Austin Rep. Donna Howard has introduced HB 772, which would require that State Board of Education meetings be webcast live. Currently, the meetings are only audiotaped and then archived afterward on the SBOE’s website.
Kathy Miller, president of Texas Freedom Network – a nonprofit that works to counter the religious right in Texas – was pleased and hopeful that if more Texans actually see the fundamentalist wing of the board in action, they might be curbed.
“For too long this board has been able to operate outside the watchful eye of parents and other taxpayers, and lawmakers seem to have had enough,” Miller said. “Ideologues have turned the board into a playground for promoting personal political agendas rather than the interests of Texas schoolchildren. If installing a camera helps rein in those board members, we think taxpayers will be well served.”
(UPDATE: Yesterday, the bill was reported favorably out of the Public Education Committee without amendments.)
This article appears in February 27 • 2009.