(Texas Scorecard) – A top policy priority of parent advocates is on the table for next year’s legislative session: authorizing an inspector general to hold the state’s public education system accountable to Texas families and taxpayers.
One version of the plan, House Bill 1456, would create an office of inspector general at the Texas Education Agency to investigate complaints made by parents of children enrolled in public schools.
State Rep. Jared Patterson (R–Frisco) filed the measure earlier this month.
The idea originated with Texas Education 911, a grassroots group that advocates for parental rights, transparency, and accountability in government education.
Aileen Blachowski, one of the Texas moms who heads the group, told Texas Scorecard, “We are pleased to see representatives who have personally engaged with the administrative and investigative processes in our schools are taking measures to level the playing field for parents and fix what’s clearly broken.”
Texas Education 911 first called for an inspector general in 2023, along with other parent-driven solutions to problems they identified within the state’s troubled K-12 education system.
Blachowski said parents try to resolve issues through their local school boards or superintendents, but “there is a systemic issue of malaise and dysfunction in Texas public schools and no one gets their problems solved.”
“Protecting children is a mandate,” she said during an online discussion last year. “With more than 50 percent of the state budget spent on public education, Texas needs an inspector general for education to report fraud, waste, and abuse—especially abuses of parental rights and school employees who physically or sexually harm a child.”
During the 2024 Texas GOP Convention, Blachowski and other parent advocates succeeded in adding language to the Republican Party of Texas platform calling for an independent Office of Inspector General of Education that would be authorized to investigate parents’ complaints and refer serious violators to the attorney general for prosecution.
HB 1456 checks some of those boxes.
But while parents called for the inspector general to be appointed by elected members of the State Board of Education, Patterson’s bill assigns the appointment to the governor. The governor also appoints the state’s education commissioner, who heads the TEA.
“Texas Education 911 believes an Inspector General can only be effective if it is truly an independent, third-party investigative body. The IG should be housed under the State Board of Education or the Attorney General’s office,” Blachowski told Texas Scorecard.
In addition to investigating waste, fraud, and abuse in public education, Blachowski said the inspector general should hear due process appeals from local grievances and student disciplinary placements. “Many of these decisions at the school district level are arbitrary and not based on any standard of evidence.”
“The school districts and the TEA are often the problem,” she added. “They cannot be trusted to investigate themselves, especially for allegations of adult-on-student violence or sexual misconduct.”
According to Blachowski, the inspector general must be “an individual of exceedingly high moral character,” and there must be criminal penalties for interfering with the IG’s work.
Blachowski also notes that passing school choice legislation does not eliminate the need to establish independent oversight of the state’s education system.
“School choice is not parent empowerment,” she said. “What is? Enforcing parental rights and legitimately protecting the majority of Texas kids who will remain in public schools even if ‘choice’ is passed.”
“We look forward to working with Patterson and other IG bill authors in the 89th Session to provide authentic student safety and due process protections for Texas school families,” said Blachowski.
The 89th Texas Legislative Session opens on January 14, 2025.