Dr. Mike Moses
Commissioner of Education
Texas Education Agency
Austin, TX 78701

Dear Mike:

After receiving your letter of June 16 addressed to all Board members, I am writing rather than calling as invited by that piece of correspondence, so that my concerns will be precisely stated to you and those copied below.

Firstly, I am surprised that you failed to recognize the significance of the Board's unanimous vote against your attempted takeover of selecting members for the Investment Advisory Committee. The solidarity of that vote signals our strong stance on maintaining our constitutional authority over the Permanent School Fund.

Article 7, Section 6d of our Texas Constitution states:

. . . the State Board of Education may acquire, exchange, sell, supervise, manage, or retain, through procedures and subject to restrictions IT establishes and in amounts IT considers appropriate . . .


Nowhere is the Texas Education Agency or the Commissioner of Education mentioned, let alone allotted even a scant amount of authority over these funds. Your role in this situation is as executive secretary, executing the directions and will of the Board. You are not above the law.

There's a quantum leap from the mere bookkeeping function of reimbursing travel expenses to "selection of all members of the Investment Advisory Committee." While your logic eludes me, the arrogance involved in arriving at such a conclusion is disturbing.

On the matter of your missing our July 9-10 meeting, it is troubling you chose not to plan your "additional leave time" prior to the taxpayer-paid conference you are attending in Oregon, July 5-8 -- especially in light of the fact that our Board now meets only six times a year.

During my short tenure on the Board, our agenda has been carefully crafted to be "Lite 'N Lean." The, when legitimate discussions of publicly-driven issues arise, your strategy is one of feigned ignorance (School-to-Work), pandering (TEKS), stonewalling (TAAS), and cover-up (Permanent School Fund scandal). For the upcoming meeting, I guess you've decided just to skip town altogether.

Your letter's closing proclamation that you define the "legitimate needs" or duties of the elected Board is alarming. The citizens of Texas would be justified in interpreting this attitude as an unhealthy fascination with power and one more attempt to suppress the elected voice of the people.

Let me emphasize that the issue is not the "legitimate needs" of the Board; it is the law. Were you not so predisposed toward taking, without right or permission, the authority properly bestowed on others by the Constitution, perhaps you would be able to focus on the very obvious responsibility of squarely addressing issues in education which truly engage and warrant the concern of the people of Texas.

Most sincerely,

David Bradley

cc: Governor George W. Bush (w/enc: Moses correspondence of 6-16-98)
Members of the State Board of Education (w/enc.)
Dean Murray (w/enc.)
David Anderson (w/enc.)