By Alice Linahan | 03.13.2015 

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Big Hat Tip to Texas Rep. Dwayne Bohac for filing HB 3571, a bill that will help stop the flood of Common Core/CSCOPE Textbooks now known as Instructional Materials (IMs) from coming into Texas Schools. Please join me in contacting Rep. Dwayne Bohac and saying Thank YOU for stepping up to the plate to protect Texas school children. Dwayne.bohac@house.state.tx.us.  Then contact as many of the other Texas Legislators you possibly can and tell each one of them that HB 3571 has long been needed and must be passed during this 84^th Legislative Session.

Rep. Bohac’s HB 3571 is a piece of legislation that is a “patch” to fix SB 6 that was passed in 2011. SB 6 set up two different systems for the adoption of instructional materials (IM’s) for Texas public schools. Previous to the passage of SB 6, there was one system in Texas that required the elected members of the Texas State Board of Education to hold public hearings in which IM’s were put through a strenuous public adoption process to make sure that they were aligned with the SBOE-approved curriculum standards (TEKS) and that factual errors had been corrected. Then a list was made of the IM’s that had met the requirements, and school administrators could choose from that approved list.

However, all of that changed once SB 6 was passed in 2011. SB 6 made it possible for school administrators to purchase IM’s that had not been through the strenuous SBOE public adoption process. It is SB 6 that has allowed CSCOPE and Common Core IM’s to flood into Texas public schools using our taxpayers’ dollars to purchase them. The situation with CSCOPE grew so bad that Texas State Auditor John Keel was finally brought in to investigate the 20 Education Service Centers (ESC’s) that had been selling CSCOPE to more than 893 ISD’s, charters, and private schools in Texas.

On 6.16.14, the State Auditor released his report that proved the ESC’s violated eight sets of Texas state standards of financial management, had accounting errors on over 60% of their transactions, and could NOT account for over $6 Million of taxpayer funds. The State Auditor found that the financial processes were in such disarray that he felt compelled to recommend seven legislative “fixes” to rein them in.

Under Rep. Bohac’s HB 3571, all IM’s would be placed under the same transparent public adoption scrutiny. The non-state adopted IM’s would have to meet the same requirements as the state-adopted IM’s. Rep. Bohac’s HB 3571 is much needed to make sure that all IM’s that are put in front of our Texas public school children are as free of errors as possible and are aligned with the TEKS that were adopted by the SBOE after years of public hearings.

Please go to this link to read the details of Rep. Bohac’s HB 3571: http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSess=84R&Bill=HB3571HB3571 – Rep. Dwayne Bohac – Author

Caption:  Relating to rules which insure that local independent school district selection of non-state adopted instructional materials to be purchased with state funds, is as accountable and transparent as the State Board of Education approval process for state-adopted instructional materials.

common core, cscope, HB 3571, Rep. Dwayne Bohac