Adding a fourth R to the curriculum?

The first day of prefiling bills for a legislative session is the statehouse version of turning the kids loose in a candy store, and lawmakers were true to their roles yesterday. Led by certifiably conservative Rep. Debbie Riddle, who camped out over the weekend outside the House chief clerk’s office to be first in line, Republicans filed a long list of proposed laws attacking immigration and abortion, promoting guns and voter ID and generally flexing their new electoral strength.

According to media reports, more than 300 bills already have been filed, and hundreds more will be filed before the session convenes on Jan. 11. Filing a bill, of course, is the easiest step in the legislative process. The real work won’t begin until committee hearings begin in earnest, probably in late January. But many of the conservative priorities will likely win approval, given the big increase in Republican strength in the House.

Most of the legislation that will affect the public schools is yet to come, although a few ideologically tinged bills were among yesterday’s prefilings.

House Bill 22 by Riddle would require school districts to report the number of “illegal aliens” in attendance, and House Bill 79 by Dan Flynn would remove any legal obstacles to posting the Ten Commandments in classrooms.

And, my thanks to Ed Sills of the Texas AFLCIO for pointing out one of the more imaginative (if that’s the right word) bills of the day. That would be House Bill 181 by Rep. Sid Miller to expand the August backtoschool sales tax holiday for school supplies and clothing to also include firearms and ammunition.

The four R’s of education: reading, ‘riting, ‘rithmetic and rifles.

0 Comments

There are no comments yet

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *