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Texas Voucher Bill Proposed by Politicians Eager to Harm Public Schools

By dianeravitch
April 13, 2015 //
16

The details of the Texas voucher plan were released, and the politicians pushing it can’t wait to siphon money away from the state’s underfunded public schools. They show no remorse for cutting $5 billion from the public schools in 2011, and now they are back looking for ways to drain even more money away from the public schools that enroll about 90% of the children in the state.

 

As a graduate of the Houston public schools (San Jacinto High School, class of 1956), I resent that these men are tearing down their community’s public schools. They claim they want to “save poor kids from failing schools,” but the schools aren’t failing: the politicians are failing the schools. Poor kids can’t learn when they don’t have access to decent medical care, when they don’t have enough to eat, when they are deprived of necessities that advantaged families take for granted. Poor kids will learn better if they have smaller class sizes, experienced teachers, and a full curriculum instead of incessant testing. By cutting funding and sending it to religious schools, the Texas legislators will guarantee larger classes and a stripped-down curriculum. Furthermore, while they won’t pay for what kids need, they have set aside millions for the inexperienced temps called Teach for America, most of whom will disappear after two years.

 

I am proud to be a native Texan, but I am not proud of the men who are destroying the public schools that educated me and my family and made it possible for me to go to a good college.

 

If I were in Austin, I would say to State Senator Larry Taylor and Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick that vouchers and tax credits (backdoor vouchers) hurt the great majority of children who attend public schools. I would say to them that they should take a trip to Milwaukee, which has had vouchers for 25 years, and is one of the lowest scoring cities on the NAEP federal tests. I would tell them that poor black children in Milwaukee are doing worse in voucher schools than they were in public schools. I would tell them they are cheating the children of Texas, to placate their ideology and their pals in the corporate world.

 

I would tell them to hang their heads in shame.

 

Categories Cheating, Scandals Fraud and Hoaxes, Texas, Vouchers

Katy, Texas, School Board Votes to Eliminate High-Stakes Tests

By dianeravitch
April 7, 2015 //
45

The school board of the Katy, Texas, Independent School District voted unanimously to eliminate high-stakes testing.

This is a bold and dramatic step in a state that inflicted the “miracle” of high-stakes testing on the nation. Up until now, Pearson and its stable of lobbyists have called the shots.

The Katy school board has bravely demanded a return to common sense and real education, where tests are diagnostic and used to help students, not to label them. I place the Katy, Texas, school board on this blog’s honor roll.

“The Board resolution also calls for state-funded local assessments in lieu of the high-stakes tests. Such local assessments would provide detailed diagnostics that could assist students in their learning. However, these assessments would not be considered high-stakes, nor have any bearing on accountability ratings.”

Categories Honor Roll, Opt Out, Resistance, Standardized Testing, Texas

Texas: How to Buy Education Policy

By dianeravitch
April 2, 2015 //
18

Here is a pathetic contrast that says a whole lot about the politics of education, not only in Texas but across the nation. The latest ethics report in Texas shows that “Texans for Education Reform,” a spinoff of Democrats for Education Reform, has hired 15 lobbyists to work the legislature this session. Most will be paid between $50,000-100,000, some less, some more. One will be paid between $150,000-200,000. This group would not call itself “Democrats for Education Reform” in Texas, because the Democratic Party is out of favor; the constituency this group appeals to would not want to be affiliated with any organization that called itself “Democrats.” The name may be helpful in fooling people in liberal states, but it would be a stigma in Texas.

 

Here is the contrast: the main anti-testing group is led by parents. It is called Texans Advocating for Meaningful Student Assessment (known to fans as Moms Against Drunk Testing). TAMSA has hired one lobbyist, who will be paid less than $10,000.

 

The lesson: People who are super-rich are pouring big money into politics to kill off public education and replace it with high-stakes testing, charters and vouchers. They don’t care that there is now substantial evidence that most charters do not have higher test scores than similar public schools. They don’t care that voucher schools don’t outperform public schools. What drives them? They say it’s all about the kids but it seems more likely that they just don’t like public education and want to starve it of resources.

Categories Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Democrats for Education Reform, Teacher Evaluations, Texas, Vouchers

Houston: No Choice for Opt Outs

By dianeravitch
April 1, 2015 //
11

Very few parents are expected to opt out in Houston. The culture of testing is so deeply ingrained that few question why their children are subjected to weeks of preparation for bubble tests and for a school year dominated by the tests. Parents and children are afraid of hurting their teacher if they don’t take the tests.

The article goes into depth about the docility created by that culture in a state that claims a strong streak of individualism. Frankly it sounds like the education system creates sheep, not people capable of thinking for themselves.

Read this terrible story:

“A TEACHER at a Montrose elementary school is refusing to administer the test for the same reasons.

”Before moving to Houston I taught in a private school,” says the teacher, who asked that both she and her school not be named. When she first arrived in Houston, she says, she taught at an HISD school outside Montrose, and was horrified by her first glimpse of test culture.

“It was not teaching, it was not learning,” she says. “It created an abusive environment for everyone: children, teachers, administration.” She moved to her current teaching position in Montrose with the idea of eventually starting her own school, and was delighted by the humane environment she found. Until, that is, this February, when she had to administer the DLA, a STAAR length practice test required by the district.

”You have to understand: the school shuts down,” the teacher says. ”There is no teaching. There is no learning. I had to sit there and force fourth grade kids to take four-hour long tests, and do it the next day and the next day, and act to them like it was a totally normal thing. It made me feel like a hypocrite. I was implying to the kids that this is something I believe in.”

“Worse, she says, even when the testing is done a corrosive effect on learning continues.

“Once the testing was over last year, I thought, I’ll actually be able to teach my kids something,” the teacher remembers. “I passed out a story, we read it as a class, and the next day I passed out a quiz. One of my students raised her hand and said, ‘I don’t get it – isn’t there multiple choice?’ She didn’t know what to do when it wasn’t multiple choice and the answers weren’t provided. I don’t feel that my kids understood what learning was.”

“The teacher has decided to leave HISD at the end of this school year. But first, she told her principal, she was going to protest.

”All I will say is that my principal was as understanding as he or she could possibly be,” the teacher says. Instead of administering the exam, the teacher will take personal days during the testing period, offering volunteer enrichment education for students who are opting out.

“Like many parents, though, the teacher broods about the wellbeing of her colleagues. “Unfortunately I can’t make as public a statement as I want to,” she says. “Test culture is a culture of fear. Everybody is terrified. Nobody knows what the consequences of their actions are going to be.”

Categories Opt Out, Standardized Testing, Texas

Houston Chronicle: Vouchers Are a Waste and a Diversion

By dianeravitch
March 29, 2015 //
5

A few days ago, I saluted Representative Jimmie Don Aycock of Killeen, Texas, for his plan to add $3 billion to the public schools’ budget.

Lt. Governor Dan Patrick, a powerful figure in the state, prefers vouchers.

Happily, the Houston Chronicle published an editorial supporting Aycock and dismissing vouchers. This is the real world, folks, not fantasy land, where wishes are horses. The legislature cut the public schools by $5 billion and has restored only a tiny fraction. Meanwhile the children are majority Hispanic, and they are in public schools. Their schools need the resources, the teachers, the class sizes, and the librarians and social workers to help them now.

The Chronicle says:

“While Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick scampers down a rabbit trail in pursuit of costly school-voucher legislation, an influential public education policymaker in the House is doing what’s right for Texas school children and Texas taxpayers.

“State Rep. Jimmie Don Aycock, R-Killeen, announced last week that the lower chamber will tackle the daunting task of finding a fair and equitable way for the state to fund its public schools.
By taking up the challenge instead of waiting for a state Supreme Court ruling, the low-key Republican chairman of the Public Education Committee shows us what a true representative of the people looks like. A formerKilleen school board member, Aycock does the people’s business with little fanfare, with an effort to be fair and open to all sides and with a goal to getting useful things accomplished….

“Patrick’s beloved voucher scheme would divert taxpayer money from public education to cover all or part of a student’s tuition at a private or religious school, with little or no accountability to the people whose money is being spent. Aycock, on the other hand, understands the urgent need to invest in the state’s public schools and their five million students, 60 percent of them economically disadvantaged. He’s also aware, we’re sure, that the number of low-income students is growing at twice the rate of the overall student population….

“The voucher issue distracts from the fact that public schools, whatever their problems, are the backbone of every Texas community. They require attention and investment.

Aycock’s proposal would add $800 million to the $2.2 billion the House already had allocated to public schools. In the Senate, Patrick and his voucher cohorts, including state Sen. Larry Taylor, R-Friendswood, have proposed about $1.8 billion less for public education than the House. Patrick also is pushing hard for tax cuts worth about $4.6 billion.”

Taylor, chairman of the Senate Education Committee, is sponsoring legislation that would create a $100 million private-school tuition program to help lower-income students pay for private or religious schools. Patrick told the Education Committee last week that the legislation would give approximately 10,000 students an opportunity to escape failing schools, primarily urban schools. Funding would come through donations from businesses, which in turn would receive tax credits.”

“Since the House and Senate are so far apart on the issues, they probably won’t be addressed in depth until a special session this summer. When that happens, we urge lawmakers to look to the man from Killeen for direction and not the man pushing vouchers.”

Categories Texas, Vouchers

Texas: Rep. Jimmie Don Aycock is a Hero for 5 Million+ Children

By dianeravitch
March 26, 2015 //
5

Representative Jimmie Don Aycock, the chair of the Public Education Committee, declared that the House would allocate $3 billion to public schools. In the past, the legislature has waited for the courts to order them to increase funding.

Jimmie Don Aycock is a Republican from Killeen. He is a hero to more than 5 million public school children in the great state of Texas. I humbly add him to the honor roll of this blog.

“The announcement also could signal a major fight with the Texas Senate, where budget writers have decided they don’t want to spend nearly as much on public schools.

“Texas still is battling a 2011 lawsuit filed by more than 600 school districts — including those in Austin, Pflugerville and Hutto — after state lawmakers made deep cuts to public education to balance a budget shortfall.

“Travis County state District Court Judge John Dietz — who presided over a similar challenge a decade ago — sided with districts yet again last August, saying the school finance system was inadequate, inefficient and imposed an illegal statewide property tax.

“Then-Attorney General Greg Abbott appealed the ruling directly to the state Supreme Court, which announced in late January it would hear the state’s appeal. But a ruling is not expected before the end of the 140-day session, leaving it up to lawmakers to decide what to do with school finance in the meantime.

“Aycock said Wednesday that an informal group of House lawmakers that had been meeting before and during this year’s legislative session, which began in January, first thought that they would wait until the high court rules, but have since had a change of heart — and hope the Texas Senate goes along.

“The Central Texas lawmaker said the decision came down to a fundamental question of “Do you try to do what’s right for children in the state of Texas or do you try to outguess the lawyers?”

Categories Budget Cuts, Funding, Honor Roll, Supporting public schools, Texas

Texas Parents Act Out Against High-Stakes Testing

By dianeravitch
March 24, 2015 //
9

A group of activist parents have turned the tide against high-stakes testing in Texas. They organized, informed themselves, informed others, and button-holed their state legislators about the overuse and misuse of testing in Texas’s public schools. Because of their activities and their persistence, they persuaded the legislators to reduce the number of tests needed to graduate. They are continuing their campaign by exposing the cost and continued overuse of standardized testing.

 

The group is called TAMSA, or Texans Advocating for Meaningful Student Assessment, but admirers often call them “Moms Against Drunk Testing.”

 

They created a powerpoint to explain their concerns.

 

The powerpoint can be seen here. Watch it and consider doing the same thing in your state. If we organize and mobilize like TAMSA, we can turn around legislatures across the nation.

Categories Accountability, Education Industry, Education Reform, Pearson, Testing, Texas

Breaking: Rochester Teachers Oppose High-Stakes Testing, Support Opt Out

By dianeravitch
March 18, 2015 //
30

This resolution should be a model for the AFT and the NEA and for their affiliates. Teachers do not oppose testing; they oppose the misuse of testing. Teachers do not oppose accountability; they oppose accountability that is contrary to research and experience, whose purpose is not to improve instruction but to punish teachers for low scores.

The Rochester (NY) Teachers Association adopted the following resolution, unanimously:

RESOLUTION OF RTA REPRESENTATIVE ASSEMBLY

WHEREAS, the volume of mandated summative standardized testing to which students are subjected in the Rochester City School District (“RCSD”) has increased many times over in recent years, and

WHEREAS, a very large amount of learning time is lost through the administration of such tests, while the results of such tests cannot be used for diagnostics or remediation or other educational purposes, and

WHEREAS, such testing generates results that are used for high-stakes decision-making regarding both students (e.g., grade promotion and graduation) and their teachers (e.g., evaluation scores, tenure, retention), and

WHEREAS, the attachment of high stakes to test results necessarily makes such tests the focus of classes in schools, and

WHEREAS, such tests fail to measure the most important qualities schools should seek to develop in students, such as relationship, character, ethical development, critical thinking, persistence, imagination, insight, and collaboration, amongst others, and

WHEREAS, as a result, many students who in fact develop these valued but unmeasured qualities, but who have extreme difficulty with standardized and other paper-and-pencil tests, experience these tests as stressful to the point of abuse, and

WHEREAS, the increasing focus on such testing thus causes severe distortions of schooling, both inflicting trauma on many students and changing schools into test-prep factories that prepare students for little but further testing and lives of resigned obedience, and

WHEREAS, the commitment of substantial resources to testing and evaluation diverts those same resources from the educational needs of students, including the arts, music, other non-tested subjects, the challenges of special needs students and English language learners, moral and ethical development, social and emotional development, internships, practical and workplace skills, project-based, authentic learning opportunities, attention to contemporary cultural and social concerns, deep exploration of subject matters, and many others, and

WHEREAS, such commitment of resources also diverts resources from the professional development needs of teachers, who wish to align their skills to the real needs of students, and

WHEREAS, parents and guardians frequently express dismay that students are subjected to so much testing, and they express confusion about the rights and obligations of children and families
with respect to such testing, as well as about the rationales for the various tests, and

WHEREAS, parents, students, families, teachers, and some districts throughout the state have expressed forceful opposition to the current testing regime, and

WHEREAS, the Rochester Teachers Association (“RTA”) wishes to clarify its stance on the various issues involved with the current testing regime,

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT
RESOLVED, that the Rochester Teachers Association declares its opposition to the use of state- or federal-mandated standardized tests for the purposes of making grade promotion, graduation, or other high-stakes decisions regarding students or teachers, and

RESOLVED, that RTA supports the right of parents and guardians to choose to absent their children from any or all state- or federal-mandated testing, and supports the right of teachers to discuss freely with parents and guardians their rights and responsibilities with respect to such testing, all without any negative consequences from RCSD, and

RESOLVED, that RTA will, to the best of its ability, support and protect members and others who may suffer any negative consequences as a result of speaking about their views of such testing or about the rights and obligations of parents and guardians with respect to such testing, and

RESOLVED, that RTA calls upon the RCSD Board of Education to direct RCSD administration to provide parents and guardians, in a timely manner, with an explanation of the rationale, intended use, and costs associated with any state- or federal-mandated tests intended to be administered to students, and to provide an explanation, in a timely manner, of the steps parents and guardians would need to take should they choose to absent their children from such testing, and

RESOLVED, that RTA calls upon the RCSD Board of Education to make a determination as to whether such testing operates in the best interests of RCSD students, and, if they conclude that it does not, to give serious consideration to deciding not to administer any or all such tests, in consultation and alliance with other districts throughout Monroe County and the State of New York, and

RESOLVED, that RTA declares its support for the professional freedom of teachers to design, administer, score and use such testing as they deem necessary or appropriate for students in their classes, in their sole professional judgment, and

RESOLVED, that RTA appoint an Ad Hoc Committee to develop proposals for new, research-based, educationally sound measures to be used for accountability purposes, that will support, rather than undermine, the RCSD’s educational mission, and that such committee shall be free to work independently or in collaboration with RCSD to such ends, and

RESOLVED, that RTA, through its officers and staff, communicate these resolutions to anyone to whom they deem it fit and proper.

Adopted unanimously on March 17, 2015 by RTA Representative Assembly

Categories New York, Opt Out, Teachers, Texas

Politifact Says George P. Bush Is Wrong

By dianeravitch
March 16, 2015 //
17

George P. Bush, son of Jeb Bush, was elected Texas Land Commissioner last fall, starting his political career as the third generation of the family. He spoke at a school choice rally in January and said that “a majority of our students are trapped in underperforming schools.”

Charles Johnson of the Pastors for Texas Children asked Politifact to check the facts. They did and said young Bush was wrong.

Apparently he assumed that Texas needed a waiver from NCLB because very few schools had 100% proficiency. He didn’t know that every other state had the same problem. By NCLB metrics, almost every public school is a failing school.

Categories Charter Schools, Texas, Vouchers

Texas Kids Can’t Wait!

By dianeravitch
March 15, 2015 //
6

I love Texas. I love it because it’s my home state but I also love it because so many people there are wonderful, sometimes wacky, often fascinating, and downright real. (I don’t love the politicians who think that greed is good and that no one has any obligation to help anyone else.) But my first thought when I recently skyped in to the dinner of the Friends of Texas Public Schools was that I miss the sound of Texas voices. Twangy, like me.

 

I love the Moms Against Drunk Testing (aka Texans Advocating for Meaningful Student Assessment). I love Community Voices for Education in Houston. I love the courage and persistence of the Texans fighting to save their public schools.

 

Another great Texas organization is Texas Kids Can’t Wait. Their goals are mine. They truly put children first. Lots of times people on our side can’t explain their goals clearly. This is what Texas Kids advises friends to do as they reach out to their legislators:

 

1. Adequate and equitable funding for public schools, according to Judge Dietz’s ruling. They are not required to wait for the Supreme Court ruling.

2. An end to the draconian testing and assessment programs, which have taken the joy out of both teaching and learning and which are doing far more harm than good. Texas has been testing since the late 1970’s. If testing were the “cure” for low achievement or “gaps,” then the problems would have been solved long ago. It is truly insane to keep on doing something that so clearly does not work!

3. Let them know that charters are the gateway drugs for the end to public schools, and we need to stop them now. Evidence is piling up that charters do not perform better than public schools and, in fact, in many cases perform worse than the worse. Also let them know that we in Texas do not support vouchers for private schools or home schools. Those funds need to be allocated to the 5 million Texas children in public schools. Schools that focus on profit and not the needs of kids are not what we want.

Three points. Understandable goals. Thank you, Texas Kids Can’t Wait!

Here is their current issue: Stopping an ALEC-style corporate takeover of low-performing schools:

Texas Kids Can’t Wait

Dear Friends,

Another bill to facilitate the corporate take-over of public schools has been filled by Democratic Senator Royce West of Dallas.

Senate Bill 520, authored by Sen. Royce West, was filed, and it is one we must do everything we can to defeat.

It establishes the Texas Opportunity School District, which is exactly the same thing as last session’s proposed Texas Achievement School District and New Orleans’s Recovery School District. There is ZERO credible research that such a strategy works for any kid anywhere.

SB 520 would take out of school district local control all low-performing schools (that is, schools with high rates of poverty, as we all know) and turn them over to a charter school management company under the “supervision” of the Commissioner.

Local taxpayers have to continue paying for this great gift to charter companies; the buildings are turned over to the Charter companies; and the local taxpayers must maintain them. What a deal, huh? Yeah, for the charter companies. But a terrible thing to do for kids, families, neighborhoods, and communities.

High schools in urban areas will be the biggest losers of this proposed scheme since disproportionate numbers of high schools are on the low-performing list. But there would also be many middle schools and many elementary schools in the scheme as well.

See why we call the charter schools the gateway drug for school privatization? There will never be enough charter schools for the privatizers. And they want taxpayers to foot the bill for this nonsense at increasing rates since they are determined to cut and eliminate business taxes.

You can read the bill here: http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/…/84R/bill…/pdf/SB00520I.pdf…

Please contact Sen. West, plus your own representative and senator asap and let them know that we expect them to base policy on solid research and on what is best for kids.

We thank you for your continued support and activism on behalf of Texas children. We have come a long way in the past two and one-half years in making people more aware of the issues and providing them information about how they can make a difference. Stay involved. Share information with your friends and family. Stay in touch with your elected representatives, beginning with local school board members, but including state legislators, statewide office holders, and congressional representatives. Be prepared to vote in every election. Keep the kids at the center of the discussion.

Sincerely,

Bonnie and Linda

Texas Kids Can’t Wait
Twitter: @TxKidsCantWait
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/texaskidscantwait
Email: texaskidscantwait@gmail.com
Call us at either 254-855-0594 or 254-709-2912

Texas Kids Can’t Wait | Texas Kids Can’t Wait | Waco | TX | 76712

Categories Privatization, Resistance, Testing, Texas
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