Summary: To Get A Better School System

Texas is continually changing and developing. Like all change some would say it comes with the bad and the good. As discussed in the Texas Politics, The recent revision in to the state tax system successfully placed a tax cut on property but did very little to fund public schools. Education is the basis in which we mold our future generation and should be treated with such high importance.

Education development has been an important matter in Texas for decades. Texas has been known for their improvements and reformation in public schools since their first attempt of a public school system. Within these improvements, came issues that escalated to create our public education system today. The issues that helped arrange the system are desegregation, equity in funding, and education policy.

It was with wild fanfare that the state’s Republican legislature and Republican Governor enacted their reforms for the state’s public school system. Among the panaceas was charter schools, a ‘90s education fad that gives individual parents the right to send their children to state-approved public charter schools at public expense. Politicians reasoned that less-bureaucratic charter schools would teach students better than traditional public schools because charter schools wouldn’t be subject to the same mandates that the state had heaped upon public schools. Furthermore, traditional schools would be forced to compete with charter schools as they lured thousands

The Texas Constitution guarantees an "efficient system of public free schools," but schools have recently found themselves unable to provide an adequate education to the more than 5 million students in Texas because of the many problems within the education policy in the state. Such issues involve school financing, lack of preparation for college, early childhood education, teacher quality, and school choice. Tough all of these conflicts pose a potential threat to the school system’s competence and effectiveness as well as to Texas’ economy, there are a broad number of possible adjustment and reforms that could be placed to improve the adequacy of Texas’ school system.

In 2011 while Texas was still under the leadership of Governor Perry, 5.4 billion dollars were cut from educational spending, leading to overcrowded rooms and leaving out students from attending Pre-K (Michels). A study from the Texas Education Agency showed that students who attended Pre-K outperformed students on their math and reading tests versus those who did not attend regardless of socioeconomic status. The aftermath of policies cutting down on educational funding are slowly showing their aftermath, and if something is not done to solve those problems, then it can be assured that a great downfall to the state of Texas will be seen.

     Will Durant, a businessman and the founder of General Motors, once said, “Education is the transmission of civilization.” Unfortunately, education is still one of the most deliberated and controversial issues in the United States. Thus far, the privilege or right to receive education has not attained the level of equality throughout the nation; poor districts obtain less educational funding while rich districts obtain more, creating an immense gap between the quality of schools in poor and rich areas.

11.13). When it comes to addressing the performance issues facing Texas schools, issues facing the poor, the reality of a water shortage, and problems relating to transportation, there is great reluctance among Texas Republicans when it comes to expanding the government’s role in improvements, as well as in raising the necessary funds through taxation. The Texas Politics Project (2017) explains that when it comes to the current state of Texas schools, supporters of a more fiscally conservative approach feel that such an approach “at least achieves average results with below-average spending” (p. 11.9). The current conservatism that defines the overall political approach in Texas may not be adequate in the long term. As we are seeing, changing demographics are substantially impacting the state of Texas and will likely lead to necessary changes throughout the state.

Public education in the state of Texas is not at its best right now. Students are not being challenged to think anymore. As the second most populous state of the United States, I believe that Texas should be at the top of public education not only in the country, but in the world. We should change how and what teacher are teaching to students. Now days we go to school to memorize keywords so we can graduate and get a diploma. After that, some students that don’t go to college don’t reuse the information that was taught to them for four years, so basically the schools wasted resources and money, and students lost time. I believe we can and should strike for greatness and change the public education system from head to toe. Learning is a fun activity to do and school should not just be about going to class and learn how to pass an exam or get good grades in a class. Learning is about gaining knowledge and applying that knowledge to learn and discover new things about that topic.

The defeat of Initiative 42, Mississippi’s best hope for adequately funding K-12 public school education, was devastating to Mississippi public school educators and their many supporters. Since the defeat, the question has been, “What do we do next?” Like so many others, I questioned if there was any need to even try to fight the system any longer. However, after a lot of thought and soul searching, I am resolved that it is more important than ever before to continue the fight. In fact, I have a plan of action that may sound farfetched on the surface, but it just might work. The plan is at least a step to rekindle the flame that educators and parents must keep burning on this issue.

The article “A Peek Under the Big Top” compares the 84th Legislature to a circus. “-the circus is back in town! The spine-chilling 84th Texas legislature that convened in Austin this month (January 2015) promises to feature daring radicals and tantalizing ideologues in the center ring. This year public education is in their cross hairs!” Then they explain how the schools are under-funded.

Charter schools have become a rival for public schools. Charters schools are public schools by option; therefore parents must initiate the interest in the school thus enrolling their children into the program. On the other hand, public schools are open to any student and do not require a waitlist or lottery system to be enrolled. It is difficult to define the “best education” because parents seek different things when researching school options for their child. The purpose of education is to develop skills in individuals that will give them a foundation for a lifelong curiosity to create a program that will benefit each person individually. Lyndon Johnson once said, “Let us think of education as the means of developing our greatest abilities, because in each of us there is a private hope and dream which, fulfilled, can be translated into benefit for everyone and greater strength for our nation.” Support from the State of Texas is essential for the growth of education and emphasize the importance of receiving a strong foundation on education but can be limited by the funding. Although charter and public schools in Texas strive to provide the best education for students with the funding given, charter schools have an advantage on innovation but pubic school offer open enrollment.

As the general public reads these articles there are three primary outcomes that they could have: support, disinterest, or opposition. In Fikac’s article covering Davis’ plan for increased education spending we see the two extreme points of view. Davis with the support of the Democrat party supports increased incentives for qualified students to enter the field of education along with increased pay to teachers who are getting the desired results all while hopefully not increasing the current tax rate. The Republicans argue that Davis’ math makes little sense and that it is not possible to spend more without increasing taxes. (Fikac, 2014) When the public reads this article the media will have fulfilled their goal of getting the audience to think about the subject. The outcome will be dependent upon the reader’s views and expectations of the government in regards to education. The outcome is also dependent on the reader’s lifestyle. A person with multiple school age children will be more prone to considering The Houston Chronicles agenda then a

Can you imagine a world in which parents were free to send their children to only the best schools, no matter which neighborhood they lived in? What if cost wasn’t a factor? Imagine if even a student in the poorest section of town had access to the best education. What could that child achieve? What would they become? How would their life change? Those questions that I asked lead now to the focus of the essay. The world we live in is ever so changing, with that the need for education also needs to be changing. No longer do classic public schools fit the job in all certain situations. That is why with school choice being a controversial issue in education reform, school choice public funds should be used to support school choice programs that offer parents alternatives to traditional public schools.

This research is conducted to compare the opinions on improving the Nation’s Education System. The data collected is then analyzed and compared to three independent variables; Race, Age, and Gender. The results are then verified with applying statistical techniques of Cross tabulation and Chi-square to come to a conclusion.

School choice for K-12 students is still a controversial education reform topic. Choice programs for education include school vouchers, tax-credits scholarships, individual tax credit, and Education Savings Accounts (ESA), provide financial support to families who wish to access private schooling for their child (Wolf, 2016). There are now 61 private school choice programs in 30 states and the District of Columbia (Forster, 2016). Texas publicly funded school choices are limited to public schools and some charter schools. This paper explores the empirical evidence on school choice to establish an argument for expanding school choice in Texas, particularly the school voucher program. We will examine the empirical evidence involving all five domains 1. Academic outcomes of choice participants, 2. Academic outcomes of public school, 3. Fiscal impact on taxpayers and public schools, 4. Racial segregation in schools and 5. Civic values and practices. And lastly will look at surveys to find public opinions on K-12 school choice programs, especially millennials who are more than any other generations to have children in K-12 school.