Texas Education Commissioner Announces His Resignation

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) _ Texas’ top education official is resigning his post effective this summer.

The Texas Education Agency says Robert Scott will step down July 2, five years to the day after Gov. Rick Perry appointed him as the agency’s commissioner.

Scott’s tenure overseeing nearly 5 million public school children statewide is the longest in the past 20 years.

Agency spokesman Debbie Ratcliffe said Scott met with Gov. Rick Perry Tuesday, Scott’s 43rd birthday, and told him he was resigning.

He gave no official reason, but Ratcliffe noted, “It’s just a grueling job.”

Scott made headlines earlier this year when he suggested that teachers spending more time preparing students for standardized tests than promoting actual classorom learning was a perversion of the public education system’s intent.

    
     (Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)

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