On Tuesday, Representative Elder introduced his bill, H.179, to the House Education Committee. The bill would re-organize the State Board of Education (SBE).

He believes it is important to recognize that the SBE is staffed by the Agency of Education (AOE). The bill largely re-introduces language from a 2020 Senate bill – S.166. He thinks it’s confusing to the public, saying that he thinks “it’s good to say the Secretary is in charge.” He believes it is not too late to make this structural change. The SBE has only acted independently for a dozen years or so. He also asserted that the Agency would support this bill.

Representative Austin asked if he had run this by the SBE. He had not, but noted that the SBE and AOE work closely together now. Chairman Conlon noted that the SBE is all volunteers and “essentially functions like a school board,” which makes it difficult for them to “make progress.”