When State Board of Education (SBOE) member Rebecca Bell-Metereau voted against four of the seven charter school applications that the TEA recommended in June, it was because she favors public schools.
“If we keep encouraging charters to move into Texas, we will have two parallel school systems, and charters are given advantages that public schools don’t have,” she said. “So, a lot of board members, including myself, feel that more effort should be made to encourage public schools.”
Bell-Metereau is one of the newer members of the 15-member SBOE. She campaigned for a decade before being joining in January.
“I am surprised by how much I like and respect the people who are on the board even if I don’t agree with them,” she said. “You start to of feel like you’re the only one who has the same experience. So, you bond with each other even if you don’t agree on issues. That has surprised me.”
Elected as a Democrat, Bell-Metereau represents District 5, which includes Travis, Hays, Guadalupe counties, and some parts of San Antonio. She sits on the SBOE Curriculum Committee.
“One of the things that is an overriding concern is whether a charter school is necessary or is going to be offering something that the public schools can’t do,” she said. “The other thing is just how well they seem to be prepared to take on the task of what they are proposing to do.”
Bell-Metereau is among the SBOE board members that approved the charter school applications in June for Rocketship, Thrive Center, and Essence.
“The others were not approved for various reasons,” she said. “There was a school that had mentioned the 1619 Project. That was something one of the members did not like. So, that was the source of that. There were very quirky little reasons why some people did not vote in favor, and other people voted sometimes for reasons that they kind of changed their mind at the last minute.”
The 1619 Project curriculum teaches students that the history of American began in 1619 when the first enslaved Africans arrived on Virginia soil as opposed to 1776.
“The TEA basically just approves whether the application is acceptable,” she said. “They’re not making value judgments. What they look for is whether all of the boxes are checked and does the applicant have adequate evidence for all of the categories. Then, it’s up to the SBOE members to vote on whether they think it’s actually needed or if the charter is doing something original.”
Bell-Metereau added that she had initially voted in favor of Justice Hub, a Houston charter school that advocates for restorative discipline; however, she changed her mind even though Justice Hub could have potentially alleviated some of the challenges that troubled students pose for public schools, as previously reported in The Dallas Express.
“There were various questions for the people from that school,” she said. “I thought they answered them very well in the interviews. I went to every single one of the interviews. I was the only board member who went to all of the Zoom meetings with all of the applicants. I grilled them very carefully. I just think there was something about the idea of restorative discipline that the board seemed to be leery of that concept. I think it’s a very good concept.”
Justice Hub’s model, in a nutshell, is to educate marginalized students while also focusing on their special needs.
“We can provide the equitable education and opportunities they truly deserve and demonstrate what a high-quality, high-support, community-centered model can look like for all students. Our model is inspired and sustained by four core design principles: Honor, Unity, Belief and Leadership,” the Justice Hub website states. “The Justice Hub team is comprised of community activists and leaders with decades of experience in childhood education and restorative justice.”
Restorative discipline is defined by the Education Service Center as mending the disruptive behavior of a student with the support of the community.
“I ended up not voting for Justice in the final vote simply because there was no possibility of them being approved,” Bell-Metereau told The Dallas Express. “They go through a couple of votes, and then there’s a final vote. Initially, I had been speaking in favor of them.”
Although Bell-Metereau had reservations about approving the Rocketship charter, she ultimately voted in their favor.
“It was one that members had not originally voted in favor for simply because of the history of Rocketship schools in California, but they had a tremendous amount of public support because they did a really big campaign in Fort Worth during the energy system breakdown last year,” she said. “They took people food. They did all kinds of things that public schools can’t compete with. So, it was a difficult vote to make for me. Rocketship ended up being approved because one person changed his mind at the last minute. The commissioner explained to him why it was a really good idea to vote in favor.”
The current Commissioner of Education is Mike Morath.
“It surprises me how much pressure there is in some of these decisions that some people who are Republicans receive from Gov. Abbott and others in how they vote,” Bell Metereau said in an interview. “There’s a lot of money involved. People get their campaigns funded. That’s how politics works. There are lobbyists who take people out to dinner. Not that that’s a big deal, but it’s still a factor.”
The California State Board of Education declined to renew Rocketship Futuro Academy charter school’s application due to allegations around the school’s finances, lack of students with disabilities in Rocketship schools, lack of information about its English learner program, high suspension rates among some student groups, achievement gaps among students from different ethnic groups and charter school board meetings that are too far away, according to media reports.
“I’ve been invited out to dinner by Rocketship people, and I’ve gone once or twice,” Bell-Metereau added. “They talk about how wonderful their school is and everything. The Rocketship representative is a very nice guy, and he’s a local hero, but I just don’t think they are going to be able to resist the corporate influence of this huge company that in California has a bad reputation and, in my view, is not a good effect on education.”