The Blame Game

In a press conference on Wednesday, March 23, six senators held a press conference in Austin to state their priorities in providing education funding for public school districts in Texas. Basically, these senators stated that their priority was to the classroom citing erroneous statistics that the number of administrators to teachers had increased from 5:1 in the 1970s to 1:1 presently. It seems ironic that the government didn't even keep these numbers during the 1970s so I find it hard to believe that they are being exactly truthful by making such statements. In fact, these figures were not available until the state starting keeping up with them in the mid 1980s.

The group further stated that their priority was to the classroom and that all of the blame for the cuts in teaching staffs was to be laid at the feet of the school districts. They would cut non-teaching staff. But, they failed to mention that in most districts, like Harleton ISD, the only non-teaching staff members are the custodians, maintenance workers, bus drivers, and food service providers. If those positions are cut, are we going to ask the teachers to do this? Will that help the teacher in the classroom? I don't think so!

I have mentioned in past postings to this blog that the legislators were made aware that this budget shortfall was coming in 2006. They did nothing to prevent it, and they are now trying to lay the blame on school districts. We try to teach our children to take responsibility for their actions. Our legislators seem to need a crash course in this concept.

Share the Pain?

During a recent Senate Public Education Subcommittee hearing one of the senators made the statement that all districts needed to "share the pain" of the budget cuts that are being proposed for public education. This same senator, when asked about equity of the funding, stated that "equity and fair are different." My question is how is it fair or equitable to cut those districts who have been at the bottom of the revenue scale and have been "sharing the pain" for decades the same as those districts who have benefitted from higher revenues?

Just as an example, let's take Harleton ISD's Target Revenue number ($4952) and compare that with the Target Revenue of Hallsville ISD ($6046). Both districts do a great job of educating children, but Hallsville is guaranteed $1094 more dollars per student to do so. With a class of 22 students that would be $24, 068 more, but we are still required to meet the same standards and accountability measures. Is it fair or equitable to then suggest that we should receive the same cut in funding as they do?

Harleton ISD has been sharing the pain. We just need our representatives to realize that.

Welcome Back!

I just want to welcome everyone back from Spring Break. Hopefully, you were able to get some rest and relaxation and are renewed for the remainder of the school year. We will have a lot of activities from now until the end of school including the TAKS tests. Try to remember that we are all working together for the success of all of our students. It takes us working as a team to do this.

Once again, welcome back, and I look forward to a successful and productive remainder to our school year.

Perry Says State Not To Blame for Teacher Layoffs

Governor Perry recently made the statement that, in essence, was that the local school districts are to blame for teacher layoffs. Technically, he's telling the truth. He or other representatives at the state level will not be coming to school districts to make that decision, but the decisions about teachers and educators are being made because of the decisions that have been made in Austin.

The governor has also stated that the ratio of staff to teachers has increased dramatically over the last decade. This is absolutely not correct. The fact is that this ratio has actually had a slight decrease. Yes, there are many employees of school districts who are not teachers. It takes a lot of people (i.e., bus drivers, custodians, maintenance, administrators, and instructional support staff) as well as teachers to run an effective school district. Many of these employees are hired in an attempt by the districts to fulfill mandates that have been sent to the districts by the state without the funding that is required to implement the mandates. The fact is that a little over a decade ago the state funded about 50% of education funding. That number is now approximately 37%. The difference has been shifted to the local taxpayer.

The reality is that the legislature, at Gov. Perry's direction, made a conscious decision to "buy down" the property tax rate of $1.50 to $1.00 per $100 of valuation and replace it with a margins tax that they were told by experts would never made the difference in revenues. They decided to do it anyway. Schools have also essentially had their funding tied to 2005-2006 levels. School districts could fire all non-teaching staff and still not provide enough revenue to cover the deficit created by this decision (according to TEA).

No, the state legislature will not come to your district and fire anyone. That terrible decision is left to the school districts, but can we honestly believe that these decisions are not being forced on districts from the state level?

The Perry Legislature's Choice

I know you're all getting tired of hearing the "bad news" out of Austin. Believe me, I am too. We know that the economy has not been good over the last couple of years, and the slow economy has been used as the scapegoat as to why Texas faces this historic budget deficit. But, I want you to know the truth behind the shortfall. The fact is that the legislature created a structural deficit when it "bought" down the property tax rate from $1.50 to $1.00 per $100 valuation and replaced that tax with a Margins Tax that was never intended to raise the same amount of revenue.

In a letter written by then State Comptroller, Carole Strayhorn, we see that warnings were issued to the governor and legislators that the choices they were making would be the cause of an historic budget shortfall in the state. Surprise! It came true. It is terrible to think that our representatives would choose to make decisions that would ultimately hurt our state, and that they would do so knowingly. But, they did.

You can see the letter here.

What is Right About Texas Public Schools?

I want to turn your attention today to an article written by a fellow superintendent. We often hear how bad our education system is from the media and many politicians, but I would like you to know the truth. Please visit the following and find out "What is Right About Texas Public Schools?"

http://superintendent.wonecks.net/2011/02/23/what-is-right-with-public-school-education/

Got Your Umbrella? It's Raining in Texas

Yesterday I travelled with a group of superintendents, board members, and others to the capitol to visit with state representative Bryan Hughes and state senator Kevin Eltife. We made this trip to attempt to provide these representatives with useful data and concerns to help them with their decision making process as they work to create a budget with the state having a $27 billion deficit. They have a difficult task ahead of them, and I hope and pray that they are able to keep the future of our great state in mind as they tackle these issues.

One of the items that struck me as surprising was the fact that some members of the House are reluctant to tap the Rainy Day Fund. Isn't a downturn in the economy the reason this fund was set up in the first place? That's how you run a business isn't it? When times are lean you have to cut the fat and use the reserves to get you through until the turnaround. Well, guess what...the lean time is here.

What was that? Do you feel rain? Texas, it's raining...It's time to use the Rainy Day Fund. We cannot allow public education to fail. The results are too costly to our state in the long run.