Grading Texas – Page 135 – Texas State Teachers Association

Beware of education “reformers” with lots of money

As a rule of thumb, teachers and others who truly value public schools should be wary of any group claiming to promote “education reform,” which more often than not in the current Texas political climate is a code term for school privatization. And, you should be extra wary of Texans for Education Reform, which has formed a political action committee that already has raised nearly $1 million to spend on political campaigns this year.

This is the same group that emerged during last year’s legislative session, and it didn’t have the slightest interest in giving public schools and teachers the resources they need to handle growing student enrollments. As far as I know, this group didn’t even bother to seek input from the real education experts who are in the classroom every day, our public school teachers.

This group wants to drain money from public schools for more privately operated charter schools and online virtual learning, which offer opportunities for more enrichment in the entrepreneurial community, not opportunities for enriching the learning opportunities of thousands of Texas school children.

Charter schools are a mixed bag, academically. Many privately run charters try to cherry pick the best students, while taking money from neighborhood public schools where most Texas children will continue to be educated. Computers are an important classroom tool in the 21^st century, but not a replacement for teachers.

Some of the major players in this new group – including Dick Weekley and Richard Trabulsi — were principals of Texans for Lawsuit Reform (TLR), another group with a misleading name. Its goal was not judicial reform but enactment of laws making it extremely difficult for consumers to win legitimate damage claims against businesses and doctors. TLR has been largely successful in restricting consumers’ access to the courts after contributing millions of dollars to Gov. Rick Perry and legislators in numerous election cycles.

So far, according to the Austin American-Statesman, the new Texans for Education Reform PAC has contributed $95,000 to House Speaker Joe Straus and members of legislative committees that draft public education laws. Only 11 people, including Weekley, account for the nearly $1 million the PAC has raised so far.

Make no mistake. These people know how to make and spend money, and they don’t hesitate to spend as much as they think it may take to achieve their goals. Unfortunately, they know very little about public education and, so far, don’t seem interested in talking with people who do.

Elections have consequences — in New York and Texas

With the new year comes some encouraging news from New York City, where the new mayor, Bill de Blasio, did something that his longtime predecessor found unfashionable. De Blasio actually appointed an educator as the new chancellor of the city’s school system.

De Blasio has decided that the city’s public schools and their 1.1 million students have had all the alleged “reform” they can take. He also wants to reduce the focus on high-stakes testing, which, he believes, has “taken us down the wrong road,” according to the Education Week article linked below.

State and federal requirements, unfortunately, will limit what the new mayor can do to curb standardized testing, but the schools chancellor is one of his top appointments. Unlike cities in Texas, New York runs its school system, and de Blasio campaigned for changing or undoing many of predecessor Michael Bloomberg’s agenda and replacing it with a greater emphasis on educational policies that have been proven to work, such as more prekindergarten and other early-childhood programs.

And, the new mayor is signaling that he values the input of educators. His choice for new schools chancellor is Carmen Farina, a former teacher, principal and community and regional superintendent who spent 40 years working in New York public schools before retiring during the Bloomberg administration.

Time will tell, of course, how de Blasio and Farina work out. But consider that Bloomberg, during his 12-year tenure, appointed three schools chancellors, and none was an educator. They were a corporate executive, a publishing executive and a former deputy mayor. And, Bloomberg’s education agenda was heavy on expanding charter schools and tying student test scores to education-related decisions.

By contrast, one urban education expert told Education Week that Farina actually knows what needs to happen in classrooms for children to be successful.

“This will be the first time in many years that New York has an (education) leader who understands curriculum and instruction,” said Pedro Noguera, a New York University education professor.

This is another reminder, folks, that elections have consequences, in Texas, no less than in New York. For many years now, Texas voters have been electing a governor and a legislative majority that have pursued the same unproven education “reforms” as Bloomberg while mostly ignoring the real education experts, Texas’ educators.

You can start undoing the damage this year – at the polls. In the upcoming weeks, TSTA will be evaluating the educational priorities – or lack thereof – of candidates for governor, other statewide offices and the Legislature. Keep an eye on this space and our website, http://www.tsta.org/, and then decide which candidates will listen to and value the viewpoints of educators. And, then, vote for them, beginning with the party primaries, which now are only two months away.

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2014/01/08/15nyc.h33.html?tkn=ZOVFSgl4T%2Fs6BwH%2Ba17EZ%2B1us4qOVHxSNs4Z&cmp=ENL-EU-NEWS2

Educators need more than cheerleaders in high places

Arne Duncan has been U.S. Secretary of Education for several years now, and he still doesn’t get it. You don’t reward and build public respect for teachers with feel-good campaigns and phrases, but that is still what he is trying to do.

In the newspaper column linked below, journalist Mary Sanchez takes Duncan to task over the Department of Education’s new public service campaign, called “Teach,” which purportedly was designed to convince more of the top college students to become teachers.

Sanchez says the campaign essentially has “all the honesty and appeal of ‘Join the Army and see the world,’” while ignoring what really is important in teacher recruitment and retention, beginning with better pay.

The column isn’t about Texas teachers specifically, and I am not sure the writer gives enough credit to the current crop of educators. But the piece is relevant since Texas teachers are paid $8,000 below the national average, and compensation for the teaching profession nationally ranks below most other professions.

Small wonder that about 44 percent of Texas teachers are taking extra jobs during the school year, and about half of Texas teachers quit during the first five years in the classroom.

The column also addresses other relevant issues, including the grossly uneven distribution of income and wealth in America, and how that affects teachers’ challenges in the classroom.

Adding insult to injury – and this isn’t in the column – Duncan also is promoting the misguided fantasy that tying teacher pay to student test scores will somehow magically make all our educational problems disappear.

Arne Duncan purports to be an advocate for public education, but educators – and their students — need more than cheerleaders with empty slogans.

http://www.dentonrc.com/opinion/columns-headlines/20131216-mary-sanchez-we-must-change-to-improve-teachers-ranks.ece

Abbott not listening to real education needs

Not only is Greg Abbott totally clueless about the needs of public schools, he doesn’t listen to those who value public education and do know what our neighborhood schools need. I know I have been picking on Abbott a lot lately. But the man wants to be governor of Texas, folks, and yet he seems to know almost nothing about public education, one of the most important programs that state government is responsible for supporting.

Consider what he told reporters the other day, after meeting privately with charter school leaders in San Antonio. It is not clear that he actually met with any teachers, and, if he did, it sounds like he didn’t listen to them anyway.

“No one before now has come out and said what our priorities should be in education in the state of Texas,” Abbott said.

What??? The truth is the attorney general has been so busy wasting tax dollars on mostly symbolic and ideological suits against the federal government that he simply hasn’t been listening.

For years, the real education experts have been telling anyone who will listen what our educational priorities should be:

An adequate and fairly funded school finance system that gives every child an opportunity at a first-class public education.
Teachers who are paid at a level commensurate with their professional work, and paid enough so almost half of them don’t have to take a second job to make ends meet. Pay that is $8,000 below the national average, the current level in Texas, is not professional and promotes a high rate of turnover, to the detriment of students.
Smaller class sizes that allow teachers to give students the individual attention needed to promote real learning.
Up-to-date textbooks and instructional materials free of political ideology and modern, technological teaching aids for every classroom.

By real education experts, I mean people who have actually been in the classroom. For years, teachers and educators have been telling legislators and governors what Texas’ educational priorities must be. I am not talking about voucher hucksters, virtual school promoters, corporate charter CEOs and other privateers posing as “education reformers.” These are the people to whom Abbott has been listening so far, and their only interest in the public schools is how to rob them of tax dollars.

And, if the pleas of teachers weren’t enough, Abbott could have learned about the real education priorities had he spent much time in the courtroom when his office was defending the unconstitutional school finance system, including $5.4 billion in education budget cuts. He would have heard a parade of additional experts — school superintendents and other witnesses — describing in detail the consequences of under-funding public schools.

Abbott claims to want to give Texas the “No. 1 ranked education system in the entire United States of America.” But that’s a hollow promise from someone who continues to defend $5.4 billion in school budget cuts, including the loss of 11,000 teacher jobs, thousands of overcrowded classrooms and per-student spending that ranks 49^th among the states and the District of Columbia.

Abbott said he could not “go back and reconstruct” what happened when the legislative majority slashed school funding two years ago. In reality, the next governor actually could, and Wendy Davis makes it clear that she will. But it is very clear that Abbott wouldn’t.

http://www.texastribune.org/2013/12/11/vouchers-and-education-funding-abbott-keeps-mum/

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