Grading Texas

As expected, much of the public testimony this morning over the State Board of Education’s proposed changes to the social studies curriculum standards revolved around the two volatile Rs – race and religion.

Early in the hearing, former U.S. Education Secretary (and former Houston ISD Superintendent) Rod Paige urged the board to delay final action on the standards because he believes they don’t adequately deal with the nation’s history of slavery and civil rights. Paige is African American.

If they had their way, the arch conservative members of the board who have worked mightily to interject their own political and religious viewpoints into the standards would have everyone believe that liberal groups, such as the American Civil Liberties Union and the Texas Freedom Network, are behind all the criticism of the standards.

Explaining away criticism from Paige, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, will be more difficult for rightwingers to do, not that they won’t try. Paige urged the board to reexamine the history of slavery and civil rights, which were “dominant elements” of the nation’s history and helped shape who we are today.

Rep. Wayne Christian, one of the arch conservatives from the Texas House, argued that the board needed to be “racially blind” and not give preferential treatment to anyone because of race. That argument, however, ignores the fact that history wasn’t “racially blind” and that key events and personalities from history demand preferential treatment in public school classrooms. And that includes putting President Barack Obama’s name in the curriculum standards, something the board so far has declined to do. So far, Obama is an unnamed “first black president.”

Reacting, perhaps, to the prolonged debate over the board’s effort to deny the separation of church and state principle, one conservative parent bemoaned what she characterized as an effort among the board’s critics to promote a “freedom from religion” instead of a “freedom of religion.”

She was upset that her daughter, when in kindergarten, wasn’t allowed to sing “Jesus Loves Me” in class. I wonder how upset she would have been if another student had been prohibited from reciting portions of the Koran.

It depends on your viewpoint, I guess, but with all the other programs that were among the $1.2 billion in spending cuts announced by state leaders today, you may wonder why it was so important to save $750,000 for a steroid testing program for high school athletes. The program, after all, has randomly tested some 29,000 studentathletes over the past two years and has found only 11 who tested positive for the dangerous substances.

Some $250,000 was trimmed from the $1 million program in the Texas Education Agency’s budget, but most of the appropriation was saved.

You could argue, as I am sure Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst does, that the testing program is a strong deterrent against steroid use, an argument that is almost impossible to prove. Dewhurst was one of the main people championing the program when lawmakers created it in 2007. Testing positive can disqualify an athlete from competition.

Or you could argue, as I am sure many of Dewhurst’s detractors do, that the lieutenant governor, who considered the program a significant political victory, just can’t bring himself to let it go.

Dewhurst said the $1.2 billion worth of belttightening “will protect taxpayers’ hardearned money while maintaining essential services vital to the people of Texas.”

And vital to political resumes, no doubt

In a welltimed story in the Houston Chronicle over the weekend, Austinbased reporter Gary Scharrer offered a good look at the changing, evermoreHispanic face of Texas’ public school classrooms.

I say “welltimed” because this is the week the State Board of Education, most of whose members like to believe Texas’ schools are as Anglo as they were 40 or 50 years ago, comes back to Austin to wreak more havoc on the social studies curriculum. Unfortunately, however, Scharrer’s story won’t have much impact on them because their narrow minds already are made up. They moved to largely deny Hispanics’ role in Texas history during the board meeting in March and aren’t likely to give any more attention to Texas’ new, emerging majority now.

But for those of us who appreciate wellresearched facts more than ideological delusions,
the story paints an important picture of our public education system and the legitimate challenges facing educators and policymakers.

You can read the entire story by clicking on the link below, but here are a few highlights:

• Hispanic children now make up almost 49 percent of Texas’ 4.8 million students in preK through 12th grade. About onethird of the students are Anglo.
• Some 349 school districts are now majority Hispanic. This is 18 more than last year and 104 more than in 2000.
• Texas has 670 Anglo majority districts, 97 fewer than a decade ago.
• Much of the Hispanic growth is in the suburbs.
• Hispanic families vary widely in income, education and length of residency in the United States. But many Hispanic students are poor, have limited English proficiency and are high dropout risks.

People can scream all they want about immigrants and immigration policy. But the facts are the facts. This is the new face of Texas, a face that offers promise but also requires a greater investment of state funds for bilingual education and other educational programs. State leaders can pony up now for the future, or they can continue to stick their heads in the sand and make the future even more difficult to prepare for tomorrow.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/7007046.html

Attorney General Greg Abbott today released an opinion prohibiting school districts from deducting contributions to political action committees from employees’ paychecks. TSTA views the ruling as an assault on teachers’ constitutional rights to political participation.

The opinion halts a practice that has been going on for years without any noticeable problems. All the deductions have been voluntary, and the TSTAPAC contributes to both Democratic and Republican candidates. The only criteria are strong support for the public schools, teachers and school kids.

Here is TSTA’s official response:

TSTA Public Affairs Director Richard Kouri strongly objected today (May 14) to a ruling by Attorney General Greg Abbott prohibiting school districts from deducting contributions to political action committees from school employees’ paychecks.

The opinion was in response to a legislative inquiry about the legality of paycheck deductions for the TSTAPAC and the National Education Association Fund for Children and Public Education. TSTA is a state affiliate of NEA. The deductions are strictly voluntary.

“This practice, which promotes a school employee’s constitutional right to political participation, has been going on for 20 years without any problem,” Kouri said. “We can only conclude that Attorney General Abbott is playing politics in an election year by impeding teachers’ First Amendment rights. But why?”

School districts make deductions from employees’ salaries for a wide range of purposes, including health care and professional memberships. But a strict reading of Abbott’s opinion indicates that no deduction is legal unless it is expressly authorized by the Legislature.

“Has the Legislature specifically authorized every deduction that every school district makes from a worker’s check? I doubt it,” Kouri said. “TSTA will explore every option available to allow educational employees to continue participating in the political process.”