HB 400 Struggle Breaks Old Alliances, Creates New Ones

[w8liftinglady]

http://www.texastribune.org/texas-education/public-education/hb-400-struggle-breaks-old-alliances-creates-new/

Just past midnight, at the close of a 14-hour day last week on the floor of the Texas House, Rep. Rob Eissler stood joking with reporters.

“I’m going to move my desk up to the front mic,” Eissler said, “so I can watch every bill that goes by.”

After failing on three separate occasions to pass his signature education bill for the session and running out of time on a fourth, the Woodlands Republican was describing his plan to attach the legislation as an amendment to other bills that are still working their way through the House.

The widely liked, pun-spinning Eissler has led the House Public Education Committee since 2007, and this session he has a Republican supermajority to back him. Yet even with 66 co-sponsors, he stumbled with the bill bundling several measures to relieve school district mandates required by the state — including removing the 22-to-1 student-to-teacher ratio in kindergarten through fourth grade, minimum salary requirements for teachers and contractual obligations dealing with layoffs.

The clash over the measure, House Bill 400, has been cast as teachers versus administrators, labor versus management. But in a session characterized by extreme partisanship, the legislation is notable for what it is not: Republican versus Democrat. While it has handed Democrats a rare strategic victory this session, it has drawn opponents from the left and the right.

[sonias]

1. "Education is not a partisan issue" - wtf?

“Education is not a partisan issue,” Eissler said. “Not everybody in one party is completely sold on one approach.”

I'm pretty sure it is actually. Not everyone in one party buys into everything on the platform, but the party stands where the majority of the party voters are. And for the Ds we support, smaller class room sizes. And for the Rs it's all about cost - the bottom line - to get kids through the 12 years of public education. Rs see kids as products. Democrats see them as human beings, more like resources that you try to protect and value.

If some people in the R party are finally waking up to the mean spiritedness of their own party - great. About frigging time. Maybe you can try to bring your party back to the sane universe.

:kick:

[plumbob]

2. Why don't they just do away with the requirement for teachers to have

degrees? and teaching credentials? That would save a lot on teacher salaries.





Well, sure, there's all that other stuff about actually educating kids, but it's obvious that few in the Lege care about that, so why not go all the way with their true feelings?