This is the resolution adopted by the Perrin-Whitt school district in Texas, where John Kuhn is superintendent. John is a fighter for children and a member of our honor roll as a champion of public education. He earns his spurs very day as he continues to inspire us.
WHEREAS, the State of Texas has established a system that funds public schools at levels that differ greatly from school district to school district, and
WHEREAS, the State holds all schools—whether high-funded or low-funded—to the exact same academic standards in its academic accountability system, and
WHEREAS, the State has chosen to let citizens mistakenly believe its accountability system compares apples to apples, and
WHEREAS, the State’s accountability system fails to forthrightly acknowledge the funding differences that exist between the school systems it purports to compare, and
WHEREAS, the Texas school accountability system effectively implies that certain schools are inferior academic institutions, and that this is due solely to the inferior practices of educators and not in any way related to state-created funding disadvantages, and
WHEREAS, lower-funded schools are forced by scarcity to invest less than their peers in student supports, teacher salaries, class size reduction, instructional materials, extracurricular programs, maintenance of facilities, and other investments that positively impact student learning, and
WHEREAS, ancient wisdom holds that “to whom much has been given, much should be required,” and
WHEREAS, schools which are higher-funded in Texas tend to achieve, on average, better passing rates on the State’s academic tests and higher state-assigned performance ratings than lower-funded schools, and
WHEREAS, students who reside in one school district are of no less value to their parents or their Maker than students who reside in another school district, and are no less deserving of nor less in need of a quality education, and
WHEREAS, as a direct consequence of its rigid academic accountability for local teachers and its lax accountability for state leaders when it comes to funding efficacy, the government of Texas has evaded true accountability for adequately and uniformly supporting the children of Texas who learn in diverse parts of this land, and
WHEREAS, Texas citizens deserve not only an honest accounting of schools’ performance but also an honest accounting of the Legislature’s fiscal support of schools as they strive toward the state’s own goals; therefore be it
RESOLVED that the ___________________ Board of Trustees calls on the Texas Legislature to tie the school funding system in Texas directly and transparently to the school accountability system in Texas; and, in so doing, to develop a shared accountability system that holds funders no less accountable for their actions than it holds teachers and students for theirs; and which does not unreasonably demand that schools with scarcer resources achieve identical levels of academic performance as schools blessed by this state with disproportionate funding.
PASSED AND APPROVED on this _____ day of _____________________, 2013.
By: ____________________ By: _____________________
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Title: Title:
By: ____________________ By: _____________________
Name:Name:
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By: ____________________ By: _____________________
Name: Name:
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By: ____________________
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