Education

Chris Bell's education priorities in his campaign for the District 17 Senate seat were highlighted in a Port Arthur News article. Chris Bell urged rewriting rules on college tuition increases and endorsed alternative education opportunities.

An open letter to and from women across Texas

November 2008 will always be remembered as an historic election.

However, our job is not over because there is one critical election remaining that demands our attention:

Chris Bell’s run-off for Texas Senate District 17 against Joan Huffman.

Can you feel the wind blowing? It's the wind of change!

And with all of the incredible things that happened for Democrats across the country last night, the wind is at our backs.

But we can't afford to rest. Senate District 17 now becomes the final battleground of 2008, and I need your help.

Education in Texas is in trouble at all levels and needs radical change to transform it for the 21st Century.

The promise of TAKS testing to increase student performance has become a straightjacket of standardized thinking that leaves little time for teaching and creative learning.

We need a new system of accountability along with more and better-paid teachers.

Higher education faces challenges of a different sort.

On Sept. 6, Chris Bell visited with teachers, students and parents at the Hastings High School in Alief. Click on the audio below and listen to him talk about the experience and why it's important to reform Texas public schools:

Editor's note: This is a transcript from the U.S. House of Representatives on Sept. 5, 2003, when Rep. Chris Bell spoke passionately against a private school voucher plan in the District of Columbia Appropriations act of 2004.
Mr. [CHRIS] BELL... Mr. Chairman, I rise today in support of the amendment, hopeful that we will pass the Norton amendment and not engage in what I think most charitably can be described as a giant cop-out.

This article was written by Chris Bell and originally published in the West University Examiner on Wednesday, Jan. 2, 2008

It's much like heroin for an addict. That's the best way to describe federal money for state and local governments. They depend on it, and when it's made available, they'll go to great lengths to get it.

This article was written by Chris Bell and originally published in the West University Examiner on Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2007
There's a great scene in "Night at the Museum" when Ben Stiller is trying to get the North and South to stop fighting the Civil War every night. He goes ahead and tells the North that they win and, as for the South, "You all get the Allman Brothers and NASCAR."

This article was written by Chris Bell and originally published in the West University Examiner on Friday, July 27, 2007

"Smelly socks." That's what one Texas student said came to mind when he thought about the TAKS test. There could be a more pleasing olfactory reaction for such students in the future.

Chris Bell is running for the Texas Senate in the Gulf Coast’s District 17 because it's an incredible opportunity to make progress on the issues he cares about the most: public school education, access to health care and ethics reform.

He has been a leader since his days on the Houston City Council and in Congress. Now his experience can work for us in the State Legislature!

SCHOOLS THAT WORK