Does Money Matter in Education?

It's the question that we're all concerned about. If you have listened to the news lately, it would seem that schools are doing a very poor job of handling money, and the term "efficiency" it utilized by many politicians. I agree. Schools, as well as all aspects of our economy, should be as efficient as possible, but what these critics seems to forget is the numerous mandates that have been handed to schools from the state  and federal levels that require an increase in costs to schools. For example, let's look at the new testing requirements, called STAAR and End-of-Course (EOC) exams. Schools now have 45 days of testing required by the state. It would be nice if schools could just administer the test and be done with it, but that is not the case. The state requires that a plethora of rules be followed during these exams, often requiring schools to hire additional personnel to accommodate these rules. On top of that each campus must assign a Campus Testing Coordinator, and the district must assign a District Testing Coordinator. Although we may utilize an existing personnel member, these duties take away from what that employee was hired to do in the first place.

In a recent research study conducted by the Shanker Institute, it was concluded that money does in fact play a part in quality of education. In fact, in the majority of schools that consistently receive the highest achievement, these schools spend more per student. Here is one sentence from the study, "In short, money matters, resources that cost money matter, and more equitable distribution of school funding can improve outcomes. Policymakers would be well-advised to rely on high-quality research to guide the critical choices they make regarding school finance."
 
Texas State Representative Scott Hochberg recently stated, during a meeting of the Public Education Committee, that money seemed to have a direct correlation to results and performance on the statewide assessments. The following table describes the differences in spending per student and tax rates.

Rating	Spending	Tax Rates
Exemplary	$6,580	Lowest Rate
Recognized	$5,751
Acceptable	$5,662
Unacceptable	$5,538	Highest Rate

In other words, districts that are Exemplary tend to spend more money per student and have lower tax rates. 

As one of the lowest funded districts with one of the highest tax rates in our area, you should be concerned as a taxpayer and a parent. Money does matter, and the students of Harleton ISD deserve as much as the children down the road.

Commissioner's Speech

Last week I was in Austin attending the Texas Association of School Administrator's Mid-winter Conference. While there I heard a speech given by the Commissioner for Education and head of the Texas Education Agency, Robert Scott. Mr. Scott gave a very frank speech during which he stated that he felt the assessment and accountability system in Texas has become a perversion of what it was intended to be, and he felt that we would soon see a change in the way that Texas tests students. This would be great news for teachers and students in Texas. We don't want to stop holding our schools accountable, but we don't need to over test students either. The future should be interesting.