Editorials / Columns
Public Education Teeters on Splintered Legislature
By Scott O. Shaffer
Oct 7, 2005, 15:13

A profound philosophical divide was at the heart of the failure of the 79th State Legislature’s efforts to “reform” Texas public schools.

According to Scott Hockberg, D-Houston, “On one side are those who think that it is in the best interests of government, in the public interest, to provide the best possible public school education to allow all children to achieve. On the other side are those who think it is the responsibility of state government to provide a basic education, reading, writing and arithmetic only. Anything beyond that is a local responsibility.”

And there are those who want to do away with public schools altogether.

Rep. Bob Griggs, R-North Richland Hills, a former principal and school superintendent, sent a letter to Texas superintendents August 25, 2005 stating, “I and a handful of other elected officials with education experience have witnessed and battled a misguided and widely-held belief in the Legislature that established educators are the problem with education and that they system can not be fixed without wiping the slate clean and starting over from scratch Come to Austin to fight for the needs of the school children of Texas, to challenge the false belief held by so many of my legislative colleagues, and to craft our education system in Texas into the worldwide model of effective education we know it could and should already be.”

However, First Class Education a little known lobbying group based in Arizona would appear to prefer fewer professional educators’ influence the debate. In a memo recently obtained by The Austin American Statesman the group listed a series of ‘political benefits’ of putting a plan to require 65 percent of all school spending be spent “in the classroom” on the ballot.

The memo, according to the Statesman, said the 65 percent plan could be used to divert dollars away from other political goals of the ‘educational establishment’ and “help build support for voucher and charter school proposals.”

One might question if Neil Bush is associated with this group in any way?

To be world-class, knowledgeable educators, superintendents and consultants suggested early during the regular session that Texas might have to spend as much as $10 billion more on public schools, according to Rep. Harold V. Dutton, Jr.,D-Houston.

“If you want to see a real Texas miracle in public schools, spend the biggest part of that $10 billion on pre-K through the third grade, on all our children. Then you would begin seeing a real education miracle in Texas,” Dutton said.

Professional educators and school finance consultants generally agree that Texas needs to spend at least $2 billion more this year just to keep from losing more ground in its public schools. The system may need as much as $4-$6 billion more just to bring it up to U.S. averages.

But it was clear, as the regular session rolled on, that such talk was going nowhere. Debates had virtually nothing to do with bringing our public schools up to “world-class” standards or even bringing them up to “average.” Speaker Craddick, R-Midland, made it clear that there would be no new money for public schools in any tax bill or as he liked to put it "revenue nuetral."

Meanwhile, Republican Gov. Perry called for more education for the money, not more money for education.

A recent NY state cost study determined that the state needed to spend another $7.7 billion for 517 districts around the state to provide every New York state student with a “sound, basic education.”

This is from a state that ranked number one in per student spending in the country during the 2003-2004 school year at $12,200. Texas ranked 31st, spending $7,330 per student. The national average, according to State Fact Finder 2005, was $8,156.

In “Education: The State We’re In – An Education Report Card for the State of Texas 2005” prepared by the Center for American Progress and the Institute for America’s Future, Texas’ 4th and 8th graders recently ranked near the bottom of the 50 states in their reading proficiency and math skills test as measured by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).

Texas’ fourth graders ranked 49th in reading and 48th in math proficiency. Texas' eigth graders ranked 47th in reading and 43rd in math proficiency on the NAEP exams.

The exams, known as the nation’s report card, measure what students know and are able to do across a number of subjects by regularly testing a representative sample of students in each state.

The state is below the national average. While the United States is behind many of its most fierce competitors.

In “Getting Smarter Getting Fairer,” the same Center for American Progress reports on the relatively dismal position of the U.S. in the natural sciences, math/computer science and engineering when compared to Canada, China, the European Union, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Japan, the Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom.

The U.S. ranked eighth among the 12 countries in the percentage of degrees awarded in the natural sciences, eighth in math/computer science and 11th, ahead of only India, in the percentage of engineering degrees awarded in 2000.

What does that suggest for Texas school children’s future?

Quite obviously, it suggests a dimmer future. Most, including myself, intuitively understand that the world will be characterized by increased competition by better-educated peers from across the globe. For the first time in United States' history, parents report being less optimistic about their children's future prospects.

Dr. Steve Murdock, director of the Texas State Data Center and the state demographer is not what one would call a radical. He is uniformly considered professional, reasonable and thoughtful.

In “The Texas Challenge in the 21st Century," his forecast for the state, Murdock says assuming current patterns of service usage and access remain at the current levels that by 2040 the Texas population will be more diverse, require more training, be older, less educated, less skilled and will earn less.

With such information in hand, one might think Texas legislators would be putting their heads together to answer a number questions concerning the improvement of the Texas education system.

But no.

Instead, Texas lawmakers were far more concerned with minimizing the basic state appropriation for public education, trying to lower property taxes, shifting taxes to the less wealthy, increasing sales taxes, limiting or killing "Robin Hood" and whether or not to hold school board elections in November.

Here's an overview of their fine work.

House Bill 1 appropriated almost $12.6 billion in state funding for education in 2006 and $12.5 billion in state funding for 2007. Governor Perry signed the bill into law so that Texas’ public schools could open on time this school year.

The state’s appropriation for public schools in HB1 was less than it had actually spent for public schools during three of the past five school years ($13.379 billion in 2003-2004; $13.743 billion in 2002-2003; $12.722 billion in 2001-2002), according to Texas Education Agency data.

The $12.6 billion appropriation was made by legislators who had to know that total enrollment in Texas public schools is forecasted to grow to between 75,000 and 100,000 new students during the upcoming 2005-2006 school year. In effect, HB1 has provided less state money to be divided among more public school students.

House Bill 2, had it passed, would have provided public school an additional $2.1 - $2.4 billion to spend during the 2006-2007 biennium and reduced property taxes. Robin Hood payments would have been reduced, statewide, by $1.billion with the state promising to replace the lost funds. HB2 provided no mechanism for funding the reduction in property taxes or Robin Hood payments.

Public policy experts pointed out that at the end of the day, the majority of public schools would have been no better off financially, and some, worse off had HB2 passed. The “reform” provisions had very little if anything to do with making schools better and nothing to do with trying to create “world-class” public school graduates.

House Bill 3 was a tax-swap bill that did not raise a single additional dollar for public education. The bill was probably doomed to failure when the Legislative Budget Board published its tax incidence analysis and concluded that taxpayers with incomes under $100,593 would be paying more taxes; those making more than $100,593 would be paying less if HB3 were to become law.

Texas' children dodged a bullet when neither HB2 or HB3 passed.

Senate Bill 8 was essentially a re-run of HB 2 without some of its predecessor’s most onerous provisions proposed during the final days of the second special session. It would have provided, depending on the assumptions made in the analysis, an additional $1.8-$2.4 billion for public schools during the 2006-2007 biennium. The bill would have dropped provisions originally included in HB2 that limited “recapture” (Robin Hood), required school board elections be held in November and called for a state-wide “school start” date. SB8 was eventually sent to Calendars and was never considered by the House.

The regular and two special sessions cost Texas taxpayers an estimated $12.4 million, according to the state Comptroller’s office. It was virtually a complete waste for public schools needing to step into the 21st century with the resources and mandate to become world-class.

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