The counter-productive handiwork of our blow-dried Texas governor rolls on: school libraries, counselors, and nurses both will and will not count as "instruction" under his "65-percent" rule.
Texas schools can now count spending on nurses, counselors and libraries as instructional expenses. Sort of.Rules released Friday by the Texas Education Agency split in half a new requirement that schools spend 65 percent of their budget on instruction.
One part, to be phased in over three years, follows the U.S. Department of Education's definition of instructional spending, which does not include money spent on nurses, counselors or libraries.
The other part, effective this coming school year, includes spending on nurses, counselors and libraries among instructional expenses.
The result is that there will be two standards to define instructional spending. Schools will be expected to put 65 percent of their money toward instruction under both definitions within three years.
An earlier version of the rules, which allowed spending on libraries but not nurses or counselors to be treated as instructional expenses, was modified in response to public comment, state officials said.
Under the rules, instructional expenses also include teacher salaries and spending on textbooks and some activities, such as sports.
As noted before, a nonsensical school-finance and accountability framework that counts football as unquestionably "instruction," but not libraries and counselors, is absurd and disingenuous.
When will someone with legal standing please challenge this "executive order" in court?
Posted by Alan at July 31, 2006 01:39 PM