School Board Filing Deadline Today

The filing deadline for local elections will end today, March 14, at 5PM. Election Day is scheduled for Saturday, May 14, and Early Voting will begin on May 2.

On May 14, there will be numerous elections in Williamson County, and some of the most important will be for our various school boards. In the coming months, I will be researching and writing about these candidates. Hopefully, there will be individuals among them who know how separate educational need from administrative luxury and bloat, and who will work to "Keep the Teachers, Cut the Fat."

By the way, if you want to see just what percent of revenue your school district spends on instruction, check out the Red Apple Project.  Leander and Round Rock reports are there this morning, and I would expect to see some of our other districts soon. 

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."

Illegal Lobbying by UT-Arlington?

While crafting laws and creating a budget for Texas, the State Legislature hears from vast numbers of constituents, both funded and unfunded, and this is indeed good for the process. Lawmakers should hear from folks as to how state actions will effect lives. There is an ethical problem, however, when entities use tax dollars for lobby efforts.

Apparently President James D. Spaniolo of the University of Texas at Arlington is using the tax-payer funded resources to lobby against concealed handgun legislation on campus. Certainly Mr. Spaniolo is entitled to his opinion and should share his concerns with State lawmakers. Unfortunately, it seems he put his lobby efforts on the UTA website and sent emails via the UTA Employee and Student listservs. Such actions are not only unethical in a general sense, but may violate Texas laws against political lobby activities paid for by state resources.

Although I disagree with Mr. Spaniolo in this debate (great factual information on the concealed handguns on campus issue here,) I fully support his right to lobby as a private citizen. I take issue, however, with his use of tax-payer funded resources to promote his position. Unfortunately, taxpayer funded lobbying is rampant and for other entities such as school districts and cities it is perfectly legal. Hopefully the law will be enforced in the UTA case; as for the other examples, we have much work to do.

28 Psychologists And Other Fun Facts About Wilco School District Employees

In light of the recent revelations that only about 52% of Texas' public education employees are teachers, I decided to look at the staff reports for some of our Williamson County School Districts.  (These reports are open records, and available at the Texas Education Agency website.)  Here are some of the 'fun facts' I learned about district employees.

The Round Rock Independent School District employs a Music Therapist, an Art Therapist, and 28 Psychologists.  In addition, they report 93 counselors.  For the 47 Schools, the district has 44 Principals and 82 assistant principals.  Although the Superintendent is paid $252, 832 annually ($300,669 in 2010 if you include all benefits and bonuses,) he still seems to require five assistant/associate superintendents, each purportedly with a base pay of $137,085.  There are 100 "teacher facilitators," and another 24 "teacher supervisors."  There are a total of 179 employees in administration, another 555 "paraprofessional staff" and 1,200 auxiliary staff.  I cannot say how essential all these positions are, but considering the staffing, shouldn't teaching positions be the last to be eliminated?

While some of RRISD's staffing might raise a few eyebrows, once again the Leander School District wins the prize for excess.  Leander only employs 25 psychologists to Round Rock's 28, but Leander has about 12,000 fewer students.  Check out comparisons on some of the other staffing positions:

                                              Round Rock ISD                   Leander ISD

Students, approximate                  43,000                               31,000

Educational Diagnosticians               19                                    22
Occupational Therapists                      9                                    11
Physical Therapists                              3                                      5
Athletic Directors                                  5                                      7
Department Heads                               .25                                44.54

I know some of you will insist that art therapists and such are essential to the well-being of our children, but if there aren't enough funds to pay for everything, the last folks we ought to lay off are our teachers.  Furthermore, while the Leander district lacks funds to open two newly constructed schools, they sure do seem to have a lot of administrative/support staff positions.   Just how necessary are they?

Some other districts in Williamson County are significantly smaller and do not have such flashy titles for non-teaching staff, but have issues as well. Percentage of staff that are teachers:

Georgetown ISD:  50%
Hutto ISD:  52%
Taylor ISD:  42%

Now, I am not naive enough to think merely correcting some of these staffing issues will make up for budget cuts.  There are many other areas that districts can cut, and I will continue to highlight them over the next few weeks.  This is just one fragment of a bigger picture, and folks, that bigger picture is screaming for reform in the way we allocate and spend education funds.  To continue to write a blank check to anything labeled 'education spending' is insanity.  Maybe we need more psychologists after all.

Sonograms and Red Herrings

Yesterday we saw the first bill of the 2011 Texas Legislative Session come to the House Floor, and what a spectacle it was.  HB 15, authored by Representative Sid Miller, would require abortionists to provide women with sonogram results prior to purchasing an abortion.  Many women who have had abortions testified last week in favor of the measure, saying that without the scientific/medical information provided by a sonogram, a woman is not fully informed before choosing an abortion. 

Opponents have argued this requirement would increase costs, but the truth is that abortionists routinely perform sonograms before the abortion so that they will know the exact location and size of the fetus (baby with a heartbeat).  The difference is that under a sonogram law, the abortionists would have to turn on the sonogram sound, show the woman the images (she can refuse to view them,) and describe the stage of fetal development. 

The most ridiculous red herring on the House Floor yesterday was presented by Representative Carol Alvarado (D-Houston).  Alvarado brought in a trans-vaginal sonogram probe to wave in front of legislators as an attempt to prove sonograms are inappropriately invasive.  Of course the trans-vaginal sonogram is rarely used in pre-natal sonograms, and I wonder how many abortion clinics even have them.  Most pregnancies are confirmed through external sonogram devices.  (I was able to see my first child at 7 weeks gestation via external sonogram.)

Even if a trans-vaginal sonogram is performed, it is absurd to suggest that the probe is somehow more invasive than the actual abortion.  As many proponents of the bill have pointed out, the abortion device itself is far more repulsively invasive.  See for yourself here.

The truth is that the abortion lobby does not want women to know what they are aborting.  These red herrings are designed to distract us from the facts.  Women will still have the right to choose abortion under this proposed law, but unlike the approximately 44 Texas women who will purchase an abortion today, they will have all the information essential to making such a potentially life-changing decision.

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.