You don't have to put on the red light

I was interested in Ms. Laura Pippen's mention of the long term consequences of the 78th Ledge's HB 3015. As she points out, it seems to be having quite a few... unintended consequences. That said, I was curious to know the problem the bill was attempting to solve. After doing some digging I came across an interesting recap [ http://www.hro.house.state.tx.us/pdf/ba78r/hb3015.pdf ] of the bill.

After absorbing that, I suspect there was going to be a massive budget shortfall and a very unlikely chance that taxes would be increased to cover the difference. Raising tuition was likely the least bad, or perhaps only, way that public universities in Texas would have the ability to maintain services at existing levels. In other words, I believe everyone knew this was going to cause tuition hikes. It's just unfortunate that this deregulation happened just in time for The Great Recession to hit and allow the Ledge to cut state funding at the knees.

At any rate, I agree with Laura that this has put a massive and unfair burden on students and their families. I would also add that all taxpayers, including businesses, in Texas benefit from a well educated workforce; tax revenue as well as worker skill and ability are increased when high quality education is available at affordable prices. It is not unreasonable to expect all tax payers, including businesses, to shoulder some of the burden. 

I think the other lesson here is young people need to pay attention and vote. I imagine the Ledge would have been a lot more resistant to passing such legislation if they knew it was going to upset a significant portion of their base. Sure, paying attention and having to go vote once every couple years is a drag sometimes, but it beats being a sugar baby...

Charter Communications

Dallas Democrat Royce West has put forward Senate Bill 520 which would establish a statewide school district that would take over public schools deemed to be failing and convert them to charter schools. These converted schools would fall under the purview of said district. Passing SB 520 will create a systematic way to convert public schools to charter schools which will lead to both less efficient and effective student outcomes.

Proponents of the bill argue that public school districts are not good at turning around problematic schools. The data does not support this claim as over 95% of schools deemed failing are turned around within 2 years by their district once they're on the radar. Proponents will also argue that parents and students don't have a choice when it comes to which public school they attend. This is also not true as the Public Education Grant allows for student to transfer to different public schools if their preassigned school is not up to par.

Louisiana has been experimenting with a very similar approach.  While the results appear positive it's important to note these charter schools don't play by the same rules as public schools.  They can kick out under performing and learning disabled students.  It also seems that the general admissions process to these schools may be leading to discriminatory outcomes.  Texas should be wary of potentially introducing these types of problems to the education system.

Aside from that, currently charter schools in Texas don't seem to be doing so well at teaching students. In the most recent annual evaluation, a third party consulting group found:

"Students at charter school campuses performed significantly lower on the reading and mathematics State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) tests compared to comparable students in feeder campuses, as measured by scale scores and in the percent of students meeting the satisfactory performance level (Level 2)"

Another big issue is, despite numerous claims to the contrary, charter schools in Texas are actually less efficient with money than their public school counterparts. Percentage-wise, charter schools spend more on administration and less on instructional costs.

In in the end, I'm not sure what problem this bill aims to solve. It seems like it would sow the seeds of a wholesale privatization of the K12 education system in Texas. The last thing this state needs is to have the little money it does spend on education being sent to private institutions.