Grading Texas

Happy New Year, everyone, a sincere greeting even in the face of a legislative session to which hardly anyone (except maybe some Tea Partiers) looks forward. And, ugh, it begins next week.

In reviewing the news clips of the past two weeks, I noticed that former Gov. Mark White has made some very strong arguments for retaining the 221 classsize limit for kindergarten through fourth grade, an important educational reform under attack by school superintendents and the state leadership as a shortsighted means of addressing the state’s revenue shortfall.

In another news item, even former House Speaker Tom Craddick, RMidland, who can slash and burn budgets without blinking an eye, acknowledged the 221 limit has been on the books since 1984 because it works. It improves the learning climate for the state’s youngest students.

Shortly before the holidays, state Comptroller Susan Combs recommended that the 221 limit be replaced with a 22student average, a move that in the short term could save money. But it would be at the expense of thousands of teachers’ jobs and, in the long run, cost taxpayers more in higher dropout rates, a more poorly prepared work force and the higher social and criminal justice costs associated with them.

White, the son of a public school teacher, was governor when the 221 limit was imposed as part of the farreaching House Bill 72 educational reforms in 1984. He and Rep. Scott Hochberg, DHouston, also a strong supporter of 221, were interviewed by Margaret Downing, who wrote an excellent article in the Houston Press (first link below).

Research has shown that smaller classes improve the learning environment, the article points out. It also notes that districts already can request and receive waivers from the state when 221 becomes too heavy a financial burden.

Hochberg said there are other ways to save money in the public schools, including the use of more electronic textbooks and cutting back on state standardized testing. Students who pass could be tested less frequently, he suggested.

White pointed out that there is, indeed, a significant difference between an actual limit on class sizes and merely an average. That’s because some K4 classes, including those for special education students, are considerably smaller than 22. Figuring them into a 221 average would enable superintendents to pack many more students into other classes. He cited his mother’s experience as a firstgrade teacher in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s. The law then allowed a class average of 28 students, but White has a photo showing 34 students in his mother’s class.

That is what parents worry about, including one who was featured recently in a news report by CBS 7 News in Midland (see second link below). The larger the classes for the youngest students, the more teachers will be forced to baby sit, instead of teach, they fear. In the same TV report, Craddick acknowledged the 221 limit has worked.

“I think our scores are going up, and students are getting more attention,” he is quoted. “I don’t want to go backwards but forwards in education.”

The former speaker said he will keep a close eye on the issue but didn’t commit himself.

Meanwhile, several newspapers, including the Houston Chronicle and today’s Austin AmericanStatesman, have published an op ed article by TSTA President Rita Haecker, warning against lifting the 221 cap and otherwise eroding educational quality under the guise of “local control.” The relaxing of state mandates by the Legislature – in lieu of adequately funding public education – would enable lawmakers to pass the blame for educational failures to local school officials, Haecker points out. Her article is the third link below.

http://www.houstonpress.com/20101230/news/thewhippingboy/

http://cbs7.com/news/details.asp?ID=23158

http://www.statesman.com/opinion/haeckerdontletstatebudgetwoesundermineeducation1159113.html

I won’t be blogging for the next couple of weeks. It’s time to start enjoying the holidays and resting up for the legislative session.

Happy Holidays! See you next year.

Flexibility.

Remember that word. It may soon become the new buzz term – something akin to “accountability” – as legislative leaders continue their discussions of how to improve the public schools without giving them more money. Senate Education Chairwoman Florence Shapiro dropped the word during a meeting with administrators from her hometown Plano ISD.

“If we’re (the Legislature) not going to give you the money, and we aren’t, what can we do to give you more flexibility?” she asked. “That’s what we’re really looking at.”

Another term for flexibility, in the language of school superintendents, is local control, which is what they are seeking on the eve of what promises to be a very budgetstressed legislative session. That local control, if granted by lawmakers, will begin – but won’t end with a lifting of the 221 studentteacher ratio in grades kindergarten through four. Teachers will lose their jobs, class sizes will grow, popular electives will be cut, extracurricular programs will be trimmed and school bus routes may be consolidated.

Before long, parents will be outraged, having been reminded that all the flexibility and local control that school districts can grab doesn’t allow them to do more with less, or even maintain the status quo.

Superintendents and elected school board members will try to blame the Legislature. But guess what? The Legislature will already have put them on the hook, left them dangling while they frantically dispatch their lawyers to the courthouse to sue the state – again – over an inadequate school finance system.

When budgetstrapped legislative leaders tell you they are going to give you more flexibility instead of more money, they are, in essence, telling you to do more with less. But, save for a very few remarkable instances, that goal is a pipedream.

http://planoblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2010/12/shapiroframesdeficitasoppo.html

Peggy Venable, the Texas director of the antigovernment group, Americans for Prosperity, is at it again, perpetuating the moldy myth that Texas legislators are binging on public school spending. “We don’t want to simply continue to throw more dollars at education,” she is quoted in an article in the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio ExpressNews.

Know anybody who’s ever been hit by a bag of money flying out of the state Capitol? Certainly no one who teaches in a public school.

For the record, the Texas Legislature has never thrown money at education, and it certainly isn’t doing so now. Texas ranks 38th among the states in average expenditures on student instruction and 34th in average teacher pay.

Is there administrative waste in public education? Most likely, but not to the extent that Venable and other governmentbashers would like you to believe. Waste should be eliminated, but there isn’t enough waste to spare teachers’ jobs and avoid overcrowded classrooms in many districts if the Legislature, as anticipated, makes deep cuts in the public education budget next year.

People who claim that Texas is “throwing money” at education aren’t helping the school kids or the taxpayers, and they aren’t trying to. The key to prosperity for young Texans is a strong, adequately and equitably funded public education system, not a meaningless sound bite promoting a shortsighted agenda.

The story by Gary Scharrer is linked below. School districts are getting closer to another lawsuit against the state over education funding but apparently will wait until after the session to give lawmakers one more chance to “do what’s right.”

I hope they are not wasting their time. Hope springs eternal – or until the next lawsuit.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/7336497.html