State Sen. Jose Rodriguez wants more done to protect students

A West Texas legislator has filed a bill that could lead to prison time for manipulating and falsely reporting education data to state officials.

Sen. Jose Rodriguez of El Paso filed the bill Monday in Austin in the aftermath of the El Paso Independent School District testing scandal.

Former superintendent Lorenzo Garcia was sentenced last month to more than three years in prison for fraud. Prosecutors say Garcia participated in a conspiracy to improve test scores by removing low-performing students from classrooms.

Manipulation of data provided to the Texas Education Agency could lead to a sentence of up to 10 years in prison.

The El Paso Times (http://bit.ly/W0HlnB ) reports another bill would give the TEA expanded powers to subpoena records and testimony from witnesses.

The Legislature convenes Jan. 8

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Information from: El Paso Times, http://www.elpasotimes.com