Apparently embarrassed by his abject failure to enact anything like school finance reform all year, Texas governor Rick Perry showed himself to be a public education dunce on Monday.
Blaming the Legislature for inaction during two failed special sessions, Gov. Rick Perry today ordered the state education commissioner to restrict how much Texas schools can spend outside of direct classroom expenses.Under Perry's executive order, districts will be required to spend no more than 35 percent of their budgets on non-classroom expenses such as transportation, school lunches and administration. The limit will be phased in over several years in a program to be designed and implemented by Education Commissioner Shirley Neeley.
"While the Legislature is now out of session for now, the need for school reform is not," Perry said, speaking at an Austin teacher supply store. "And I want Texans to be assured, even though the Legislature did not act, I will. People have demanded reform, they have been promised reform, and I intend to deliver reform using the full constitutional authority of the executive branch."
The executive order follows the Legislature's failure to enact similar proposals.
More informed observers realized immediately the folly of our empty-suit-in-chief.
Critics argued that the proposal would strip districts of local control and would hinder discretion of school administrators. Richard Kouri, a lobbyist for the Texas State Teachers Association, called the move an attempt to divert attention from the Legislature's failure and "away from inadequate funding of public education and talk more about what we can do with efficiency."Everyone's for efficiency, but it's not going to fix the problem that our public education system is underfunded and it's not going to fix any of the issues outlined in the court case," Kouri said.
After accounting for debt and capital improvements, the amount of money spent outside of classrooms is relatively small, said Linda Bridges, president of the Texas Federation of Teachers.
"If you took a list and say, Governor, what do you want to stop doing? Do you want to stop having school security? Do you want not to have school nurses?' " Bridges asked. "If these are the things we want to take away to put more money in the classroom, then we have to ask ourselves who's going to do these jobs because they have to be done."
So now you know who'll deserve the blame when school buses don't run, buildings aren't maintained, school libraries are shuttered, and bands don't march. Not every "non-classroom" expense is wasteful.
This governor needs a vocabulary lesson. Let's use a cutting-edge educational tool, like Webster's dictionary, and look up the keyword in this common Texas phrase: "Independent School District."
Main Entry: 1 in·de·pen·dent Pronunciation: "in-d&-'pen-d&nt Function: adjective 1 : not dependent: as a (1) : not subject to control by others : SELF-GOVERNING (2) : not affiliated with a larger controlling unit b (1) : not requiring or relying on something else : not contingent(2) : not looking to others for one's opinions or for guidance in conduct (3) : not bound by or committed to a political party.
Once upon a time, Republicans said they stood for smaller, local government, where accountability is highest, vs. state and federal high-handedness. Rick Perry has forgotten that completely, at whose behest is still not clear.
The Texas PTA recently claimed credit for derailing crazy notions of "reform" during the various legislative sessions in Austin this year. Here's a chance for electoral challenger Carole Keaton Strayhorn to make an alliance and topple our inept chief state executive.
UPDATE: Perry's big idea may not even be constitutional.
[S]ome school officials view the order as an unfunded mandate and said it might result in cuts to security for urban campuses and to bus service for rural districts at a time of record fuel costs. They also fear losing control over local tax dollars that provide more than 60 percent of the $33 billion public school system.And Austin lawyer Buck Wood, a longtime expert on education law, said only the Legislature — not Perry or the Texas Education Agency — has authority to implement such a major policy change.
"These executive orders are not worth the paper they're written on. He might as well have issued a press release," said Wood, who represents a group of school districts suing the state for increased funding.
Here's a first take on what's covered, and what's not.
A definition of direct classroom instruction set out by the National Center for Educational Statistics will serve as the model, he said. Under that definition, expenses such as athletics and fine arts would meet the standard, but money spent on teacher training would not....
School officials say the spending mandate could lead to cuts in areas not included in the definition of classroom expenses, including school security, curriculum development, libraries, counseling and other social services.
"Teachers are the front line, but the front line has to have support troops," said Sarah Winkler, an Alief ISD school board member.
If libraries aren't classrooms, then why are Texas school librarians required to be certified and experienced as classroom teachers?
Posted by Alan at August 23, 2005 12:21 AM