Mike Falick's Blog

Hurricane Katrina

With the mandatory evacuation of New Orleans, it is anticipated that Houston schools, including Spring Branch, will enroll students who are now homeless and displaced to the Houston area.  I know we will welcome the children who have suffered and lost so much.

Memorial Drive United Methodist Church served 300 lunches to hurricane victims today and will continue to serve hot lunches every day from 11a - 1p through Monday.  To volunteer, contact The Reverend Cynthia F. Harvey, Memorial Drive United Methodist Church, 713-468-8356, [email protected], or just show up at MDUMC, 12955 Memorial Drive at 10a.

If you want to donate to help the victims of Katrina, this website has links to many of the reputable charitable organizations providing assistance.

The City of Houston is having a press conference tomorrow, Thursday, September 1 at 10:00 a.m. at the City Hall reflection pond (901 Bagby) to kick off a school supply drive to help ease the transition for children who will be attending Houston area schools until they can return to their homes. The "Children Caring for Children" project encourages Houstonians to donate new children's school supplies, backpacks, tennis shoes and T-shirts, to their local fire stations. Houston's children are particularly encouraged to share with our displaced neighbors.  From September 1 until September 5, 2005, items will then be gathered at all Houston Fire Stations.and distributed to Houston-area school districts.

Governor Perry and Mayor White both issued press releases today detailing the many ways Texas and Houston are providing assistance.

More on the 65% Rule

Today's Austin American Statesman has an investigative report on the little-known group, First Class Education, which has been pushing the requirement that all school districts devote 65% of their budgets in the classroom. I found the following portion of the article very disturbing:

A First Class Education memo obtained by the Austin American-Statesman lists a series of "political benefits" of putting the 65 percent plan on the ballot. The memo says the plan will create divisions within education unions as dollars flow from administrators to teachers, and it says the plan will divert dollars away from other political goals of the "education establishment."

Citing voter trends, it also says the plan can help build support for voucher and charter school proposals, which critics say take money away from public schools.

"Women in particular want public education fixed, not replaced," it says. "Once additional fixing and funding of public education can be achieved via the First Class Education proposal, targeted segments of voters may be more greatly predisposed to supporting voucher and charter school proposals, as Republicans address the voting public with greater credibility on public education issues."

If this is indeed the true motivation for implementing this Rule, this represents a significant attempt to erode confidence in the public school system on a national scale.  Starving public education in order to promote vouchers and charter schools is bad public policy.  This plan will only serve to hurt the children of Texas and the future of our great State. 

As I have previously written, the problem with this Rule is in the definition of "in the classroom." Gov. Perry’s Executive Order refers to the definition used by the National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES). Under their definition, the following would NOT be included in the calculation of 65%: Administration, Plant Operations & Maintenance, Food Services, Transportation, Instructional Support, including Librarians, Teacher Training and Curriculum, Student Support, including nurses and counselors.

Spring Branch currently spends 62.3% on "in the classroom" expenses using the NCES definition.  Assuming no additional revenue (i.e., no new taxes or funds from the State), in order to get to 65%, we would have to reduce the excluded items by 7.3%.

What is especially difficult in considering this type of reduction is that many of the expenses that would be excluded are unfunded mandates by the State.  Each of the following unfunded mandate is good policy, but is, nonetheless unfunded by the State and excluded from the NCES definition of "in the classroom:"

1.  Counselors: A school district with 500 or more students enrolled in elementary school grades shall employ a counselor certified under the rules of the State Board for Educator Certification for each elementary school in the district.  A school district shall employ at least one counselor for every 500 elementary school students in the district. Texas Education Code §33.002.

2.  Staff Development: The staff development provided by a school district must be: (1)  conducted in accordance with standards developed by the district;  and (2)  designed to improve education in the district. Texas Education Code § 21.451.  Districts are required to budget adequate time and financial resources to support a comprehensive staff development program that promotes learning and collaborating with colleagues, reflects best practices, and is guided by the campus improvement plan developed through the site-based decision-making process. 19 Texas Administrative Code (TAC) §153.1011.

3.  Librarians:  The Texas State Library and Archives Commission, in consultation with the State Board of Education, shall adopt standards for school library services.  A school district shall consider the standards in developing, implementing, or expanding library services. Texas Education Code §33.021.  School districts are required to comply with the state mandated minimum salary schedule that applies to the following district employees: teachers, librarians, full-time counselors, and full-time nurses. Texas Education Code § 21.402.

4.  Transporation: School buses shall be used for the transportation of students to and from schools on routes having 10 or more students who live more than two miles from their campus of regular attendance or who live in a designated hazardous area within two miles from their campus of regular attendance.  Texas Education Code §34.003.

MDUMC Call for Volunteers to Serve Lunch to Families Displaced by Katrina

From The Reverend Cynthia F. Harvey  -- Memorial Drive United Methodist Church:

Katrina's path has left unimaginable devastation! Many families have been displaced. The hotels and motels up and down I-10 are filled with families who are not able to return home. MDUMC is prepared to respond. Beginning Wednesday, August 31 - Friday, September 2 we will serve a hot lunch to families displaced by the hurricane. Fliers will be delivered to area hotels and motels this afternoon and we will begin serving at 11 a.m. on Wednesday. The lunch will be served in the gym 11 a.m. - 1 p.m. each day. If the need continues we will extend our lunch service into the weekend. There may be other opportunities to respond but this is the immediate need. **UPDATE** Lunch will continue to be served through Friday September 9.

You can help! We need people to help greet, serve, clean-up and simply visit with these families. We have no idea how many families to expect but are prepared for 200 on Wednesday and will adjust as need arises. If you can come for 30 minutes to an hour each day you will make a difference in someone's life. If you can help just show up between 10:30 a.m. and 2 p.m.!

Cynthia Harvey 12955 Memorial Drive Houston, TX 77079 713-468-8356 713-468-8429 fax [email protected]

Textbooks as a Priority

One of the biggest failures of the recently completed regular and 2 called special sessions, which lasted a total of 8 months and cost $5.6 million in tax dollars, is the failure to appropriate sufficient funds for one of the most basic needs of our students -- textbooks!

Governor Perry, by executive order allocated $295 million for textbooks.  That's a heck of a lot better than nothing, but the executive order provides for a statewide growth rate of 1%.  If the state's growth rate exceeds that, as it has for many years, students may go without textbooks.  This is yet another example of the challenges facing school districts -- increasing accountability standards without basics such as textbooks is a recipe for negative results.

The Austin American Statesman has a good article on this issue.

Prayer for New Orleans

Please join me in prayer for the good people of New Orleans and all those in the path of Katrina.

Chris Whittle's New Book "Crash Course"

Chris Whittle's new book, Crash Course: Imagining a Better Future for Public Education will be published September 8, 2005.  This book is certain to be controversial.  While I disagree with many of Mr. Whittle's ideas and methods, I believe that some of his ideas deserve thoughtful consideration.

BOOK EXCERPT: Crash Course - Let’s Have a Student Uprising (p. 47) (from 8/29/05 Edition of Time Magazine): Edison Schools founder and CEO Chris Whittle argues in his new book, excerpted in this week’s issue, that to improve our schools, we should put children in charge of their own learning. In his, Crash Course, the visionary founder and CEO of the largest private operator and designer of public schools, proposes a makeover for the K-12 system. He argues that schools have failed to make students the masters of their own learning, and we have the results to show for it. Whittle writes: “We are still operating in a type of Charles Dickens–era mind-set, believing that these young, half-civilized things called children must be whipped into shape, if not by a stick, then by a never-ending schedule. Because it has been so long since we examined the real rationale of our schools, perhaps schools themselves don’t even understand why we are teaching as we do. How, then, can students be expected to get it? One of the first things that schools should teach is why education is important. If we do that well, students will embrace their own education. They will become the school’s most important teachers: their own.”

Stratford High School to Host Community Open House

Stratford High School is hosting an open house for the community on August 31, 2005, from 5:30 - 6:45 p.m.

Unfunded Mandates

I ran across this Report on unfunded mandates for Texas school districts from 2001-2002.  These mandates are never discussed when people speak about the rising cost of public education.

Whatever Happened to Local Control

“Ours is the party that challenges the soft bigotry of low expectations, that worked to stop the practice of just shuffling kids through school, grade after grade, without them being able to read and write. Ours is the party that set high standards, believes in local control of schools, and insists that every child learn to read and write, so no child is left behind in America.”  President Bush – 2005 President's Dinner

The 2004 National Republican Party Platform stated: “Since over 90 percent of public school funding is state and local, not federal, it is obvious that state and local governments must assume most of the responsibility to improve the schools, and the role of the federal government must be limited as we return control to parents, teachers, and local school boards.”

The 2004 Platform for the Republican Party of Texas echoed the importance of local control by stating clearly: “The Party supports the concept of choice in public education and believes that quality education is best achieved by encouraging of parental involvement, protecting of parental rights, and maximizing local control of public schools. . . . . The Party urges the Legislature to give full control of local school districts to those districts.”

So if my party, which now controls every level of State government, believes so strongly in local control, what’s the issue?

Despite these clear statements of the importance of local control, the Legislature attacked this principal throughout the regular and special sessions. These attacks included attempts to mandate (1) the school start date, (2) trustee election date, and (3) the 65% rule.  The Legislature failed to pass these "reforms," but Governor Perry has, by executive order put the 65% rule in place.nbsp; Now, regardless of what the local community wants, the State will require that 65% of funds be spent "in the classroom" with "in the classroom" being defined not by local taxpayers and voters, but by the Texas Education Agency using a standard developed by the federal government.   

While Commissioner Neeley has formed a task force including superintendents to define "in the classroom," she has indicated that she wants to stay close to the definition developed by the federal government.  As I stated in a previous post, implementation of this rule will require the remaining 35% to cover Administration, Plant Operations & Maintenance, Food Services, Transportation, Instructional Support, including Librarians, Teacher Training and Curriculum, and Student Support, including nurses and counselors.  This change amounts to an unfunded mandate for many of these items which school districts are required by law to provide.  In Spring Branch, we currently spend 10% of our budget on facilities operation and maintenance, and 10% on Robin Hood/recapture.

I applaud the efforts of our leaders to improve the educational opportunities for the 4.4 million students in Texas, and education in Texas is moving in the right direction.  Our Spring Branch school board’s recently adopted Core Commitments make it clear that we are committed to continuous improvement in our students’ education.  As a member of the board, I favor accountability, transparency in education, and efficient use of tax dollars, and I fully believe that our district, operated locally, will achieve our goals and continue to do what is in the best interest of all of our students, taxpayers, and stakeholders.

If the stakeholders in Spring Branch want a post-Labor Day start date, November board elections, or the implementation of a 65% rule, it should be their decision, made and implemented locally.

It is time for local control as a core value to be more than words.  Otherwise, parents, taxpayers, and voters will continue to move further away from the people who decide how their neighborhood schools will educate their children. 

President Bush’s speech, quoted above, says it all.

'No bill, no reform, no nothing'

Norm Rowland's article in this week's Memorial Spring Branch Sun:

'No bill, no reform, no nothing'

* School board frowns at governor's executive order, funding issue not resolved

Spring Branch ISD trustees braced for a budget crisis Monday night after learning that Gov. Rick Perry has issued an executive order requiring 65 percent of school district funds be spent on "instruction," as defined by the National Center for Education Statistics, a federal agency.
The problem, trustees said, is that NCES does not consider such things as counseling services, nursing, social services and technology as instruction.

Before the discussion turned to Perry's executive order, Trustee Mike Falick had rendered a legislative update to the Board. "No bill. No reform. No funding. No nothing," Falick said of the accomplishments of the just concluded special session of the Legislature.  Falick said House Speaker Tom Craddick "has made it crystal clear that he wants to wait for the Supreme Court's ruling."
The state Supreme Court is considering an appeal lodged by the state of a ruling last year by District Judge John Dietz that, among other things, the $1.50 property tax is unconstitutional.

Dietz also ruled:
* The current system does not generate enough funding to provide an "adequate" education as required by the constitution.
* The definition of an "academically acceptable" education created by the Legislature does not meet the constitutional standard of an "adequate" education.
* The state does not provide enough funding for schools to meet the state's own expectations for public education.
* The state has not provided enough funding for facilities for school districts to keep up with population growth.
Dietz's rulings came on a lawsuit filed by a mixed bag of school districts that included both property rich and property poor districts.

Perry's executive order directs the commissioner of education create and implement a "comprehensive financial accountability and reporting system to ensure transparency and fiscal efficiency in school district operations . . ."  Services the executive order appears to consider not directly related to instruction include counseling, technology, nursing, social services and professional development.  Also troubling to district officials is Perry's order to the Texas Education Agency to reduce available school funds to schools from about $315 per student to $242 to pay for textbooks, since the Legislature failed to appropriate funds.

"Looks good on paper," said Dr. Diane Jackson, governmental liaison, "but what it means to Spring Branch ISD is another $2 million of lost revenue."  What it means to Chapter 41 districts like SBISD, she explained, is that the $2 million in state funds that were scheduled won't be allotted.

Earlier, the board officially recognized five teachers who were named teachers-of-the-year for the 2004-2005 school year.

Honored were Michelle Grant Arastu, Thornwood Elementary, SBISD Elementary School Teacher of the Year; Patty Nilsson, Guthrie Center, SBISD Secondary School Teacher of the Year; Susan Coscio, Lion Lane, SBISD Bilingual Teacher of the Year; Theresa Rebollido, Sherwood Elementary, SBISD ESL Teacher of the Year, and Marcia Looper, Valley Oaks Elementary, Houston West Chamber of Commerce Teacher of the Year.