Leander ISD: Employment & Budget Growth Outpaces Enrollment, Update: Citizens Launch Petition

LISD Proposed Budget Growth

A few weeks ago, the Austin American Statesman reported that the number of $100,000 plus earners at Central Texas school districts had jumped by 78%.  The story drew a good deal of deserved criticism of bloated superintendent/administrator salaries.  (Although the story only reported base salaries; when we include benefits, Round Rock ISD Superintendent Jesus Chavez’ total compensation jumps from $260,000 to over $304,000 annually.)
 
While troubling, the increased number of highly compensated employees wasn’t the most shocking statistic in the report.  At the very end of the story, the Statesman reported that in the Leander Independent School District, student enrollment growth has increased by 30% over the past five years, but during that same period employee growth was 82% and budget growth came in at 78%.
 
This is a stunning admission, especially considering that the LISD administration has just proposed $25 million in spending increases.  The district continues to struggle with mind-boggling $2.7 billion debt obligation, downgraded bond ratings, and ever-climbing property tax rates.

Sadly, the only tune we ever seem to hear from the public school community is “just give us more money.”  At what point will we require fiscal efficiency from these school districts?

Update:  Some local LISD citizens have launched an online petition asking for public discussion of the debt/finance issues.  The petition site states that the LISD Board President has refused to even permit discussion of anything other than "the good things happening in LISD."  Wow.

The petition can be found here.  

From Agenda Wise: The Texas Manifestation of Wisconsin

Agenda Wise Reports has a great video up today that was taken at the Save Texas Schools rally in Austin last Saturday.  In addition AWR has analyzed the mainstream media coverage of the event, and found it lacking. 

Education Reporting: Obscurity Security?

As expected, I have thoroughly riled some folks with my reports on education spending. The name-calling is amusing and I'm thinking of starting a new blog called, "Ugly & Mother Dresses Me Funny." Amusement aside, I do want to point out the sources of information I have used to compile these reports.

One important resource is an in-depth report compiled by the non-profit,non-partisan Texas Public Policy Foundation entitled Examining Decades of Growth in K-12 Education: A Close Look at Spending and Achievement Trends.  The report was compiled by three education policy analysts and published in June of 2010, so the numbers are very current.  There are two-and-half pages of endnotes with resources. 

The second source of information is the Texas Education Agency website.  Supposedly in an effort to make education spending and results more accountable, the TEA puts reports for each district and school on-line.  I'll be the first to admit that there are conflicting numbers for the exact same reporting period in some cases, but supposedly this is where we are supposed to look for transparency on our school districts.  How convenient for districts to turn around and refer to statistics taken verbatim from those reports as lies. 

Perhaps we should refer to the education system's public reporting system as 'obscurity security.'  Make the reports varied and obscure, and keep them slightly out of date.  Throw in bizarre accounting measures for finance and test results (eg., The Texas Projection Measure) and presto!  No-one will know what's really going on; if anyone starts to figure it out, just call them 'registered nut jobs' and/or liars.

Perhaps we ought to rename the Texas Education Agency "The Office of Circumlocution."  Dickens would have loved it.

Save Our Teachers? Or Something Else?

Here's one of the first photos I've received from today's Save Our Schools rally...no comment necessary.

Thanks to D. Greer for this photo.

"Keep The Teachers, Cut the Fat"

While liberal-progressive groups in Texas have been stirring up mass hysteria about budget cuts, more level-headed Texans have been exposing the truth about education spending in our state.  The recently launched Protect the Classroom website lists important truths about Texas education spending, and now Americans for Prosperity has launched Red Apple Project to show district-by-district, how much of our 'education' dollars are spent outside the classroom. 

AFP has also revealed how the supposedly non-partisan 'Save Texas Schools' group is nothing more than a front group for some very left-leaning folks.  Save Texas Schools is holding a rally in Austin today, supposedly to save the children from those eeeevilll Republicans, but the group's ties to arch liberal George Soros are indicative of a much more sophisticated agenda.  From yesterday's Americans For Prosperity Release:

"None other than the George Soros crony, Fred Lewis, serves on the steering committee and is co-chair of strategic partnerships for Save Texas Schools. Lewis is the founder of Texans Together Education Fund, which received $80,000 from Soros’ Open Society Institute in 2009. Texans Together spawned the notorious Houston Votes organization that came under fire for submitting thousands of fraudulent voter registration cards in Harris County in 2010.”

“Lewis served as president of the left-wing organization Campaigns for People, which worked to keep large private donations out of campaigns. Brian Donovan was an associate of Lewis’ at Campaigns for People. Donovan, who also worked for the Travis County Democratic Party, is the fundraising co-chair for Save Texas Schools.”

“Clearly the ideologies of these men have been to promote the big-bureaucracy, big spending status quo in which we have one non-teacher for every teacher and fail to focus education spending on the classroom. We believe that throwing more money at a problem does not create solutions. We’ve been increasing the amount of tax dollars going to schools in Texas for decades, only to see a decline in test scores and college-readiness, and an increase in the dropout rate.”

A perusal of the Save Texas Schools website indicates that they believe there is not one iota of waste anywhere in the education budget, and that any perceived deficiencies in public education can be solved by, wait for it.... more money.

It will be interesting to see just how many parents and teachers have been duped by this group, for indeed the education bureaucracy has hostages and they aren't afraid to use them.  Hopefully, now that left-leaning media no longer hold a monopoly on the news, more Texans are better informed about education spending.  Rather than continue to throw money at anything labeled 'education spending,' we need to listen to retired school teacher Collen Vera's call to "keep the teachers, cut the fat."

Hutto Independent School District: Update

Update:  All of the below information came from open records available at the Texas Education Agency website, and may be verified there.  Information is from the Hutto ISD's latest reporting schedule, 2009-2010.  HISD reports 10 schools in district, but there are actually 8 campuses run exclusively by HISD, 5 of which are elementary schools. 

I have not done the same kind of in-depth research on Hutto as for Leander and Round Rock ISDs, but here are just a few notes on the Hutto Independent School District that were included in my letter to the Round Rock Leader Newspaper.

The Hutto Independent School District is small, with just 5,110 students, but  has 10 schools, 5 of which are elementary schools. 

There are 645 district employees for a 1 to 8 staff to student ratio.  Like most districts, only 52% of staff are teachers.  The average teacher salary is $45,165; the average central administrator salary is $80,903. 

Total district per pupil expenditures are $13,775.  (School districts always tout a lower number, but the total includes all costs: pensions, debt service, building and remodeling.)

There are certainly smaller districts,  but I wonder how many small districts across the state are contributing to the fact that while California has 1.6 million more students, Texas has 1,225 more schools and 52,090 more public education employees. 

The Hutto ISD Board has prudently voted to close one elementary school, Veteran's Hill, which is not at capacity.  I am sure this is heart-breaking for the teachers, students, and families associated with the school.  However, the district has not grown as expected, the economy is down, and the district will still have 9 schools for its 5,110 students. 

To place blame for Hutto ISD's financial problems entirely on the Texas Legislature is dishonest.  Education spending in Texas (and the nation for that matter) cries out for reform.  The problem is not just funding sources, but the way said funds are allocated.  Until we evaluate our districts based on all the facts, we will fail to create viable solutions.

Millions in Stimulus Funds for Williamson County School Districts

Today Dustin Matocha pointed out that billions of dollars in stimulus funds were made available to Texas schools for the express purpose of giving school districts "the resources to avert cuts and retain teachers."  The funds were part of the 2009 stimulus bill, and districts had to apply by August of 2010 to receive money for the 2011 fiscal year.   

Dustin has discussed a few of the largest districts in the state, but here is a list of Williamson County districts and the amounts available to them according the Texas Education Agency. 

Georgetown: $2,799,487
Hutto: $1,698,706
Leander: $8,237,018
Round Rock:  $11,447,966
Taylor: $1,511,796

While I am sure the districts are very happy to have these extra funds, it is important to remember that these are one-time disbursements.  Unfortunately, it seems districts quickly become addicted to these extra funds and expect continued bailouts without scrutiny of the way they spend precious education dollars overall.  A better approach would be to encourage school districts to reform spending with a focus on educating children.

Education Spending: Texas vs. California

We Texans love to compare ourselves with California; we have created more private sector jobs, have a lower tax burden and lower unemployment rate, and folks are leaving the formerly 'Golden' State in droves to seek Lone Star prosperity. Without a doubt, there is much to cheer. There is one area, however, where indeed Texas is bigger, but it is nothing to celebrate.

Both states love to tout their per pupil spending, and on the surface Texas looks pretty good at $6,746 to California's $7,511. As I've pointed out previously, these per pupil statistics do not include the cost of pensions, debt service, or building/construction costs, and are seriously deceptive. When all expenditures are included Texas per pupil spending rises to $11,024, and California's to $11,800.

Not too bad, right?

Unfortunately, a comparison of certain other aspects of education spending in the two states paints a whole new picture. As it turns out Texas has more public school employees than any state in the nation. California has 1.6 million more students than Texas, but has 1,225 fewer schools, and a jaw-dropping 52,090 fewer total education personnel. While we would hope that most of our public school employees would consist of those folks who actually teach, only 51% of Texas public education employees are teachers.

In the face of potential budget cuts, Texas education bureaucrats are demanding more spending rather than cuts. However, as Governor Perry pointed out in his State of the State address last week, State spending on education has increased 82% over the last decade. Even more astounding is the fact that total Texas public school expenditures have increased 335% since 1987. While we would hope that such vast increases in spending would improve student performance, an examination of the NAEP (National Assessment for Educational Progress) results reveal that Texas student test scores have remained stagnant or have actually decreased during this period.

Many Texas school districts are claiming they will have to close schools due to budget cuts, and yes, some probably will. However, many of these districts, and the state education industry as a whole, have not applied their respective budgets appropriately. Cutting amounts of state spending on education will force closer examination of how those 'education' dollars are spent. In so doing, we need to remember that our public education system does not exist to provide jobs and pensions for all comers, but was established to provide educational opportunities to all children. Texas has done a great job of applying small but smart government standards to other areas, and this has led to our economic strength. Now it's time to get serious about education spending too.

Governor Perry: No Sacred Cows

In today's State of the State Address, Governor Rick Perry told Texans “The state of the State is strong.” Perry noted that Texas added more jobs in 2010 than any other state, has six of the nation's 20 strongest metro areas, and that sales tax revenues have grown for 10 consecutive months. However, he pointed out that while our unemployment rate at 7.9% is lower than the national average, there are still many Texas families who need jobs, and we need to take steps to maintain our competitive edge.

Among the Governor's proposals were calls to continue to remove “senseless obstacles to economic growth,” and to maintain a predictable regulatory environment. In reference to recent disputes with President Obama and the EPA, Perry pointed out that under Texas' Flexible Permitting Program, the state reduced ozone levels by 27% and Nox levels by 53%, and still created more private sector jobs than any other large state in the nation.

One especially controversial area Governor Perry addressed, is that of the State's $9 million 'rainy day fund'. While there are many voices calling for using those funds to offset revenue shortfalls, the Governor says that using the account to pay for “recurring expenses” is a bad idea. “That approach would not only postpone tough, necessary decisions, but also leave us ill-equipped to handle bigger emergencies in the future.” I think I am inclined to agree with the Texas Senate that some rainy day funds should be used to pay for the deficit in the current biennium, but the 2012-13 budget should not rely on rainy day funds in any way.

Lefty pundits on the Twitter feed immediately began referring to potential school closings as a qualified emergency, but I think they have missed the point. Keeping a school open is a recurring expense, and it would be better for the state AND the school districts to re-work budgets with more efficient spending. While our school districts are bragging about low per-pupil operating expenditures, the truth is that Texas actually spends over $11,000 per student on 'education.' Furthermore, there is nearly one non-teaching staff member for every teaching staff member across the state. I'm sure the left-of-center crowd will scream (or moo?) about layoffs, but the purpose of our education system should be to educate children, not to provide more jobs.

Along those lines, Perry also called out Congressman Lloyd Doggett for his infamous Doggett Amendment, an attachment to last year's so-called 'Education Jobs Bill' that withholds from Texas $830 million in federal education funding unless the Governor somehow manages to circumvent the state constitution and the legislature to fund education at unsustainable levels. The truth is that the state has increase education funding by 82% over the last decade, but districts continue to outspend revenue with dangerous levels of borrowing.

As Governor Perry stated, "there should be no sacred cows in this business." He has led the way by cutting his own portion of the state budget by $34.6 million, and is supporting consolidation of agencies at the state level. Funding education is, and will continue to be a priority for the state, however, a blank check to anything labeled 'education spending' is neither sustainable nor desirable. Bureaucrats in education must also tighten the belt and make sure resources are spent wisely and appropriately.

State of The State

Governor Rick Perry will deliver his State of the State Address to a joint session of the House and Senate today at 11:00am, and a live webcast is available here. 

While lots of our liberal-progressive friends are trying to say Texas is just as bad as California, the truth is that while we too are feeling the effects of the national recession, Texas remains an economic stand-out in the nation.  Unemployment in Texas is 7.9%, while the national average is 9.8.  California, on the other hand, is bearing an unemployment rate of over 12%. As far as the state budget goes, while revenue projections are down due to a struggling economy, Texas lawmakers are planning a budget that only spends what we have, and no more.  Crazy, right?

The real problem for Texas isn't so much with the state government, but with local governments who are borrowing and spending at dangerous levels.  Our school districts are spending over $11,000 per student on average, and local bond debt service amounts are staggering.  Unfunded mandates from the state play a small role, but many local governments, especially education bureaucrats, really do want the mandates (e.g. classroom size limits,) they just want the state to pay for them via increased taxes.  It really is time for everyone to tighten the belt.



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