Grading Texas – Page 105 – Texas State Teachers Association

Public schools – and dictionaries – crucial to success

Newsman Dan Rather attributes much of his success to his education in Houston’s public schools and Sam Houston State University, but he acknowledges he wasn’t quite a finished product when, as a young man, he applied for a job at the Houston Chronicle. He didn’t get it because spelling wasn’t exactly his strong suit.

In a visit to TSTA headquarters yesterday, he recalled the late Dan Cobb, a strong-willed editor who was still running the Chronicle’s newsroom when I started working for the paper years later, saying something to the effect, “We can’t afford to hire a reporter who will spend half his time thumbing through the dictionary.”

As it turned out, Cobb was doing Rather a favor. If spelling remained a weakness, it certainly wasn’t an obstacle to a prestigious career in network television news.

Rather and his grandson, Martin Rather, are now partnering with Rice University’s Center for Civic Leadership in the creation of the Rather Prize, a new award designed to recognize the best ideas for improving education in Texas. It was Martin Rather’s idea, and it will be worth $10,000 to the winner and maybe much more than that to Texas school children.

It also is important to note that contest applicants are primarily limited to teachers, retired teachers, students and very recent graduates, people who actually know first-hand about public schools. That means the Dan Patricks, the Donna Campbells and other school privatization advocates and self-styled “experts” who haven’t been in classrooms in years need not apply.

You can find more details about the prize, eligibility, how to enter, deadlines, etc. by clicking on:

http://www.ratherprize.org/

The lottery and education, a legend that won’t die

I think most of us were relieved long ago of the delusion that the Texas Lottery can be the financial savior – or even primary sponsor – of Texas’ public schools. Despite what the late Gov. Ann Richards may or may not have led anyone to believe when she was promoting the creation of the lottery during a budget crunch back in 1991, the lottery never was intended to be more than a contributor to public education. And, as it has turned out, a very minor contributor.

Occasionally, though, I still read online comments from newspaper readers that say something to the effect, “But I thought the lottery was paying for the schools.”

Here is what the lottery is doing, according to an old news release from the Texas Lottery Commission, which I found while cleaning some clutter off my desk.

During fiscal 2014 (roughly the 2013-14 school year), the lottery contributed $1.2 billion to the Foundation School Program, its largest annual contribution to public schools so far.

Granted, $1.2 billion is a lot of money. Everyone reading this item could split it and be very happy. But anyone want to venture a guess as to how much the total public education budget is in Texas for one school year?

More than $50 billion (with a b) in state, local and federal funds was spent on Texas public education during the 2014-15 school year, according to the Texas Education Agency. The lottery contributed less than 3 percent of that.

The lottery doesn’t raise enough a year to even cover the $5.4 billion in budget cuts imposed on public schools by the legislative majority in 2011.

During its 22-year history, the lottery has contributed more than $17 billion to education, less than half of what was spent on schools last year alone.

But go ahead and buy that lottery ticket. You are making a contribution to your neighborhood school, albeit a tiny one, about as tiny as your chances of striking it rich.

Criminal charges aside, Paxton bad news for Texas schools

I doubt that most Texans, including thousands of people who voted for him, could have told you the name of the state attorney general before he was indicted on securities fraud charges. Now, Ken Paxton has a higher public profile and a mugshot to boot. I am not going to prejudge the criminal case against him because he is entitled to his day in court. But even before his notoriety he was bad news for public education and still is.

As a legislator in 2011, Paxton voted for the $5.4 billion in school budget cuts that cost many educators their jobs, forced overcrowding of many classrooms and still plague many school districts. And, as attorney general, he avidly defended a school funding system that a state judge has declared inadequate, unfair and unconstitutional.

In a recent brief urging the Texas Supreme Court to overturn the lower court ruling, Paxton criticized the “experts and interest groups” (i.e. educators) who are trying to win a “public education system more to their liking.” Actually, the 600 school districts that sued the state are simply trying to win a final court ruling that orders the legislative majority to fulfill its constitutional duty to the school children of Texas.

Largely a political unknown even to Republican primary voters, Paxton won the GOP nomination last year by waving his anti-abortion credentials and claiming to be more righteous (no fooling) than his opponents. Then after conducting a low-profile general election campaign, he was swept into office on a strong Republican vote.

TSTA endorsed attorney Sam Houston, his Democratic opponent.

http://www.texastribune.org/2015/08/03/paxton-set-surrender-securities-fraud-indictment/

For educators, Kansas isn’t Kansas anymore

Regardless of where you may teach, be grateful that you aren’t trying to teach in Kansas. If you are, you have my sympathy because even Dorothy and Toto wouldn’t recognize the place anymore, following the devastation to public education wrought by Gov. Sam Brownback and his legislative cronies.

It is so bad, according to the Washington Post item linked below, that teachers “can’t hotfoot it out of Kansas fast enough.”

Kansas teachers are among the lowest paid in the country – lower, on average, than Texas. They have been suffering through state budget cuts that seemingly won’t stop and are losing job protections. The result is a large teacher shortage that is expected to get worse. Several thousand Kansas teachers have either left the profession or taken their talents to other states, including neighboring Missouri.

Rather than adequately fund public education, Gov. Brownback and the Legislature cut taxes in 2012, and here are some of the things that have happened since:

# A state court declared part of Kansas’ school funding system unconstitutional.

# Some Kansas school districts ran out of money and had to end the school year early last spring.

# The Kansas Board of Education gave six school districts, including two of the state’s largest, the authority to hire unlicensed teachers. The board acted under a program for “innovative districts” created by the Kansas Legislature in 2013. It was based on model legislation from the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a right-wing organization promoting efforts throughout the country (including Texas) to under-fund public schools, declare them failures and then privatize them.

Brownback obviously is the kind of governor that ALEC likes. He reacted to all the problems by proposing another cut in per-pupil general school aid.

The mess in Kansas kind of makes me wonder why Brownback, a Republican, doesn’t run for president. He would be a disaster in the White House, but he would be right at home among a bunch of other anti-government, anti-public education candidates running for the GOP nomination.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2015/08/02/why-teachers-cant-hotfoot-it-out-of-kansas-fast-enough/?wpisrc=nl_headlines&wpmm=1

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