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.
No comments:
Post a Comment