Grading Texas

Businesses have been contributing money to public schools for a long time, and in most cases the financial help has been put to good use. But in recent years, with legislators in Texas and other states cutting back on school aid, a new pattern of corporate giving has been emerging.

According to an article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, linked below, corporate donors have started writing curricula for schools, designing and teaching classes and training principals.

The story cites several examples, including IBM’s involvement in opening an innercity public high school to prepare young people for entrylevel technology jobs, possibly at IBM.

Many budgetstrapped educators are welcoming this privatization of the public schools, but others are worried about what kinds of strings are attached and the ultimate effect on the role of public education.

Susan Linn, director of Campaign for a CommercialFree Childhood, a Boston advocacy nonprofit, is concerned that some of these publicprivate partnerships will benefit sponsoring companies more than the schools and their students.

“It gets down to an ancient debate about what the purpose of education is,” Linn said. “Is it to create a literate population who can think critically…or to train a workforce?”

Some would argue the purpose of education is to accomplish both goals, but corporate money and its potential strings also raise other questions.

If bankers begin helping schools draft curricula for money management classes, what will they want students to learn about the role the banking industry played in the recent financial meltdown? Will they want them to learn anything about it at all?

What will oil company sponsors want science students to learn about global warming? Will they demand it be omitted from a public school’s curriculum?

Corporate intrusion into the classroom, regardless how wellintended, is full of potential problems, although it obviously is very tempting for many educators.

-From Education Week

For those who are tired of reading media comments from Republican legislators bragging (a softer word than lying) about all the good work they did during their six months in Austin earlier this year, read the article linked below.

It’s a newspaper account of a speech that Senate Finance Chairman Steve Ogden (a Republican) made to a home district crowd in College Station. He summed up the legislative session for pretty much what it was – a failure – and blamed the problem on political ambition.

It is true that Ogden played a leadership role in drafting the worst public education budget in more than 60 years, but the cuts wouldn’t have been quite so drastic had there been fewer antigovernment Republicans in the House and stronger leadership in the lieutenant governor’s office.

Ogden, in his speech, is quoted as saying that Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst was ineffective because he was preparing to launch his U.S. Senate campaign.

“If you’re elected to a job you don’t really want, and you’re trying to use that job for something else, you’re pretty miserable while you’re in that job and everybody else around you is pretty miserable,” Ogden said.

Ogden also blamed the Democrats for playing politics by always “voting ‘no’” rather than working with the Republicans for something better.

I disagree with Ogden on this point. Democrats repeatedly proposed closing tax exemptions and spending most or all of the Rainy Day Fund. But Gov. Perry and the House majority adamantly shut the door on any new tax revenue and insisted on leaving most of the Rainy Day Fund ($6.5 billion) unspent while slashing $5.4 billion from public education and billions from health care.

Ogden would have spent more of the Rainy Day Fund, but Dewhurst got cold feet.

http://www.theeagle.com/local/SenOgdenrailspoliticsofambition

Like it or not, folks, public education is a politically charged enterprise, mainly because it consumes tax dollars and a lot of taxpayers (including former classroom slackers) think teaching kids is as easy as mouthing off at a party.

Consequently, Texas’ public schools will continue to be a focus of national attention as long as Gov. Perry is running for president. The initial, gettingacquainted interest from the national media will wane after a bit but return periodically, particularly if Perry wins the Republican nomination.

Below is a link to an Education Week blog that attempts to assess the state of Texas’ public schools under Perry. It was prompted, at least in part, by Education Secretary Arne Duncan’s remarks, recently broadcast on TV, that he felt “very, very badly” for Texas school children.

Duncan cited, among other things, “massive increases” in class sizes, “low standards” and a “high dropout rate.”

The Education Week blog determines that Texas does have a high dropout rate and ranks very poorly on school funding but says that educational standards in Texas are stronger than Duncan claims and disputes his assertion that class sizes have grown “massively.”

“Kids in Texas aren’t nearly as bad off as Duncan claims,” the blog concludes.

If that is the case, thank the teachers, not the governor.

The debate, though, will continue.

For one thing, according to Education Week’s own analysis, the dropout rate in Texas is about onethird, a fact that Perry has been trying to ignore for months. And, it is premature to conclude anything about Texas class sizes. With $5.4 billion cut from the public education budget over the next two years, classes inevitably will grow, and many may grow significantly larger.

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaignk12/2011/08/fact_check_has_education_gotte.html?cmp=ENLEUNEWS2

Each backtoschool day is a little exciting, with the promise of new opportunities and new adventures for children and parents alike. I am not speaking as an educator, because I am not one, but as a parent who has ridden in more than a few of these rodeos before.

My daughter, Taylor, will begin her senior year at UTAustin on Wednesday, enroute to dental school. Her brother, Adrian, started his junior year today at Austin’s Bowie High School. I should say he started the first day of classes today. His “fall semester” actually began on Aug. 1, when members of Bowie’s awardwinning marching band (he plays the trumpet) reported for drills in tripledigit heat.

And, this morning, my 5yearold daughter, Caroline, who spent the first two years of her life in an orphanage in China, began her kindergarten adventure at Doss Elementary, where most of the other parents (and some of the teachers) seemed remarkably young. Must have been my imagination, eh?

Texas’ future is returning to classrooms all over the state, where it is being greeted by dedicated educators who have been through a very rough year and may face more rough spots during the upcoming months.

With these educators, our future is in good hands, despite a shameful lack of support from state political “leaders” who profess to know where our future lies but have lost their compass. How much brighter Texas’ collective prospects could be, though, if these alleged leaders were to find that compass and discover a sense of accountability.