"Responding to my post on Texas vs. California and the better education students get in the Lone Star State, a reader writes:
A new neighbor (former migrant worker from northern California who opened a family business, and had to move to Houston for a young daughter’s cancer treatments) reports to me that when she enrolled her 10 year old in the neighborhood elementary school, they determined that the child was at least a year behind. This is a school with an English-as-a-second-language program, and despite normal demographics which would put it in the bottom rung of schools, won an exemplary rating from the state. The mom pleaded with them to keep her daughter in the higher grade, and promised that she would work with her every day to catch her up. So far so good, but she says she’s never seen a school work her kid so hard. In her words, she thinks Texas is her family’s salvation. Not only did her younger daughter get the cancer treatment she needed at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center here, but her other daughter is now getting a quality education."
A new neighbor (former migrant worker from northern California who opened a family business, and had to move to Houston for a young daughter’s cancer treatments) reports to me that when she enrolled her 10 year old in the neighborhood elementary school, they determined that the child was at least a year behind. This is a school with an English-as-a-second-language program, and despite normal demographics which would put it in the bottom rung of schools, won an exemplary rating from the state. The mom pleaded with them to keep her daughter in the higher grade, and promised that she would work with her every day to catch her up. So far so good, but she says she’s never seen a school work her kid so hard. In her words, she thinks Texas is her family’s salvation. Not only did her younger daughter get the cancer treatment she needed at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center here, but her other daughter is now getting a quality education."
