Black statehouse legislators are rushing to create legislation that would avoid a governor-appointed conservator from taking the helms of the financially troubled Texas Southern University in Houston.
Financial gaffes and mismanagement led Texas Gov. Rick Perry to call for the resignations of the historically Black college’s board of trustees. In its place Perry wants a conservator, a sole person to be in charge of fiscal decisions. Such a move would jeopardize the school’s accreditation.
“We want the governor to support a solution that accomplishes the goals of dealing with his concerns of operation and fiscal management. But at the same time we don’t want the solution to that to undercut the academic credentials of the university,” says state Rep. Garnet Coleman, D-Houston, whose district includes TSU.
Coleman and other members of the Black caucus — who argue that conservatorship is not the answer — are working with Perry’s office. On Thursday, Coleman said representatives are writing a new provision that would exclude a conservator from stepping in during a crisis at a state educational institution.
State lawmakers have the support of members of the Congressional Black Caucus, including Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, who told The Houston Chronicle she wants the U.S. Department of Education to intervene because conservatorship would allegedly violate Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and impose “undue burdens on Black students.”
The provision would instead require an administrative improvement plan. He did not give a specific timeline as to when the language would be introduced. The window for passing bills in the statehouse has passed so it would have to be an emergency item.
“What we’re working on is writing a new provision and law that deals with differences between institutions of higher education and state agencies,” Coleman says. Perhaps a chancellor-like figure would be the alternative, he adds.
