Grading Texas

How much do a bunch of school kids have in common with a herd of cattle? That may depend on the school and the time of day, of course, but in two Houstonarea school districts, students are experiencing some hightech roundup security.

Thousands of students in the Spring and Santa Fe ISDs are wearing ID badges with radio frequency identification technology, the same technology used to track cattle, according to the Associated Press. The goal apparently is both security and revenue. The technology can help school officials track where a student is – and also help boost a district’s average daily attendance (ADA), on which state funding is based.

According to an administrator in Spring, the technology has allowed that district to recover $194,000 in state funding since the district started using it in December 2008. The reason? Some students counted absent by classroom teachers were found to be elsewhere on campus after being electronically tracked down.

Spring, according to the AP story, has distributed the special ID badges to 13,500 students over the past two years, and Santa Fe began using the badges this year.

The American Civil Liberties Union doesn’t like the system, citing potential security risks.

As a parent, I’m not sure I like the idea of electronic tracking for privacy reasons, but I recognize some potential security value. One thing is obvious, however. The Spring and Santa Fe districts must actually enforce the ID badge requirement on their students – unlike some schools with which I am familiar.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/7241375.html

Senate Finance Chairman Steve Ogden’s proposal for a statewide property tax was ignored by the Legislature in 2006 when lawmakers enacted, instead, Gov. Rick Perry’s Starve the Public Schools Act.

Now, Ogden says he will try again next year. TSTA will wait and see the details of Ogden’s filed legislation before taking an official stance because, as we all know, the Devil (or whatever) is in the details. But here are a few observations.

The statewide property tax idea may have more traction this time because of the $21 billion revenue shortfall and because it is a way for the Legislature to pass the buck on school finance to voters. Constitutional amendments have to be approved by voters – if they get the necessary twothirds majority in the House and the Senate.

The governor, it should be noted, cannot veto a constitutional amendment. Only the voters can.

Would a statewide property tax produce an adequate and equitable school finance system?

Who knows? If the tax rate isn’t high enough, it wouldn’t be adequate. And if local districts were allowed a significant amount of leeway to raise local property taxes, it may not be equitable.

Winning voter approval of any new tax, even if it largely replaces existing taxes, would be iffy in the current political and economic climate. And, realistically, there wouldn’t be enough time for the Legislature and the voters to approve a constitutional amendment offering budgetstrapped school districts any relief for the 20102011 school year.

Has Ogden found a silver bullet? Probably not.

A health insurance crisis facing employees of GrapevineColleyville ISD is nothing short of a nightmare. And although fingers may be pointing in a lot of different directions, the ultimate responsibility rests with the current leadership in Austin and its neglect of the public schools.

As reported by the Fort Worth StarTelegram, teachers and other workers in the North Texas district will see their health insurance premiums jump by as much as 20 percent next year. The new plan also will increase deductibles, double outofpocket maximums and – in the most widely used option – eliminate caps on prescription drugs.

In approving the plan, district trustees blamed an alltoofamiliar litany of declining revenues, rising costs and frozen state spending. And, the district’s financial plight will worsen (including the elimination of almost 1,000 staff positions next year) if local voters don’t approve raising the district’s maintenance tax rate from the current $1.04 per $100 valuation to $1.17 in an election tentatively scheduled for next June.

The bottom line is the public schools in Texas are significantly underfunded by the state, and they were even before the state spotted a looming $21 billion revenue shortfall. Gov. Rick Perry and the legislative leadership worsened the problem in 2006 by ordering reductions in school property taxes and then failing to fully repay school districts for the lost revenue.

If Perry is still in the governor’s office in January, it will be open season on school districts and educators because Perry, as he already has signaled, will insist that lawmakers bridge the revenue shortfall with budget cuts alone. And, the GrapevineColleyville nightmare will worsen – and spread.

Elections have consequences, folks.

http://www.startelegram.com/2010/10/05/2522276/teacherhealthcoststoincrease.html

Although Gov. Rick Perry insists that the taxpayerfunded Emerging Technology Fund is an important economic development tool, the extent to which it has become a political plaything for the governor has been unveiled in a series of stories in The Dallas Morning News, linked below.

According to the newspaper, Perry (with the rubberstamping of legislative leaders) has awarded more than $16 million from that fund to companies with investors or officers who are large campaign donors to the governor.

Yes, that is a relatively small percentage of the total $173 million that has been awarded to private companies with promising ideas since the fund’s creation five years ago. And, no, abolishing the entire fund wouldn’t make a very big dent in the looming $21 billion revenue shortfall. But there is a bigger issue involved.

Using the fund to supplement the riches of selected, already wealthy donors is an extension of the same taxpayersbedamned attitude that allows the governor to live in a $10,000permonth, taxpayerpaid rental mansion and rack up hundreds of thousands of dollars in security charges for foreign travel, while asking the mere mortals among his constituents to “tighten their belts” during tough times.

Just last month, the Texas Education Agency, to fulfill a Perry request for more budget cuts, proposed slashing $261 million from the next public education budget, including $48 million from new textbook purchases, $35 million from science labs and millions more from dropout prevention and student success programs.

The grant screening process for the Emerging Technology Fund is mostly secretive. So who knows how much dealmaking may go on – with taxpayers’ money.

One $1.75 million grant went to a company in which San Antonio businessman James R. Leininger owned 390,000 shares. Leininger has been a major contributor to Perry and, in case you may have forgotten, has spent millions of dollars trying to undermine the public schools with tax paid, private school vouchers.

Another Perry donor whose companies have benefited from the fund – amongst bankruptcies complained that the Dallas News coverage was “largely a political rant.”

Rant on!

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/100310dntexetfmain.2981294.html

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/politics/state/stories/DNETFdaytwo_04pro.ART0.State.Edition1.332f205.html