Grading Texas

Elections have consequences, a reality that the parents, children and teachers of Waco ISD are confronting as that district continues to struggle with the consequences of deep cuts to the state’s public education budget.

Two years ago, McLennan County, in which Waco ISD is located, voted overwhelmingly to reelect Gov. Rick Perry. Area voters also elected Brian Birdwell to the Texas Senate, reelected veteran State Rep. Charles “Doc” Anderson to the Texas House and, for a second House seat, rejected a longtime incumbent with a strong propublic education record in favor of a newcomer, State Rep. Marva Beck.

Last year, Gov. Perry demanded deep cuts in public school funding, and Birdwell, Anderson and Beck agreed and voted for education cuts that ultimately totaled $5.4 billion. (Anderson didn’t vote for the final version of the budget, but he supported deep spending reductions for the public schools throughout the appropriations process.)

Now, this month, the budgetstrapped Waco school board is weighing a proposal to close four neighborhood elementary schools, shut down a successful high school academy and merge two middle schools and move them to the academy campus. If the plan is adopted, hundreds of school children will see their routines disrupted and face the prospect of morecrowded classes and an erosion of educational quality. And, who knows how many jobs for teachers and other school employees will be at stake.

All this could have been avoided if the governor, the three Waco lawmakers and other members of the legislative majority had fulfilled their constitutional duty to adequately fund the public schools. Instead, they chose to bow to antigovernment ideologues, even to the point of leaving more than $7 billion of taxpayers’ money unspent in the Rainy Day Fund. There it still sits, and the fund is growing, as Waco and other school districts throughout the state prepare for another round of spending reductions in the 201213 school year.

TSTA challenges the teachers, parents and other taxpayers in Waco to sign our petition, urging the governor to call the Legislature into special session now and spend $2.5 billion of the Rainy Day Fund to save neighborhood schools by restoring the education cuts for 201213. Demand that Birdwell, Anderson and Beck as well as members of the Waco school board sign it.

There will be legislative elections this year, offering a chance for Waco voters who value their public schools to demand more accountability from the people they send to Austin. But there is enough money in the Rainy Day Fund to stop the cuts – and the school bleeding now.

Click on this link to sign the petition:

http://www.tstaweb.net/forms/2012cutsPetition.html

Seeking to restart his political life after his presidential disaster, Gov. Rick Perry is making public speeches again. And, predictably, pontificators are speculating about whether he will be able to “rehabilitate” his reputation. For Perry and his constituents, though, the main thing that counts now is not his political reputation, but his ultimate legacy. What will he eventually have to show for being the longest serving governor in Texas history?

So far, that is not much. Future generations (and most members of this one) are not going to give a hoot about how much red meat he continues to toss to conservative activists, which he was expected to do again today in a speech in Washington to the Conservative Political Action Committee.

Yakking heads on Fox News (to whom Perry granted an interview this week) may hyperventilate over his railings about states’ rights, but most Texas parents are much more concerned about the quality of their children’s education, whether they will be able to afford college and whether their offspring will be prepared for quality, highpaying jobs in the nottoodistant future.

What hath Perry wrought? Soaring university tuition, cuts in student financial aid, dashed college dreams and the worst public education budget in his lifetime. Remember, Perry and the legislative majority slashed $5.4 billion from Texas’ public schools last spring while hoarding more than $7 billion of taxpayers’ money in the Rainy Day Fund, so Perry could try to make points with antigovernment, headinthesand ideologues. Even Perry’s education commissioner, Robert Scott, has admitted public education funding is inadequate.

Does Perry really want to “rehabilitate” himself? He can start with the public schools and undo some of the damage he and his legislative allies inflicted on our school children. It would be a great first step, as TSTA has requested, to call the Legislature into special session to appropriate $2.5 billion of the Rainy Day Fund and restore budget cuts to the public schools for the 201213 school year. That would stop the bleeding from our children’s classrooms as the Texas economy continues to improve.

Then, the governor can go about the business of seeking a morepermanent school finance fix that includes an adequate and equitable revenue source that grows with the state’s economy – if he wants to leave a legacy that actually means something, anyway.

Want to encourage the governor to start creating that legacy? Click on this link and sign TSTA’s petition urging a special session to stop the education cuts.

http://www.tstaweb.net/forms/2012cutsPetition.html

The Texas Association of Business has been one of the more influential interest groups in Austin for a number of years now, and I have no doubt that its president, Bill Hammond, and other leaders truly value the importance of a quality public education system. But they contradict themselves by propping up a governor and other political leaders intent on tearing down our public schools.

This week, TAB took out an ad – headlined “Don’t Fail Us” in the Austin AmericanStatesman, urging unnamed Texas leaders and educators not to retreat from the student “accountability” system enacted by the Legislature in 2009.

“Please do not turn your back on Texas students, their families and the workforce needs of Texas employers,” it exhorts. And, it warns against “a concerted effort to retreat from the very reforms that could improve our state’s public education system and deliver a brighter future for Texas.”

These “reforms” are the STAAR tests that will debut this spring, putting more “accountability” pressure on children. Students will have to pass them to be promoted and eventually to graduate from high school. Unlike the TAKS, the new test scores also will be calculated into students’ grades.

Standardized tests should be administered primarily as a diagnostic tool, to help a teacher determine a student’s strengths and weaknesses. The problem with STAAR is that it is part of an alleged “accountability” system that is upside down. Gov. Rick Perry and the legislative majority heaped more pressure upon children for improved performance while slashing $5.4 billion from the public education budget.

Even state Education Commissioner Robert Scott, a Perry appointee, recognizes the absurdity and the unfairness. In a speech to school administrators earlier this week, Scott apologized for the education funding cuts. He also vowed not to certify the ban on social promotions of children who fail STAAR unless the Legislature appropriates enough money to provide remedial help to students.

Scott’s remarks may have been what prompted the Texas Association of Business to place its ad. But Scott isn’t the problem. The governor and the legislative majority are the problem. They continue to insist that everyone in the educational process be accountable but themselves.

The governor and the legislative majority already have turned their back on Texas students, their families and Texas employers. They already have failed us, and the Texas Association of Business has helped them do it. The TAB political action committee is a longtime supporter of Gov. Perry, including the governor’s 2010 reelection. The committee also endorsed many of the legislators who gave Perry the budget he wanted. They voted for the $5.4 billion in education cuts, while leaving $7.3 billion of taxpayers’ money unspent in the Rainy Day Fund.

TAB likes Perry’s and the legislative majority’s lowtax, lowregulation philosophy. But that is exacting a devastating toll on public schools. Thousands of teachers have lost their jobs, and thousands of classrooms are overcrowded, and no amount of newspaper ads promoting an underfunded, upsidedown “accountability” system for children is going to stop that bleeding.

There is a way the Texas Association of Business can help the public schools, though. It can encourage its members to join with TSTA and sign our petition urging the governor to call a special legislative session now to spend $2.5 billion from the Rainy Day Fund. That would be enough to restore public education funding for the 20122013 school year.

And, when it comes time (soon, we hope) to find a longerrange solution to our inadequate and inequitable school finance system, TAB’s members should support fairminded, realistic funding solutions that will help ensure their future prosperity as well as that of their future employees.

You can sign the TSTA, stopthecuts petition by clicking on this link:

http://www.tstaweb.net/forms/2012cutsPetition.html

In case you haven’t heard by now, Dallas ISD has reinstated the teacher it outrageously suspended last week for daring to send an email to a school board member, taking issue with a board decision to lengthen teachers’ work days without extra pay. Joseph Drake (see my previous blog post) was to have returned to his fourth grade classroom today.

The suspension was without any legal justification, and following an outraged public outcry, the school district relented. District officials also owe Drake a public apology, although I am not sure if that has – or will – happen. In any event, Drake is back where he wants to be, teaching children.

Instead of harassing teachers at the behest of thinskinned school board members, Dallas school administrators can do something much more productive about their budgetary problems. They can join TSTA’s campaign, launched today, and sign an online petition, urging Gov. Rick Perry to call the Legislature into special session now to spend $2.5 billion from the Rainy Day Fund.

That would restore the budget cuts the legislative majority made to the public education budget for the 20122013 school year and help stop the bleeding in public schools in Dallas and throughout Texas. In addition to lengthening the teachers’ oncampus work days (which doesn’t count time teachers spend on school work at home), the Dallas school board also voted to close 11 neighborhood schools, despite a loud public protest.

Those Dallas schools could be saved and classrooms throughout the state spared from further cuts if the governor and the Legislature were to do the right thing. The Rainy Day Fund is taxpayers’ money, intended for spending on public emergencies, not to be hoarded for political reasons, as the governor insisted last year while he and lawmakers were slashing the public education budget. Besides, those political reasons – a Perry presidential race – are history.

With a projected balance of $7.3 billion by the end of the current budget period, the Rainy Day Fund has enough money to stop the education cuts and cover other emergency state needs. And, the actual balance may be quite higher as the economy continues improving.

TSTA President Rita Haecker, joined by State Representative Donna Howard of Austin, launched the special session petition drive at a Capitol news conference this morning.

“It’s time for the governor to cut the politics and stop cutting away at our children, their education and our state’s future,” Haecker said. “He can call a special session, stop the cuts and do what’s right for Texas.”

You can sign the petition by clicking on this link:

http://www.tstaweb.net/forms/2012cutsPetition.html