State v. Project Principle, Inc.
| Decision Date | 18 February 1987 |
| Docket Number | No. C-5340,C-5340 |
| Citation | 724 S.W.2d 387 |
| Parties | 37 Ed. Law Rep. 961 STATE of Texas et al., Appellants, v. PROJECT PRINCIPLE, INC., Appellee. |
| Court | Texas Supreme Court |
Jim Mattox, Atty. Gen., Leslie L. McCollom and Kevin T. O'Hanlon, Assts., Atty. Gens. Office, Austin, for appellants.
Jaime Omar Garza, Alice, David Garza, C. Allen Ramirez, Rio Grande City, for appellee.
This is a direct appeal from a temporary injunction prohibiting enforcement of Tex.Educ.Code § 13.047 (Vernon Supp.1987) on the ground that the statute is unconstitutional. Section 13.047 provides that public school educators, to retain their teaching certificates, must successfully complete an examination known as the Texas Examination for Current Administrators and Teachers, or TECAT. We hold the statute is constitutional and we reverse the judgment of the trial court and dissolve that court's injunction.
This court has jurisdiction of this cause under Tex.Gov't Code § 22.001(c) (Vernon Pamph.1987). That section provides for a direct appeal from a temporary or permanent injunction order based on the constitutionality of a state statute.
Project Principle, a non-profit corporation with membership comprised of certified public school teachers and administrators, alleged that section 13.047 is unconstitutional. We must determine whether the trial court's injunction properly rests on any of the alleged constitutional violations: (1) that section 13.047 violates article I, section 16 of the state constitution which prohibits any law impairing obligations under a contract or any law which is retroactive; (2) that section 13.047 violates federal and state guarantees of due process; (3) that section 13.047 violates the equal protection clause of the Texas Constitution, article I, section 3; and (4) that the State Board of Education suspended the operation of a general law in its implementation of the TECAT, thus violating article I, section 28 of the Texas Constitution.
On July 3, 1984, the state legislature passed into law House Bill 72. The bill contained numerous educational reforms, including additional school funding, school finance reform, teacher salary increases, and teacher competency testing. The bill is codified as Tex.Educ.Code § 13.047, and it provides in part as follows:
(a) The State Board of Education shall require satisfactory performance on an examination prescribed by the board as a condition to continued certification for each teacher and administrator who has not taken a certification examination under Section 13.032(e) of this code.
(b) The board shall prescribe an examination designed to test knowledge appropriate to teach primary grades and an examination designed to test knowledge appropriate to teach secondary grades. The secondary teacher examination must test the knowledge of each examinee in the subject areas ... in which the examinee is certified to teach and is teaching. If a teacher is not tested in an area of certification, the teacher must take the examination for that area within three years after beginning to teach that subject. The administrator examinations must test administrative skills, knowledge in subject areas, and other matters that the board considers appropriate. The examinations must also test the ability of the examinee to read and write with sufficient skill and understanding to perform satisfactorily as a professional teacher or administrator.
Section 13.047 provides for a testing program by the State Board of Education for continued certification of all educators who have not taken the test required by section 13.032(e) of the Code. However, the section 13.032(e) test was first administered on May 24, 1986; thus, all previously certified teachers, including all members of Project Principle, were required to take the TECAT.
Although the legislature mandated in section 13.047(b) that teachers' skills in a number of areas be tested, the legislature only appropriated funds for testing basic reading and writing skills. Tex.H.B. 20, 69th Leg. (1985), art. III, Texas Central Education Agency--Programs, para. 18, p. III-7. The State Board spent the appropriated funds on a basic reading and writing skills test, the TECAT.
The state argues that the trial court's injunction is in error because section 13.047 impairs no contract rights. Project Principle contends that teaching certificates are contracts with which the legislature may not interfere. We hold that a teaching certificate is not a contract within the meaning of article I, section 16. Rather, the certificate is a license, and like all licenses, is subject to such future restrictions as the state may reasonably impose.
The United States Supreme Court spoke to the impairment of contracts argument more than forty years ago in Dodge v. Board of Education, 302 U.S. 74, 79, 58 S.Ct. 98, 100, 82 L.Ed. 57 (1937). In Dodge, retired teachers challenged an act of the Illinois legislature which decreased the amounts of annuity payments to retired teachers of Chicago public schools. The teachers claimed that the Act impaired the obligation of contracts in contravention of article I, § 10 of the United States Constitution. The Supreme Court of Illinois held that in passing the statute providing for the annuities the state legislature evinced no intent to create a binding contract with teachers. The United States Supreme Court affirmed, stating "the presumption is that (a tenure) law is not intended to create private contractual or vested rights but merely declares a policy to be pursued until the legislature shall ordain otherwise."
As early as 1925 it was recognized in Texas that a teaching certificate is a license. In Marrs v. Matthews, 270 S.W. 586 (Tex.Civ.App.--Texarkana 1925, writ ref'd), a teacher claimed that the state superintendent could not cancel his "permanent teacher's certificate" because the language used in describing the offenses for which a certificate may be cancelled was void for vagueness. The teacher also claimed that the statute giving the superintendent the authority to cancel the certificate of any "unworthy" teacher was an attempt to confer judicial powers upon an executive department of the state government. In dissolving the trial court writ enjoining cancellation of the teaching certificate, the court stated that a teaching certificate "is merely a license granted by the state, and is revocable by the state." Id. at 589. The court noted that the teacher had "voluntarily sought and secured a statutory privilege to be enjoyed subject to statutory conditions." Id. 1
Because we hold a teaching certificate is not a contract, the constitutional prohibition against impairment of contracts is not violated when the legislature imposes new conditions for the retention of the certificate. Further, because the certificate is a license and confers no vested rights, the constitutional prohibition against retroactive laws is not violated. It is only when vested rights are impaired that a retroactive law is invalid. Paschal v. Perez, 7 Tex. 348 (1851); Commercial Insurance Co. of Newark, N.J. v. Lane, 480 S.W.2d 781, 783 (Tex.Civ.App.--Dallas 1972, writ ref'd n.r.e.).
The state contends the trial court's injunction is in error because section 13.047 does not violate due process guarantees. Project Principle contends the statute violates federal and state guarantees of due process. Project Principle states that before section 13.047 was enacted certified educators were afforded the guarantee of a due process hearing with the right to appeal before their teaching certificates could be suspended. Project Principle argues that after the enactment of section 13.047, educators' certificates are subject to cancellation without a hearing or avenue for appeal upon failure to take the TECAT or to perform satisfactorily on the TECAT.
First, it must be noted that decertification is not automatic upon failure of the examination. Section 13.047 provides that "each teacher must be given more than one opportunity to perform satisfactorily" on the TECAT.
Second, provisions for appeal of "proceedings concerning the suspension, revocation, or cancellation of a (teaching) certificate" are contained in 19 Tex.Admin.Code § 157.1(b)(4) (1985). It is provided in section 157.1 that a person aggrieved by the school laws of Texas or by actions or decisions of a board of trustees or board of education has the right to appeal to the commissioner of education. After such administrative proceedings, the aggrieved teacher may have judicial review in a district court of Travis County. Tex.Educ.Code § 11.13 (Vernon Supp.1987). A teacher who fails to perform satisfactorily on the TECAT is entitled to these methods of review. This review provides procedural due process to any teacher who fails to perform satisfactorily on a competency examination.
Project...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Texas Boll Weevil Eradication Foundation, Inc. v. Lewellen
...it is justified by a rational legislative purpose and does not violate a specific constitutional provision. See State v. Project Principle, Inc., 724 S.W.2d 387, 391 (Tex.1987). Fees that are imposed against persons in an industry, when only in an amount reasonably necessary to fund the Sta......
-
Ficarra v. Department of Regulatory Agencies, Div. of Ins.
...law as applied to officer elected in March of 1983 who had already twice failed to complete the program); State v. Project Principle, Inc., 724 S.W.2d 387 (Tex.1987) (act requiring previously certified public school teachers successfully to complete a new written examination in order to ret......
-
Frazier v. Garrison I.S.D.
...inter alia, that section 13.047 was unconstitutional as violative of federal due process and equal protection. 7 State v. Project Principle, 724 S.W.2d 387, 389 (Tex.1987). The Texas Supreme Court held that the administrative procedures contained in the Texas Administrative Procedures Act, ......
-
Davenport v. Garcia
...v. Meyer, 787 S.W.2d 42, 45 (Tex.1990); Edgewood Indep. Sch. Dist. v. Kirby, 777 S.W.2d 391, 394 (Tex.1989); State v. Project Principle, Inc., 724 S.W.2d 387, 390-91 (Tex.1987); Spring Branch Indep. Sch. Dist. v. Stamos, 695 S.W.2d 556, 559-62 (Tex.1985); City of El Paso v. El Paso Communit......