Yes, this is another bill attacking the SBOE. Yes, the House will be meeting on Saturday to vote on this bill!! Yes, you need to call their offices right now!
This is another extreme move to strike back at the SBOE because some House and Senate members do not like the outcome of recent SBOE decisions. Most of these attacks have been from Democrats. No different here, as HB 710 is authored by Rep. Patrick Rose of Dripping Springs.
This bill requires the State Board of Education to be subject to "Sunset Review," which is a form of periodic review with which a group of 10 elected officials and 2 unelected officials review state agencies and have the ability to abolish such agencies.
If HB 710 passes, the SBOE would be the only elected body to be subject to Sunset Review.
Voters can decide on their own if they think elected officials are doing a good job - that's the input you have as a vote. HB 710 strips the public of their role as a "check" on elected officials and their control over fair representation is attacked as well.
The real issue here, though, is that this bill is just another attack on the SBOE because of some people didn't like their decision on issues like the science and censorship debate, even though the main vote on that issue was 13-2, almost unanimous support by Republicans and Democrats.
Comments by Sen. Rodney Ellis, who filed the Senate companion (SB 513) for this bill: "Nationally, even as there is more of an emphasis on a healthy respect for science, here in Texas, the State Board of Education is bogged down in a fight over evolution," Ellis said.
Well, we wouldn't have been "bogged down" if extremists would have left the 20-year policy of teaching "strengths and weaknesses" alone. That's like smashing a wasp's nest with a club and then complaining because you got stung.
We are against this bill.
Call your House member and tell him/her to vote "NO" on HB 710. Click
here for contact info.
