What's Your Priority?

What are our priorities as a state? I don't know about you, but it seems that our legislators are sending mixed messages. Do we want to cut spending, or do we want to have a truly educated workforce? Do we want to be a low tax state at all costs, or do we want to use a level-headed approach to the budgeting process? You can't increase the standards (which is what is happening with the STAAR testing taking the place of TAKS) while cutting funding for school districts at the same time.

We've heard a lot lately about the increase in expenditures by school districts over the past two decades. Unfortunately, we don't get the whole picture when listening to the talk that is coming out of Austin. One of the things that we keep hearing is that schools are taking money out of the classroom by having staffing at a level of one-to-one teacher/non-teacher. The claim is that this number has increased over the last couple of decades; however, the research shows a different story (see chart below, taken from Ed Fuller's Blog on education). The fact is that the number of teachers has remained relatively stable while administration has actually decreased over this time. The difference comes in the instructional aides who have been added to help with the types of students that have been entering our schools. Many of these students are limited English proficient, and they require more help to bring to them up to the level of their peers. This takes staff and ultimately...money.

So, what are our priorities? Educating our children will lead to a better educated citizenry. This leads to a more productive workforce and more tax revenues. I believe that we will reap the benefits in the long run for our investment today. Or, we can shortchange the education system and pay for it later. What do you propose?