(Texas Scorecard) – Top pro-life policy priorities are on the agenda in next year’s legislative session. It would give the Inspector General the power to hold Texas’ public education system accountable to Texas families and taxpayers.
One version of the plan, House Bill 1456, would create an Office of Inspector General at the Texas Education Agency to investigate complaints from parents of children enrolled in public schools.
State Rep. Jared Patterson (R-Frisco) introduced the bill earlier this month.
The idea came from Texas Education 911, a grassroots organization advocating for parent rights, transparency, and accountability in government education.
Eileen Burakowski, one of the Texas moms leading the group, told Texas Scorecard: It’s clearly broken. ”
Texas Education 911 called in the inspector general for the first time in 2023, and also called for other parent-led solutions to problems it identified within the state’s troubled K-12 education system.
Burakowski said parents are trying to resolve issues through local school boards and superintendents, but “Texas public schools have a systemic problem of fatigue and dysfunction, and no one It doesn’t solve the problem.”
“It’s our duty to protect our children,” she said in an online discussion last year. “In Texas, where more than 50% of the state budget goes to public education, school inspectors must report fraud, waste, abuse, especially school employees who violate parental rights or physically or sexually harm children. We need a government official.”
During the 2024 Texas Republican Party Convention, Burakowski and other parent advocates called for an independent mandate in the Texas Republican Party’s platform that would give it the power to investigate parent complaints and refer serious offenders to the attorney general. They succeeded in adding language calling for the establishment of an Education Inspectorate Office. For prosecution.
HB 1456 checks several of these boxes.
But parents had called for the inspector general to be appointed by an elected member of the State Board of Education, whereas Patterson’s bill would assign that appointment to the governor. The governor also appoints a state education commissioner to lead the TEA.
“Texas Education 911 believes that the Inspector General is only effective if it is a truly independent, third-party investigative agency. The Inspector General should be under the State Board of Education or the Attorney General’s Office. ,” Burakowski told Texas Scorecard.
In addition to investigating waste, fraud and abuse in public education, Burakowski said the inspector general should hear local complaints and due process appeals from student disciplinary actions. “Many of these decisions at the district level are arbitrary and not based on any standard of evidence.”
“A lot of times it comes down to the school district and the TEA,” she added. “They cannot be trusted to investigate on their own, especially when it comes to allegations of student violence and sexual misconduct against adults.”
Burkowski said the inspector general must be “a person of the highest moral integrity,” and there must be criminal penalties for obstructing the inspector general’s work.
Burkowski also noted that passing school choice legislation does not eliminate the need to establish independent oversight of the state’s education system.
“School choice does not empower parents,” she said. “What? Enforcing parental rights and legally protecting the vast majority of Texas children who would remain in public schools even if ‘choice’ were passed.” ”
“We look forward to working with Mr. Patterson and the other IG bill authors in the 89th session to provide Texas school families with real student safety and due process protections. ,” Burakowski said.
The 89th Texas Legislature will convene on January 14, 2025.
