In a hearing on April 17, the House Committee on Redistricting discussed issues regarding the size of State Board of Education districts. Many of the current State Board members testified and seemed to be in agreement that increasing the number of districts is unnecessary. Some members admitted that districts can at times become unwieldy due to low budgets and limited opportunities to travel, although most of the communication between themselves and constituents can be handled over the phone and through e-mail. Some members suggested that a small staff would allow them the opportunity to better serve their constituents without changing the make-up of the Board.
Witnesses who approved of an increase in districts made the point that members become ineffective in such large districts and that in close votes a majority decision that affects the entire state can be made by as few as eight elected officials. The idea was brought up to add members to districts 1 and 15, the two large West Texas Districts, but it was decided that doing so would conflict with the Voting Rights Act.
Prior to the current fifteen member configuration, the SBOE districts mirrored the state’s congressional districts. As those congressional districts increased every ten years with redistricting, the SBOE districts increased as well. The SBOE was comprised of twenty-seven members until the constitutional basis was changed as part of the Perot education reforms in the mid-1980s. Had that not occurred, Texas would have operated for the past ten years with thirty-two SBOE districts, one more than the number of state senate districts.
