People often ask me how I got involved in running for office. My interest started about 15 years ago, when, as the owner of a small proprietary ("trade") school, I realized the legislation that covered small schools was far too onerous.

In 1990 I opened a small floral design school, the Thomas School of Retail Floristry, in NE Austin. As I filled out paperwork for the required licensing from the Proprietary School Division of the Texas Education Agency (prop. schools are now administered by the Texas Workforce Commission), I realized that the laws bordered on the absurd for small schools such as mine. I went to TEA and asked what we could do to change the regulations and why they were what they were.

Here is what I was told: In the middle to late 1980's, there was a scandal with some of the very large "trade" schools. Students who had Texas Guaranteed Student Loans (TGSL) paid their entire tuitions up front to some of these schools, only to have them literally disappear overnight, leaving the students with large loans to repay and no education with which to get a job so they could repay the loans.  The legislature, in order to stop the wholesale theft of these monies, passed laws to regulate these schools. For schools which were taking in thousands and thousands of dollars for long-term education (most of these classes were full semesters long), the laws made sense. One of the laws that absolutely made sense for these types of schools was that they could only take a certain percentage of the total at the beginning of school, then a certain time later, they were paid another amount, etc.  For small schools such as mine, which were only 2 weeks long, and other small schools, such as test prep schools, which often has classes that were a weekend long, it made no sense. As I pointed out to more than one legislator, we had "no motive to steal" since we took in relatively so little, but to have us collect our money over a period based on where they were in school bordered on ridiculous.

The problem was that the legislators had no idea that small schools such as mine existed, so we all got caught in the net which was cast to catch the big fish! I asked TEA what was to be done, and was told, "if you don't like the law, work to change it," so I did. I went to the Capitol, and talked to legislators who I thought might be interested in sponsoring this legislation. My school was in Rep. Wilhelmina Delco's district, and, fortunately for me, she sponsored the legislation. I went back to TEA and told them that I had someone who was willing to work with us, so they then put together a "small school commission", of which I was a member, along with an owner of another small floral design school and several small test prep school people. We worked on language with TEA, and then worked with Rep. Delco. I spent hour upon hour, going to meet with legislators in their offices who sat on the higher education committees in both the House and the Senate. I even met with Lt. Gov. Bob Bullock on this issue.

Admittedly, the first Session, I was very naive. I believed that since it was a good and fair bill (which everyone to whom we talked agreed) that it would pass. The only people who weren't happy were the big schools, they wanted our "lighter" legislation, and there was no way the legislature was going to give it to them, since,  to begin with,  they were the ones who had caused the problems. What happened that first session was that the large school's lobbyist helped to torpedo our bill, and it never made it out to a vote. We learned from that, and worked that whole next year, and the next session, we were ready. When the big school lobbyist would follow me into an office, I'd make sure I got back in after him and asked what concerns the legislator might have. We again testified at both House and Senate committee hearings, and worked through TEA on our small school commission. Our bill exempted schools that did not accept guaranteed student loans, that were no longer than a certain length, and that made no more than a certain amount of money; from certain of the more onerous provisions of the proprietary school bill.

I am proud to say that Gov. Richards signed our bill in that second session. (The photo above is a photo of the pen with which she signed the bill- Rep. Delco made sure I received it.)

Around TEA and Rep. Delco's office, the bill was informally called the "Kathi Thomas Small School Bill" because I was the one who was the catalyst for making it happen. All these other small schools had been unhappy with what they had to do under the previous regulations, but they didn't know what they could do to change it. I didn't know, either, but I asked, and then I worked to accomplish it.

This is what I do- I don't know everything, but what I don't know, I'll ask, I'll learn, I won't settle for status quo. I learned first-hand how hard it was to pass something that benefited ONLY small (as in "micro-small") businesses, but I learned that it CAN be done. I'm not satisfied to say, as one Republican senator on the redistricting committee told me with a sigh during the redistricting hearings, "it is just the process, there is nothing I can do." I know that our lawmakers ARE the process, and if they want change, they CAN make it happen. It is easy for someone to settle in after a long time in office and say *sigh*, "it's just the process"- but I won't be that person, I intend to work hard my entire time in office.