Grading Texas – Page 94 – Texas State Teachers Association

Another poor report on Texas school funding

Most adults – except those who reside in Fantasyland (which apparently includes some of our state leaders) – recognize that sufficient funding is a critical factor in the success of our public schools. And, I am not talking about vouchers and other pie-in-the-sky privatization schemes, which Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, the mayor of Fantasyland, announced only yesterday that he will try again to revive.

I am talking about taxpayer dollars earmarked for the support of students attending neighborhood public schools, and still another report reminds us that Texas is doing a lousy job. Education Week, in its latest annual “Quality Counts” report, gives Texas policymakers a big fat “D” for school finance, a ranking of 45^th in the nation.

The ranking, based on 2013 expenditures, is tempered a little by the fact that Texas is credited with doing a little better (but not much) than other states on equalization between property poor and rich districts. Based on per-pupil spending alone, Texas is ranked 49^th, even worse than previous rankings compiled by the National Education Association.

The Education Week figures, after adjustment for regional cost differences, show Texas spending about $3,700 less per student than the national average. According to the National Education Association, which did not adjust for regional cost differences, Texas spent almost $2,400 less per student than the national average in 2013-14.

Even as many school districts continued to struggle to recover from the $5.4 billion in school budget cuts that Patrick and other members of the legislative majority approved in 2011, Patrick and his cohorts left several billion dollars unspent when they wrote the new state budget last spring. And, they are hoping the Texas Supreme Court will reverse a lower court order for lawmakers to draft an adequate, fair and constitutional school finance system.

Patrick is a school privateer whose plan is this. Under-fund the public school system, declare it a “failure” and then privatize, beginning with the diversion of tax dollars to pay for private school vouchers. He calls them tax credit scholarships. Waddles like a duck, quacks like a duck. They will transfer tax money to private schools. They are vouchers.

Education Week’s grade of “D” on Texas school finance may have been generous. Patrick would make it worse.

New education commissioner saying the right words, but…

Mike Morath, who took office this week as the new state education commissioner, so far is mostly saying the right things. He says he is “committed to ensuring that our education system provides all the children of Texas the opportunity to be successful in life.” And, he promises to support educators.

But, then, would we really expect the new education commissioner to dash into office bad-mouthing teachers and assuring us he will do his best to help only some of the children – the lucky ones — find their way to success?

His words are fine, but, as I have noted before, some of the unproven schemes he promoted as a school board member in Dallas ISD don’t live up to the promise. For instance, he was instrumental in the adoption of a teacher evaluation system partly tied to test scores. This system will ensure that many teachers in DISD will not get the credit, recognition and compensation they deserve for making the kinds of contributions to children’s lives that can’t be measured by test scores or other similar, data-driven factors.

Children, their accomplishments and their prospects cannot be reduced to their ability to take a test, a fact that parents and educators have long known and which finally dawned on a bipartisan majority of Congress when it recdently voted to repeal the test-heavy No Child Left Behind Act.

The accomplishments and value of educators cannot be reduced to test scores either, which is why the new federal education law, the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), strongly encourages states and school districts to measure student success and teacher accomplishments with a broad array of more-meaningful factors, such as graduation and college admittance rates, course grades and student success in pre-AP courses.

As state education commissioner, Morath must work with educators and parents to advocate for what is best for all of Texas’ 5.2 million school children. For starters, here are three things he can do to show he truly is committed to supporting educators and giving every student an opportunity at success:

# Follow the spirit of ESSA and remove STAAR scores from the new teacher evaluation system the Texas Education Agency is working to develop.

# Come out strongly against private school vouchers, expansion of corporate charters and other privatization schemes that would cherry pick a small minority of students for success while undermining the neighborhood public schools where the vast majority of Texas children will continue to be educated. These schemes also include the “home rule” school district concept that Morath also supported in Dallas. It would have allowed DISD to be operated without important state educational standards or employment protections for school employees and was killed by a local citizens commission who, unlike Morath, recognized it for the bad idea that it was – and still is.

# Be an outspoken advocate for an adequate and fair school funding system, something the governor and the legislative majority refuse to recognize as a necessity to universal student success.

The words are fine. Now, Morath needs to back them up.

Some holiday reflections on education

Here are some observations as we prepare to catch our breath at the end of a long year and prepare to dive into another one.

H – Hope. This is an appropriate theme for the season. Hope draws strength, though, from action.

A – Adios. Adios (finally) to No Child Left Behind.

P – Public schools. Public schools and the people who work in them will remain the best investment in the future of our country.

P – Patrick, Dan. Texas would be a better place if this self-styled education “reformer” were to quit listening to his own echo chamber and give an ear to the real experts — educators. We can wish for it, and we also can believe in Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy.

Y – Year, Old. Under-funded schools and over-tested students continued to say a lot in 2015 about the upside-down priorities of the statehouse majority. Change can begin in 2016, but it will require political action by educators, including you.

H – Hype. This is what school privatization advocates continue to peddle. Vouchers, corporate-style charters and an open taxpayer checkbook for private online schools are designed to line privateers’ pockets, not improve educational opportunities for the vast majority of Texas school children.

O – Opportunity. This is what public education offers to all children, regardless of where they come from or the prejudices some have to endure from presidential candidates and other “grown-ups” who should know better.

L – Less. Less testing! Less testing! Less testing!

I – Instruction, Ideology. The latter needs to butt out of the former in public classrooms.

D – Defined. Under-paid Texas educators deserve their defined-benefits pensions. But never, ever take them for granted.

A – Abbott, Greg. After a year in office, he still doesn’t understand that public schools, educators and students need more than lip service and bad appointments from the state’s highest elected official.

Y – Year, New. In the upcoming election year, every candidate will claim to be a “friend” of education. Don’t believe any of them until you check them out. Then vote for those who can prove themselves, regardless of party affiliation.

S – Students. Our future will always depend on them – and on the educators and staff who teach them and give them a safe and healthy learning environment. But you already knew that.

See you in 2016.

New education commissioner tied to testing

What kind of state education commissioner will Mike Morath be? Based on his record as a self-styled “reformer” in Dallas ISD, the best response for an educator right now is to expect the worst and hope you are wrong.

The type of alleged “reform” that Morath advocated in Dallas was an abuse of the term. True reform is change for the better, not change simply for change’s sake and certainly not the type of change, supported by Morath, that has roiled the ranks of Dallas educators with only minimal, if any, benefit for the vast majority of Dallas school children.

Morath was a strong supporter of former Superintendent Mike Miles, a dictatorial “reformer” who resigned earlier this year after disrespecting and alienating teachers, removing an elected school board member (not Morath) from a district campus and paying big salaries to controversial and inept administrators.

Morath supported the effort – also backed by former Enron trader John Arnold – to transform Dallas ISD into a “home rule” school district that could have operated without important state educational standards or employment protections for school employees. Fortunately, a local citizens commission killed that bad idea before it could get off the ground.

Morath also was instrumental in Dallas ISD’s adoption of a teacher evaluation system partly tied to test scores. This is an unfair and counterproductive way to evaluate and compensate teachers. It also flies in the face of growing professional, public and political opinion against high-stakes testing – from educators, a growing number of parents and large majorities of members of Congress of both parties.

Just last week, Congress completed action on a new federal education law, the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), which replaces the test-heavy failure known as No Child Left Behind. In so doing, Congress removed the federal link between test scores and accountability and left it up to the states and local school districts to decide what weight to give test scores in determining student success.

Under the new law, Texas now has the opportunity to measure student success with more meaningful options, including graduation and college admittance rates, pre-AP courses, course grades and teacher observations.

Morath, who will succeed Michael Williams next month, is tied to the failure of high-stakes testing and out-of-step with the type of reform that educators and students really need, the type of positive change that would replace teaching-to-the-test with meaningful classroom learning.

We can only hope that Morath will use his new appointment and the new federal law to quit thinking top-down and begin working with teachers and parents to move away from testing and toward more-meaningful ways to promote and measure student success

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