Grading Texas

It is only February, but the Marathon ISD in far West Texas already knows who the senior valedictorian will be this spring. That’s because 17yearold Michelle Campbell is the only senior in a district that includes only 56 students in prekindergarten through 12th grade.

Click on the link below for an interesting story by Morgan Smith in The Texas Tribune about the financial struggles of one of the state’s tiniest school districts and the vital importance that district represents to its local, Big Bend area community.

Fearing not only the survival of their local school but also of their town, area residents and property owners have contributed money – over and above their tax dollars – to a private foundation to help keep Marathon ISD in business. Marathon’s financial troubles predated the state’s current budgetary crisis, but the Legislature’s handling (or mishandling) of the state revenue shortfall may put an untold number of other small, rural districts on the ropes. And, many of those communities may not be able to cough up any extra cash.

It may be easy, theoretically, to talk about consolidating small school districts, but small town Texas views the issue from a distinctly different perspective.

-From The Texas Tribune

In what may soon prove to be hollow applause, state Education Commissioner Robert Scott was patting Texas on the back today for being the only state to implement all key college and career readiness policies identified by Achieve, a bipartisan, nonprofit education reform organization.

These policies include curriculum standards, graduation requirements, assessments, data systems and accountability systems.

The accountability standard was key for Texas because it was the only state that achieved all four accountability criteria – reporting school performance information annually and publicly, setting state performance goals, providing schoollevel incentives and employing measurements heavily weighted towards college and career readiness.

For several years now, the Texas Legislature has been very good at setting accountability standards – including House Bill 3 during the 2009 session – for everyone involved in the public schools – students, teachers, administrators. Everyone but, of course, the Legislature itself.

During the entire “accountability” buzzword era, the Legislature has not once adequately funded Texas’ public schools. Another recent, national survey – Education Week’s annual “Quality Counts” report gave Texas an “F” on school finance.

And now, lawmakers are threatening to slash important educational programs, including important classsize restrictions, and lay off untold numbers of teachers instead of gutting up and making themselves accountable for adequate, equitable school funding.

Achieve’s report may sound good, but so far it’s a stack of paper.

http://www.tea.state.tx.us/news_release.aspx?id=2147496043

Lifting the 221 class size limit for kindergarten through fourth grade is a politically ticklish issue for some superintendents and legislators alike. That’s because it is an important learning standard for younger students, and it is very popular with parents.

According to a recent independent poll by the state’s major newspapers, 61 percent of Texans support the 221 limit. Earlier polls commissioned by TSTA have indicated similar public support.

So, there was a little political dancing on the issue during the Senate Education Committee’s hearing yesterday.

As expected, 221 was among the first “unfunded mandates” that school administrators asked senators to lift in order to provide districts more “flexibility” over supertight budgets. Considering the state’s huge revenue shortfall and the prevailing political climate in Austin, superintendents figure it will be easier to get “flexibility” than what they really need – more state aid – from the Legislature and the governor.

The school districts’ budgetary problems are worse than ever, but some superintendents have been trying to rid themselves of 221, without being too obvious about it, for several years.

And, superintendents are denying the fact that they already have flexibility over 221. It’s called the waiver process. If the K4 class cap is too much of a budgetary hardship, a district already can seek a waiver from the state. Almost all of the requested waivers over the years have been granted, but some superintendents obviously dislike the public process of seeking them, of telling parents that their kids’ classes will become more crowded. They would rather the Legislature allow larger classes without the public waiver process.

At one point, Education Committee Chairwoman Florence Shapiro interrupted the hearing to point out the longstanding opposition of some superintendents to 221.

“We (the Legislature) did not make up the 221 change,” Shapiro said. “This has been brought to us by superintendents for the past four years…Let’s be transparent. I think it’s important that we all be honest with each other.”

Shapiro supports the change and has filed legislation to lift the cap, but she, too, obviously recognizes the significance of 221 and its popularity with parents.

Lobbying pressure from superintendents against 221 has been prompted, of course, by an inadequate school finance law, which the Legislature worsened in 2006 by cutting local school taxes without raising enough state revenue to pay for the reductions. Now, the recession has put the schools in an even deeper budget hole, and an important classroom standard has been moved to the front of the chopping line.

The Austin ISD parents who have been protesting and demonstrating around town against proposals to close several neighborhood schools now have an opportunity to take their beef to some of the people who are ultimately responsible for the budgetary shortfalls plaguing AISD and hundreds of school districts across Texas.

The Senate Education Committee is holding a public hearing tomorrow (Tuesday, Feb. 1) at 10 a.m. in Room E1.028 in the underground Capitol extension. Untold thousands of parents and taxpayers throughout Texas are unhappy over the Legislature’s prolonged insistence on underfunding public education and shortchanging their school kids. So, a large (peaceful but determined) crowd of unhappy parents at the Capitol is long overdue.

Let me warn anyone planning to attend, however, that the “public” hearing will be monopolized by organizational matters and a list of invited witnesses, including school superintendents and organizations representing school administrators and school boards. TSTA also has been formally invited to the witness table.

Whatever time is left will be for uninvited public testimony meaning parents and most of the rest of the taxpaying public – and each speaker will be limited to three minutes of testimony. But parents don’t have to testify or even manage to squeeze into the room to make their presence known.

There likely will be an overflow room, from which observers can listen to testimony from the invited superintendents. Parents may find some of the administrators’ plans for classroom overcrowding, additional school closures and teacher furloughs and layoffs very interesting – and disturbing.

Disturbing enough, I hope, that they return to the Capitol frequently over the next few months. Maybe they will be joined by parents from other parts of the state. It is the only way they are going to get noticed – or heard – by legislators and, maybe, even the governor.

One more bit of advice. Those planning to attend tomorrow’s hearing better plan on arriving at the Capitol early to make sure they have time to negotiate the metal detector lines at the new security checkpoints