In this weekly post, we feature helpful research tools and recent articles of interest to the legislative community.

• In-Person and Online Learning Go Together (Policy Brief), Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, August 2020
• Virtual School Policies (Policy Snapshot), Education Commission of the States, December 2019
• Report to the 83rd Legislature (Charge 3 – Virtual schools), Senate Committee on Education, January 2013
• COVID-19 Support: Texas Home Learning, Texas Education Agency
• Texas Virtual School Network, Texas Education Agency

• "Governor Abbott, TEA [Texas Education Agency] Establish Targeted Education Funds for Families of Students with Cognitive Disabilities (Press Release)," Office of the Texas Governor, October 21, 2020
• Letter from Laurie VanderPloeg, Director, Office of Special Education Programs, United States Department of Education, to the Honorable Mike Morath, Commissioner, Texas Education Agency (Includes an enclosure – OSEP's Analysis of the Texas Education Agency's Implementation of its Corrective Action Response), October 19, 2020
• Annual State Application Under Part B of the Individuals with Disabilities Act as Amended in 2004 for Federal Fiscal Year 2019, Texas Education Agency, May 17, 2019
• Special Education: Varied State Criteria May Contribute to Differences in Percentages of Children Served, United States Government Accountability Office, April 2019
• House Bill 2130: Study of Statewide Assessment Program in Relation to Students in Special Education Programs (Report to the Texas Legislature), Texas Education Agency, January 30, 2019
• Report to the Governor of Texas and Texas Legislature, Continuing Advisory Committee for Special Education, January 2019
• Letter from Mike Morath, Commissioner of Education, Texas Education Agency to Laurie VanderPloeg, Director, Office of Special Education Programs, United States Department of Education (Includes documentation related to the Texas Education Agency's implementation of the Corrective Action Response), December 21, 2018
• Letter from Ruth E. Ryder, Acting Director, Office of Special Education Programs, United States Department of Education, to the Honorable Mike Morath, Commissioner, Texas Education Agency (Response to the Texas Education Agency Corrective Action Response), October 19, 2018
• Special Education Strategic Plan, Texas Education Agency, April 23, 2018

• House Bill 3, relating to public school finance and public education.
  • There's a New School Finance Law in Texas…Now What?, Center for Public Policy Priorities, March 2020
  • HB 3 Implementation Update (Presentation to House Committee on Public Education), Texas Education Agency, October 28, 2019
  • Minimum Salary Schedule Increase Pursuant to House Bill 3 (HB3) and House Bill 3 (HB3) Implementation: Salary Increases (Correspondence to the Administrator Addressed), Texas Education Agency, June 11, 2019
  • HB 3 by Huberty: A True School Finance Overhaul, Texas Taxpayers and Research Association, June 2019
  • House Bill 3, Texas Education Agency
• House Bill 3906, relating to the assessment of public school students, including the development and administration of assessment instruments, and technology permitted for use by students.
  • House Bill 3906, Texas Education Agency

• "Will the Pandemic Change the Way We Deliver K-12 Education?," State Legislatures, National Conference of State Legislatures, October 6, 2020
• Learning in Real Time: How Charter Schools Serve Students During COVID-19 Closures, National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, August 2020
• COVID-19: Education Bill Tracking Database, National Conference of State Legislatures, July 17, 2020
• Public Education's Response to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic, National Conference of State Legislatures, May 4, 2020
• COVID-19 Pandemic (COVID-19 Outline Series; State Legislative Development on Key Issues: Assessments and Accountability, Finance, In-Person Learning, Student Health and Wellness, Student Transitions, Teachers, and Virtual/Hybrid Learning), Education Commission of the States

 

In this weekly post, we feature helpful research tools and recent articles of interest to the legislative community.

Use the Texas Appointment System, under the Legislators & Leaders tab on the LRL's website, to find current information on the membership of state councils, boards, and commissions appointed by the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and Speaker of the House.

 

 

Search by the name of a person to view a list of an individual's current appointments.

 

Search by group name to find a group's creation date, purpose, legal authority, and a list of current members. The entry for a group may also include links to outside resources, such as the group's website, a history of the group, or a directory listing.

 

• HB 1326, which is the sunset legislation for the Texas Military Department. Examine the Adjutant General's policy outlining the director of state administration's responsibility for state administrative interests across all programs, including evaluating procedures for oversight of state employees and mitigating compliance risks.
  • Texas Military Department (Sunset Review Documents for the 2018-2019 Review Cycle, 86th Legislative Session), Texas Sunset Advisory Commission

• Report and Recommendations to the 87th Texas Legislature (Charge 3 – Veteran Mental Health), Senate Committee on Veteran Affairs and Border Security, September 2020
• Report on the Mental Health Program for Veterans for Fiscal Year 2019, As Required by Health and Safety Code, Section 1001.224 and the 2020-21 General Appropriations Act, House Bill 1, 86th Legislature, Regular Session, 2019 (Article II, Health and Human Services Commission, Rider 59), Texas Health and Human Services Commission, December 2019
• Report on Short-Term Action Plan to Prevent Veteran Suicides: As Required by Texas Government Code § 531.0999 (now Texas Government Code § 531.0925, redesignated from § 531.0999 in 86th Legislature, 2019), Texas Health and Human Services Commission, September 2019
• Veterans Mental Health Department, Texas Veterans Commission
• Mental Health, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs

• The Defense Community Infrastructure Pilot Program (DCIP): FY2020 Funding and Approved Projects, Congressional Research Service, September 17, 2020
• Counties and Military Installations 101: Leveraging the Farm Bill to Promote Compatible Land Use and Community Development, National Association of Counties, January 21, 2020
• Preparing for Duty: State Policy Options to Sustain Military Installations, National Conference of State Legislatures, December 2016
• Active Duty Military Installations, Texas Military Preparedness Commission, Office of the Texas Governor
• Military-Community Planning, North Central Texas Council of Governments
• Military Transformation Task Force (MTTF), City of San Antonio, Texas
• Office of Economic Adjustment, U.S. Department of Defense
• Texas Local Government Code Chapter 397A, Regional Military Sustainability Commissions Relating to Certain Military Installations

• Reentry Resource Guide, Reentry and Integration Division, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, revised October 19, 2020
• Biennial Reentry and Reintegration Services Report, Reentry and Integration Division, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, September 2020
• Homelessness Among Veterans in Texas: A Report Submitted to the 85th Texas Legislature (Appendices), Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs, December 1, 2016
• Veterans Justice Outreach Program, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
• Incarcerated Veterans, Elderly Veterans, Homeless Veterans (VA benefits and programs), U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
• Texas Veterans Portal, State of Texas (Texas.gov)

• 2020 Report on the Transition from Military Service to Employment (HB 257 Report), Texas Workforce Commission, August 14, 2020    
• House Committee Resources: International Relations & Economic Development (Blog – Charge 5), Legislative Reference Library, August 14, 2020
• "To Solve Military Spouse Unemployment, It Needs to Be Tracked, Report Says," MilitaryTimes, July 25, 2020     
• Military Spouse Unemployment: Exploring Solutions to a Local Problem of National Importance, Deloitte Center for Government Insights, July 22, 2020
• "VA Study Finds Transition Assistance Program Worthwhile" (News Release), Office of Public and Intergovernmental Affairs, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, June 12, 2020
• Post-Separation Transition Assistance Program (TAP) Assessment (PSTAP): 2019 Cross-Sectional Survey Report, Office of Transition and Economic Development (TED), U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, June 3, 2020
• A Path to Employment for Veterans with Disabilities, National Conference of State Legislatures, July 2019
• Interim Report to the 86th Texas Legislature (Charge 4 – Joint charge on veterans' employment in the aviation, aerospace, and defense manufacturing industry, with the House Committee on Economic & Small Business Development), House Committee on Defense & Veterans' Affairs, December 2018
• Interim Report to the 86th Texas Legislature (Charge 5 – Joint charge on veterans' employment in the aviation, aerospace, and defense manufacturing industry, with the House Committee on Defense & Veterans' Affairs), House Committee on Economic & Small Business Development, November 2018
• Veteran Transition, George W. Bush Presidential Center

 

Dark and stormy nights at the Capitol might be the perfect time to become acquainted with some Capitol spirits. Will you see Comptroller Love walking the hallways near the office where he was shot and killed in 1903? Or, will Governor Edmund Davis (1870-1874) tip his hat to you as you walk by him? Stroll across the street to the Governor's Mansion and you might find Sam Houston, standing by his famous four-poster mahogany bed in the bedroom bearing his name. 

 

Have you ever heard of the Headless Horseman? Most people are familiar with "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," an 1820 short story written by Washington Irving. Did you know that Texas has its own Headless Horseman legend?

 

For the past several years around Halloween, we've shared ghostly stories related to Texas. (See our previous posts from 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019.) Below, you'll find more information about Texas' Headless Horseman.

 

Texas' Headless Horseman

 

Have you driven the roads south and west of San Antonio late at night? Did you see El Muerto, the Headless One?

• "The big mustang drank . . . Gaunt in the thin moon, his rider waited, leaning on his saddlehorn with all the patience of death . . . Even the faint light showed the stump above his shoulders; his head — its sombrero still secured — was a restless pendulum, swinging gently . . . El Muerto was gone at a gallop, his head bouncing against his thigh" (William Edwards Syers, Ghost Stories of Texas [Waco, TX: Texian Press, 1981]).

 

William A. A. "Bigfoot" Wallace. Courtesy of the Texas State Cemetery.

 

William A. A. "Bigfoot" Wallace was at the heart of many an interesting Texas tale, so it's no surprise that he's an integral part of the headless horseman story. Bigfoot and friends caught up with the horse thief, Vidal, in the land below Uvalde. According to legend, as a warning to other thieves, Wallace decapitated Vidal, mounted him on a mustang, and strapped his sombreroed head to the saddle horn. In the words of J. Frank Dobie, the mustang "broke away into a run that, as we have seen, scared up a legend not yet dead" (J. Frank Dobie, "The Headless Horseman of the Mustangs," in Tales of Old-Time Texas [Austin: University of Texas Press, [1984]]).

 

Chapman and Hall, The Headless Horseman: A Strange Tale of Texas by Captain Mayne Reid, advertisement. In Part 11 of Our Mutual Friend, Charles Dickens. London: Chapman and Hall, March 1865. https://digitalcommons.wpi.edu/ourmutualfriend/11/.

 

 

 

 

Many authors have given their take on this story. One of the earliest was by Mayne Reid in his 1865 novel, The Headless Horseman: A Strange Tale of Texas. And what role did Creed Taylor play in spreading the tale? He was a larger-than-life character, participating in many pivotal events in Texas history. Was he along on the chase for the horse thief Vidal with Bigfoot Wallace? If not, he was perhaps the first to relate the story of the thief's decapitation and the origin of the big mustang with the headless rider that terrified South Texas. Did he "stretch the blanket" when telling his stories? Find more details in Lou Ann Herda's article, "The Evolution of a Legend: The Headless Horseman of Texas, or It May Not Be True, but It Makes a Good Story," in Both Sides of the Border: A Scattering of Texas Folklore.

 

Check out more stories on our Capitol Spirits Pinterest board.

 

From the Legislative Reference Library, we hope you have a fun and safe Halloween!!

 

Cover image by Daniel Mingus

 

In this weekly post, we feature helpful research tools and recent articles of interest to the legislative community.

Helen Keller at a Joint Session of the Legislature, April 8, 1941. Left to right: Speaker of the House Homer Leonard, Governor W. Lee O'Daniel, Helen Keller, and Keller's assistant Polly Thompson. Neal Douglass Photography Collection, Austin History Center, Austin Public Library. Portal to Texas History (University of North Texas Libraries).

October is Persons with Disabilities History and Awareness Month. Since 2011, Texas has recognized Persons with Disabilities History and Awareness Month with the passage of HB 3616, 82nd Regular Session (Government Code, Section 662.109). Governor Greg Abbott also signed a proclamation specifically recognizing October 2020 and highlighting how this year coincides with the 30th anniversary of the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.

The most famous disability rights advocate to address the Texas Legislature may have been Helen Keller when she appeared before a Joint Session of the Texas Legislature on April 8, 1941, during the 47th Regular Session. Keller had been invited to speak after planning a trip to Texas to lecture on behalf of the American Foundation for the Blind. Her invitation became official when Senate Concurrent Resolution 17 was adopted and filed on February 26, 1941.

Senate Concurrent Resolution 37, filed April 7, 1941, provided for a Joint Session of the Legislature and for appointing a committee of ten members (five members of the House and five members of the Senate) to escort Keller to the House of Representatives at the time of her address. According to the Galveston Daily News ("Blind Solons Named Committee Heads to Meet Helen Keller," April 6, 1941, page 17), two blind members of the Texas Legislature, Senator Olan R. Van Zandt and Representative Lon E. Alsup, served as cochairmen of the committee to meet Keller. (Van Zandt and Alsup were also author and coauthor of HB 844, 42nd Regular Session (1931), which created the State Commission for the Blind.)

The proceedings of the Joint Session were described in both the House Journal and the Senate Journal of the 47th Regular Session. 

A signed copy of Senate Concurrent Resolution 17, 47th Regular Session (1941), a letter from Senator Olan R. Van Zandt to Helen Keller regarding her visit, and a signed copy of Senate Concurrent Resolution 37, 47th Regular Session (1941), are now found within the holdings of the Helen Keller Archive at the American Foundation for the Blind.