The Texas Primary is March 4th. So is the TAKS test in Texas schools.

The result? Many usual polling places won't be due to the need to ensure test security in school buildings.

Some Texas schools are considering passing up on a front-row seat in a democracy lesson during the March 4 primary to keep their campuses visitor-free and church-mouse quiet during the opening day of the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills.

Leaders of some Houston-area school districts, including Katy, have informed Harris County officials that they're reluctant to fill their normal role as polling sites because of this year's scheduling conflict.

"Sites that are normally used as polling locations may not be available because of administrative policy that prohibits visitors on school campuses during testing," said Hector de Leon, spokesman for the County Clerk's Office. "However, at this point, the use of schools as polling locations has not been ruled out."

Questions remain about whether public schools can refuse to serve as voting locations, an issue state leaders are trying to iron out.

And one thing that apparently has not been a consideration in all this is the loss of some election judges and poll workers. I take election day off to be election judge and run the polls in my precinct, and I know a number of other teachers who do the same thing to serve as election judges or poll workers. We won't be doing that this year, because every school district I know has a strict policy forbidding the use of leave days on state testing days. So I'll be proctoring a test or monitoring restrooms or some other task instead of making sure that Republicans in my precinct have a smoothly running polling place.

Which leads us back to an obvious question -- don't folks with TEA take the time to look at the calendar before they set testing dates?

OPEN TRACKBACKING AT Outside the Beltway, Blog @ MoreWhat.com, Rosemary's Thoughts, 123beta, Adam's Blog, Shadowscope, Big Dog's Weblog, Leaning Straight Up, Pursuing Holiness, Adeline and Hazel, third world county, Stix, The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns, The World According to Carl, Pirate's Cove, Global American Discourse, The Pink Flamingo, CORSARI D'ITALIA, and Right Voices, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

Posted by: Greg at 01:06 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 383 words, total size 4 kb.