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July 22, 2014 7:56 AM
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Copyright July 22, 2014, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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July 21, 2014 5:12 PM
TEC alleges losing or destroying evidence plus lobbyist Sullivan refused to answer questions under a lawful subpoena.
We
and others will be exploring these issues in more depth in the coming days, but
the shocker in the today’s Texas Ethics Commission Ruling was
the quite explicit declaration that Michael
Quinn Sullivan and his associates either lost or destroyed substantial
amounts of evidence sought for the investigation. The exact quote referenced in our earlier
story by Scott Braddock was that
Commissioners were “left with the
inescapable conclusion that Mr. Sullivan and Empower Texans have
destroyed or lost thousands of emails sent to members of the Legislature during
2010 and 2011.”
In
addition, Sullivan refused to answer questions under a lawful subpoena. That would be his right if he invoked his Fifth
Amendment protections. He did
not. Instead, he refused to answer
citing First Amendment which is a questionable legal theory at best.
Sullivan
has multiple legal channels available to appeal and his attorneys of course
said they will do so. Nevertheless,
along the way, Sullivan may have exposed himself to possible criminal liability.
By Harvey Kronberg
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Copyright July 21, 2014, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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July 21, 2014 4:07 PM
Shifts from humanitarian crisis to criminal incursions; law enforcement unclear about value of military
Gov. Rick Perry deflected criticism of his
executive order to send 1,000 National Guard troops to the border
this afternoon, shifting the focus from deportee children from war-torn
countries to drug traffickers and criminal opportunists crossing the Texas
border to commit hundreds of thousands of crimes over the last 6 years.
News of
Perry’s decision to deploy the National Guard troops to assist the Department
of Public Safety in the ongoing effort called Operation Strong Safety leaked
out over the weekend, giving critics enough time to question the how, why and
how useful the National Guard would be at the state’s southern border.
Sen. Juan “Chuy”
Hinojosa, D-McAllen, called for support along the border last month with
emergency funds, but he balked
at the use of additional law enforcement in The Monitor over the
weekend.
“They
(cartels) are taking advantage of the situation,” Hinojosa told The Monitor.
“But our local law enforcement from the sheriff’s offices of the different
counties to the different police departments are
taking care of the situation. This is a civil matter, not a military matter.
What we need is more resources to hire more deputies, hire more Border Patrol.
These are young people, just families coming across. They’re not armed. They’re
not carrying weapons.”
The rest of the story, subscribers only
By Kimberly Reeves
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Copyright July 21, 2014, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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July 21, 2014 3:41 PM
Agency finds that MQS and Empower Texans either lost or destroyed email evidence; maximum civil penalty of $10,000 is imposed
Note: This story has been updated throughout,
including reaction from lobbyist Steve Bresnen – SB
The Texas Ethics Commission
on Monday announced that the agency has found Michael Quinn Sullivan, president of Empower Texans and a
spokesman for Midland oilman Tim Dunn,
guilty of failure to register as a lobbyist. For that, the commission imposed
the maximum civil penalty of $10,000.
The agency found, among
other things, that Sullivan and Empower Texans either lost or destroyed thousands
of pieces of email evidence. Commissioner said they were “left with the
inescapable conclusion that Mr. Sullivan and Empower Texans have destroyed or
lost thousands of emails sent to members of the Legislature during 2010 and
2011.”
“The Texas Ethics
Commission unanimously finds that Mr. Sullivan, as part of his regular
employment, communicated directly with members of the legislative branch to
influence legislation without properly registering as a paid lobbyist,” the
order said. The commission said the agency didn’t seek a contempt order against
Sullivan because it would have delayed the case, however commissioners felt the
fact that Sullivan was uncooperative bolstered the case against him.
The rest of the story, subscribers only
By Scott Braddock
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Copyright July 21, 2014, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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July 19, 2014 2:10 PM
DOJ seeks to find intent in Republican map drawing to exclude Latinos
The Department
of Justice put former Rep. Burt Solomons’ chief of staff and committee clerk on the
stand for the first time Saturday morning, closely questioning her about when,
and if, minority members had the same access to the House map as key
Republicans advisers in the House.
Saturday
is likely the last day of trial testimony around the Department of
Justice’s concerns that the 2011 Texas House and Congressional maps
abridge the rights of minorities under Section 2 of the Voting
Rights Act. This is not to be confused with separate actions ahead on
the amended 2013 maps, which will begin in September.
This
week before the three-judge federal panel was devoted to the process and
results of the original 2011 House map, amended on the floor of the House
during the original legislative session. Those on the docket for today included
John Alford of Rice University, as well as former chief of staff Bonnie Bruce and attorney Ryan Downton,
who drew the map.
The rest of the story, subscribers only
By Kimberly Reeves
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Copyright July 19, 2014, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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July 18, 2014 6:43 PM
Rule changes likely to accommodate conservative concerns over Common Core
The most valuable lesson the State Board of Education appears
to have learned out of the lingering CSCOPE controversy last year is that
when it comes to criticism, the board can never act too swiftly to address
conservative activists.
More than a dozen angry parents and a couple of college
students were on hand for an informal hearing around the AP US History framework
this morning. The topic was not set for the agenda, but Chair Barbara Cargill made it known that
people who wanted to express concerns could address the board on Friday morning.
Such a decision seems to flout the spirit of the Open
Meetings Act, but when it comes to addressing controversial topics, it
might be a smart move. The rise of conservative media ready to latch onto
topics such as CSCOPE or Common Core – and post
updates on a weekly, daily,
or even minute-to-minute basis – makes quick responses imperative.
“This is radical departure from what our Texas teachers
are accustomed to,” testified activist Alice
Linahan, who has a pretty broad outreach with her
Women
on the Wall Radio shows. “We’re shifting from passing a Texas US
history state exam, based on our Texas TEKS, that are traditional, foundational
and knowledge based and going to APUSH, which has a completely different
philosophy of education.”
The rest of the story, subscribers only
By Kimberly Reeves
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Copyright July 18, 2014, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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July 18, 2014 5:57 PM
University of Houston political scientist ranks the success rates of Empower Texans, Texas Right to Life, and others in the primaries
With the 2014 primaries
and runoffs in the books, the refrain nationally and internationally is that
the Tea
Party ran the table in Texas.
The New York Times reported that the “Tea Party Holds Sway,” the Wall Street Journal wrote that the election showed the “Tea Party’s
Muscle,” while the Daily Mail in the United Kingdom proclaimed a “Tea Party
Takeover.”
Does the Tea Party wing of
the Republican Party control the Republican nomination politics in Texas? Texas is undoubtedly conservative but there
is variation in which groups have the most sway. One way to look at which groups are most
influential is to examine the successful percentage of endorsed candidates in
the primary and runoffs. An endorsement
from a political group signals to voters that the endorsed candidate’s views
are seminal to those of the organization and gives us a window into their
influence on the Republican electorate. The
voter guides produced by each political organization is a shorthand way for
voters to understand the views of the groups.
The complete column from Brandon Rottinghaus can be found in today's R&D Department.
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Copyright July 18, 2014, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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July 18, 2014 5:56 PM
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Copyright July 18, 2014, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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July 18, 2014 5:03 PM
Dewhurst unveils key appointments
Lt. Gov David Dewhurst
announced more interim appointments on Friday afternoon, including the
chairmanships of some of the Senate’s most powerful committees. The
appointments include Sen. Craig Estes
as chair of State Affairs and Sen. Kevin
Eltife as chairman of Business and Commerce.
All of the new appointments announced by Dewhurst on
Friday afternoon can be found in the announcement
here.
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Copyright July 18, 2014, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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July 18, 2014 9:43 AM
From the Left: Our liberal columnist Jason Stanford argues that Congress needs to act quickly to save the lives of Afghan interpreters who put it all one the line for the United States.
The situation on Texas’ southern border is not the only
refugee crisis facing the United States. Thousands of Afghan interpreters who
need to get out before the Taliban kills them for collaborating
with U.S. troops are stuck over there because the State Department has run
out of visas. Make no mistake, this is a test of our national character: These
men risked their lives to help us bring democracy to Afghanistan, but they
might die because our government doesn’t work.
About 6,000 interpreters need to come here, and we’ve
only got 3,000 slots left. We can either start digging 3,000 graves in
Afghanistan, or we can remember that we’re the country that put a dozen men on
the moon. We can do big things, and this is just paperwork. This should not be
that hard.
As fun as it may be to blame feckless diplomats working
for Hillary Clinton and now John Kerry, the number of visas the
State Department is allowed to hand out is limited under the Special
Immigrant Visa program set to expire in September. That means the only
solution lies in the greatest deliberative body in this history of the world,
the United
States Congress.
Yes, I know. This is the same congress that only gets a
7% confidence rating from Americans, which according
to Gallup,
is the worst rating recorded for any institution. Ever. A 2013
poll found that cockroaches, head lice, colonoscopies, and—ugh—political
pundits were more popular than congress, which is on track to pass the
fewest non-ceremonial bills. Ever. So yes, at this point I’m willing to
engage in a little empty flattery to move this along.
Jason Stanford's complete column can be found in today's R&D Department.
By Jason Stanford
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Copyright July 18, 2014, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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July 18, 2014 12:49 AM
Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst told
our friends at Time Warner Cable News in Austin that Sen. Charles Schwertner
will replace Sen. Jane Nelson as the
chair of Health and Human Services. Nelson is moving up to Senate
Finance Committee chair – the first woman ever to hold that position.
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Copyright July 18, 2014, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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July 17, 2014 5:35 PM
Advances under instructional material bill possible but uncharted
Four years after the legislature’s massive overhaul of the
state’s textbook and technology allotment, it’s still unclear whether intended
price controls have materialized, if the available array of instructional
materials has broadened or even if the march on technology was improved in the
process.
What was clear at this week’s State Board of Education meeting
was no anticipated disbursement to the Available School Fund was going to
cover multiple instructional material proclamations at once. With more than
$800 million in anticipated expenditures already on the table for math, science
and technology, member Thomas Ratliff pulled
the plug on Proclamation 2016, pushing the adoption of materials around
languages other than English back an additional year.
Ratliff told his colleagues that the board’s anticipated
payout for textbooks, which could add an additional $600 to $800 million for
the biennium, would not be enough to cover all the various instructional
material proclamations currently on the table.
And if you don’t think Ratliff’s projection is stark,
consider the fact the wheels of the State Board of Education continue to turn,
with career and technology education on the agenda for review this year and a
new look at English/language arts next year. All will be followed by materials,
be it print, digital or some hybrid in between.
The rest of the story, subscribers only
By Kimberly Reeves
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Copyright July 17, 2014, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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July 17, 2014 4:40 PM
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Copyright July 17, 2014, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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July 17, 2014 4:22 PM
Jodey Arrington has an impressive warchest; argues that conservatives must articulate what they are for not just what they’re against
The special election to
fill the Texas Senate seat just vacated by former Sen. Robert Duncan, R-Lubbock, will be an
expensive one that may last into next year and could easily come down to the wire.
Resources and fundraising
will be especially critical in communicating a winning message across the region
– Senate
District 28 includes 50 full counties and a portion of a 51st county
– and the fact that this contest will likely include a crowded field means it
probably won’t’ be settled without a runoff. The victor, then, would not be a
senator until the 2015 regular session of The Legislature is already underway.
The election has not been
set as of now by Gov. Perry but the likely
date is Nov. 4.
The two most talked about
candidates are Rep. Charles Perry,
R-Lubbock, who threw his hat in the ring as soon as it became known Duncan was
stepping aside to become Texas Tech System Chancellor, and
former Texas Tech Vice Chancellor Jodey Arrington. Perry,
of course, is a known quantity around the Capitol but Arrington is a novice at
running for office so we thought it would be informative to introduce him to
the Quorum
Report audience.
The rest of the story, subscribers only
By Scott Braddock
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Copyright July 17, 2014, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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July 17, 2014 3:57 PM
Members of the LBB announced as well
After the appointment was
leaked to the Dallas Morning News on Wednesday night, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst on Thursday afternoon
made it official.
The members of the Senate
Finance Committee now include Sen. Jane
Nelson as Chair and the new members of the committee will be Sen. Brian Birdwell, Sen. Kelly Hancock, Sen. Robert Nichols and Sen. Charles Schwertner.
The Senate's
representation on the Legislative Budget Board will now be
Sen. Nelson, Sen. Craig Estes, Sen. Kevin Eltife,
and Sen. Juan "Chuy"
Hinojosa.
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Copyright July 17, 2014, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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July 17, 2014 3:56 PM
Some advances but some setbacks for charters as well in Texas
The high-profile but somewhat beleaguered Rocketship charter chain has pulled out of interviews at
the Texas
Education Agency next week, offering a letter that says it intends to focus
on its existing charters.
That probably suits its critics well, including State
Board of Education member Mavis
Knight. Rocketship, once considered a rock star
in national charter circles for its bold use of technology, has seen scores dip
in the last couple of years. An onslaught of critical
assessments in Nashville and an active campaign against
the chain in California has laid the once-ambitious charter chain low.
Director Heather Mauze informed the State Board of Education’s
Initiatives Committee Rocketship had withdrawn from
consideration today.
“Probably a wise move considering what I read about their
expansion issues,” Knight countered tartly, “and I’ll leave it at that.”
The rest of the story, subscribers only
By Kimberly Reeves
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Copyright July 17, 2014, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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July 17, 2014 10:17 AM
Veteran Brenham lawmaker announces she's raised nearly $800K
One of the worst-kept
secrets in the Capitol community is out - Rep. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, is considering
a run for the Texas Senate seat that Sen. Glenn
Hegar plans to vacate as he runs for Comptroller.
She's got a warchest of $792,000, which includes a
$100,000 loan from herself.
“We’ve had some amazing
accomplishments for the conservative values we hold in Texas, but we can do
better. We’re excited about all the support we have received from conservatives
across House District 13, Senate District 18 and all across Texas. We continue
to be encouraged to consider running for the Texas Senate, and have assured all
of our supporters that we will be making an announcement soon," Kolkhorst said.
Here’s her statement in
full.
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Copyright July 17, 2014, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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July 16, 2014 8:02 PM
Not clear who will take her position as chair of Health and Human Services
The scoop
from Bob Garrett at
the Dallas
Morning News.
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Copyright July 16, 2014, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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July 16, 2014 5:15 PM
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Copyright July 16, 2014, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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July 16, 2014 4:46 PM
Touts Tenth Amendment legislation and opposition to Medicaid expansion
Rep. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, is up on the air with new radio ads in
his bid to succeed former Sen. Tommy
Williams, R-The Woodlands.
In the ads, Creighton's
campaign highlights his past efforts to reinforce the Tenth Amendment -
complete with praise from Gov. Perry.
The ad also makes reference to this
RedState.com
article called "The Man Who Kept
Obamacare Out of Texas."
Listen to the ad
by clicking here.
Creighton, of course,
faces Rep. Steve Toth,
R-The Woodlands, in an August 5 runoff after two other candidates were
eliminated in this special election sparked by Williams' resignation. Creighton, by the way, has $165,000 cash on hand to Toth's $50,000.
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Copyright July 16, 2014, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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July 16, 2014 2:24 PM
SBOE Member Knight: “I said I would accept it, but I didn’t say I would go quietly." She suggests political connections are at play.
Education Commissioner Michael
Williams firmly defended his decision to grant expansion of the fledgling Great
Hearts charter network to Dallas at the State Board of Education
this morning, saying the choice was at his discretion and one made in accord
with last year’s charter bill.
The SBOE had squashed an earlier
application for a Great Hearts charter in the Dallas area, over the
recommendations of Williams. Given the discretion to grant expansions, Williams
did so for Great Hearts to the consternation of some board members, who
considered their voices ignored.
“I said I would accept it, but I didn’t say I would go
quietly in accepting it,” said Dallas-area member Mavis Knight, who implied the charter had been granted for its
political connections rather than its adherence to Texas standards. “I don’t
have any confidence in this organization at this time,” she said.
Texas, almost two decades after the first charter
legislation was put on the books, is finally facing the age of large-scale
charter expansion with a big push from the Obama administration. For the first
time, charter chains like IDEA, Great Hearts and Rocketship are putting business plans on the books
for Texas that promise not one or two campuses, but dozens of campuses and
thousands of students.
The rest of the story, subscribers only
By Kimberly Reeves
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Copyright July 16, 2014, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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July 16, 2014 12:54 PM
Longtime lobbyist and friend passed away this past weekend
A memorial service has been scheduled for former Rep. Phil Cates at 10am on Saturday morning,
July 26 at the Texas State Cemetery. Flowers may be delivered the day before. For
further information, contact Pamela
Clarke, Chair of the Texas Paint Council. She can be
reached at 713-434-9900.
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Copyright July 16, 2014, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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July 16, 2014 12:47 PM
Transparency Committee doesn’t get much in the way of specifics for Cigarroa's demand that Powers resign
The Texas House committee now drafting articles
of impeachment against UT System Regent Wallace Hall spent much of Wednesday
morning grilling system officials about what exactly changed leading up to
Chancellor Francisco Cigarroa’s recent demand that UT
Austin President Bill Powers
resign. Powers, as you may know, is now set to step down after the regular
session of The Legislature next year.
Rep. Carol
Alvarado, the Houston Democrat who co-chairs the Select Committee on Transparency
in State Agency Operations, said that last week was “momentous” for the
UT System. Her co-chair, Rep. Dan Flynn,
R-Van, said “Sadly there are many folks that just want us to rubber stamp an issue." When this is all said and done, Flynn said
he hopes the vast majority of observers will feel the committee did a "fair
and thorough” job of looking into Hall’s actions and the impacts on UT Austin
as well as the system at large.
Chancellor Cigarroa was asked point-blank by Rep.
Alvarado about what ultimately led him to issue an ultimatum to Powers over the
July 4 weekend to step aside.
Cigarroa answered that understanding the situation would
require knowing about the history of his interactions with Powers. Cigarroa said
he had long ago laid out certain “tenets” that were important. Among those were
good citizenship, rebuilding collaborations, enhancing trust, and cooperation. One
of the reasons a deal was reached to allow Powers to stay through next year,
Cigarroa said, was so that he could serve out his tenure as the chairman of the
Association
of American Universities, a prestigious national group. Everyone in the
system is very proud of that accomplish by Powers, Cigarroa said.
The rest of the story, subscribers only
By Scott Braddock
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Copyright July 16, 2014, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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July 16, 2014 12:12 PM
City council rejects ban after hours of passionate testimony
After eight hours of impassioned public testimony, the Denton
City Council voted 5-2 early Wednesday morning against a citizen
petition banning fracking within city limits, passing the issue directly to
voters on the November ballot.
The marathon meeting drew state politicians; former Texas
Supreme Court Justice Tom
Phillips, now representing the oil industry; oil industry regulators and
executives; and a steady stream of ordinary Denton residents who vowed they are
not about to back down from their fight against fracking.
Phillips warned that, should the citizens prevail in November,
they’d face certain lawsuits from members of the Texas Oil & Gas Association.
Both sides repeatedly declared that the eyes of the nation and even the world
were on Denton during the proceedings, noting that the ban would be the first
in a state with a rich tradition in oil and gas drilling.
But as 500 people showed up at Denton City Hall,
fracking opponents said they proposed the ban only as a last resort and only
when natural gas operators proved recalcitrant to working out reasonable
solutions for residents living in the shadow of drilling rigs.
Councilmembers Kevin
Roden and Jim Engelbrecht
peppered opponents of the ban with questions, siding with residents who said
they were fed up with natural gas companies that found legal loopholes to
counter existing city ordinances governing such lifestyle changing issues as setbacks
from residential properties.
The rest of the story is in the Texas Energy Report.
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Copyright July 16, 2014, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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July 15, 2014 4:54 PM
“To deny UT Austin its limited use of race in its search for holistic diversity would hobble the richness of the educational experience."
A split appeals court on Tuesday upheld that the University
of Texas, in a narrowly tailored way, can use race as a part of the
university’s admissions policy.
The US Supreme Court remanded Fisher
v the University of Texas back to the Fifth Court of Appeals to
review the specific formula that UT Austin has used for race-conscious factors,
which must be defined as “narrowly tailored.” The circuit court returned an
opinion to support the UT Austin admissions policy, 2-1.
In a 69-page ruling, the Fifth Circuit court notes that
the vast majority of UT-Austin students, 80 percent, come into the university
under a race neutral basis. In the case of UT-Austin admissions, race is
layered into a multi-layer application process beyond the Top Ten Percent
guaranteed automatic admissions to the state’s flagship universities.
Lawyers for Abigail
Fisher, a Sugar Land student who applied to the university in 2007, argued
UT-Austin had achieved sufficient diversity – a critical mass of non-white students
--without the use of race in admissions for open slots beyond the Top Ten
Percent. According to the brief, however, use of race for non-Top Ten Percent
students had not resulted in a flood of minority students onto the Austin
campus.
The rest of the story, subscribers only
By Kimberly Reeves
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Copyright July 15, 2014, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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July 15, 2014 4:53 PM
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Copyright July 15, 2014, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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July 15, 2014 4:48 PM
Darby, Otto and Zerwas appointed to replace outgoing members
“Reps. Drew Darby of San Angelo, John Otto of Dayton and John Zerwas
of Simonton to serve on the LBB until the next
Legislature convenes. They will replace Reps. Dan Branch of Dallas, Harvey
Hilderbran of Kerrville and Jim Pitts of Waxahachie, who are not returning for the next
legislative session.”
Here is the full announcement.
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Copyright July 15, 2014, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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July 15, 2014 4:28 PM
From the right: QR's conservative columnist argues that Evangelicals should indeed care about immigration, "but their chief concern should be treating all people as if they were made in the image of God. Because they are."
Whatever
your politics, what is happening at the border is a humanitarian crisis. Dead
children have washed ashore in the Rio Grande River. A 15-year old Guatemalan
boy was found in dessert brush, dead from heat stroke. Little children are
stuffed into makeshift detention centers where conditions are squalid.
It breaks my
heart that young children would take a perilous journey by train to get to
America, unaccompanied by adults, exploited by coyotes and traffickers. It’s a
human tragedy. And like Hurricane Katrina, Texans are
showing their love for their fellow human beings knows no bounds. Charities are
standing in the gap for these children. So are Border Patrol and Texas
law enforcement, even if it is not what they are trained to do. We will do
right by these kids. The question is whether we will actually fix the problem.
The sad
reality is that the only way to stop new waves of illegal migrants is to send
home those who have already arrived on our border. The Obama Administration must
work with Congress to change the law for child migrants not from
contiguous countries. They must also unravel a 2012 decision that helped open
the floodgates.
Eric Bearse's complete column can be found in today's R&D Department.
By Eric Bearse
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Copyright July 15, 2014, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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July 15, 2014 4:26 PM
Conservatives on the SBOE making time for critics of Common Core, which is already outlawed in Texas
State Board of Education Chair Barbara Cargill has agreed to set aside time on Friday morning for Common
Core opponents to present their arguments on the new Advanced
Placement US History course test, which will roll out next year.
Critics, particularly those on the conservative Breitbart online news outlet, have labeled the new AP US
History framework “stealthy,” “radioactive” and “David Coleman’s next great deception.” Coleman, as you may be
aware, was a key architect behind the Common Core standards before he was named
president of College Board, which administers the PSAT, SAT for college
readiness and AP tests for college credit.
Cargill, who is squarely in the board’s conservative bloc,
said a discussion of the AP US History course did not make the board’s agenda
due to timing. But the board does have time available on Friday morning for testimony
about items that aren’t on their agenda.
“I have told people, if you’ll get the word out, we can have
people address us during public on Friday morning,” Cargill said. “So that’s
what we’re doing.”
The Common Core has been adopted by more than 40 states,
plus the District of Columbia. Texas never joined. While a handful of
states have backed out of the effort in recent months, the vast majority will
begin testing under the new math and English standards, whether under a testing
consortia or with state-developed tests.
To place “AP US History” and “Common Core” in the same
sentence, however, would be a stretch. The Common Core, developed by states in
conjunction with the National Governors Association and
the Council
of Chief State School Officers, sets math and English standards, not
history.
The rest of the story, subscribers only
By Kimberly Reeves
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Copyright July 15, 2014, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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July 15, 2014 3:46 PM
$1.2 million of that was since runoff night
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Copyright July 15, 2014, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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July 15, 2014 3:45 PM
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Copyright July 15, 2014, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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July 15, 2014 3:44 PM
Campaign says Abbott shattered the record and now has $35.59 million cash on hand
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Copyright July 15, 2014, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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July 15, 2014 3:34 PM
On Friday, QR reported in a story about health care for retired
teachers that lawmakers shunted "$3 billion in estimated Medicaid
costs" to the supplemental budget. That number was incorrect and we regret
the error.
Some of our sharp readers pointed out that the number
could not be correct at this point in the budget cycle. We checked with the Texas
Health and Human Services Commission, which estimates it will request
$970 million to cover the gap in Medicaid in the supplemental budget. This
number, the HHSC reminded us today, is always up for
adjustment as the lay of the land changes.
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Copyright July 15, 2014, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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July 15, 2014 12:33 PM
Campaign says 75% of contributions were under $50; the average contribution was $105.25 this period. Davis has $13.1 million combined cash on hand after raising $27 million so far in campaign.
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Copyright July 15, 2014, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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