Volume 18, Issue 1
September, 2010
MCALLEN AFT NEWS
MAKING A DIFFERENCE
DO THE RIGHT THING GOVERNOR PERRY!
Five Democratic state senators have asked Gov. Rick Perry to renew efforts to secure $830 million in aid earmarked for Texas public schools under the recent emergency education-jobs bill passed by Congress. In a letter delivered to the governor today, Sens. Leticia Van de Putte of San Antonio, Rodney Ellis of Houston, Eddie Lucio of Brownsville, Mario Gallegos of Houston, and Wendy Davis of Fort Worth said, in part:
“As parents we hope for a better future for our children. We tell them they can be whatever they want to be when they grow up. We take them to school. We help them with their homework. We attend PTA meetings and contribute to the bake sales. We do whatever it takes to help our children graduate, go to college, and make a decent living.
“But we can’t do it alone. No parent in Texas can. We depend on our neighborhood schools and our teachers to help us prepare our children for better lives. Our schools and our teachers can’t do it alone either. They depend on the state to help them help us prepare our children for better lives.
“You have claimed that Texas has done a pretty good job. You have said that education is a priority. You have shared that it is one of the many reasons families move to Texas. And you claim we’re doing better than other states. Why change your story now? Surely, you and other adults in our state and federal government can work towards a meaningful compromise with the U.S. Department of Education to keep our school doors open, our teachers teaching, and our kids learning.
“Grown-ups don’t give up and point fingers, grown-ups find solutions. We’re Texas, right? Complicated explanations full of legalese haven’t stood in our way before, and they shouldn’t stop us now. We wouldn’t accept these finger-pointing excuses from our children, and Texans shouldn’t accept them from us. We urge you to immediately direct your staff and TEA personnel to sit down with the Department of Education and continue to try to find a solution to this impasse, so that this crucial funding can do what it is designed to do–help fund our neighborhood schools and ensure that our children continue to learn.”
IMPORTANT DATES
Some noteworthy hearings in the next couple of weeks will preview issues when the legislature meets in January. For example:
September 14–The state’s budget for public education for 2012-2013 comes up for a public hearing next Tuesday in front of staffers of the Legislative Budget Board and Governor’s Budget Office. These legislative and executive budget staffers, standing in for their bosses, will examine the budget proposed by the Texas Education Agency, which contains deep and unwise cuts in key education programs (e.g., science labs, teacher mentoring after-school programs for at-risk students). Texas AFT will be testifying for a more balanced approach to current budget problems, one that taps the state Rainy Day Fund (containing more than $8 billion) to weather current recession-induced revenue shortfalls. Along with our partners in the Texas Forward coalition, we also will make the point that a longer-term shortfall in education funding is the result of wrongheaded decisions by lawmakers in years past that reduced state and local revenue streams for public education–and the solution now is not to shortchange education even more.
September 16–A select committee of state senators, representatives, business leaders (and a few educators) will consider options for change in state school-finance formulas. The committee, co-chaired by Sen. Florence Shapiro, R of Plano, and Rep. Rob Eissler, R of The Woodlands, is made up of appointees of the governor, lieutenant governor, and House speaker.
September 24–The Senate Education Committee (chaired by Shapiro) and the House Public Education Committee (chaired by Eissler) will hold a rare joint hearing, focusing on the topic of school accountability with particular emphasis on the changes made by the legislature in 2009. Hallmarks of that Texas AFT alternative:
–end reliance on a single test to measure success;
–use multiple measures to gauge growth and guide instruction, including social/emotional learning measures;
–restore teachers’ authority over instructional time, reducing excessive emphasis on test prep;
–bar use of inherently flawed “value added” statistical models for individual teacher evaluation
—end punitive sanctions, use supportive interventions;
–use appropriate tests for students with disabilities and English Language Learners;
–hold school districts accountable for providing a supportive environment for learning;
–build community services for students and families into neighborhood schools.