I am back now after blogger.com experienced some down time last Thursday and Friday. This past week has been a news filled but undecicive week for education.. So let's get started with some of the news and the legislature bills that are on the table for this week.
In encouraging news, it looks like over the state bond referendums were passed showing that voters do care about education overall. A texasisd.com article written by Joe Smith states that the passage rates for referendums are at 70% passed over the state compared to 60% last year. This is encouraging news for teachers in that it shows that people are willing to spend higher taxes on their children's education.
The bad news lies in the fact that the legislature has still not had a successful budget. This is forcing some districts hands. The district that I work in has said there is currently not a plan to lay people off, but has started to assess staff needs, and is using terms like "staff excess" now in meetings. Without a budget districts have a hard time focusing on what the future will bring. It is really important that they know where at least 25% of their money comes from and for some districts up to half of their money comes from state funds. Relief is coming in part from federal money that is helping districts ease the pain, as federal money is now trickling into schools and districts around the state.
A bit of good news is that House bill 400 is dead, but so is the good part of 400. House bill 400 allowed districts to reduce money to teachers down to $27,795, allowed for furlough days, and most notably increased class sizes. There were actually some good parts to house bill 400 that did not get the attention that they really should have. One of the most important things was to help get kids ready for college it would require districts to have an even closer relationship with their community colleges and universities. They would have to create a plan to get kids into community colleges and stay there. House bill 400 may have not been popular, but it did introduce something that districts need, a choice.
Fox News and others are making a large deal out of the teacher's unions. Here in Texas the Unions do no have near as much power, but what limits the districts options is contractual obligations including tenure. I have said many times that teachers that are let go should be let go for not making the grade. I think most would agree that this is the time to thin out the heard and get rid of those teachers that are ineffective, or have grown complaisant in their duties. If a district is forced to lay off employees they should be able to choose to keep the effective teachers. This differs from corporations who sometimes get rid of the outliers first before they have to cut jobs of people who are effective in their roles.
If you were to walk onto a campus right now you would feel the stress in the air. There is twice as much stress in places where people know they do not have jobs the next year. We are quickly approaching finals, and then the summer. As our class ends there are a lot of people not wanting the halls to go dark. For them that darkness ushers in the end of a career. For them the uncertainty of the legislature has force districts to lay people off. What can we do to help the situation? Well voters are showing up to help raise taxes to help support education, something that most of us thought would not happen. We can also support our teachers and our local schools by donating items like supplies to help soften some of that finacial burden. Most of all, we can take a stand and ask our legislatures to find themselves some common ground. Let's get the good and the bad news to districts so that we can plan for the future.
Until Tomorrow,
"Education is not the answer to the question. Education is the means to the answer to all questions."
-- William Allin
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