Sen. Rodríguez: Texas must deal with education equity
by state Sen. José Rodríguez, special to the El Paso Times—
September marks the beginning of a new school year, and the effective date for much of the legislation passed during the 84th Texas Legislature.
Among those new laws are needed revisions in the public education system, but the one we really needed, adequate and equitable financing, was again deferred.
Positive steps included decreasing reliance on high-stakes tests and adding other measures of achievement, which laid the groundwork for a more rounded accountability system.
However, the continual efforts by Senate leadership to more easily move struggling schools into alternative management districts remains a divisive issue and one which I generally opposed.
In Senate District 29, 10 campuses – six of those in the El Paso Independent School District – were rated as “Improvement Required.”
Beginning in the 2017-18 school year, school districts and campuses will be rated on an A-F scale. I opposed this measure because I do not believe that merely stigmatizing struggling schools will lead to improvements.
So, what does lead to improving schools?
First, we cannot isolate accountability from resources. Last week, the Texas Supreme Court heard oral arguments on the constitutionality and legality of Texas’ school finance system.
A lower court found, yet again, that the system was not providing an adequate education, especially for special needs students like English language learners and the economically disadvantaged.
The court also found that the system fails to provide meaningful discretion for local school districts to set their own tax rate and still meet all the mandates placed on them.
Most distressing of all, the court found that the system is still not equitable for all Texas school districts and children. We still have a system of “haves” and “have nots” throughout the state based on a child’s ZIP code.
In fact, minority students in Texas, as in previous years, scored far worse than their white counterparts on the ACT.
Just 15 percent of black students and 23 percent of Hispanic students met the college readiness benchmarks in three or more subjects, while 58 percent of white students achieved that distinction.
My hope and belief is that the Texas Supreme Court will again force the Legislature to make the tough budget choices and prioritize funding for our schools. The 2006 finance reforms did not seriously address the issue and were widely considered to be a Band-Aid over a wound that has not healed in the past nine years.
This last session the leadership failed to confront these major challenges.
While the per-pupil basic allotment within the school funding formula increased slightly, the increase disappears by 2017 once adjusted for inflation.
The Senate passed a bill I proposed to study the additional funding needed to educate English language learners, but it did not pass the House.
I expect a ruling from the Texas Supreme Court in the coming months and a subsequent legislative special session at some point next year to address school finance with a long-term, holistic solution.
With the tax cuts that were passed this session, we may have to do it with one hand tied behind our backs.
In the meantime, it is imperative for parents to get engaged in their schools, especially in those schools that were rated as needing improvement, before they are turned over to alternative management districts or worse.
I recognize that funding is not the only answer, but there can be no doubt that more money is a key part of the answer.
More public school funding is a much bigger part of the solution than the various school voucher proposals we heard during session that may help a few students escape a struggling school, but come at the expense of all the other students left behind.
The Legislature missed an opportunity to invest in all Texas school children and meet the standards set by our Texas Constitution, but we will get another crack at it. For the sake of our children and the future of this state, we cannot afford to fail.