Opinion ID: 2434088
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: suspension of the law

Text: The state argues the trial court's injunction is in error because the State Board of Education did not suspend the operation of a general law when it implemented the TECAT and determined to deny recertification to teachers who fail the TECAT. The state constitution provides that no state law may be suspended except by the legislature. Tex.Const.Ann. art. I, § 28. Project Principle argues first that the legislature intended that teachers be tested in more than one area and that decertification be based on failure over all rather than failure of only one part. In providing for decertification after failure of the TECAT alone, the State Board allegedly overrode the legislative intent of section 13.047 and thus suspended the operation of a general law. Section 13.047 calls for the State Board of Education to prescribe examinations to test several different areas of knowledge. The legislature left to the determination of the State Board the methods of testing, recertification and decertification. The Board is authorized to determine whether decertification is to be based on failure of only one of the required examinations. Moreover, the legislature appropriated funds for only a literacy test. In House Bill 20, the legislature provided that the money appropriated for teacher testing is to be used in part to finance the validation and administration of examinations which test the ability of the examinees, who have not taken a certification examination under Section 13.032(e), Texas Education Code, to read and write with sufficient skill and understanding to perform satisfactorily as professional teachers or administrators. Tex.H.B. 20, 69th Leg. (1985), art. III, Texas Central Education AgencyPrograms, para. 18, p. III-7. Had the Board spent the appropriated funds on examinations which test skills other than basic reading and writing skills, the agency would have violated the constitutional provision that an agency may expend funds only on items for which funds have been appropriated. Tex. Const.Ann. art. 8, § 6. The second prong of Project Principle's argument is that the Board spent funds for recertification purposes when the appropriations bill did not provide funds for that purpose. They contend the Board's purchase of self-adhesive validation labels, to be attached to the teaching certificates, is an unauthorized expenditure. The appropriations bill authorized payment of administration expenses. Necessarily included is the cost of notifying those to be recertified. The purchase of validation labels is thus authorized as an expense of administration of the TECAT. We reverse the judgment of the trial court and dissolve that court's injunction.