Session begins quickly, but criticisms remain.

Session begins quickly, but criticisms remain.: "On the House side, GOP Speaker Tom Craddick chose to bypass the Public Education Committee, which includes six Republicans and three Democrats, and instead appointed a select committee made up of the five House Republicans who negotiated a final plan with the Senate in the closing days of the last session. The select committee reapproved that plan Thursday.

But that decision drew fire from Democrats, who said the full committee should have spent more time weighing the proposal in public.

'We can solve this problem,' said Rep. Jim Dunnam, D-Waco. 'But we can't solve it with the same five people in the same back room excluding the people of Texas from the process.'"