State Rep. Debbie Riddle (R-150) filed HB945 this week. If enacted, it would abolish the Harris County Department of Education, transferring control of the assets to the Harris County Commissioners Court, and giving the commissioners one year to liquidate them. From the bill:
SECTION 1. (a) Each county board of education, board of county school trustees, and office of county school superintendent in a county with a population of 3.3 million or more is abolished effective September 1, 2013.
(b) All assets, liabilities, and contracts of a board abolished by this Act are transferred to the commissioners court of the county in trust for the component school districts in the county. The commissioners court shall, not later than September 1, 2014, distribute the assets remaining after discharge of the board’s liabilities to the component school districts in the county in proportionate shares equal to the proportion that the membership in each district bears to total membership in the county as of May 1, 2013.
If she is successful, she will have achieved something that many conservatives have been trying to do for years. Former HCDE Trustee Mike Wolfe has been the leader of that charge for the past six years but was unsuccessful in gaining the support of the majority of the board members during his tenure. I spoke to him this afternoon and he thinks that the timing might be right for her bill to pass. Also, he has an opinion piece in this month’s Daughters of Liberty newsletter that addresses the issue.
The truth is, I hear, that a number of members of Harris County Commissioner’s Court decided in 2012 that it might be time to abolish HCDE – given that this agency has appeared more interested – in the last 3 years – in using taxpayer’s money to unsuccessfully sue Harris County, Harris County Clerk Stan Stanart, then Harris County Tax-Assessor Collector Don Sumners, and a then sitting Board Member than it does in actually using its $100 Million Dollar annual budget to further the education of our kids.
And Mike is probably right about that. I recall Commissioner Steve Radack talking about the HCDE during his speech at the Downtown Houston Pachyderm Club last year and he was clearly unhappy about their lawsuit. And I’ve heard County Judge Emmett express his disdain for it.
I’m still not as certain as Mike and the commissioners are that this department needs to close. I’ve been putting off touring the campuses and talking to the principals for some time, so I guess I need to get that done. I get what the critics say about the duplication of services but the supporters make a strong case that they are doing these services cheaper than the member school districts could on their own. The next HCDE board meeting is February 26th at 1:00 pm.
This issue aside, I’m glad to see Rep. Riddle tackling these types of issues (see Kuff’s post on jury duty) and toning down her rhetoric on hot-button issues. I’ll bet that she gets more done. By the way, the best way to keep up with her is her Facebook page – Representative Debbie Riddle. If you click on the “Like” button, you’ll automatically get her legislative updates.
Debbie Riddle is my hero. Commissioners Radack, Cagle, Mormon, Lee, and County Judge Emmett will do a a better job any day of the year at managing HCDE assets than the current HCDE Superintendent.
The lawsuits filed by HCDE should have no bearing on whether the department should be shuttered or not. Ineptness at the county level in drawing precinct boundaries and holding valid elections pretty much forced HCDE’s hand.
After you tour HCDE’s 4 schools, make sure you tour the other 70+ Alternative Schools in Harris County so you can compare HCDE’s cost per student to the others, and can discover for yourself if HCDE is truly the ONLY organization that educates special students.
And don’t forget, HCDE has NO students of their own. Their 300 students are zoned to ISDs and remain on their ISD rosters. They are just temporarily housed on an HCDE campus for alternative instruction. HCDE CONTRACTS with the ISDs and charges the ISDs TUITION per student. They also allow students from OUTSIDE Harris County to attend.
That means Harris County taxpayers pay TWICE per student – once with their ISD property tax used for HCDE student tuition and again with the HCDE property tax which pays the entire HCDE Board, administration, staff, buildings, technology, etc.
Oh, while you are there, you might also ask why Harris County Taxpayers are the ONLY property owners forced to support HCDE when Harris County has only 26 ISDs – but HCDE claims to offer services to over 1000 clients all over the UNITED STATES.
It’s only too bad that Mike isn’t back on the HCDE Board to help push this along internally.
Mark,
I agree about the lawsuit and said so at the bottom of this post: http://bit.ly/Y1uVah
Thank God this has taken traction! It is is long overdue and I fully agree that Comm. Ct. can manage this mess better than the outdated and bloated HCDE. I sure hope Debbie’s bill passes.
MD
Mathew – you say that the County COmmissioner court can manage this better than the “outdated bloated HCDE?” WHy do you not think the COunty Commissioner court is not “outdated bloated and incompetent” as well?