Education commissioner calls for cellphone ban in Texas schools

AUSTIN (KXAN) — The idea of banning cellphones in Texas public schools received a big endorsement from the state's top education leader.

While discussing recent student performance in key skills testing, Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath told the members of the Texas Senate Committee on Education Wednesday that he would encourage them to pursue this as a policy during next year's session. He argued smartphones are negatively impacting student progress.

"At least from my perspective, cellphones are extremely harmful for student learning," Morath testified. "And if it were in my power, I would have already banned them in all schools in the state."

State Sen. José Menéndez, D-San Antonio, seemed open to the idea during Wednesday's hearing, citing concerns about young people's mental health. State Sen. Donna Campbell, R-New Braunfels, commended several school districts that already took matters into their own hands.

"While we make an attempt legislatively to ban cell phones from class, (Morath) said — and we have seen — superintendents have done it independently, and they are successful," Campbell said. "So everything doesn't take legislation. It takes leadership."

If Texas lawmakers pursue a bill to accomplish this during next year's regular legislative session, they would follow in the footsteps of at least four states that already passed laws banning cellphones in classrooms. At this point, those include Florida, Indiana, Louisiana and South Carolina. California could become the fifth state if Gov. Gavin Newsom signs legislation that passed the state assembly.

Jenn Wood, a mother of two students in Austin, said she'd like to see the state act because cellphones are a major distraction not just for learning.

"If (students are) hiding behind their cell phone during passing periods, if they're hiding behind their cellphone during lunch, they're not looking people in the eye. They're not talking to people," Wood said Thursday. "They're not growing and developing personal relationships, and that's a really huge hindrance on social development."

The Lake Travis Independent School District instituted a new policy this school year requiring phones to be turned off and put away during class. Now, grades prekindergarten through eighth grade are no longer allowed to use cellphones during the school day on campus.

Meanwhile, two years ago, the Thorndale Independent School District made students start locking up their phones during the school day in a "magnetically sealed pouch."

Texas Rep. Ellen Troxclair, R-Lakeway, said Thursday one of the first bills she plans to file during the upcoming session is related to this. She'd like the state to offer money so that districts can store students' phones, like the magnetic pouches used in Thorndale.

"Kids still keep their cell phones on them, in their backpack or in their locker. They can be taken out, of course, in any kind of emergency, but bell to bell, they are free from the constant notifications and the constant distraction," Troxclair said. "That is where we've seen the most overwhelmingly positive results, and that's what I would hope to advocate for. Of course, I'm never going to mandate something like this without funding and so I am already talking to our budget appropriators to make sure if that's what our school districts are interested in, let's provide them support, encouragement and funding to make sure that they can do it."

Critics of these proposals have often cited security concerns as driving their opposition since students would not be able to access their phones in the event of an emergency on campus. Eva Noyola, a mother of two students in Austin, said that's what would worry her, too, even though she supports the idea of not making cellphones available during class periods.

"My concern about it is that, given the security situation that we've had in this state and in many other places in the U.S., is that things happen in schools," Noyola said Thursday. "Sometimes there's emergency situations, and sometimes they're really horrendous emergency situations. I really, really want my kid to be able to reach out to either ask for help or to call me in case of an emergency like that, so not having access to the phone through the entire school day is something that I'm very hesitant about."

Troxclair, though, said Morath's support for a cellphone ban in classrooms could have sway when lawmakers return on Jan. 14 to begin debating bills.

"We spend the largest portion of our state budget on public education," she said, "so as a mom of young girls, this is the right thing for my kids, but also as a legislator who's appropriating billions of dollars to public education, we want to make sure that those monies, are used efficiently and effectively to teach children, not for anything else."

Recent data from Pew Research shows that cellphones are nationwide problem of distraction. That data shows 72% of high school teachers across the U.S. said cellphones create a major distraction among students, while 33% of middle school students as well as 6% of elementary school teachers said the phones are a problem.