A session of the Texas Legislature always provides drama, and it’s not over when the senators and representatives go home. In the 20 days after the session ends, the governor must decide which bills he will sign, which he will veto and which he will allow to become law without his stamp of approval.

That final part of the 81st Legislature’s drama ends Sunday. Most of the action happens behind the scenes, but plenty of people are waiting to see what Gov. Rick Perry will do.

The House and Senate sent more than 5,000 bills and resolutions to Perry, but only about 1,500 of them created substantive new laws or changed current law.

He has signed fewer than 300 and vetoed one, an attempt to change the wording of several laws that Perry deemed should stay as-is.

Perry is not timid about his veto power. He nixed 82 bills in 2001, his first session as governor. Often he has taken advantage of his ability to veto line-item appropriations in the two-year state budget, and that makes even veteran legislators nervous.

Given that there are so many bills still awaiting Perry’s action in the next few days — including SB 1, the 2010-11 budget — it’s impossible to say which most urgently need his signature. And given the confusion during the final days of the session, with scores of bills attached as amendments to other bills almost willy-nilly, it’s even hard to determine which bills contain what.

It’s Perry’s job to sort through all of that. Here are a couple in the all-important field of education on which he should act favorably:

HB 3646 by Rep. Scott Hochberg of Houston is this year’s best shot at delivering more money to public schools. It should have been a better bill, but the governor should not kill it.

The bill would give raises of at least $800 to teachers and some other education professionals; most would get more than that. School districts that ended up at the bottom of the food chain after school funding changes in 2006 would get some help. Every district would receive at least an extra $120 per student.

School districts need the money. The $1.9 billion cost will be paid with federal stimulus funds. A veto would throw the school finance mechanism into chaos, and Education Commissioner Robert Scott would have to come up with a fair way of distributing the federal cash. The new school year is too close for the governor to inject further confusion.

HB 4294 by Rep. Dan Branch of Dallas would give school districts the opportunity to dip a toe into the waters of 21st-century technology, allowing them to use state textbook money to buy electronic books. For a bill that makes so much sense, it has drawn lots of controversy.

It has been attacked from the conservative right because it would loosen the State Board of Education’s tight grip on what Texas students are allowed to read. Some of the loudest howls are from the board’s conservative right majority, the same folks who caused a stir this year over teaching evolution in science classes.

It’s worth a reminder that the board’s power of textbook approval comes by proxy from the Legislature, not from the Texas Constitution. Legislators can take it away, and to some degree they have done so in this bill.

HB 4294 allows the education commissioner to draw up a list of electronic books that districts may buy, providing they conform to state curriculum standards. The board can have input in that process.

Today’s students are comfortable with electronics. On-screen books don’t wear out and can be updated instantly at low cost. They open up new learning opportunities. Refusing to allow textbook money to be spent on them would be backward-thinking and wrong.