Kirkpatrick: Texas lawmakers disconnected from work done in classroom

After a recent statement in the news blaming Texas school districts for their million-dollar deficits, I reached out to a local representative in the state legislature in an effort to offer my perspective as a citizen of Lubbock, a veteran teacher, and a candidate for the State Board of Education.

To their credit, we met less than a week later to discuss the issue of public school funding, and while there wasn’t much consensus, we had a civil conversation. In the course of an hour, I tried to convey the magnitude of responsibilities placed on teachers without adequate support or compensation.My biggest takeaways from this discussion were how convoluted the funding formula is and how vast the disconnect is between elected officials and the work being done in the classroom. The bottom line is that the majority of the Texas Republican legislators believe that they are paving the halls of public schools in gold. As an educator who dedicated more than a decade of my career to teaching middle school students, I can assure them that it's not the case. Here is my attempt to explain such a complex subject in a few concise points:● Property tax compression is causing revenue to decrease, and the rates vary by district.● The state hasn’t increased the basic allotment to go along with the inflated prices.● Districts are funded based on average daily attendance, yet hard costs don't go down, unlike funding, when you lose around a dozen students per school. Why not change to enrollment versus attendance based funding?● The state mandated a police officer for every campus and only provided $15,000 per school, making this yet another unfunded (or at least underfunded) mandate. Why did the state not fully fund an officer to every campus?● Vouchers will take even more public funds away from public schools without being held accountable for the same standards or STAAR tests. It’s not school choice for families - it’s school choice for private schools to choose their students, unlike public schools. Why does the leadership refuse to separate school funding and vouchers into two separate bills? Will they support private schools being required to take all students and give the STAAR test?● ESSER money, federal COVID-era funding, expires this year. The purpose of ESSER, as stated in the Legislative Review was, "The Texas Legislature authorized under TEC Section 29.930 as added by House Bill 1525, 87th Legislature, Regular Session, a portion of the state’s discretionary ESSER III funding to provide additional resources to pay for unreimbursed costs due to the COVID-19 pandemic and for intensive educational supports for students not performing satisfactorily." Districts used those funds as the Legislature directed, but the needs continue. The needs don't run out when the money goes away.When asked what the solution is, the legislator said that we (anyone against vouchers) should take the win when it comes to the $5 billion that was left on the table after four special sessions last fall because the $500 million allocated for vouchers isn’t really that much in the long run. I left the meeting wondering how many teachers or school staff our legislators could possibly have spoken to before deciding that vouchers are more important than giving raises to teachers and nurses and other school workers. I wonder how many conversations they have had with these teachers and nurses and other school workers. I wonder how often they have visited campuses in their districts.After 14 years in the classroom, I know better than most that very few people have the time or ability to decipher how school funding works in Texas, including our state legislators. This is nothing new, so anyone who is interested in learning more should check out the information shared by these public education advocates:Every Texan - Property Tax CompressionRaise Your Hand TexasGolden PenniesPastors for Texas ChildrenThe Voucher ScamTeaching TexasWe cannot sit idly by and expect our teachers to do more with less than ever next school year. Please contact your local representatives today - call, email, schedule a visit and urge them to fully fund public schools.Lubbock Legislators● Representative Carl Tepper○ (512) 463-0676○ [email protected]● Representative Dustin Burrows○ (512) 463-0542○ [email protected]● Senator Charles Perry○ (512) 463-0128○ [email protected]Morgan Kirkpatrick is a Democratic candidate for Texas State Board of Education, District 15, in the November general election.

This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Kirkpatrick: Texas lawmakers disconnected from work done in classroom