Texas Administrative Law

On September 1, 2015 House Bill 11 became effective in the state of Texas. Mainly authored by Dennis Bonnen a Republican member of the Texas House of Representatives, House Bill 11 amends many laws and actions towards the security of the Texas-Mexico border. The bill mainly deals for a long term solution to human trafficking and the flow of illegal drugs that come through the border. Both parties of the Texas House of Representatives amended House Bill 11 through a 131-12 vote, since many believed organized crime fueled by illegal drugs have swept through communities across Texas. The main goal for House Bill 11 is to strengthen the border through three primary actions the first is for the state to enact harsher laws for the smuggling of people and illegal contrabands. The second is to strengthen the border patrol force through providing improved tools, more frequent border checkpoints throughout the land, and increasing the population of border patrol officers. The third action of House Bill 11 is improving the sharing of crime data throughout the state by law enforcement to connect crimes in identify large criminal enterprises and stopping organized crime.

The power of the governor of Texas isn’t as powerful as many other states. There was a study done by two professors, Thad Beyle and Margaret Ferguson, and it showed that Texas tied 39th with four other in the overall institutional powers of the governor. The Texas governor must share the budget making responsibility with others. The Secretary of State is the only official appointed by the Governor.

Efficient administrators must make certain their schools are in compliance with district, state, and federal educational guidelines. These statutes include identifying and delivering specified instructional lessons for students who qualify for services under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), and the students who qualify for ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages). Academic leaders who ensure compliance among these regulations and educate themselves on the appropriate instructional practices, will properly assist their teachers and students in finding academic success.

Statutory law is a type of law establish by congress. Many of the rules were approved by the Texas Legislature and directly affect education which are grouped in the Texas Education Code. The Texas Education Code is important because it is the law that applies to the daily operations of schools. It is also important because it also applies to detailed the duties and responsibilities of the School Board of Education, the Texas Education Agency, school boards, charter schools and school personnel. In the early 1980’s the Texas legislature took a sudden interest in the Texas Education Code and started changing or applying new mandates. As timed passes legislature noticed that that whatever they changed or implemented was not working so they decided

The Texas Legislature has powers either by non-legislative power or legislative power. The legislative power includes power that can be passed by bills and resolutions, and non-legislative powers by functions falling outside the lawmaking function. In general the Texas Legislatures responsibilities are to set public policy by passing bills and resolutions. It supervises the state bureaucracy through the budgetary process and the Sunset Act, this act provides review and termination of state agencies. The Texas Constitution sets Legislative power in two houses, a Senate of 31 members and a House of Representatives of no more than 150 members. The Texas Constitution stipulates the terms of the office and qualifications, for example House members

The state bureaucracy administers/implements the laws of Texas. It is run by executives whose job is to see that the laws of the state are implemented according to the will and intent of the Legislature. Ideally, these executive branch officials or bureaucrats are to administer their duties and implement the laws in a neutral manner, uninfluenced by politics. In reality, state bureaucrats are important players in not just implementation, but also policy making. In Texas, there is no overall central governing or controlling authority. Government authority in Texas is very decentralized, and rests within many independent state agencies.

The Texas Constitution guarantees an "efficient system of public free schools," but schools have recently found themselves unable to provide an adequate education to the more than 5 million students in Texas because of the many problems within the education policy in the state. Such issues involve school financing, lack of preparation for college, early childhood education, teacher quality, and school choice. Tough all of these conflicts pose a potential threat to the school system’s competence and effectiveness as well as to Texas’ economy, there are a broad number of possible adjustment and reforms that could be placed to improve the adequacy of Texas’ school system.

Texas faces many problems with the current educational system and many of them continue to go unresolved due to the way Texas has established certain laws. A decline in education has been seen since 2006 when legislators decided to cut property tax which pays for education (Maule). Those policies only further hinder the progress of education improving, which is why policies like those do not need to be further implemented. More involvement with students is needed and that will be acquired by having more effective teachers. Many studies have shown that students with effective teachers do better in class than those with ineffective teachers. Not only do students do poorly with ineffective teachers, but “[s]tudies show that most students drop out due to poor academic performance. And studies have proven that the teacher in the

Texas is the second most populous state as well as the second largest state in the United States of America (Brown, Langenegger, Garcia, Lewis, & Biles, 2014). With a huge number of people currently calling Texas their home, it would make sense to draw the conclusion that the Texas government must make this state a great place to live by serving its citizens to the best of its abilities. However, it is best not to make assumptions and in order to ascertain whether the local government actually fulfills this role we must look at multiple aspects of the government.

Indirectly, or directly, one can argue, public schools are controlled by the federal and state governments. Several issues have emerged, because of the conflict between federal and state requirements for education. “Under the Tenth Amendment, any authority not given specifically to the federal government is reserved to the states. Thus, the federal government has no authority to regulate education directly; that belongs to the states” (Underwood, n. d., p. 2). To get around this, the federal government controls the schools through funds for complying with certain initiatives, procedures, and policies (Underwood, n. d.). Ironically, both the state and federal levels of government hold the district liable for implementing different agendas and legal obligations. The federal government, however, can ensure that no citizen is denied their rights or privileges, even in a private institution, because of the Bill of Rights and other amendments. Failure to comply by these amendments or statutes can lead to the loss of federal funding and legal reproductions for schools.

The State Board of Education (SBOE) sets the policies and standards for Texas public schools. In Texas the Texas Education Agency (TEA) oversees primary and secondary education of students. The TEA helps provides the resources, guidance and leadership to help schools meet the educational needs of all students, according to the TEA. The SBOE is composed of three committees; committee on instruction, committee on school finance and a committee on school initiatives. The SBOE has adopted curriculum standards called the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS). The TEKS describe what students should know and be able to do, in each grade and subject area.

The Texas judicial system has been called one of the most complex in the United States, if not the world. It features five layers of courts, several instances of overlapping jurisdiction, and a bifurcated appellate system at the top level. The structure of the system is laid out in Article 5 of the Texas Constitution.

The United States education system operates by the state. Each state contains school districts which jobs are to “coordinate education policies, planning for changing educational needs within the community, and often even establishing programs curricula” (Corsi-Bunker 2). Public schools also rely heavily on local taxes to fund their educational needs, thus creating the community and financial status to reflect how the school performs and what they teach. Therefore, with individual districts within the state that regulate their own education within their schools, there is a variation among courses, subjects, and other activities.

Education is the foundation to secure an individual in having a better future and a successful career in life. Public education primarily falls upon the state and local government to take charge of, which get divided up into local school districts that are managed by school boards. School boards are “ an elected body corporate which manages delegated powers in regards to the deliver of education service within a defined territory (Duhaime’s Law Dictionary)”. Each state “has its own department of education and laws regulating finance, the hiring of school personnel, student attendance, and curriculum (Corsi-Bunker, Antonella).

With time, the federal government began establishing more roles, to supplement the states responsibilities, to create programs beneficial to learning. Prominence programs the federal government wanted to focus on were providing education for students with exceptional needs and disabilities established in 1965. The recent addition in 2001 is to increase student achievement through promotions of academic standards and qualifications known as The No Child Left Behind Act (Webb, 2010, p. 342). These programs are substantial in helping disadvantaged students, but it does not give the federal government full recognition of education. Since the federal government has limitations on education, the state is acknowledged for having full authority over the educational system.