Texas Lege: Educational Entrepreneurs Rescue Texas Children From Godlessness, For A Price

[TexasTowelie]

By Carol Morgan

Elections have consequences and unfortunately those consequences are leading to the death knell for Texas’ public education system. Texans have thrown away their right to a public education system (which is guaranteed by the Texas Constitution) because they elected fools and charlatans like Dan Patrick, Donna Campbell, and Larry Taylor to the Texas Senate.

These three political prostitutes got where they are today through the love and determination of a teacher and free public schools. How dare they criticize the institution that bestowed the opportunities they enjoy today! They should be thanking teachers rather than criticizing and belittling with the words “godless” and “monstrosity”.

Even our local conservative representatives, Senator Charles Perry (who voted for the Senate voucher measures) and Representative Dustin Burrows (who voted against the Pre-K bill) are joining the “kill public education” movement.

I take great offense to the “godless” education remark and so did our LISD Board of Trustees. Thank you, Dan Pope! There have been a couple of Texas pastors, Charles Foster Johnson (the former pastor of Lubbock’s Second Baptist Church) who didn’t like it either. He took to the {Austin American-}Statesman to call out the lies that conservatives are pedaling:

“Pastors for Texas Children are compelled to strenuously confront this lie. As ministers and faith leaders mobilizing in support of our neighborhood and community schools, we have been silent too long while those purporting to speak for God demean, belittle and slander Texas teachers as “Godless. This could not be further from the truth.”

In another piece by Pastor Kyle Henderson, he defended teachers and remarked about his loss of confidence in our state lawmakers. He remarked that as he set through the school hearings his “rose-colored” glasses were smashed. He thought legislators were supposed to help and they weren’t helping, but demonizing public education in order to implement vouchers.

If men of God are supporting our public schools, how can our schools be Godless?

Some children might not know Divine Love (sans the religious rhetoric and honor badges) without the love and care of a teacher or counselor in Texas’ public schools. A selfless attitude of service needs no words nor rhetoric. Divine Love is modeled in our schools, rather than bragged about. I’ve seen teachers who’ve cared for their students as much as they would for their own sons and daughters.

Conservatives Senators and House members keep chanting, “Texas’ Failing Schools, Texas’ Failing Schools” like obedient monks in an ashram, but hard data shows that the voucher mantra is a lie fabricated by their wealthy donors (the liars who are on Dan Patrick’s “advisory” board).

Around 8.2 percent of public school campuses are classified as failing, but nearly 17 percent of charter schools are designated as failing. In fact, within three years of being included on the low-performing list, only seven out of approximately 8,500 traditional public schools are still designated as failing. If you are mathematically inclined, less than one-tenth of 1 percent of all Texas public school campuses are rated IR or AU for more than three years.

Do we have any data about private religious schools that are failing? Shhh….it’s a big secret since they have little oversight and are exempt from any state regulations such as class size, curriculum, or teacher qualifications.

Texas’ failing schools are more a metric of child poverty than a black mark against public education. Texas has the lion’s share of children in poverty: 25% according to the National Center for Children in Poverty. Years and years of research shows that socioeconomic level is STILL the best predictor of academic success.

With that in mind, Texas’ schools are doing pretty well, considering they have no choice in who enters the building, unlike private schools which have an admissions’ selection process and a trial probation for six weeks or more. Public education doesn’t enjoy that luxury.

And just think…all of this was accomplished with precious little help from the Texas Legislature as shown by the fact that Texas is 46th in educational funding. Our state lawmakers would rather give a tax cut to business than fund our schools. Lawmakers brag about the Texas economy, but would never think of parting with the money to prepare the future workers of Texas.

All of this nonsense going on in the brazen-{filtered word}-show in Austin makes it clear what our lawmakers (and their campaign donors) value—eloquent speeches and memos are completely unnecessary.

That tired overused conservative line, “We shouldn’t throw money at the problem”? How would we know if that’s true or not? Texas has NEVER adequately funded public education; we’ve wasted more money on educational reforms, the conservative code-phrase for allowing educational entrepreneurs to mine public education with the intention of increasing their personal wealth.

Didn’t Texans learn a lesson from the Governor Bush-Sandy-Kress-Pearson-lovefest in the late nineties?

Teachers must start to think and act politically. The survival of your profession depends on it. Educators could be the largest voting bloc in the state if they awakened from their political illiteracy. If Dan Patrick’s advisory groups have their way, Texas children attending public schools will soon be a small minority.

Educational entrepreneurs fear a teacher awakening. North Carolina, whose public education has been decimated and corrupted by the voucher system, is contemplating a law that prohibits political activism by educators. Teachers are organizing, but it’s too little, too late. And please don’t tell me it can’t happen here.

If we allow the extreme right to take over our schools, they won’t be satisfied. Next year, it will be a demand for a state check to homeschooling parents. These people won’t be satisfied until they have completely dismantled public education and we go back to the days of the one room school house.

Plain and simple, vouchers are bad for these reasons:
1. Vouchers fragment the Texas population along religious, political, ideological, class, ethnic and other boundaries. We would be re-living Jim Crow all over again.
2. Vouchers violate the Texas constitution (Article 1,sections 6,7; Article V11, Section 5)
3. Vouchers violate taxpayer's religious freedom by forcing them to bankroll religious teaching that might be in opposition to their own.
4. Vouchers will undermine the teaching profession and make it less attractive and low-paying. Many private schools do not require teacher certification. Parents often barter teaching services to pay for their child’s tuition.

My fear is that Texans are complacent and blind to the unintended consequences of the Texas Legislature’s extreme educational bills and will awaken when it’s over. By then, the conservative mindset will rule everything and our school systems resemble something like the Amish (who only educate until grade 8) or Afghanistan, where education is forbidden for females.

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Carol Morgan is a career/college counselor, a freelance writer, and former Democratic candidate for the Texas House. She is the award-winning author of two books: Of Tapestry, Time and Tears and Liberal in Lubbock. Email Carol at [e-mail] , follow her on Twitter and on Facebook or visit her writer’s blog at www.carolmorgan.org

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Permission granted to post Carol's blog in its entirety.