOE meeting in September, a majority of testifiers spoke out against the inclusion of Biblical references and content in the proposed K-5 English language arts and reading materials.
Texas AFT will once again be engaging with partners in the advocacy to ensure that state-developed materials honor the separation of church and state and the academic freedom of our classrooms. Please join us next week Wednesday, Nov. 13, from 6:30-7:30 pm CT for a training hosted by Texas Freedom Network for updates and advocacy training for the meeting. Register online to attend.
The SBOE’s full November agenda can be found on the SBOE website.