Texas Education Problems

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.

Texas students deserve better. Our state leaders must take action to restore all funding cuts to higher education and keep the dream of college alive for all Texas

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.

Texas faces many problems with the current educational system and many of them continue to go unresolved due to the way Texas has established certain laws. A decline in education has been seen since 2006 when legislators decided to cut property tax which pays for education (Maule). Those policies only further hinder the progress of education improving, which is why policies like those do not need to be further implemented. More involvement with students is needed and that will be acquired by having more effective teachers. Many studies have shown that students with effective teachers do better in class than those with ineffective teachers. Not only do students do poorly with ineffective teachers, but “[s]tudies show that most students drop out due to poor academic performance. And studies have proven that the teacher in the

“Shrinking state and local education budgets matched with the added pressure of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, which sets rigid standards in reading and math that schools must achieve in order to receive federal funding, have created a new challenge for districts” (Van Harken).

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 schools in Texas are disproportionately funded due to the state formulas contained in the Foundation School Program. As Governor, we need to change the state's formulas to truly distribute funding between public schools in Texas fixing the inequities. By changing the formula and making it more transparent, the legislature will be able to more effectively address the issues. I want the school’s to receive the same amount of resources so that every student may thrive and grow into the best they can be no matter where they live.

This article, "What Do Test Scores In Texas Tell US?" by the Rand Corporation looks at the pros and cons to high stakes testing in Texas. High stakes testing was meant to improve academic scores and motivate teachers, but unintended concerns have risen. Professionals and the media question exactly how beneficial these test are, and if we should continue to use them. Texas was looked at because students had made huge strides in statewide testing. "Gains in Texas Assessment and Academic Skills (TAAS) reading and math scores for both majority and minority have been so dramatic that they have dubbed the 'Texas Miracle '" (Rand, 2000). The success was so great that Texas students were put through further test to validate that these impressive scores. Students tested on the National Assessment of Educational Process (NAEP) between 1994 and 1998. After comparing the scores for TAAS to the scores of NAEP many questions arose for the validity of statewide testing. Tables in the article show that the TAAS scores are differ greatly than those of the NAEP. Though the scores between the two test were much different Texas students who took the NAEP were higher than the U.S. average. Also, by 1998 the gap between the scores of white students and students of color got smaller. Questions about why the gap between the TAAS scores and the NAEP scores were so great were never directly answered. Suggestions were made that Texas teachers could more easily prepare students for the

“It did not take a court ruling for us to know that the school funding system in Texas needs serious reform. Just because the court held that it is constitutional doesn’t mean that we can’t and shouldn’t do better,” said John Cyrier, State Representative for Texas House District 17. “There are many House members, like myself, who believe that we need to enact serious reforms to make school funding more adequate and fairer across the board.”

Change is always good because our world is always changing and shifting, why not try something different, right? Texas has been a conservative state for far too long and obviously it’s not a hundred percent the right answer. What can we do? We can start by pushing for a better educational and government system. Yes, this will raise our taxes, but, wouldn’t you pay more for better in quality of service. It is hard for people to succeed in a conservative state because the government is worried about politics and the states state budget. In this paper, we will look at why Texas needs to reform and push towards a more liberal government. There are a few reasons why improving the education and health-care system will improve our state. These improvements will impact our state and by providing Texas with the tools to succeed and provide a stronger government for the future. First, we will go through why Texas policies do not promote the general welfare of our state. Second, we will go through why our society has an obligation to help the less fortunate and last “Should the state of Texas be morally compelled to assist the less fortunate.”

When people think of Texas many might think of a rich and flourishing economy. With that thriving economy in mind, people may associate a great over all public school system in place. Unfortunately for Texans this not the case. In a 2016 report Texas ranks 43rd among the other states national k-12 education rankings (Fechter 2016). The determination of the ranking included 3 variables, chance for success, school finance, and K-12 achievement (Fechter 2016). The news is worse for the Corpus Christi Independent School District. According to Murphy & Daniel (2015), CCISD fell below nearly every statewide standard when it comes to academics. It is understandable that parents might feel that their child may

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

In addition, insufficient funding of schools along with quality teachers that are retiring are some of the problems we encounter in the education system. In some parts of the United States, there is a lack of adequate access to materials for reading and writing due to budget constraints. In Allen D. Kanner’s article, “Today’s Class Brought to You By…” he mentioned that with the baby boomers retiring, and a high turnover among new teachers, who are asked to teach subjects they are not properly trained for, are causing difficult classroom situations (280). Similarly, Governor Jerry Brown’s statement last January 11 pointed out that K-12 education has ‘borne the brunt’ of the state’s budget cuts with more than $18 billion in cuts over the last three years. This resulted in larger class sizes, programs are cut, and over 30,000 educators laid off. These teachers are very valuable in our society because they provide our youth with the knowledge and social experiences that they will use to better their future and the future of the entire world. As a student, I have suffered the consequences of triple digit fee increases and the lack of available classes offered. The high cost of education has put the burden not only on the students, and many of their parents, but educators, as

As previously stated in demographics of my district 80 percent of citizens working in the private sector, specifically management, finance, and warehouse/transportation. This is an area where many middle class, or lower middle-class citizens reside and where small business owners are extremely prevalent. Information like this shows that many people in this area would like to see changes in the laws that govern the private sector of business. Especially with more people coming to Texas in recent years to create new business. Another point that I would stress, as it is very important to me as well as the district, that focuses on the Texas public school system. There is much talk about how unprepared kids are coming out if Texas public schools, especially lesser funded systems such as Irving. With about half (49.7 percent) of the parents in district 16 having kids under 18 years old, I would push for better funding for lower income areas, because as of now the education at Texas Public Schools is not equal. A student living in a wealthy city such as Southlake comes out much more prepared for college than a student in Irving or Grand Prairie. The strength of my platform comes for the financial aspect, as I feel that in an already diverse, but lower income district social change would not be as impactful as economic change. This creats the three pillars of my campaign platform Better healthcare prices, lower the