The ongoing battle to pass education savings accounts, disappointment that recommendations from the Teacher Vacancy Task Force were not taken up and lack of a teacher pay raise were some of the items discussed during a Texas Tribune event titled “Where do Public Schools Go From Here” Tuesday.
The livestreamed event was moderated by Texas Tribune education reporter Brian Lopez. It featured panelists Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, Dallas ISD Superintendent Stephanie Elizalde, San Antonio teacher Laura Herrera and Laura Colangelo, executive director of the Texas Private Schools Association.
Creighton said the budget passed had almost $9 billion in new money for education as a whole.
“That is strong for Texans to see. It’s strong for the nation to see. With that money that is currently parked in the Texas budget that indicates where we fell short on the school finance bill and teacher pay raises as we couldn’t agree between the House and the Senate; not just on that issue but a few others as we just sort of landed the plane on tax reform and tax relief. We’ll get there,” Creighton said.
He added that it’s frustrating, but when you look back, there were legislative sessions in the 80s and 90s where there were multiple special sessions.
“We had times where we had money to spend, but we had to figure out exactly the best way to spend it,” Creighton said.
There were bills that didn’t pass, but Creighton said it shows the legislature is continuing to listen.
“It’s a process, so when we come back in the special session all these priorities will culminate and we’ll deploy the money that was set aside” and is already approved in the budget, he added.
Elizalde said she knows a lot of superintendents who have gone into deficit budgets to provide any kind of raises to their employees.
“I so respect that Texas is the ninth largest economy in the world,” but Elizalde said it still ranks 43rd in public school funding and she still gets $6,160 per student.
“I am hopeful that in October that can be something that could be addressed because we know inflation since 2019 has affected everything, so whether we’re talking teachers, or custodians, or counselors, or our cafeteria workers, or our principals, all of their costs of living have increased and yet we haven’t seen any of those types of increases in public school funding,” Elizalde said.
Herrera said from her perspective as a teacher, school districts across Texas are doing their best to keep up with inflation and they’re listening to teachers.
“The governor’s task force was disappointing because there were so many good ideas that came out of … (it). I feel as teachers we always want a seat at the table. We want to be a part of that decision making, but when we’re a part of that decision making and that goes askew it’s a little bit disappointing,” Herrera said.
“I feel like districts are going to have their hands tied. They have given salary raises, but then at the same time, there’s going to be a budget shortfall which is going to mean less money for our schools and less money for our staff and students,” she added.
Creighton said parents are demanding school choice.
“We have to make sure that as we launch the effort for school choice in the session it continues to be an emergency item because our parents demand it. It’s not a typical voucher. It’s an education savings account that does … (include) transportation. But again, parents don’t have to use it. If they love their public schools, if Title 1 is the issue, or parents decide you know there’s a gap there in what that private school tuition might cost, which by the way is an average of $9,000 across the state, there’s a gap there that I don’t want to fill. There’s not a mandate,” Creighton said.
He said the education savings accounts are $8,000 and Raise Your Hand Texas says most public schools get about $10,000 per student when you average all the allotments together.
“We’re increasing that with our school funding effort. It’s all going to fit together. The synergy is going to work,” Creighton said.
He added that it’s been tried in other states under Democratic and Republican governors and it hasn’t been bad for them.
“Under 175 different empirical studies, it’s actually been good for them. We’re going to be fine in this effort,” Creighton said.
Elizalde said public schools take each and every student, regardless of their background.
“I think we absolutely can have a stream of different experiences and perspectives. To think that educators would be putting an organization above students, it’s completely opposite of what public school educators do each and every day. I absolutely think there is a way to have both, and I do not think it’s fair to say that there’s a protectionist (mindset) because we’re concerned that if this were for each and every student,” Elizalde said.
In Dallas, private schools like Greenhill, Hockaday and St. Mark’s cost upwards of $25,000 to $30,000 a year. She said there’s no way that $8,000 education savings account will be enough to help parents access those private schools.
Elizalde noted that those schools do offer scholarships and Dallas ISD provides referrals.
“We want to continue to stay focused on students and ensure that every single student is getting that education and we’ll continue to ensure that we continue to improve because we do know that every single person does want, I think everyone in the legislature also wants, what’s best for kids. We may just have a different viewpoint of trying to get there,” Elizalde said.
In the upcoming special session, Colangelo said they are going to look at prioritizing low-income children, special needs children and making sure children that need scholarships will get them.
“Ninety-eight (98) percent of my schools want to participate in a program like this. They already have millions of dollars in scholarships they give out now because to have a truly quality educational experience you have to have the diversity of viewpoints of students in your classroom, so there’s a lot of scholarship money going out to create that kind of quality educational atmosphere. This is only augmenting what is already in place in the private schools. It’s just allowing more families access to this type of education,” Colangelo said.
She added that her organization is going to make sure that the children who need it get it and that there is accountability in their accreditation.
“Private schools administer norm-referenced tests, so there is testing going on in private schools to make sure the children are making progress year over year. We want to see that in the bills that come out. We want to make sure we’re going to get the data that we need on those children, those scholarship children, so we can see if it works. I think we are going to see that it does work based on the 32 other states that have this and we’re ready to get started,” Colangelo said.
Herrera said there has always been school choice in districts in Texas.
