Either now during early voting or on Tuesday, November 4th
Texans who are registered to vote and can prove who they are via a required
photo ID may cast their votes in state and federal elections. You may have already studied the issues and
selected a candidate to support, or perhaps you are a party loyalist. Or not.
Regardless, I am an educator. The
outcomes of this election are critical for the future of Texas efforts to
educate our children. And I am very
concerned.
There are two major candidates for both Governor and Lt. Governor. Now that I am retired and can speak my mind I
want to review where the candidates stand through the eye of a professional educator
and from the position of supporting public schools.
Greg Abbott, Republican candidate for governor, proposes more of the
same educational policies we have experienced since Governor George Bush. What he calls “transparency” means reporting
test outcomes publicly. What he calls “accountability”
means more tests. He is correct to say
that early childhood education is critical to a student’s future success. His formula to achieve such, however, is way,
way off. He proposes more data
collection for Pre-Kindergarten programs.
What he calls “data collection” can only mean some form of standardized
assessment. For Pre-K? For 3 and 4 year-olds? Amazing.
He wants districts to set benchmarks and report the data to TEA. He recognizes that a child’s family
background and income is the most decisive factor influencing a child’s future
success, but opts to improve that success by more assessment. He does not say that he supports programs to
help lift children out of poverty, nor does he support an increase in funding
for programs like CHIPS and CPS. He
supports more assessment. He does not tell
us that the state only funds Pre-Kindergarten for a half-day, even if a
district provides a full-day program. He
is not arguing to increase the funding to support full day Pre-Kindergarten. In other words, Abbott wants more of the
same, more assessment to confirm that we are behind while he opposes every
known strategy to help us improve. He
wants schools to do even more under a hotter light with no more resources. Assessment does not help kids improve any
more than weighing the cow makes it heavier.
Abbott, as I see him, is clearly on the wrong track and launching from
the same old anti-public education platform.
Should he be elected he will continue to harm education in Texas and
keep us in the lower quadrant of success and spending.
Dan Patrick, Republican candidate for Lt. Governor, is perhaps even a
greater opponent of public education.
The scariest component of Patrick’s position is that it is based on his
personal anti-government belief system, not what we know about teaching kids. One wonders how a person could be opposed to
government run programs and claim to know what is best for the largest program
we have. He is the senator who waged war
on a curriculum program developed by teachers and curriculum experts called
CSCOPE. How and why a man in the radio talk
show business is qualified to judge curriculum, lessons, assessments, etc., is
totally beyond me. He waged this war
because he believed that some lessons were anti-American and possibly
brain-washing. Poppycock and
balderdash. He waged the war to grand
stand and promote his own particular value structures which I see as
anti-American: if one cannot critically
evaluate our freedoms and beliefs one is not truly free. Patrick denied children the right to learn
that lesson. I find the man very scary. I find him more enamored of a microphone than
facts and more supportive of anti-intellectualism than education. His election will likely make things even
worse for education in Texas because Dan Patrick does not know what he does not
know.
As a state we must abandon the high stakes testing culture. I do not support abandoning assessment, I
support abandoning high stakes assessment that judges kids, teachers, schools
and districts based on a set of standardized tests. As a state we must accept the notion that
poverty is a direct link to student success and not only fund educational
programs to help promote success despite poverty, but also support programs
that alleviate poverty. We must
recognize that only by spending more money on education, and spending it in an
equitable way can we improve education. It
is totally unreasonable to retard the education of poor kids because they do
not live in property wealthy school districts.
No sanctions improve student learning.
No assessment improves student learning.
Only support and commitment improves student learning.
Wendy Davis and Leticia Van de Putte, the Democratic candidates for
Governor and Lt. Governor respectively, support more spending for education,
they opposed the $5.4 billion dollar cuts in education in the last legislative session,
they support funding full day Pre-K, and they intend to reduce high stakes
standardized tests. Makes sense to me. They bring an idea to Texas education that
has been lacking from state policy decisions:
they are in support of public education.
They are not interested in blaming schools or school people, they are
interested in helping. They are less
interested in weighing the cow and more interested in providing good
pasture. What a concept!
I oppose a vote for either Abbott or Patrick. I encourage you to vote for Davis and Van de
Putte for a real change in public education.
That is, a real change for the better for the first time in years rather
than changing the standards of what we have been doing for years. If standards, assessment, charter schools,
test scores, accountability, etc. worked we would have achieved success by now. We have been at it for 20 years since 1995
and the wealthy continue to outperform the poor everywhere we look.
Please consider voting for Wendy Davis for Governor and Leticia Van de
Putte for Lt. Governor, especially if you are an educator. If every teacher, every administrator, every
school board member in Texas voted this way Davis would win and we would
dramatically improve education in Texas.
And, my opinion cannot be bought. This is what I believe to be true.
Thanks.
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