Big Jolly Politics

politics in Harris County and Texas

Early to Rise finally put to bed

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HCDE Early to Rise logo

At least, I think it has been put to bed. You never know – with this much money at stake, there remains the possibility of a challenge despite the AG’s opinion. But I digress.

Yesterday, the Texas Attorney General’s office finally released an opinion of the legality of the Early to Rise Initiative. For those who have forgotten what that was, it was an attempt by a private group to force an election proposing a tax increase by the Harris County School Trustees, aka the Harris County Department of Education. If approved by voters, the tax rate would have gone up 1 cent per $100 of property appraised valuation, raising approximately $30 million per year, with the proceeds being turned over to the private group for disbursement to various pre-school “education” programs. Harris County Judge Ed Emmett rejected the petition, lawsuits erupted, and the 14th Court of Appeals ultimately upheld Emmett’s rejection, thus killing the initiative for 2013.

You can read the full AG opinion here. The relevant part:

A court would likely conclude that section 11.301 and former chapter 18 of the Education Code do not authorize a countywide school district to hold a petition-initiated election to increase the county equalization tax.

Judge Emmett issued a press release:

TEXAS ATTORNEY GENERAL CONFIRMS

ILLEGALITY OF ‘EARLY TO RISE’ BALLOT INITIATIVE

Opinion Reaffirms Decision By County Judge Ed Emmett

The Texas Attorney General’s Office confirmed today that last year’s attempt to force a petition-initiated tax increase for the Harris County Department of Education violated state law. The opinion, released today in response to a request by state Sen. Dan Patrick, chairman of the Senate Education Committee, confirms a decision by Harris County Judge Ed Emmett last year not to allow the proposal on the Nov. 5, 2013, ballot.

Using a repealed section of state law, a group named Early To Rise collected more than 80,000 signatures in an effort to force Emmett to place the tax increase on the November ballot. Proceeds from that tax increase were to be directed to an early childhood education training program operated by the Harris County School Readiness Corp., a private group.

After researching the issue and consulting with education law experts, Emmett rejected the advice of the Harris County Attorney and concluded that the arcane law the group tried to use to force the tax increase did not apply. The group then sued Emmett to force the issue on the ballot, but the 14th Court of Appeals refused to overturn Emmett’s decision.

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott released a legal opinion today stating that state laws “do not authorize a countywide school district to hold a petition-initiated election to increase the county equalization tax.”

“I am grateful for the attorney general’s clear opinion today confirming the illegality of the Early To Rise initiative,” Emmett said. “Despite numerous threats of lawsuits, it was clear to me that this bizarre proposal was illegal and wrong-headed. It’s gratifying to have the confirmation of both the appellate court and the state of Texas.”

Although it was Emmett that blocked the election, the AG’s opinion was in response to a request from Sen. Dan Patrick on September 23, 2013 about the legality of holding such an election. You can read Sen. Patrick’s request here.

Interestingly, Harris County Attorney Vince Ryan might have forced the AG to go ahead and issue the opinion by submitting his own request on February 3, 2014. In his request, Ryan, who supported the initiative and the private group trying to get taxpayer money, suggested that the group might try again:

Although the litigation has ended and the November election is over, it is our understanding that the petition may be presented to the Harris County Judge again for an upcoming election. The facts are essentially as presented before with the addition of information about the intended method of distribution of the equalization funds. According to news reports, the HCDE would have collected the tax, and the Harris County School Readiness Corporation, a nonprofit behind the Early to Rise Initiative, would have distributed the money. The Early To Rise website says: “the additional revenues will be overseen by the Harris County School Readiness Corporation, a public/ private partnership board … “

So like I said above, it may well not be over with this much money at stake. But the AG’s opinion surely helps Emmett’s case.

Full coverage of the Early to Rise Initiative can be found here.

 

Judge Ed Emmett wins Early to Rise fight

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The Fourteenth Court of Appeals has made their ruling on the lawsuit filed by Jonathan Day, Charhonda Williams, and Eva Castillo against Harris County Judge Ed Emmett in the “Early to Rise” matter:

(click here if viewer does not open)

As you can see, Judge Emmett won the case and the attempt to increase the Harris County Department of Education’s tax rate will not be on the November ballot.

A big THANK YOU to Judge Emmett for leading the fight against this measure.

 

Harris County Department of Education Board Meeting 8-20-13

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Harris County Department of Education logo

The Harris County Department of Education (HCDE) Board of Trustees held their regular monthly board meeting on Tuesday, August 20th, immediately following the morning workshop on Early to Rise. Click here for the agenda.

The HCDE board meetings have citizen comments immediately after the invocation and pledges. Because the morning had been focused on the Early to Rise initiative, there were many citizens signed up to talk about that issue. There were eight total, including me. Six of the seven were against the initiative, one was against the way the department distributes current tax revenue. I missed the name of one of the citizens, I apologize for that.

Open Forum

Minister Dewayne Lark
Minister Dewayne Lark

First up was Minister DeWayne Lark. Minister Lark was concerned that the board would want to associate with a private group and give them taxpayer funds to train undereducated, non-certified workers and teachers at private day care centers. He wants the funds to go to Head Start programs that have had their funding cut. He noted that the initiative provides no direct services to children.

Carol Kitson
Carol Kitson

Carol Kitson told the board about a possible conflict of interest with Supt. Dr. John Sawyer. It seems that Dr. Sawyer was on the board of the Collaborative for Children, one of the drivers behind the Early to Rise initiative. Interestingly, the current link for the Collaborative for Children Board members is blank but I did find his name on several press releases on the site. Here is one.

At this point in the meeting, Trustee Marvin Morris interrupted to make certain that we knew that the HCDE board did not come up with the idea, an outside group approached them, the HCDE board has nothing to do with the ballot proposition, and that thus far he hasn’t seen anything that would make him vote for the idea.

Colleen Vera inroduced herself as a “watchdog” and proceeded to read from two Texas Attorney General opinions about the way the HCDE must use tax revenue and one Texas Supreme Court decision about the way tax revenue collected for schools must be used. She then made a veiled threat of sorts by telling the board that her testimony was being recorded on video to prove that the board had been told about the opinions and decision. I suppose this will be used in one of the many lawsuits that will result if the HCDE board approves partnering with the Harris County School Readiness Corporation (HCSRC).

I was up next and told the board that I appreciated the transparency of the workshop they held. I had come in against the proposition and remained against it but noted several areas where progress had been made – the composition of the HCSRC board and their accepting the guidelines of the Texas Public Information Act. I also told them that a better way to do this, if they really wanted to put more money into early childhood education, was to levy the remaining $0.0033 of their current tax rate authorization and keep the program in house. I’m not for that but it is a much cleaner way to accomplish much of what is being proposed without doubling the authorized tax rate or spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees. Going this route would raise about $10 million a year – if it works, then they could come back to the public, make their case from data, and then have a vote.

Rep. Debbie Riddle
Rep. Debbie Riddle

Rep. Debbie Riddle was next. She said that everyone wants to do what is right for the children but that too often we use our babies to profit ourselves and do not help them. She also told the board that Dr. John Sawyer had refused to answer a question from the Chair of the Texas House Public Education committee about transparency and if he did that to the Texas Legislature, this proposition would be no different. I found the archive from that committee hearing – you can watch it here: Public Education Committee Hearing 4-16-13 – starts at the 08:52:51 time mark. I didn’t find that conversation but it is a long hearing and might well be there if you watch it all. Rep. Riddle also gave an illustration saying that this proposition was the same as someone knocking on her door, offering to find someone to mow her yard for $100, then telling her that if she wanted to mow it herself, he’d pay her $25.

Rep. Riddle talked about her testimony on KSEV Radio with Paul Bettencourt after the meeting:

 

William Wilson testified against the bill.

Don Sumners
Don Sumners

Former Harris County Tax Assessor/Collector Don Sumners testified against the bill, saying that the board was wrong for not taking ownership of the proposition and shutting it down before it goes to the voters. He passed out a handout saying that bank robbers no longer bother with banks focusing on government instead because that is where the money is.

After the Open Forum ended, the board proceeded with normal business. I’ve noticed that the board is much more active this year and asks pointed questions to HCDE staff members – this wasn’t the case last year.

Several agenda items that were interesting

Agenda Item 5 B – Presentation on Policy CH (Local) – Jesus Amezcua, Assistant Superintendent for Business Services.

Mr. Amezcua spent a lot of time discussing the policy that procuring any single item over $50,000 or any aggregated item over $50,000 requires approval by the board. He spent a lot of time on this, explaining that sometimes the board has to approve additions to funding if the cost is underestimated. He gave several examples, mostly utility bills. One was the purchase of water from the City of Houston, budgeted at one number but they spent several thousand more, so the board has to approve the additional spending.

When I searched for the actual CH policy on the HCDE website, I found a CH(LOCAL) policy dated 7-24-2007 that conflicts with Mr. Amezcua’s presentation and statements at previous board meetings about a $50,000 cutoff point. Here is the relevant text:

The Board delegates to the Superintendent or the Superintendent’s designee the authority to determine the method of purchasing, in accordance with CH(LEGAL), and to make budgeted purchases. However, any purchase that costs or aggregates to a cost of $25,000 or more shall require Board approval before a transaction is culminated.

But in the long-form board agenda on page 496-7, there is a policy dated 4-47-2011 with the $50,000 amount. Obviously the website has an out of date policy and $50,000 is the correct amount. However, these types of mistakes contribute to the public perception that the department is out of control and mismanaged.

One thing is became very clear from Mr. Amezcua’s presentation – Dr. John Sawyer clearly violated this policy when he spent over $200,000 in the aggregate on lobbyists for the 83rd Legislative Session.

Agenda Item 7 C – Possible action on the appointment of bond counsel services for HCDE

This item contained the legal services contract with Fulbright & Jaworski pertaining to the Early to Rise initiative that I mentioned in this post. HCDE Board President Angie Chesnut told me during a break that Dr. John Sawyer had told her that this had nothing to do with the Early to Rise proposal and was only for legal opinions about the election if it takes place. Indeed, Marcus Detz, the attorney for Fulbright & Jaworski told me the same thing. However, under questioning by Trustee Kay Smith, it became clear that Mr. Detz had in fact participated in the negotiations for the draft proposal with Early to Rise. The board ultimately refused to approve the agreement until the wording is changed. Mr. Detz looked like he had been thrown under the bus after that happened.

Agenda Item 7 E – Consider approval to purchase 52 standard Lenovo Laptop Thinkpad computers from 466 CDW-G (Choice Partners job no. 10/009LB) for the purpose of service documentation by ECI Therapists and direct service staff in an amount not to exceed $50,704.

This was another example of how this board is different. Trustee Howard Jefferson questioned why the department would spend $1,000 on a laptop when you can buy a HP or Dell for $400. The staff stumbled around for awhile, then CIO Jim Schul took a stab at it. Dr. John Sawyer tried to intervene. In the end, the board wouldn’t bend and told Mr. Schul and his staff to come back to them at the next board meeting with a RFP and three competitive bids.

Agenda Item 7 F – Consider approval of Professional Service Contract with Janet Wachs for HCDE and the 468 HCDE Choice Partners cooperative for the period of 09/01/2013 through 08/31/2014 in an amount not to exceed $60,120 plus pre-approved expenses in an amount not to exceed $17,500 for a total aggregate of $77,620.

Once again, the board pushed back. This time Facilities Support Services Executive Director Les Hooper was on the hot seat. The board ultimately approved the hiring of Ms. Wachs but not before some pointed questioning. Turns out that Mr. Hooper had already hired Ms. Wachs and when asked why she would start work without a contract, Mr. Hooper told the board that she was working “on good faith”.

Ms. Wachs will be training Choice Partner field reps in “relationship selling” – remember that I talked about that subject before. Trustee Kay Smith went ballistic when Mr Hooper told her that Don Elder, who is being paid $102,357 per year could receive training from Ms. Wachs. The entire board seemed confused that Ms. Wachs will only work 3-4 days per week. In the end, they approved the contract but I think Mr. Hooper won’t do that again.

Wrap up

I left when the board went into closed session to receive legal advice on the Early to Rise initiative.

It was a long day but very informative. I was a bit surprised that no supporters of the Early to Rise initiative testified before the board – if I was in charge of that campaign, I would have rounded up a few citizens, gave them some talking points, and told them to get after it.

I like this board and the direction they are taking in asking tough questions and not being a rubber stamp for the HCDE staff. That is certainly a positive step for the future. If they have a future, but that is for a different day.

Click here for the BJP Early to Rise information page!

HCDE – Early to Rise workshop

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HCDE - Early to Rise logo

The Harris County Department of Education (HCDE) held a very informative workshop yesterday on the controversial Early to Rise initiative. The workshop lasted approximately 3 ½ hours and featured presentations from four representatives of the Harris County School Readiness Corporation (HCSRC).

  • James Calaway – Chair of the Early to Rise initiative
  • Carol Shattuck – President and CEO for Collaborative for Children
  • Nancy Correa – Director, Center for Parenting and Family Well-Being, Children at Risk
  • Jonathan Day – spokesperson for the Early to Rise initiative

The representatives of the HCSRC broke their presentations into two parts: the programs and services they are proposing, and the draft proposal itself.

Copy of the Draft Proposal

Copy of HCSRC Accountability and Conflict of Interest Policies

Early to Rise programs and services

Mr. Calaway spoke briefly about the overall project and how it came to be. He stressed that the project is the combined work of “civic leaders” and educational experts that are looking out for the future of the Houston area. He said that the program is designed to help the “teachers” in “woefully inadequate child care facilities”. He wanted the workshop broken into two segments, the first being about early childhood intervention and parenting skills, the second focused on the agreement between the HCDE and the HCSRC. He introduced several of the board members and gave backgrounds on others. He briefly discussed the rhetoric surrounding the imitative and the attacks on the HCDE, saying he now knows how it feels to be attacked for trying to do something good.

Ms. Shattuck spoke about the importance of early childhood intervention. She had given the board a handout and referred to that many times. She stated that research in the past twenty years has shown that the architecture of the brain is formed in the period between 18 months and 3 years and specifically mentioned the Hart-Risley Study on language development. She stated that studies have shown that children in low income environments can learn if they are engaged at the formative stage. She told the board that several Nobel Laureates support early childhood intervention because they say that it has a high return on investment, with much of the return going to society in general in the way of fewer dropouts, more college graduates, and less interaction with the criminal justice system.

She gave the following statistics on the current population of Harris County and how preschool children are cared for. She did not cite a source for these statistics.

  • 43% – home care with a mom or dad
  • 57% – others

The 57% is broken down:

  • 20% – informal care
  • 37% – licensed day care, Head Start, Pre-K programs

She told the group that the University of Houston had tracked children in a program in Houston, Bright Beginnings, and the results had been very positive.

There were a lot of questions from the board for Ms. Shattuck. Board President Angie Chesnut asked if parental training was a part of the program and Ms. Shattuck said yes, it was one leg of a three legged model: Early Childhood Education, Parental Training, and Access to Healthcare.

Trustee Kay Smith disputed the notion that Mr. Calaway and Ms. Shattuck had made that we as a community have not invested in early childhood education by citing a plethora of publicly funded programs. Ms. Shattuck replied that she would respond to that assertion by knowing that there are good programs and not so good programs and that the Early to Rise program was an effort to scale up the good programs that she knows work. Mr. Calaway assured Mrs. Smith that she would not allow her children to go into the places that he has gone into during the past few months. Trustee Kerner agreed with Mr. Calaway that there were places that she wouldn’t send her children to. Mr. Calaway said that we can’t stick our heads into the sand and continue to ignore young children, hoping for something that doesn’t exist, bringing up Harris County Sheriff Adrian Garcia’s comment that we can either invest in our children at 3 or we can invest a lot of money at 23. Mr. Calaway also blasted the state legislature for cutting the Pre-K program to half a day, saying that it was ridiculous because parents don’t work half a day.

By this time, the board was anxious to get into the agreement itself, so Ms Correa’s presentation on parenting. Her presentation was short and no questions were asked.

Listen to the first half of the segment here.

Early to Rise draft proposal

After a 10 minute break, Mr. Jonathan Day took his turn at the lectern to go over the draft agreement in detail. He stressed that it was not an unusual arrangement for governmental bodies to give taxpayer money to outside vendors. He emphasized three areas of oversight that the HCDE board will have:

  • Financial
  • Review and evaluation of programs
  • Establishment of transparency for the procurement process

The HCSRC will have a 3-5 member staff, housed at the HCDE North Post Oak Building 6005 Westview Drive Houston, TX 77055. Their function will be to develop and put forward the RFQ’s necessary to procure the services that the HCSRC will deliver. They will have no staff directly involved in training day care workers or parents – they will use outside vendors for all services delivered to capitalize on the resources of the community. The purpose of this model is so that the HCSRC does not create another bureaucracy – the HCDE staff will keep all financial records and serve as the fiscal agent for the HCSRC.

Because all records are kept by the HCDE, the HCDE board can have any report they might want at any time. HCDE will invest and manage the funds from the proposed tax. There will be an annual audit provided by the same firm that audits the HCDE, there will be annual goals and work plans that the HCDE board will approve, and the HCDE board will have full audit rights at all times. The HCDE board will have annual appropriations for the budget – if at any time the HCDE board does not like the progress of the HCSRC, the HCDE board can simply not appropriate the money and the program will cease.

The HCSRC board will have nine members, as follows:

  • Chair – selected by the eight appointed members
  • HCDE – will appoint four board members
  • HCSRC – will appoint four board members

The Chair has to be elected by a majority of both “sides” of appointed board members – at least 3 of the HCDE appointees and at least 3 of the HCSRC appointees. Mr. Day stressed that this is just a proposal in reaction to community concerns about accountability and that the HCDE board has final say on the make-up of the HCSRC board.

Trustee Kay Smith had a problem with the restrictions on the HCDE appointments. The draft agreement restricts the HCDE to appointing certain types of people.

HCDE appointees (1 each)

  • Public school experience
  • Community college experience
  • Higher education experience
  • Researcher in early childhood education

HCSRC appointees (1 each)

  • Business leader
  • Community leader with record of commitment to early childhood education
  • Faith-based leader
  • Civic leader with substantial experience leading a non-profit

Trustee Smith noted that under this agreement, the HCDE couldn’t appoint her because she comes from the business community. Mr. Day said that it was a draft agreement and they could work on the types of appointments.

Mr. Day closed by saying that there might be some board members that oppose this arrangement but that it was an example of direct democracy and urged the board to come to an agreement so that the voters will know what they are voting on in November. Mr. Day said that we cannot expect to get help from the state or federal government, noting that the state had cut funding for early childhood programs in 2011 and has not put the funding back.

There were a lot of questions and back and forth from the HCDE board and Mr. Day. I’ll highlight a few:

  • The HCDE would have a “Department Representative” that would have full authority to make binding agreements with the HCSRC. Trustee Howard Jefferson said that was a no-go and was not going to happen. Mr. Day said that they could fix that.
  • The HCDE will have to take $1.9 million out of its Reserve Fund (Rainy Day Fund) to fund the first year of the HCSRC and will be repaid from taxes collected the following year.
  • The ballot initiative increases the maximum amount that the HCDE can levy from $0.01 per hundred dollar appraised value to $0.02 per hundred dollar appraised value. There is nothing in the ballot initiative that binds the HCDE to spending the money on the HCSRC, just a social contract with the voters.
  • The ballot initiative does not bind the HCDE board to levying the full $0.01 increase. The board can levy any amount of the $0.02 authorized. Authorized but not obligated.
  • Currently, the tax levied by the HCDE board is approximately 2/3 of the current maximum of $0.01. If the proposal in November passes, the board will have an additional $0.0133 that it can levy on property owners if it chooses.
  • Mr. Day and the HCSRC expect that the board will levy the full $0.01 on the November ballot and appropriate those funds to the HCSRC. Mr. Day is hopeful that the tax will produce revenue in excess of $30 million per year.
  • By law, the maximum tax rate that the HCDE can have is set at $0.50 per hundred dollar appraised value. If the Early to Rise initiative passes, will other groups come forward to increase the rate?
  • The HCDE will give money to the HCSRC and then bid on projects to get money back.
  • Language in the agreement prohibits working with religious institutions but part of the HCSRC proposal is to work with churches and faith-based leaders.
  • The HCSRC has agreed to be subject to the Texas Public Information Act.
  • The agreement with the HCSRC is for ten years. Trustee Lee suggested shortening the length of the contract but Mr. Day thinks ten years is the right length to properly evaluate the effectiveness of the program.
  • Trustee Marvin Morris called it a “forever” tax, noting that taxes, once levied, do not go away.
  • Board President Angie Chesnut called $100,000 for a website exorbitant
  • The HCDE board can terminate the agreement at any time. There will be an exit strategy that takes about a year to complete if that happens.

You can listen to the second segment here.

Thoughts about the workshop

I’ve tried not to editorialize in the above comments. I think that the HCDE board should be commended for holding this workshop and fully airing the proposal. Some people are upset that the board is even considering this proposal but not considering it, and ignoring the 150,000 signatures on the petition, would be inconsistent with representative government, There will probably be a need to have another workshop as the draft proposal is tweaked.

All in all, it was an informative day. The HCSRC has listened to some concerns and has been more flexible than their public comments would indicate It is still troublesome that this group wants to take money from taxpayers and give it to private businesses, even if the intention is pure. It is also troubling that the leaders of the HCSRC think that growing government is the solution to social and cultural issues – throwing money at segments of society that do not accept responsibility for their own actions has never proven to work. On the other hand, our churches and civic associations haven’t proven effective at helping children that are trapped in poverty by parents that do not care about them and do not look out for their best interests.

The HCDE board held a board meeting after this workshop – I’ll have a separate post on that meeting.

Harris County Department of Education Board Meeting 8-20-13

 

Click here for the BJP Early to Rise information page!

 

 

Judge Ed Emmett to seek outside counsel

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HCDE - Early to Rise logo

Sources at Harris County Commissioners Court tell me that County Judge Ed Emmett is so upset with County Attorney Vince Ryan’s office’s breech of attorney/client privilege that he is going to seek permission from the full court next Tuesday to hire outside counsel to represent him.

I was accosted by Harris County School Readiness Corporation Chair James Calaway at yesterday’s Harris County Department of Education workshop on the Early to Rise initiative. Mr. Calaway was upset because I “smeared” him when I stated that he should be one of the “rats” put under oath to find out who exactly at the County Attorney’s office leaked the private opinion. Mr. Calaway told me that he first heard about it from a reporter while he was delivering petitions to the County Judge’s office. Mr Calaway claimed that the reporter walked up to him and asked him what he thought about the opinion, then told him that he heard it from Emmett’s “number two”.

As I have no way to dispute what Mr Calaway told me, I have to accept that what he said is true and apologize to him for including him in that list of “rats”.

Sources also tell me that Harris County Tax Collector-Assessor Mike Sullivan is close to certifying that the group does have at least 78,000 signatures, thus qualifying them for ballot access should Judge Emmett decide this effort is legal.

I’ll have a full report on that workshop and subsequent board meeting later today.

 

Click here for the BJP Early to Rise information page!

 

No vote on Early to Rise tomorrow

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HCDE - Early to Rise logoIt is going to be a long day tomorrow at the Harris County Department of Education for those of us that want to get all the information we can on the Early to Rise initiative. Here is the schedule:

Board Workshop

The Harris County Department of Education Board of School Trustees will meet in a work session August 20, 2013 at 9:00 a.m., 6300 Irvington Boulevard in the board conference room to review and discuss the Early to Rise Initiative.

During this workshop no action will be taken.

Government Relations Committee Meeting

The Governmental Relations Committee of the Harris County Department of Education Board of School Trustees will meet in a work session August 20, 2013 at 12:00 p.m. or immediately following the 9:00 a.m. Board Workshop, 6300 Irvington Boulevard in the board conference room to discuss the business of that committee. During this committee meeting no executive session will take place and no action will be taken.

Board Meeting

A Regular Meeting of the Board of Trustees of Harris County Department of Education will be held August 20, 2013, beginning at 1:00 PM in the Board Room of the Administration Building, 6300 Irvington Boulevard, Houston Texas.

If you browse through the agenda for the board meeting, you will see one item that pertains to the Early to Rise initiative:

8.  EXECUTIVE SESSION Under the Texas Government Code pursuant to any and all purposes permitted by Sections 551.001-551.084, including, but not limited to: 551.071; 551.074

A. Private consultation with Board attorney(s) to obtain legal advice concerning early childhood education tax initiative.

I spoke with Board President Angie Chesnut this morning about the closed session. She told me that the board was going to discuss the initiative publicly and then go into closed session for legal advice from their attorney. One thing that Mrs. Chesnut made clear is that she is going to insure that the public has full and complete transparency about the matter. She is going so far as to place tablets in the back of the room so that citizens that are uncomfortable speaking in the open forum can write questions that they have for the board members to consider. She confirmed that no vote will be taken tomorrow and no vote has been scheduled at this point. I’m happy to see that she is going the extra mile to insure that the public has as much information as possible about this initiative.

Interestingly, Mrs. Chesnut was unaware that the department has already hired Fulbright & Jaworski to represent them in all legal proceedings surrounding the initiative. The agreement begins on page 453 of the long form board agenda. A special thank you to HCDE watchdog Colleen Vera for finding that agreement buried in the agenda. I have extracted the agreement for you to review:

HCDE – Fulbight & Jaworski agreement

Here is the relevant text:

This letter confirms that Fulbright & Jaworski LLP (“Fulbright”) will represent Harris County Department of Education (the “Department”) in connection with the negotiation of an Early Childhood Services Agreement between the Department and the Harris County School Readiness Corporation (the “Matter”). Our acceptance of that representation (the “Representation”) becomes effective upon the execution and return of the enclosed copy of this letter.

That’s some hubris on the part of Supt. John Sawyer. I spoke at one of the board meetings earlier this year and asked the board to reign in his signature purchasing authority precisely because of things like this.

If you want to speak tomorrow, you need to arrive 10 minutes early and fill out a card. You will be allowed to speak for five minutes, which is a lot longer than you think! The meeting will be held at the HCDE headquarters at 6300 Irvington Blvd. Rep. Debbie Riddle has promised to attend and I’m certain there will be some media present – the lack of a vote might reduce their numbers.

I’ll be there all day, attending the workshop, committee meeting, and board meeting so be sure to say hi.

Remember that Paul Bettencourt and James Calaway appeared on Khambrel Marshall’s Newsmakers yesterday. That “debate” is now online. Click here to view it.

And if you are really bored, you can listen to my conversation with Mark McCaig yesterday on his weekly radio show.

Jennings and McCaig on Early to Rise

 

Click here for the BJP Early to Rise information page!