Monthly Archives: June 2011

82nd Texas State Legislature: Epilogue

We can talk about all the things that were completed; i.e., weighting a fish during a tournament, sonograms for women considering abortion, tax breaks for yacht owners, or we can talk about the things that were not completed; i.e., the structural tax deficit, fully funding education, using the Rainy Day Fund.

But, we’ll talk about neither.  These are tired subjects.

As the lights go out in Austin, the Senators and Representatives that “worked” so hard for us this legislative session +1, return home to their districts and get to forget that the 82nd Texas State Legislative Session ever happened.  And why not?  They did exactly what their constituents sent them to Austin to do…cut spending and do not raise taxes (or use tax money already available (RDF)). I suppose we should be thanking them.

I won’t. I work in education.

My thoughts now turn to teachers. It will be teachers who will have to face the questions of “why?”  It will be teachers that will have to talk about why class sizes are larger in middle school and high school, why buses don’t pick up students anymore, and why the secretary gives medicine in the front office and not a school nurse. It will be teachers that will asked about “structural tax deficits”, “bond elections”, and “TREs” (Tax Ratification/Rate Election).

Teachers are now left with this burden of answering these questions and many more for their family, church members, parents, and other community members that they will encounter on a daily basis. And teachers will be asked these questions because they work in education and must have all the answers. It is left to the teachers because of the things that Texas state legislators did not solve (or even address) and very happily descended to the lower, local levels. The burden now shifts to the local districts.

And what you will see occur is school districts continuing to struggle to serve their student populations. School districts are growing at a rate of 80,000 students per year and will not have enough money to educate these students plus the current students enrolled in their districts. It was never a case of needing more money; it was a case of needing enough to sustain daily operations.  As such, districts will turn to bond elections and TREs to try to generate revenue to do just that…sustain.

Some districts will succeed (Canutillo ISD), some districts will fail (Keller ISD), and some will never need to address the issue (Highland Park ISD). But, no matter the outcome, the ball is truly in our court. We now bear the burden of financing education. We also bear the burden of answering “why?” when, we ourselves, do not have the answer.

The 83rd Texas State Legislative campaign begins today. To find out who represented you this legislative session go to http://www.fyi.legis.state.tx.us/.

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A Brief History of Texas Public Education

State Seal of Texas

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Founding Father Wisdom
In the times of worry and crisis, our country will often turn to the Founding Fathers for advice. In the last 10 years, we have looked to the great men who led the American Revolution and our newborn country for their enduring wisdom and for a reminder who we once were and how we came to be as we are.

The historian Joseph J. Ellis wrote in his book “American Creation” that there has been a shift in focus to our Founding Fathers in recent years “rooted in conviction that mainstream politics is overworked terrain”. This shift has “coincided with the publication of comprehensive editions of the papers of the most prominent founders that, taken together, constitute the most complete documentation of human endeavor by any political elite in recorded history” (Ellis, p.12). Simply put, in times of governmental uncertainty, we romanticize the Founding Fathers for their intended wisdom for the future of our country during times when we question the direction our current elected leaders take our nation.

Public Education in Texas
I submit this to you as a preamble for commentary on the directions our current elected Texas leaders are taking our state. Most significantly, in reference to their defunding of public education through extensive cuts without raising taxes to meet the needs of growing student populations. The Founding Fathers of our own state would be sorely disappointed.

When Texas declared its independence from Mexico, one of the reasons cited in the declaration was Mexico’s lack of a comprehensive public education system for its citizenry. In response, the newly formed country of Texas founded a public school system with money given to the newborn country from a land dispute settlement with the United States. After Texas achieved statehood and survived the perils of the Civil War and Reconstruction, Texas began increased investment in public education through the establishment of the Permanent School Fund.

Over time, the state legislatures of the time recognized the need for local control and gave governing school boards increased authority, established accreditation procedures, equalized the playing field for rural school districts, and guaranteed public money or the purchase of textbooks (a provision by which is still in place today and largely drives the national textbook industry).

In later years, Texas offered legislation to give teachers pay raises, overhauled school funding to aid poorer school districts, and took steps to improve the academic achievement of students. In the 1990′s, the state once again addressed school funding to create an equitable system and established improved accountability for school districts.

Throughout the long history of Texas, since 1836, the state has continually made movements to support and improve public education.  Since the United States Constitution does not address the issues of education (purposely, I would add) the issues is lumped into the 10th amendment and “left to the states” to decide. Governor Rick Perry has, in recent years (and even mentioned it today on the Glen Beck Show), been an advocate for the 10th amendment backing a resolution in 2009 affirming the sovereignty of the state as related to the 10th amendment (http://governor.state.tx.us/news/press-release/12227/). However, Governor Perry has been noticeably absent during the current Special Session by which the state legislature has not yet settled on final figures for the defunding of public education, a first in nearly a quarter century.

In his absence, the legislature has worked to be the first in Texas history to reverse the progressive course of Texas public education through budget cuts, teacher furloughs, unfunded mandates, more rigorous testing, and proposals to increase class sizes. Now, Texas, which already ranks 44th in per pupil spending, could trend to lower numbers before the next biennium particularly at a time when Texas is responsible for over 8% of the national economy.

Perhaps our legislature and our current governor could learn a lesson from the first President of Texas, Senator, Governor, and Father of Texas, Sam Houston:

“It is a matter of great satisfaction to me to hope that my children will be in circumstances to receive a good education. Mine was defective and I feel the inconvenience, if not the misfortune of not receiving a classical education. Knowledge is the food of genius, and my son, let no opportunity escape you to treasure up knowledge.”

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