Property tax deal was near miss until leaders made key compromises
The Texas Legislature is finally finishing its property tax cut package, and a third special session may be coming soon on the issue of school vouchers.
But we’ve got a lingering question: What about the meaningful boost our public schools urgently need?
No, we don’t mean vouchers, though we’re open to the idea that some competition will improve student achievement.
We don’t mean diversity issues in higher education, and we don’t even mean funds for school safety.
These things are important, but what about our kids who are struggling to read on grade level, whose math scores remain too low after the COVID pandemic, and our overall education health that’s got Texas ranking so poorly among the states?
What about better pay and benefits for teachers and testing reforms to relieve pressure on students and schools but accurately measure their performance?
In their regular session, lawmakers skirted around the edges of education reform.
They passed legislation that beefs up school safety measures.
A couple of new laws will expand a child’s religious liberty at school–enabling a parent’s note to excuse him or her on a religious holiday rather than requiring a note from a religious leader.
Those laws are especially important to continue to strengthen parental control and keep administrators from improper interference in families’ lives.
But what about the meat and potatoes of education?
So far, we’ve identified just a few measures that will actually help K-12 education improve at its most foundational levels: 1. HB 1605 allows the state to give a $500 million investment to schools to offer higher-quality instructional materials, things that include helping new teachers with lesson planning and demonstrating more rigorous, grade-level instruction to help students do better.
Only 19% of elementary reading curriculum taught is on or above grade level so this could start an important, if modest, change.
2. SB2124 increases enrollment in high-level math courses by requiring districts to offer advanced math classes for high-achieving middle school students, regardless of their background or geographic location.
Recognizing and promoting such excellence is vital, but what about the vastly larger number of students who are falling behind in math?
3. HB 1416 Ensures that students receive “accelerated instruction in the applicable subject area during the subsequent summer or school year” if the student has not performed well on end-of-year assessments.
4. HB 1, the state budget, includes a requirement that the Texas Education Agency study post-secondary outcomes of students and how they correlate to student programming in high school, allowing the state to better inform its course and program offerings.
5. Finally, HB 2209 expands options for rural school districts to provide college and career pathways that lead to postsecondary success and earning a family-sustaining wage in their hometown.
These are decent steps, and HB 1605 has the most potential to help struggling kids.
But they are modest, and there just wasn’t enough debate about what a booming state needs in terms of a future workforce and how to get there.
Also largely ignored was that Black and Hispanic children in Texas lag even further behind.
Latinos recently became the largest demographic group in Texas, a trend that won’t abate any time soon.
Kids are struggling in schools to read and write; we need to reevaluate the way we’re teaching these skills.
For some reason, voters fail to demand better education, which is often why politicians fail to debate it or even address it.
For all the legislature’s talk about education, it’s like they didn’t even discuss the crisis everyone knows is looming.
It’s one thing to boast about Texas’ economy, emphasis on liberty, and even property tax reform–which is certainly necessary– but education is the key to keeping the state’s economic and population boom going.
Maybe it feels like too big a problem to tackle, or one for which the answers are uncertain.
Maybe there’s so much focus on peripheral school issues– such as library books, social issues, sports–that the basics get ignored.
It also seems to be a bit ideological: Republicans from Gov. Greg Abbott down have turned their attention almost entirely to school choice, believing that competition and giving parents more control will make schools better.
Perhaps it will help on the margins.
But even with a robust choice program, 90% of kids of more will probably attend public schools.
We need to ensure those schools thrive for the sake of our next generation.
The Legislature’s lack of focus is disappointing, and our kids will suffer the most.
