TEXAS AFT LEGISLATIVE HOTLINE--THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2009
 
* School Districts Sue TEA Over Grading Policy
* AFT Responds to Senate Health-Care Reform Bill
 
School Districts Sue to Block New State Law Barring Minimum Grades: Yesterday six school districts in the Houston area joined forces in a lawsuit to block enforcement of the new state law that prohibits giving students minimum grades that they have not earned by their actual performance. Plaintiffs in the suit, filed in state district court in Austin against Commissioner of Education Robert Scott, are the Fort Bend, Aldine, Klein, Alief, Anahuac, and Clear Creek school districts.

In the name of preserving local control over grading policy, the lawsuit seeks to establish a loophole in a new section of the Education Code, Section 28.0216, passed by the legislature in May as Senate Bill 2033. The new law bars school districts from assigning minimum grades on student assignments. The districts contend that the law relates only to individual assignments, not to cumulative grades for entire grading periods, even though this proposed interpretation would effectively nullify the law and defeat the legislature's intent.
 
Sen. Jane Nelson, the Republican from Flower Mound who wrote the legislation, responded to the lawsuit with this apt comment, according to the Quorum Report: "It is a sad state of affairs when school districts are willing to go to court for the right to force their teachers to assign fraudulent grades."
 
Texas AFT agrees. As Texas AFT President Linda Bridges has put it, the purpose of the new law is to put a stop to "artificial grade inflation." The law still allows districts via local policy to give students an opportunity to lift their grades by doing make-up work. However, as Lucy Clarke, president of Texas AFT's El Paso ISD affiliate, the El Paso Federation of Teachers and Support Personnel, has said, forcing teachers to give students grades they have not earned is "an insult to a teacher's professional judgment, knowledge, and experience."
 
Clarke reports that the El Paso Federation is ready to move ahead with a grievance filed last month over the El Paso school district's foot-dragging on compliance with the new state law. Meanwhile, though, with a hearing likely to be scheduled soon on the temporary injunction sought by Fort Bend ISD and other school districts, Texas AFT may well have to intervene in that proceeding in Travis County in order to ensure the most vigorous possible defense of the new law and of teachers' grading authority.
 
AFT Responds to Senate Health-Care Bill: American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten today issued a statement of praise, tempered by one major concern, regarding the latest version of the health-care reform legislation to be debated soon in the U.S. Senate. Here is that statement, in full:
 
"The health-care reform package Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has announced he will introduce represents a significant effort to find a middle ground, and the American Federation of Teachers commends his strong leadership and dedication on behalf of every American. We urge the Senate to vote to allow consideration of this bill, and to bring us closer than we have ever been to passing landmark legislation.
 
"While the bill is a good start, AFT is strongly opposed to the provision that places an excise tax on employer-provided health insurance. If enacted, this policy will encourage employers and insurance companies to cut health benefits to avoid this tax. Over time, this will shift increased health-care costs to most of the 160 million nonunion and union workers and their families who depend on employer-provided coverage. Our health-care system cannot be reformed by making it less affordable and less accessible for those who already have it. This is the wrong approach, and the provision should be defeated.
 
"The passage of the Affordable Health Care for America Act (H.R. 3962) by the House of Representatives on November 7 represented a historic milestone. On behalf of our more than 1.4 million members, AFT encourages the Senate to continue the momentum toward making affordable, high-quality health care a reality for all Americans."