Grading Texas

The Economist article about education “reform,” linked at the bottom of this post, tries to make the point, I think, that teachers’ unions overemphasize the importance of government spending in the development and maintenance of quality public schools. The article, however, meanders around the world and is a bit contradictory.

For example, it cites a couple of success stories in which a crucial factor has been, well, money.

The article identifies four “secrets” of educational success – decentralization, a focus on underachieving pupils, a choice of different sorts of schools and high standards for teachers.

In arguing the importance of decentralization – allowing individual schools to determine what works best for their students – the article applauds the accomplishments of educators in Ontario, Canada, which it credits with having “one of the world’s bestperforming schools systems.”

It also notes that Ontario’s “efforts were not cheap.”

No kidding. Since 2004, according to the article, total funding (that would be government spending) for education in the province has increased by 30 percent.

In praising the importance of “decent teachers” – nothing wrong with that – The Economist notes that an emphasis on better teacher quality is a “common feature of all reforms.”

“Countries like Finland and South Korea make life easier for themselves by recruiting only elite graduates, and PAYING THEM ACCORDINGLY,” the article continues. (The caps are mine. The money comes from government spending.)

I am not going to try to summarize the entire article. But it also praises charter schools without making it clear that those experiments, at least in the United States, have been no more successful, on average, than traditional public schools. And, it notes America’s experimentation with merit pay for teachers, “often in the teeth of opposition from the teachers’ unions.”

The article ends by noting that developing better teachers “should be made the priority.”

What is doesn’t say, however, is that you don’t make better teachers a “priority” by underpaying the vast majority while giving a handful raises or bonuses based on arbitrary standards, such as student test scores, that don’t fairly or fully assess a teacher’s value or contribution.

In Texas’ case, it is preposterous to talk “merit pay” when the average pay for all teachers is a subpar 31st in the nation, almost $7,000 below the national average. And, that was before the new budget cuts kicked in.

The Economist article also neglected to discuss the importance of class size to student learning, particularly in the lower grades, where many Texas classes are now getting bigger because of the budget cuts.

Sure, government funding is a factor in educational quality. There hasn’t been an education “reform” broached yet that doesn’t cost money, in some form or fashion. And, you certainly don’t “reform” education by slashing $5.4 billion from the public education budget, as our state “leaders” recently did in Texas.

http://www.economist.com/node/21529014

The Republican congressional “leadership” couldn’t lead a kindergarten class to the potty, but it knows how to bottlefeed the superwealthy, to the detriment of about 99 percent of America.

Predictably, Republican obstructionists in high places in Washington spent part of the weekend criticizing President Obama’s proposal to raise taxes on millionaires. The tax is part of a larger plan to cut the federal deficit and save and create badly needed jobs, including jobs in the classroom. The president wants to invest several billion dollars in Texas public schools and community colleges alone.

House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin went so far as to proclaim the millionaires’ tax an act of “class warfare.”

Granted, Ryan and others of his antigovernment persuasion know something about class warfare because they have been practicing it for a long time now. But what makes Ryan’s statement particularly galling was the fact that the victims of his kind of “class warfare” have been school teachers, construction workers, bus drivers, small business owners. These victims are the vast majority of Americans, the middle and lower economic classes who have been shouldering the biggest burden of paying for government while watching their disposable incomes dwindle as the rich have gotten richer.

This warfare against the middle class produced lax regulations on Wall Street that led to the disastrous financial collapse and the recession from which this country is still struggling to recover. The millions of lost jobs were not suffered by the class of people that Ryan and his political cronies still persist in coddling.

This warfare against the middle class produced a state budget in Texas that slashed $5.4 billion from the public schools and additional billions from higher education – vital promoters of the middle class and cut health care assistance, a crucial safety net for lowincome families.

And, if Ryan and the likeminded Rick Perry have their way, this warfare against the middle class will result in a dismantling of the Medicare and Medicaid health care programs at the federal level and the gutting of Social Security, the only retirement nest egg that millions of working Americans can afford.

Some of you already may have read an oped article that investor Warren Buffett, one of the wealthiest people in America, had published in The New York Times last month. If not, please read it. It is linked below.

Buffett convincingly makes the point that the superwealthy have been reaping the greatest benefits from governmental policy while proportionately enjoying lower tax obligations.

“My friends and I have been coddled long enough by a billionairefriendly Congress. It’s time for our government to get serious about shared sacrifice,” Buffett writes.

And, I would add, end the “class warfare” against the vast majority of Americans.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/15/opinion/stopcoddlingthesuperrich.html

We must not overlook the fact that many of the victims of the education budget cuts are kindergarteners and other grade school kids, more of whom are finding themselves in larger classes this year because of further erosion to the 221 studentteacher cap for grades K4.

I say “victims” because some kids will suffer academically in years to come because of the reduced individual attention they will get from teachers in the larger classes now. The 221 standard has been law since 1984 because it has worked to improve the educational climate for Texas’ youngest students and their overall classroom performance.

A number of detractors – including romance novelistturnedstate Comptroller Susan Combs and the Legislature’s alleged educational “leadership” – insist there is nothing “magical” about 221. But they are more interested in squeezing the public schools than improving quality. A number of academic studies clearly have shown that the smaller the class, the better the educational outcomes for students on such indicators as test scores and college enrollment.

Sure. A limit of 15 kids per elementary class would be great. But 221 certainly is better than 24 or 26 or more, and this where a large number of K4 classes apparently are headed this year.

It is true that the Legislature did not technically raise the 221 cap during the recent, budgetslashing session. But lawmakers did encourage school districts to apply for more waivers from the cap by pleading financial hardship, which, of course, the Legislature created.

Districts have been seeking and getting waivers from 221 for years, but this year may very well see a record number. We will know within a few weeks. Oct. 3 is the deadline for districts to file waiver requests with the Texas Education Agency.

Only this morning, I saw two newspaper articles on pending waivers. Tyler ISD is planning on a 241 cap in elementary classes, at a cost of 38 teaching positions, according to the Tyler Morning Telegraph. And, Victoria ISD will seek waivers for 43 elementary classes, the Victoria Advocate reported.

As I noted yesterday, Spring Branch ISD is at 241 and CyFair ISD is at 251. Both are in the Houston area.

And, these are only a small sample.

In a bit of related news, you may have noticed the Texas Workforce Commission’s announcement today that Texas’ unemployment rate rose to 8.5 percent in August, thanks to a loss of 11,500 jobs in local government, including schools.

I wonder how many of those were K4 teachers.

Anyone with half a load of common sense, which doesn’t necessarily include all of our legislators, knew the antigovernment ideologues were lying last spring when they insisted the Legislature could make deep cuts in public education without harming the classroom.

To be sure, make the effort, as many school districts have, and you can find ways to trim administrative costs. But the central office Taj Mahals on which school boards and superintendents supposedly squandered the taxpayers’ money, if you buy the Tea Party line, simply didn’t exist.

The damage that Gov. Rick Perry and the legislative majority inflicted on the classrooms will continue to be toted up over the next two years – the duration of the current budget – and well into the future.

As I noted in yesterday’s post, Austin ISD will resurrect a debate over whether to close some neighborhood schools, and other districts may follow suit. If campuses are closed, more teachers and classroom support staff will lose their jobs.

Earlier this week, officials from three Houstonarea school districts got together to compare notes on “the new reality” of education funding in Texas and to punch more holes in the Tea Party fairy tale.

Houston, CyFair and Spring Branch ISDs were represented at the meeting, according to Quorum Report, and here are some of their specific costcutting steps. Many obviously center on the classroom.

Spring Branch – cut 350 positions, about 7 percent of the district’s staff; increased class size ratios in the early grades from 221 to 241 (using the waiver process); slashed the curriculum and instruction staff, which primarily supported math and language arts instruction, from 35 to seven; reduced the number of classroom assistants and increased class sizes at its early childhood campuses.

CyFair – increased student teacher ratios in the early grades to 251 and axed curriculum coaches. These steps were in addition to earlier costcutting measures, including an increase in class sizes in secondary schools.

Houston – Some of HISD’s most endangered programs are services for special needs students, those who need extra help to keep up with their peers. And, for HISD, the worst is yet to come because the district will suffer even deeper cuts in state funding during the 201213 school year.