If it were a comedy, it might be called How Perry Cut Shirley.
Dr. Shirley Neeley, the former superintendent of schools in Galena Park who Gov. Rick Perry named the Texas Commissioner of Education in early 2004, left that job July 1, after learning in mid-June that Perry wouldnt re-appoint her.
It started better. On Jan. 12, 2004, Perry called her a results-driven educator (whose) focus on high standards and classroom excellence, her refusal to accept the status quo or conventional wisdom, and her proven track record of success make her the ideal Texan to lead the Texas Education Agency.
At the end, The Governor felt that it was the appropriate time for new leadership and a new energy at the Texas Education Agency, said Perry spokesman Robert Black. Over the last few years, he has been disappointed in the agencys lack of action to deal with the accusations of cheating in our public schools. He looks forward to bringing in someone who will take decisive action to deal with this issue and be willing to work hard to take education in Texas to the next level.
Neeley, the first woman to head the TEA, took her ouster like a well, philosophically.
I can compare my situation to that of a superintendent when a school board decides to take no action or not extend their contract, she wrote in a letter to TEA employees. Anyway you look at it, the message is clear: when it is time to go, it is time to go.
Although evidence of widespread cheating on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills test, known as TAKS, may have been a big part of it, some think Neeley had tired of cheerleading for Perry. And there was tension with her deputy commissioner, Robert Scott, who served as interim commissioner before she arrived and now since shes gone.
Neeley had overseen impressive improvement in student test scores during her tenure at Galena Park, despite its lower middle-class status. She had been appointed by Perry in early 2004 to succeed Dr. Felipe Alanis. His tenure of just over a year as Texas Education Commissioner had ended on July 31, 2003. When Alanis left, Perry sent over his staff education adviser, Robert Scott, to temporarily head the agency.
Scott, 38, was no stranger to TEA. He was there from November of 1994, following a stint on the Washington staff of U.S. Rep. Gene Green, D-Houston, until early 2001.
Wizened viewers say Neeley had gotten infatuated with the TEA post before she ever took it, and made a mistake in not claiming more power at the outset. Agency employees had been reporting to Interim Commissioner Scott, who reported to the governor. Neeley agreed to keep that arrangement becoming, in essence, a figurehead.
Neeley said when she took office that teachers and administrators should not fear school choice AKA vouchers, a Perry pet project. But vouchers not only never got off the ground, they have lost ground.
An occurrence in mid-2005 may help explain why Neeley began to assert herself. Perry invited her to a press conference. During it, he unveiled an executive order that 65 percent of state money for schools be spent in the classroom.
It was the first shed heard of it. She was blindsided. She had no part in developing it, but was left, flat-footed, to try to explain and defend it to the states superintendents and principals.
It was then, observers say, she began to regain her voice. A seasoned adminstrator as a superintendent, she began to assert herself more in policy. She decided her loyalty wasnt to the governors politics, but to superintendents, principals, teachers.
Although as recently as the end of May Neeley told a reporter that because her re-appointment hadnt come up all through the spring legislative session, she was confident of re-appointment. She was wrong.
The Dallas Morning News editorialized against Perry picking Scott as his real rather than interim commissioner, on grounds he was around when the TAKS test problems occurred, and the agency needs someone with experience in classrooms or school administration. But sources say the states superintendents would prefer Scott to some alternatives mentioned.
Those include four who served with Perry in the Texas House of Representatives: former House Education Committee chairman Kent Grusendorf; Texas Association of Business head Bill Hammond; former House Appropriations Committee chair Talmadge Heflin; and Ric Williamson, chairman of the Texas Department of Transportion. Others mentioned include former Bush Administration education official Sandy Kress, and voucher and alternative teacher certification supporter Jim Windham of Houston.
The Austin American-Statesman editorially suggested appointing former state Sen. and acting Lt. Gov. Bill Ratliff, a Mount Pleasant Republican who chaired the Senate Education Committee and now heads up Raise Your Hand Texas, a group dedicated to supporting Texas public schools. But in a Rick Perry Administration, that is unlikely.
Meanwhile, Neeley, 59, ((DOB 6/18/48)) wrote on the TEA website that she revisited priorities after her melanoma returned May 24, after 22 years free of cancer.
We need to remind ourselves whats really important in life, Neeley said: husband Bill, her 80-year-old mother, three precious grandsons, daughter, son-in-lawand time to ride Harleys, continue ranching, travel and cross-stitch.
Adios, TEA.
