Posted on 12/24/2011 11:40:18 AM PST by DeaconBenjamin
School funding in Texas is in turmoil. State lawmakers slashed more than $4 billion from education this school year — one of the largest cuts in state history — and more than 12,000 teachers and support staff have been laid off.
Academic programs and transportation have been cut to the bone. Promising reforms are on hold or on the chopping block. Next year, the cuts could go even deeper.
Schools in Pasadena, just outside Houston, have seen tight budgets before, but never like this. There was $21 million in cuts this fall alone and 340 positions eliminated, Candace Ahlfinger, an associate superintendent of schools in Pasadena, says. Of those cuts, about 180 were teaching positions and 160 were support staff, she says.
Special education teachers who worked with dyslexic kids: gone. Teachers' aides: gone. Dozens of bus drivers, crossing guards and security personnel: gone.
With the district's $350 million budget shrinking and more cuts on the horizon, Ahlfinger says: "Everything has been on the chopping block. There's not been a sacred cow. There's nothing that we have said 'No, we cannot touch that.'"
The state granted Pasadena schools a waiver so that the district could legally raise class size above the maximum 22 mandated in grades K-4. About 7,000 schools have been granted such waivers statewide, a three-fold increase from last year.
A Charge For The Extras
Still, every morning teachers in Pasadena grit their teeth and pretend everything is fine. School officials here considered asking parents to pay for some services, but 80 percent of families in the district live at or below the federal poverty level.
In many school districts across Texas, though, parents are footing the bill for things like bus transportation, field trips, athletics and uniforms.
"Something's got to give, right?" says Jackie Lain with the Texas Association of School Boards. "They're charging for any of the extras that they don't absolutely have to provide, so that they can keep teachers employed in the classrooms."
Lain says the 6 percent cut in school funding this year was bad enough. Next year, it will be 8 to 9 percent.
Even wealthy school districts are feeling the pinch. Leander is a bedroom community just outside Austin that's growing like crazy, but it doesn't have enough money to open two brand new schools that it built to relieve overcrowding.
With less money from the state, Leander had to cut $20 million from its budget and lay off 213 employees, 50 of them classroom teachers.
Leander was supposed to open what's known as Middle School No. 8 this year. It's an enormous building and there's a lot of construction going on at the site, but that was slowed this summer because the district cannot afford to open it.
Leander schools Superintendent Bret Champion says Texas raised school funding consistently every year for the past half century, until now. "For the first time since World War II, the state hasn't funded what it had promised to fund," he says.
What Can Be Cut?
At a football game between Leander High and Vista Ridge High School, the funding crisis is the last thing on parents' minds. The stadium fills quickly; it's supposed to be a good game.
Leander has already eliminated golf and tennis. What if football is next?
"I'd spend a thousand bucks out of pocket myself to make sure it'd stay," says Ross Briton, whose son plays football. "I'd work two jobs if it took that to do it. End of story."
Briton says it's not just a sport here: It's part of the culture and a big part of the community's identity. The district should pare down the curriculum before it cuts football, he says.
"I would cut most liberal arts out of the high school. I'd keep math, science, reading. I'd add the vocational education back, because I think there's too much fluff," Briton says.
Several parents in the parking lot nod in agreement as they walk away; others stay behind to say they disagree. Cutting instructional programs, they say, is more damaging than cutting sports.
Kate Patterson works for a local nonprofit that ran a program for struggling readers in the Austin area, including Leander. Sadly, it's been cut, she says, and lawmakers don't seem to care.
"Honestly, I'm not looking to the government anymore," Patterson says. It's as if Texas has thrown in the towel when it comes to education, she says, but some lawmakers blame voters.
"Legislators respond to what they hear," says Scott Hochberg, a Democrat and state representative from Houston.
Hochberg says parents and community organizations that are aghast at the cuts' impact haven't put nearly enough pressure on legislators
"I think they need to put their votes where their mouths are," he says.
A Hold On The Rainy Day Fund
Texas, meanwhile, is sitting on at least $5 billion in its rainy day fund. It's mostly gas and oil revenues. Hochberg says lawmakers refuse to draw from the fund to blunt the education cuts because the governor told them not to.
"The governor drew a very, very sharp line in the sand [saying] that the rainy day fund, which was specifically designed for periods of economic slowdown, would not be touched," he says.
NPR repeatedly called Gov. Rick Perry and numerous Republican legislators asking them to comment for this story; they refused.
The president of the anti-tax lobbying group Empower Texans, however, did not. For too long, Michael Sullivan says, the state has thrown tons of money at education.
"We've assumed that, well, more money equals better education. Let's just spend more money," he says. "How much more money do we need to spend? ... More, more, more, more. We have doubled real per pupil spending in the past 10 years."
And yet, Sullivan says, Texas has nothing to show for it. Schools still graduate students who are unprepared for college or work; that's why school districts have no credibility when they complain about funding, he says.
The Impact On Low-Income Students
Sandy Kress, an attorney in Austin with close ties to both political parties, doesn't go that far, but he too faults school districts for looking at this as a crisis rather than an opportunity to show they can be more efficient with the money they get.
"The system is getting defensive about having to make the changes it has to make," Kress says. "It's resisting change and accountability just as people who are paying the taxes are getting tired of paying the taxes. I am definitely worried."
Kress says efficiency and accountability are crucial, but he worries even more that Texas will revert to the bad old days when school districts used tight budgets as an excuse for neglecting low-income and minority students.
"The result is that children will be left behind, gaps will grow again and we may be in a place where we are retreating instead of advancing for the first time in 50 years," Kress says. "And this is disastrous."
Already, the $4.3 billion in school funding cuts seems to have made the disparity between poor and wealthy school districts worse. A poor district now gets $800 less per student from the state than a wealthy district.
More than 300 school districts are now suing. They're hoping the courts will declare the cuts and the school funding formula in Texas unconstitutional.
There was NO cut in the education budget.
let me repeat
THERE WAS NO CUT IN THE PUBLIC EDUCATION BUDGET.
The Texas lege voted a 15% INCREASE in the public education budget for 2013-2013 over the 2010-2011 budget.
I really hate how this lie gets repeated over and over and no media will actually research it to corect it.
The other posts in this thread do a great job of pointing out spending money does not equate a good education. Washington DC spends over 13k PER student and still most fail.
Deacon
You make the best point, each family should contribute something toward their own child’s education instead of expecting gov’t to do it for them.
—Bright children could move forward at their own pace.
— Slower children could review material.
—Adults could review, relearn, or learn for the first time material they may have missed when they were children.
—If a child was sick or otherwise distracted for some family problem could have an opportunity to fill in gaps and catch up.
I believe it is not done because the Marxist administrators running the schools seriously do not want the public to know what is being taught, and they do **not** want children and adults to be able to teach themselves anything.
Oh! One more thing:
**All** school textbooks ( at least one copy) should be in every community public library. This is something that our local library does not do.
Well....Here are a few ideas.
If employers can only hire legal workers, then perhaps landlords can only rent to legal residents. Perhaps only legal residents can obtain a mortgage, car loan. Why not start there.?
And...In Alabama school numbers have dropped due to illegals moving out of the state. Why? The school requests a valid birth certificate and checks the legal residence of its students. However,... regardless of immigrant status no child is denied a place in their local socialist-entitlement school.
By the way, Mc Donald's is public. It is open to all. Our nation's compulsory schools are **socialist** schools. They are the very definition of a socialist and single- payer social entitlement. The government strictly restricts who may or may not use the socialist schooling entitlement.
I am long past sympathy!
Personally, I will **not** have a socialist school teacher or worker for a friend! One more generation of citizens indoctrinated in our nation's socialist entitlement and godless schools and I fear all freedom will be lost! Yes, I believe it is **that** serious!
Our nation's socialist school teachers and workers are, for me, either too evil, too stupid, or too much of a Useful Idiot to be a friend.
What “good” teacher would support a system of compulsory attendance and compulsory funded schools? No one is holding a gun to their heads forcing them to do this. They **willingly** sought the job. Simply by attending children must think and reason godlessly just to cooperate in the godless classroom. How could it be otherwise?
And...What “good” teacher would support a system of socialist schools where children risk learning to be comfortable with socialism? These children risk learning that government has great power to take money from a neighbor to give them tuition-free schooling. Well?...Why not use that power to get **lots** of free stuff?
I am **done** with socialist-entitlement school teachers! No more. They are out of my life!
About 79.9% of them are likely illegal aliens. In Texas, we'd solve our school funding issues lickety split if we'd begin enforcing immigration law and shipping these illegals out of here.
I'm still trying to figure this one out: We have a black female administrator for Hispanic programs that doesn't speak a word of Spanish (or any other language besides English) and is paid nearly $200K per year.
One area for savings is a “magnet” school. This is an “experimental” education tool. Two-thirds of the staff make $110K. One-third of the big shots make over $175K to $225K.
So where do the cuts come from? Sports, janitorial staff, teacher's aids, teachers, librarians. Perfectly sensible, right?
How many librarians are paid $225K on your planet?
Also, they must be taught in their native language and more $$$ is spent on them than on English speaking kids.
That isn't common but coaches moving into administrative jobs is common.
Every one I've ever talked to said if they had had bilingual ed when they started school, they would "still be in the valley speaking Spanish."
They are made to teach it and most get paid more. Some districts paid a finders fee to find bilinual teachers when they were scarce..
It figures.
Thanks for the info.
Something the 'investigative reporters' won't even suggest let alone investigate.
No?
Ask me to care once they have.
Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)
Noproblemento brother.
Personally, as a taxpayer, I resent being under government police threat to financial support government minor league teams for the big leagues. That's what high school team sports are! They are a socialist ( fascist really) taxpayer socialist program that saves the big leagues tons of money. Intramural school sports OK, but, honestly, shouldn't the big leagues be funding their own farm teams? Why should the taxpayer be strong armed into doing it?
If team sports were completely privatized:
1) The coaches would likely be better trained, fully focused on coaching, and not distracted with teaching duties.
2) There might be more community “rah rah” with better parades, cheer leading, bands, and drill teams.( And better coaching for them, too.) The towns and cities could be paid **rent** for the use of their playing fields and stadiums.
3) Academics would not be conflated with sports. ( What a cruel joke that is! It degrades the diplomas given to true students. )
4) The coaches and players might finally be paid what they are truly worth in the free market. If the kid wants to use the money for schooling great. Maybe he will waste it. Maybe use for a business, or schooling or training when he is in his thirties.
Hey, the government needs something to distract people from the abysmal state of public education.
And Texans probably would except it is against Fed Law.
We were sued you know for charging illegals for their education but the Supreme Court sided with the illegals.
Only the Federal Government can enforce immigration law and deporting of illegals.
And the 11 million dollars our Universities here in
Texas NET Profit make up somewhat for our expense of education them K-12.
So in-state tuition actually helps Texas get back some of its investment to the tune of a NET $11 Million.
Thanks for that RWGinger. Truth is good.
Here is another tidbit regarding the sports and that the parents should pay.
In my town in Texas during football season, there are typically 3 games played at the stadium and the ticket sales for each game run $ 60,000. each game.
The money, after stadium expenses, goes to the schools athletic departments to support the sports. Not to mention the advertising revenue from the Jumbo-tron.
And regarding this article:
“80% living below poverty level in Pasadena TX?”
I checked out Wikipedia and according to it:
“About 13.2% of families and 16.0% of the population were below the poverty line,”
So, I find it very hard to believe 80% of the people in Pasadena TX are below poverty levels considering that city is an oil and gas exploration + mega industrial region.
It’s clear this is just a liberal hit piece and it is directed at Perry - nothing new under the sun.
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