Texas Legislature Passes Sweeping Restrictions on Teaching About Race
In the GOP’s race to the bottom on teaching about racism, Texas takes the lead. The legislature passed a bill limiting what teachers can teach in history and social studies about race. Rightwing Governor Greg Abbott will sign it.
The Senate-approved version revives specific essential curriculum standards that students are required to understand, including the Declaration of Independence and the Federalist Papers. But it stripped more than two dozen requirements to study the writings or stories of multiple women and people of color that were also previously approved by the House, despite attempts by Democratic senators to reinstate some of those materials in the bill.
Our friends in Texas, Pastors for Texas Children, report that a legislative proposal for vouchers was beaten again! They work closely with parent groups across the state.
PASTORS FOR TEXAS CHILDREN
VOUCHER REMOVED FROM BILL!
This week is evidence of what happens when you rally your voices in support of our children. If you remember, we started off the week letting you know that SB 1716 was coming before the House Public Education Committee without a public hearing. The bill was a special education voucher program that had no companion in the House, meaning the Public Education Committee had not heard testimony on this subject this session.
Texas: SPEDx Whistleblower Laurie Kash Was Right, and She’s Been Paying for It Ever Since
In August 2017, Laurie Kash was hired by the Texas Education Agency (TEA) as its director of special education.
Her immediate supervisor was Justin Porter, who was then the executive director of special populations. (One year later, in August 2018, Porter assumed Kash’s job, which sat vacant for nine months following Kash’s firing in November 2017).
Kash’s complaint (see above) concerned a no-bid contract for special education services by a then-newly-created vendor, SPEDx, whose founder, Richard Nyankori, had a personal connection to Porter’s immediate supervisor, Penny Schwinn, TEA’s chief deputy commissioner of academics.
So, right off the bat, this situation became dicey for Kash, for she was concerned about impropriety related to her supervisor’s supervisor. Kash alerted Porter of her concerns, and she spoke about those concerns with a Texas parent group, Texans for Special Education reform (TxSER). Porter did not like this, and Schwinn found out and approached Porter about Kash’s verbalizing her concerns.
Texas teachers campaign against Republicans’ school charter bill
AUSTIN, Texas —Using data showing Texas’s so-called “charter schools” are over-funded and under-performing—compared to promises to parents and lawmakers—the Texas Federation of Teachers is campaigning against GOP-pushed state legislation to remove the few strings the Lone Star State attaches to chartering charters and giving them money.
TFT faces an uphill battle. Though it’s one of the largest unions in Texas, the state is notoriously anti-union. It’s also a deep-red state with a lot of power vested in its lieutenant governor—and GOP Lieut. Gov. Dan Patrick backs the “Charter Schools Equity Act.”
The fight is important to teachers, parents, and students and not just in Texas. Studies nationwide show inconclusive results for students attending charter schools, as opposed to regular public schools. Meanwhile, the private firms that run charters make money off them, hand over foot.
Charters are also one of the favorite ways right-wingers and their corporate backers nationwide use to destroy public school systems, trash teachers, and wreck unions, all goals of those interests. Charters often “cherry-pick” students, thus avoiding educating kids of color.
Texas: Stand Together Against the Voracious Charter Industry
PTC is joining with many parent groups and school boards to fight this direct assault on local control and democracy.
Pastors for Texas Children is a staunch ally of public schools and of separation of church and state. They have vigorously fought vouchers and now they are fighting an all-out attempt by the yet the aggressive charter industry to open wherever they want, without the approval of local elected officials. The lobbyists also want to slash the state board of education’s power to veto new charters.
PTC is working with parent groups and other activists to stop this direct assault on local control and democracy.
PASTORS FOR TEXAS CHILDREN
SB 28 HEARING IN HOUSE COMMITTEE TOMORROW
The public education advocacy community–which includes YOU–has had some great success despite this being a very difficult legislative session.
Texas has five million public school students. It has 356,000 charter school students. The latter matter far more to the Governor, the Legislature and the State Education Commissioner than the former.
This report came to me from Austin, where officials are trying to remove any “barriers” to charter. The local school board has no say in whether a new charter should open in their district. Local folks may be strong supporters of their public schools but they are not allowed to veto new charter schools.
To show how nutty this embrace of charters is, one legislator tried to slip in a proviso giving charters the power of eminent domain. Imagine the Jones family sitting down for their evening meal, and someone knocks at their door to inform them that a KIPP or IDEA charter needs their lot for a playground; they are given a few days or weeks to vacate their beloved home.
Texas: Public Schools Are Better Than Charter Schools: Stop Funding Failure!
I recently had the pleasure of speaking to the North Texas School Boards Association by Zoom. Right now, Texas is ground zero for the charter industry. This is astonishing because the public schools in Texas far outperform the charter schools. The charter school lobby markets themselves as “saviors” of children, but they are far more likely to fail than public schools. This is a summary of what I told my friends in Texas:
I am a graduate of the Houston public schools. My father, who grew up in Savannah, never finished high school; my mother, who was born in Bessarabia, was very proud of her high school diploma from the Houston public schools.
I believe that all of us, whether or not we have children, whether or not we have children in public school, have a civic obligation to support public schools, just as we must support other public services, like police, firefighting, public roads, public parks, and public libraries. Taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society, and no investment is more precious than investing in the education of our CONTINUE READING: Texas: Public Schools Are Better Than Charter Schools: Stop Funding Failure! | Diane Ravitch's blog
I was born in 1938. I’m in pretty good health, considering my age. But
one of the valves in my heart has a leak. It must be repaired. On April 8,
I am having open heart surgery. The surgeon will break open my breastbone
to reach my heart, then wire it back together. He assures me I will be
fine, but fatigued, when it’s over.
I have tried to take it in stride, but it’s hard not to find it scary.
Terrifying, actually.
It’s a habit in my natal family to try to turn bad news into humor.
My heart is not amused.
When the nurse-practitioner called to review procedures, she asked me
what kind of animal valve I wanted in my heart. Without hesitation, I said
I wanted the valve of a Longhorn steer. My heart really does belong to
Texas.
One of the first people I turned to for advice about a surgeon was
Checker Finn’s wife, Renu Virmani, who is a world-renowned cardiologist.
She assured me that the surgeon recommended by my cardiologist was the
best in New York City. The more I inquired, the better I felt about the
person I chose. When I met him, he relieved my anxieties. At least some of
them.
The blog will continue while I am hospitalized. I have written some in
advance. Some of of my good friends agreed to write special contributions
for me in my absence (most are original and never been previously
published). And I expect to jump in to comment and maybe even post a few
things as soon as the anesthesia wears off.
So please think of me on April 8. I will be grateful for your thoughts,
prayers, and good wishes.
I’m not going away. I will be back with a stronger heart and a passion
for justice. And maybe the heart valve of a lion or a tiger or a
Longhorn.
Cameron Vickrey: What’s the End Game with School Choice in Texas?
Cameron Vickrey is associate director of Pastors for Texas Children. In this opinion article published in the San Antonio Express-News, she asks the important question: What’s the end game with the privatization push? Texas has 5 million children in public schools, and about 356,000 in charter schools. The drive for vouchers has been blocked thus far by parents, the Pastors, and a legislative combination of rural Republicans and urban Democrats. But Texas is now ground zero for the charter lobby. Why? Betsy DeVos is one reason: As U.S. Secretary of Education, she poured hundreds of millions of dollars from the federal Charter School Program into corporate chains in Texas, such as IDEA and KIPP. And, Texas has its own home-grown billionaires and libertarians eager to destroy the public schools.
She writes:
Let’s have a serious conversation about the purpose of school choice.
Texas: Senate Education Committee Guts Local Control of Schools
The Texas Senate Education Committee bowed to the wishes of the powerful charter lobby and granted sole power to the State Commissioner (appointed by the Governor) to approve charter schools. His decisions can be vetoed only by a supermajority of the State Board of Education.
The State Commissioner of Education is Mike Morath. He is not an educator. He is a software executive who served on the Dallas school board and advocated for charter schools.
Local elected authorities—including mayors and school boards—are prohibited from blocking a charter school that wants to open in its jurisdiction. Charters can locate wherever they choose without regard to the views of local communities that want to protect their own public schools from rapacious charters.
Right now, Texas is being overrun by corporate charter chains aiming to grab market share. This bill will help them by canceling democracy and the will of the people.
Our wonderful allies, Pastors for Texas Children, send us wonderful news: Friends of public education raised their voices, stood together, and stopped new voucher legislation!
Vouchers Blocked Again!
Last week, we celebrated the victory of your tireless advocacy for public education funding for our children when we announced Gov. Greg Abbott’s decision to extend “hold harmless.” Today, we have another piece of good news:
The voucher proposal in this session’s House Bill 3 has been removed.
In a meeting earlier today with Pastors for Texas Children and Raise Your Hand Texas, HB 3 author Dustin Burrows (R-Lubbock) indicated that all education issues, including vouchers, are being taken out of the bill. This change will be reflected in a committee substitute later this week. We thank Chairman Burrows and Gov. Abbott for their wisdom in removing the voucher from the bill.
PTC Executive Director Rev. Charles Johnson gives “joyous testimony to the love and support Texans have for their neighborhood and community public schools – and firm opposition to the privatization of them through vouchers.”
“That we have to keep delivering that memo to the Governor and a third of the Legislature is outrageous and unacceptable,” he says.
Year after year, Pastors for Texas Children will continue to deliver that message, with your help.
Texas Requires Students to Take State Test in Person
While other states are requesting waivers from federally-mandated tests this spring, Texas is moving forward, requiring all students to take in-person tests.
Given the stress and dislocation caused by the pandemic, this is madness. State Commissioner Mike Morath was never an educator, and apparently he lacks common decency. Instruction has been uneven for almost a year, and many students have experienced the trauma of severe illness and death in their family. What is Morath thinking? He is certainly not thinking of the well-being of students.
Texas public school students must show up in person to take the STAAR test this spring, and districts can apply for waivers to socially distance test takers, according to recent guidance released by the Texas Education Agency.
The state is moving forward with the state standardized tests, taken in grades three through 12, this spring and summer during the pandemic and requiring students to take them at a “monitored” testing site. School districts can set up sites outside of their schools, including CONTINUE READING: Texas Requires Students to Take State Test in Person | Diane Ravitch's blog
The Houston Independent School District (HISD) contracted with William Sanders’ SAS to provide a model to calculate the “value-added” of its teachers from 2007-2017.
Teachers objected that the method of calculating their scores was opaque. They couldn’t learn how to improve their practice because Sanders’ methodology was proprietary and secret.
Teachers were fired based on their VAM scores.
The Houston Federation of Teachers sued to stop the use of the “black box” method.
In 2017, a judge agreed and enjoined the use of VAM.
The Pastors for Texas Children, great friends of public schools, invited me to come to Texas in April 2020. I was going to speak in Houston, Dallas, and Austin to activists for public schools. The events were organized by Charles Foster Johnson, the remarkable, wise, and tireless leader of PTC. He has launched similar groups in other states, including Oklahoma and Tennessee.
Then came COVID and my trip was scratched and replaced with a Zoom meeting in late October. I had a spirited conversation with Evan Smith of the Texas Tribune, a superb interviewer who had read my book Slaying Goliath carefully and asked incisive questions. This is the recording of the Zoom. I come in about minute 15 and the conversation is about 40 minutes.
I prepared for the day by studying up on what’s happening in my native state. Texas right now is ground zero for the hungry charter industry. The state commissioner, Mike Marath, who is not an educator, is gung-ho for more charters.
The public schools, which enroll more than five million students, have been underfunded since at least 2011, when the legislature cut the schools’ budget by more than $5 billion. That funding was never fully restored even though enrollment increased. The majority of the state’s public school students and Hispanic and African CONTINUE READING: Texas: What I Said to Public Education Advocates | Diane Ravitch's blog
Pastors for Texas Children on the Election Results
The Network for Public Education is allied with Pastors for Texas Children. PTC has been a courageous leader in the fight for our public schools and against privatization.
The leader of PTC wrote the following statement:
Statement from Reverend Charles Foster Johnson on the 2020 Elections
Pastors for Texas Children extends a hearty congratulations to all those elected and re-elected to serve our children in the 87th Texas Legislature! Both incumbents and challengers fought hard and often confrontational, contentious campaigns that produced untold stress on them and their families. This is the messy price we pay for open and free elections, and we honor all candidates for serving the public in this important and sacrificial way. We have held every candidate in our prayers, and will continue to do so. We note with profound gratification the emphasis on public education in this electoral cycle. Virtually every incumbent and challenger ran on a strong public education platform. It is clear that the people of Texas want their House of Representatives to be fully affirming of great public schools for all 5.4 million Texas children, promote policies that protect and provide for them, and oppose policies that harm them. It is crystal clear what public education support means:
*Opposition to any voucher proposal, regardless of its name, that diverts funding away from our neighborhood public schools to underwrite private and home schools.
Support for budget plans that adequately fund our children’s public education, for a comprehensive study that determines what that education actually costs in current dollars, and for new sources of state revenue to sustain HB3.
Opposition to charter school expansion that drains money away from public schools.
Support for charter school transparency and accountability.
Opposition to burdensome standardized testing that teachers and parents clearly abhor.
Support for teacher authority and compensation.
We will be working closely with all 150 House members and 31 Senate members to make sure these promises are put into action in the 87th Legislature.
Universal education, provided and protected by the public, is an expression of God’s Common Good as well as a Texas constitutional mandate. Our children are counting on us all to advocate for it.
Texas Parent PAC: A Model of Action for Every State
Parents in Texas got disgusted 15 years ago when the Legislature almost passed a voucher law. They organized the Texas Parent PAC, which is a highly effective voice on behalf of public schools and more than five million students.
Their guiding principles are a model for parents, grandparents, and civic activists in other states.
I recently heard from Dinah Miller, co-founder and co-chair, who explained the PAC’s origins. She wrote:
Texas Parent PAC formed in 2005 after taxpayer-funded private school vouchers failed to pass the Texas House by only one vote. Five PTA moms called a press conference during PTA Summer Seminar in Austin and announced we were forming a political action committee to elect better talent to the Texas House who would oppose vouchers and support public schools. We recruited Diane Patrick from Arlington who had local and state school board experience to run against hostile Texas House Public Education Committee Chair Kent Grusendorf who had been in office 20 years. We beat Grusendorf in the primary along with others and then CONTINUE READING: Texas Parent PAC: A Model of Action for Every State | Diane Ravitch's blog
