In recent years, the governor and legislature in Texas have cut billions of dollars from the budget for public education.
They have shown their priorities. By keeping taxes low, they can grow new jobs, or so they say.
But at the same time, they are destroying the public schools that prepare the next generation for citizenship and work and innovation.
A Texas colleague sent me an article to show what the cuts are doing to one small district. The Hutto school district must cut more than $1 million from its $37 million budget. A local tax increase was turned down last November. The district will go back to the voters to ask again.
The district is imposing a fee of $200 a year for students to ride the bus to school, with no break for poor kids. The district is selling advertising on the buses and licensing the right to use its mascot symbol. In April, the district laid off arts teachers, counselors, and nurses. It increased the fee for participating in extracurricular activities to $100.
Faced with endless cuts, districts are moving back to a time in our history–now seen only in very poor nations–where access to education was limited by what families can pay.
If only education reformers were as passionate about paying for education as they are about privatizing it.
Where is “Superman” when you really need him?
Diane
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I tend to think of it as corporatizing, rather than privatizing. The word ‘private’ fits oddly with large scale conglomerates who are the ones siphoning off public money for their own interests, thereby undermining public institutions.
Republicans have spent years attacking government and spending and taxes without explaining what that meant. It doesn’t mean less prisons, military hardware or bailouts. It means things like less teachers, fewer good jobs, and hungry kids. Their message only works if no one points out the implications.
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If I didn’t know better, I would begin to think someone is trying to destroy the USA. At the same time the government and the free market say a quality education system is necessary for our country to survive and thrive, the same forces are using everything in their power to destroy the future (and present) of that quality education. We are becoming Brazil (insert name of any poor nation here) at the same time Brazil is becoming what we once were.
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Agreed. And the rich don’t care because they will become richer from the process.
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Things are getting really bad. Several of the legislators who were in charge of the education committee last year were on the 2011 ALEC ‘Education Task Force’ roster. Senator Florence Shapiro increased the class-size in k-4, decreased the minimum teacher salary to $27,000 per year, and eliminated experience as a factor during layoffs. Districts are considering dipping in to their reserves next year, which means that the next round of cuts might push them over the edge. We are close to losing entire districts to this privatization scheme. Legislators are trying to change the pension system from defined benefit to defined contribution. For those who don’t speak HR lingo, defined benefit means a specific monthly amount guaranteed by the employer. Defined contribution means a part of your salary goes into mutual funds. Is anyone surprised when I say that Goldman Sachs and Citigroup (two of the biggest companies involved in the 2008 stock market crash) are funding the efforts to change the pensions?
This all results from the 2010 mid-term elections. In January of that year, a case called Citizens United vs FEC was decided in the Supreme Court. Corporate personhood now exists, allowing corporations and billionaires to pump huge sums of money into our political campaigns. They buy our politicians openly now.
Please keep doing what you can, Mrs. Ravitch. There are many public education advocacy groups here and your blog helps shine a light on many of the real problems. Thank you.
-Michael
(Husband of a 3rd grade teacher)
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Michael – I agree with everything you said except that this all started in 2010. This movement to destroy our public education system, as well other government departments by putting our government “on a diet”, has been in the works for about 30 years. In the early 1980’s, one of the Koch brothers ran for Vice President on a libertarian ticket and lost sorely. From that point forward, the Koch brothers, along with others who are part of the 1% with a similar agenda, have been laying down the foundation for what we are now see happening to our country. This has been a slow process, and we are now just seeing all their careful planning paying off. And because it was a slow process, many seemingly reasonable, middle-class people, have been totally indoctrinated into believing and repeating all the lies and distortions, even at their own peril and at the cost to their communities, their families and their country.
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This reminds of when NYC was threatening to fire some 5000 teachers a year ago. Bloomberg was quoted as saying that it would help to create jobs. The logic behind that was so twisted, I am amazed it wasn’t blasted across the media.
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Texas is in mighty bad shape. Premont ISD actually cancelled ALL athletic programs last year because they couldn’t spare any additional funds that didn’t go directly to raising test scores. What a way disgusting way to rob our kids of a decent school experience.
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Not all of Texas. Mc Allen isd just provided all their students with new ipads…. Unfortunately when my husband decided to retire after15 years in the army we decided to live in Hutto as opposed to our hometown of McAllen. Go figure.
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Ruby, you might want to address the questions posed by the other person from the region who posted a comment. She says that the Hutto districts squanders money on non-essentials.
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Imagine what would have happened to students engagement if the district was given the galvanic bracelets to sell or if Gates just out and out gave of his largess for no other reason than philanthropy. Money for galvanic bracelets, money for testing, money for computers to contain the data, money for oversight of the computers that hold the data, money for lawyers for the legal battles said tests will incur, money money money.
How about the Texas miracle? Extra curriculars keep students from dropping out, from unintended pregnancies and other societal ills that but more pressure on hard hit communities.
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Living in the district spoken about in the article and having done much research into the district I can not blame the state for the mess the district is in. In my opinion from the research I have done the problem is where and how the ISD spends the money. The ISD in this article spends $11,250 for 13 students to golf and $22,000 for the band to travel to away football games. While those items were on the chopping block this year the ISD decided to keep items like those and reduce art, music, and elementary counselors. There are also many other areas of spending that make little business sense like buying new blade servers from Dell and new Suburbans for the ISD in the mist of closing schools and reducing teachers. What I have seen in my own community is that people don’t even know enough about their own districts to have an educated discussion and don’t even take the time to attend ISD board meetings to get informed. I guess there are many issues and until the community gets educated and stands up for what they truly want (a great education, a great sports program, or some watered down version of both) then the education situation will remain.
If the author of the article indeed has watched “Superman” she would also have seen that the findings in that research supported that more money was not the fix to the system. While I support extra-curricular I think there are other ways to keep kids in school and engaged in education. I would also like to note that Hutto ISD is NOT imposing a $200 fee to ride the bus but is only investigating the option and per the ISD board meeting on 6/12/12 they have tabled the topic until October 2012.
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As a resident of the HISD., I agree that there is wasteful spending but I also have to say that a lot of those figures are inaccurate. The band bus number, for example, is quite inflated. My feeling is that all the screaming done in Hutto about this budget is to scare voters into approving the tax increase. ( as you state, there is no bus fee, yet it is continually thrown out there) I have been very disappointed in the way this issue has been handled. Why do we employ a PR person? Why are we always on the news when we aren’t the only district making cuts? Fearmongering.
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As I see it, this is the biggest scandal of the century. And this passage from Diane’s blog really sums it up: “If only education reformers were as passionate about paying for education as they are about privatizing it.”
The quality of life for the average American is going backwards. I left Wisconsin because I was unable to find a teaching job. Actually I was hired, but because of budget cuts the position was terminated before I even started. Now I teach in Korea where I get healthcare and a wage that allows me to pay my student loans, rent, and live comfortably. This is more than what’s available to me in Wisconsin. I am happy to be here, but something is not right.
My grandpa said,”they used to come over here for work and now it’s the other way around.” We absolutely must protect our middle class by providing affordable healthcare, livable wages, and equitable public education for all. Otherwise we will continue this backwards path away from progress.
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A KARA guide to understanding Texas approach to education; begin with a puritans early world view that corporal punishment & abstinence works (think Cotton Mather, Creationism, & the WitchCraft trials) and denouncing the teaching of “higher order thinking”.
http://www.invisiblechildren.org/2013/01/19/a-kara-guide-to-understanding-texas-approach-to-education/
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