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In the same week that K-12 educators and kids come back to school, Judge Emmett is putting a road block before a community petition effort that sought to improve school readiness before Kindergarten.
Florian Martin, KUHF Public Radio
Harris County Judge Ed Emmett announced that he will not put an item on the November election ballot that would have called for a tax increase to support early childhood education. The decision was immediately followed by the filing of a lawsuit.
Monday was the deadline for Judge Emmett to put the early childhood education measure on the ballot for this November’s election. Non-profit organization “Citizens for School Readiness” has collected more than 150,000 signatures on a petition asking Emmett to include the item.
But the county judge says he’s requested the legal opinion of an attorney with experience in education law, William Bednar of Austin. That led to Emmett’s decision.
“It is my determination that the proposed ballot language used in the petition does not meet the requirement of Section 18.09. Furthermore, the restrictive nature of the proposed ballot language violates Section 18.14, which specifies the distribution of equalization tax funds. Therefore, I have no authority or jurisdiction to issue an election order based upon the petition.”
The petition evokes the Texas Education Code for the request. It’s a bit complicated but Section 18.09 establishes the wording of the proposition on the ballot. Section 18.14 says the tax would have to be distributed among the school districts in the county.
“That’s what the tax is all about. So you can’t take that and interpret that and say, well, you have to spend it all on early childhood education, no matter how much you like early childhood education.”
(Read and listen to more of this story at KUHF Public Radio)
- Harris County judge won’t place ‘Early To Rise’ on ballot (KIAH 39 Newsfix)
- Emmett won’t put early ed tax on November ballot (Chron.com)
- Harris County Judge Won’t Place ‘Early to Rise’ Initiative on Ballot (News 92 FM)
- Harris County judge says pre-school funding proposal will not be on ballot (KTRK 13 News)
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