Grading Texas – Page 54 – Texas State Teachers Association

Governor says January is “School Board Recognition Month.” How hollow is that?

In case you haven’t heard, Gov. Abbott has proclaimed this month “School Board Recognition Month,” but please hold your applause. The proclamation is a political offering worth more to the governor than to any school board member or anyone else associated with public education in Texas, including about 5.4 million school kids.

Sure, the document, embossed with the state seal and suitable for framing, says a lot of nice things about school board members and the “vital role” they play in helping to “secure our young people’s bright and precious futures.”

The resolution is fine if you appreciate that kind of thing, and most school board members certainly deserve the kind words and attention. But the words, by themselves, are hollow, coming from a governor who has persistently refused to advocate for the one thing that school boards need more than anything else, a dependable stream of adequate state funding.

As attorney general, Abbott fought in court against school districts seeking more funding, and now as governor he continues to fight against them, letting Texas lag about $2,500 behind the national average in per-student funding. Adequate and equitable state funding could make it a lot easier for school board members to tackle the “challenges” the governor’s resolution praises them for tackling.

In fact, the biggest challenge most school board members face is doing their jobs despite the obstacles thrown up by a governor and a lieutenant governor more interested in privatizing public schools than supporting them with something more than lip service.

Many legislators have reason to fear the teacher vote, but only if teachers vote for education

State Sen. Paul Bettencourt of Houston apparently is scared of teachers. He is scared, at least, of what teachers can do if they vote and vote for education. So, he has taken the first step in what may become a widespread effort to intimidate educators from going to the polls this year.

Last month, Bettencourt asked Attorney General Ken Paxton for a legal opinion on what school districts can and can’t do to encourage employees and students of voting age to register to vote and go to the polls.

He was responding to efforts of a nonpartisan group called Texas Educators Vote that is solicting the support of school districts to drum up a large voting turnout among educators. The campaign, whose partners include the Texas Association of School Boards and other pro-public education groups, also has drafted an oath that educators can sign promising to cast their ballots “in support of the more than 5.4 million Texas school children.”

Texas Educators Vote makes clear, in detail on its website, that public money and other school district resources, including equipment and email, cannot be used to advocate for or against a specific issue or candidate. But it points out that the 657,000 teachers and other employees of Texas school districts can make a positive difference in education policy if they vote — and vote in the best interests of their students and their professions – in the party primaries and the general election.

That is what Sen. Bettencourt fears and is trying to discourage. Bettencourt may be in a politically “safe” district. But he knows that educators who vote in the best interests of education won’t be voting for him and like-minded colleagues who persist in under-funding public schools, promoting private school vouchers and wasting resources and classroom time on high-stakes standardized testing.

“I don’t think everyone wants educators to go out and vote, which I find disappointing,” Laura Yeager, the Texas Educators Vote director, told The Texas Tribune.

As Blake G. Powell, president of Friends of Texas Public Schools, noted on the Texas Educators Vote website, “Elections are determined by who shows up, and your vote could determine the future of public education.”

Unfortunately, in recent years, many educators have not been showing up to vote, and many others have been voting against their own and their students’ best interest. That needs to change, or Texas public school students will remain among the most under-funded and over-tested in the country. And their parents will continue to see their local property taxes rise, and Texas teachers will continue to be significantly underpaid.

Texas lawmaker questions education group’s tactics for getting out the vote

Neglecting health care for kids while boosting the wealthy; how did your representative vote?

Passing that awful tax bill on the eve of the holidays was bad enough, but the majority in Congress compounded the felony by failing to renew the Children’s Health Insurance Program before 2017 drew to a close. A CHIP bill never came to a vote.

That means a huge package of tax cuts and tax breaks for the super-wealthy and what amounts to a private school voucher plan for K-12 are a lock, while the hard-working parents of about 8.9 million low-income American children (almost 400,000 in Texas) still don’t know if they will be able to get basic health care for their kids after existing funding runs out in a few weeks.

Want to do something about it? You can. This is an election year, and here are the members of the U.S. Senate and U.S. House from Texas who voted for the tax bill while putting off the health care needs of children:

Both U.S. Sens. Ted Cruz and John Cornyn voted for it. Cornyn won’t be up for re-election until 2020, but Cruz will be on the ballot this year. Cruz not only voted for the tax bill, but he also was the sponsor of the voucher amendment that was tacked on to it. His amendment will allow parents to spend as much as $10,000 per child per year from their tax-advantaged 529 savings accounts for K-12 tuition at religious and private schools. Previously, those accounts were limited to college tuition.

The new tax law also will add more than a trillion dollars to the deficit and potentially jeopardize some crucial programs for middle- and low-income Americans, including Social Security and Medicare, when the bills for the billionaire tax cuts come due in a few years. Here are the U.S. House members from Texas who voted for the new tax law. Some aren’t running for re-election, but most are:

Louie Gohmert (District 1), Ted Poe (District 2), Sam Johnson (District 3), John Ratcliffe (District 4), Jeb Hensarling (District 5), Joe Barton (District 6), John Culberson (District 7), Kevin Brady (District 8), Michael McCaul (District 10), Mike Conaway (District 11), Kay Granger (District 12), Mac Thornberry (District 13), Randy Weber (District 14).

Also, Bill Flores (District 17), Jodey Arrington (District 19), Lamar Smith (District 21), Pete Olson (District 22), Will Hurd (District 23), Kenny Marchant (District 24), Roger Williams (District 25), Michael Burgess (District 26), Blake Farenthold (District 27), John Carter (District 31), Pete Sessions (District 32) and Brian Babin (District 36).

Kevin Brady (District 8) also was the chief House sponsor of the tax law.

If you don’t know who represents you in the U.S. House, go to the link below, fill in your home address and under district type, select “congressional.”

http://www.fyi.legis.state.tx.us/Home.aspx

Elections have consequences, and this new tax law is one of them. So is the neglect of children’s health care. Now, there will be another election, and a chance for change.

Another failing report card for Texas government

U.S. News recently released its “Best States” rankings, and overall Texas ranked poorly, 38^th out of 50, and even worse in education, 41^st, even though our economy ranked sixth and our government was 11^th. What happened?

The short answer is Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and the legislative majority persist in squandering Texas’ resources and opportunities. And the government ranking is misleading.

The quality of Texas government was ranked primarily on process, not results. Texas got high marks for such factors as use of digital technology, balanced budgets, the state credit rating, auditing procedures and public access to information about political fund-raising and lobbyists.

Texas government wasn’t ranked on how poorly it uses the resources generated by the state’s highly-ranked economy (first in GDP growth and fifth in job growth) to improve opportunities for all its citizens. The Legislature always passes a balanced budget because the Texas Constitution requires it. All too often, though, those budgets are balanced by cutting corners.

You may remember that in 2011, during an economic downturn, then-Gov. Rick Perry and the legislative majority balanced the budget by slashing billions of dollars from important public services, including $5.4 billion from education alone, rather than raise revenue. Even with a strong economy now, Abbott and Patrick insisted on leaving billions of dollars in the state’s savings account this year rather than adequately funding services such as education and health care.

U.S. News’ researchers may have been impressed with Texas’ flush stash of cash, but they weren’t impressed with our educational or health care systems, our infrastructure or the opportunities afforded our citizens.

Texas ranked 41^st in education, including 36^th in pre-school enrollment, 43^rd in pre-K quality and 29^th in college readiness. Those are indicators negatively impacted by poor education funding. Poor funding means larger classes, fewer opportunities for teachers to provide one-on-one attention to struggling students, inadequate classroom technology, etc.

In a separate study by the National Education Association, Texas ranked 35^th in state education spending per student, $2,555 below the national average. In contrast, the four highest rated states for education systems in the U.S. News study – Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Hampshire and Connecticut – also ranked in the top 10 for per-student funding.

In other rankings, Texas was 50^th (dead last) in health insurance enrollment, 47^th in health care access, 49^th in overall infrastructure, 21^st in road quality, 50^th in power grid reliability, 24^th in housing affordability, 43^rd in education equality by race and 42^nd in gender equality.

Because of these factors and more, Texas ranked 45^th in its capacity for providing opportunities for all its citizens. That’s the price of electing government officials who are less interested in promoting opportunity for everyone than they are in trying to dictate how people should live their lives.

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/texas