Bill Hobby on the 1984 Education Reform Battle
[Editor's note: How Things Really Work: Lessons from a Life in Politics, by former Lt. Gov. Bill Hobby with Saralee Tiede, is being published this month by the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History at the University of Texas. In this excerpt — the second of three that the Tribune will run — Hobby writes about the 1984 fight to reform public education in Texas and the fallout of teacher testing, standardized student testing, and the idea that nearly derailed the whole effort: No Pass, No Play.]
You need a good sense of irony to enjoy politics. Consider this: The most ...
Comments (4)
Tim Hurst via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Texas? Education? The two do not go together
Anne Solomon via Texas Tribune on Facebook
How about privatising football?
Marilyn L. Moll via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Like that idea. If privatizing everything else - why not football?
stlevine
Thanks for the trip down memory lane, governor. I was a statehouse reporter for the Beaumont Enterprise in those days. I remember traipsing across Texas to cover Perot's hearings and his dog and pony shows. Perot hated the media. He did his best to make it difficult for us to report on what the Select Committee was doing. I remember one meeting in Dallas when he told us the committee would take a one-hour lunch break. But they reconvened in 30 minutes while most of us were trying to find and gobble down a quick meal.
One major character from the HB 72 debate that you don't mention is Stan Schleuter, the chair of the House Ways and Means Committee that wrote the tax bill. He never hesitated to use his imposing physical presence to get his way. Stan didn't have much use for the press either. I still have in my junk drawer a button that made the rounds at the Capitol that summer: "Render unto Schleuter that which is Schlueter's."