CONGRESSWOMAN SHEILA JACKSON LEE APPLAUDS ACTIONS OF TEXAS DISTRICT COURT IN ISSUING TEMPORARY RESTRAINING ORDER BLOCKING TEXAS EDUCATION AGENCY COMMISSIONER

“This restraining order halts the discriminatory actions of the Texas Education Agency and gives the North Forest Independent School District the opportunity to prove disparate treatment”

Houston TX - Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, a senior member of the House Judiciary Committee, released the following statement applauding the issuance of a Temporary Restraining Order by the Texas District Court to restrain the Texas Education Agency (TEA) from further action toward closing the North Forest Independent School District:

“The order issued by the District Court makes it clear that there is enough evidence to halt the actions of the Texas Education Agency and prevent it from further damaging a progressing school district and to allow them due process through our judicial system. We cannot allow school districts with similar situations to receive disparate treatment from TEA,” said Congresswoman Jackson Lee.

Because Texas is a covered jurisdiction, Section 5 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act requires that TEA’s attempt to dissolve the North Forest Independent School District must be approved in advance, or “pre-cleared,” by the U.S. Department of Justice. TEA requested pre-clearance without ever submitting a plan for review. “It was apparent to the State of Texas that a plan needed to be submitted before it requested pre-clearance to merge NFISD into the Houston Independent School District. Its failure to produce a plan shows total disregard for the Voting Rights Act of 1965 as reauthorized,” stated Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee.

###

Congresswoman Jackson Lee is a Democrat from Texas’s 18th Congressional District. She is a senior member of the House Committees on Judiciary and Homeland Security and is Ranking Member of the Homeland Security Subcommittee on Border and Maritime Security.