TSTA Mission Statement

The Constitution of the State of Texas is the document that set outs the structure and how the government functions. This present bill was put into place on February 15, 1876, and is the seventh bill in Texas history including the Mexican Constitution. The reason Texas Constitution is so long is because Texas is one of the largest states in America and its amendments range from the proposed amendments, which range from a measure allowing El Paso County to finance parks and recreational areas, to a measure facilitating partnerships between cities, counties or government agencies, will bring the total number of amendments considered by Texas voters to 656 since the state Constitution. Political Participation is any activity that shapes, affects,

The NEA and the AFT represent millions of teachers throughout the country. Moe indicates that teachers unions are known has political powerhouses which contribute millions of dollars to campaign contributions and lobbying. Fortune Magazine has consistently ranked National Education Association in the top 15 of its Washington Power 25 list for influence in the nation’s capital. The American Federation of Teachers along with the National Education Association has given more than $60 million combined in campaign contributions over the last 20 years (Moe 267). Ballot initiatives that are created in to order to begin school reform usually are defeated because their huge sums of moneys that come from these unions in order to defeat a ballot that can jeopardize a teacher’s job. Let’s keep in mind that unions are designed to protect the interest of the teachers, unions are not designed to help the interest of children. The unions use this money mostly to demand special interest for the teachers, such as imposing a structure at the workplace giving teacher’s rights and restricting managerial control. Teacher unions are by far the most powerful forces in American education and use their power to promote their own special interests at any expense.

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.

In taking a brief look at the Oklahoma education system, one need not look far before issues of significant underfunding and understaffing come directly into view. Many different proposals regarding what Oklahoma needs to do to resolve this problem have been suggested in the past, but very few of these proposals outline an answer regarding how these fixes will be implemented. How Oklahoma's educational system can increase the effectiveness of its limited funding is something that can be addressed with simple cost-effective steps and strategies that have proven their effectiveness in other states. Additionally, the issue of understaffing can be looked at from a fresh perspective in order to understand what the Oklahoma education system can do to bring in new teachers and keep these teachers. Finally, in joining with national-level movements and interest groups such as the National Education Association which can help with budgetary issues and Teach for America which can help to bring in new, trained and enthusiastic teachers into areas of Oklahoma that have seen poor performance from students in the past.

One of the large images on their website is a link to a page called “LEGISLATIVE”. The beginning of this page starts with the title “Bad Bills” it includes a list of the bills in Texas’s legislation that the TSRA would like to stop through the members choice of vote. The list contains a few of the following: Senate Bill 221 which promotes a list of firearm owners possessed solely by the FBI. Also House Bill 234, which “strengthens anti-gun language to allow tax-payer owned property to be leased and managed by a private management firm which can post this tax-payer owned property off-limits to LTCs.” Along with the “Bad Bills” list comes the “Good Bills” list which promotes certain bills such as Senate Bill 16 which pushes for the elimination of original and renewal application fees for a License To Carry. Another bill the TSRA is pushing for is Senate Bill 349 which “Clarifies the definition of “school-sponsored activity” in the Penal Code to avoid roving gun-free zones, off-campus buildings or on areas of land, not owned by or under the control of an educational

We follow regulations everyday of our lives. Whether it be making a complete stop at a stop sign, paying our taxes, or refraining ourselves from cutting off the tag of a mattress. It’s important to know what rules we and our elected officials are held accountable for. Being aware and knowing the difference between the United States and Texas Constitution allows citizens to be apprehensive of what is happening in our government. The topics on the amending and impeachment system and the Judicial and Executive Branch grant insight of the proceedings in our governments.

The problem with STAAR testing is the enormous pressure it puts on Texas students and teachers. With STAAR testing, it affects everything with students from preceding to the next grade level, attending college and eventually their futures career choices. STAAR testing affects Texas teachers as well. For Texas teachers and STAAR testing, starting January 2016 a new elevation system will base 20% of students’ scores towards teachers’ livelihoods, reputations, pay, promotions and even determining if they get to keep their job for another year. TEA will then take these teacher elevations and determine if schools will receive funding for the coming school year. With one test putting so much pressure on students and teachers, we continue to see

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.

They were in charge of creating policies for Texas public education, choosing a budget, making rules for school accreditation, and being in control of agreements for supplying the public schools (i.e. textbooks). They also had the right to choose a commission of education, whom would serve for, four years and would become the chief executive officer for the TEA.

The core function of the Texas Legislature is to formulate and enact laws. Apart from the enactment of laws, the legislative body is also mandated with the functions of shaping the state’s political agenda, performing checks and balances on state of the state’s government, pass the state’s budget, as well as oversee the functions of the administration. Similarly, the body also sets the critical details or a court’s organizational procedures when it comes to matters that pertain to impeachment and court disputes regarding election petitions. It is equally important to mention that the body is also mandated with the function of informing and educating the electorate regarding the critical functions the body is required to deliver to the people as provided for by the laws of the State of Texas (Dautrich and Yalof 684).

The Texas AFT wants to influence the legislator because the school districts have been left to try to make up for inadequate state aid by raising local tax rates, even as the state has continued to make it much harder for them to accomplish this. Basically, all they want to do is handle the budget crisis in the school districts of Texas. To analyze the successes and failures of Texas AFT in influencing legislation is short and sweet; school systems are still under budgeted and local taxes are still being raised to help the schools. The only break educators have received was in 2006 with “surplus” dollars tax swap for which the bill is now belatedly coming due.

Lawsuits for sexual harassment, physical abuse, and racial discrimination have grown steadily in the last few decades and can threaten a teacher 's job and reputation. Another benefit is defense against harsh treatment fom board members with petty criticisms through the local collective negotiating. Unfortunately, both are necessities in the education business. These teachers also feel that the NEA is their best hope for obtaining higher salaries and a voice in the administration of their schools. The other group joins because they have to, their school district has agreed to allow a closed shop to exist, where all teachers must pay some level of union dues. Few teachers join because they wholeheartedly believe in the political and social agenda of the NEA. The union is often far left of its membership on many issues. One thing that can be agreed on by everyone is that the NEA is very large, very wealthy, and very powerful. Recently surpassing the Teamsters in size, the NEA has over 2 million members, making it the largest union in America. Past Secretary of Education Lamar Alexander once said that, "After the post office, schools are the most unionized activity in America.

1st formal Board of Director meeting scheduled for Thursday May 26th to present the mission statement, TCDRT policies and bylaws to be evaluated as well as to pass review over the Memorandum of Understanding between United Way of Orange County as the fiscal agent for the Tri-County Disaster Recovery Team

While many supported President Obama’s semblance of education reform in Race to the Top, various factions were vehemently against RTT and its implementation. Republicans primarily stand against federal involvement in state and local schools. The party opposed RTT advanced Common Core State Standards, which promote a “one size fits all approach to education” (Spring, 2015, 63). Along with political factions, those majorly impacted by RTT objected to its premise. The main teachers unions in the U.S., the National Education Association as well as the American Federation of Teachers, highlighted several points of disagreement in RTT which would lead to challenges in implementation. At the time, the NEA said it cannot support RTT’s endorsement of using test scores for evaluating teachers, increasing the number of charter schools, and bolstering what the union calls “fast-track” alternative routes to teacher licensure (Sawchuk 2009). Additionally, the AFT expressed concerns about RTT and how much the program helps students, whether it is fair to teachers, whether it is transparent to the public, and whether it requires shared responsibility (Weingarten 2009). Along with teachers unions, members of academia spearheaded critiques of RTT. Joe Onosko’s eight point manifesto adequately details the concerns of educators at the time of implementation. The flaws of the plan (RTT) are as follows:

To Get A Better School System by Gene B. Preuss explores the journey of educational reform of Texas through one hundred years of inequality, threats, and disagreements. However, the Supreme Court decision regarding Morath vs. Texas Taxpayers has highlighted that even in 2016, additional reforms are needed. Funding for public education is not a new issue and has been a pressing matter since the creation of the Texas educational system. Throughout the process of educational reform, Texans have mainly fought over public education funding in regards to bridging the gap between the portion of funding spent on urban areas and the portion spent on rural areas as well as the small earnings that teachers make. Yet, another area of concern, as pointed out in the article “Texas Supreme Court Upholds School Funding System”, is the Texas Legislature which severely limits the number of available avenues that the state can take when addressing the issue of funding. Together, the past issues of how to fund education and the inequalities that arose in spending, combined with the current issue