79TH LEGISLATURE

Bills that would create virtual school network, allow companies to take over failing schools, pending in Legislature
Proposed privatization and virtual classrooms among debated issues
By Jason Embry, David Kassabian

AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
> Saturday, March 26, 2005
Groups who for years have fought to limit the role of private companies in Texas public schools see some of their fiercest battles yet looming over the next nine weeks.

The major education bill passed by the Texas House and now being considered in the Senate would allow outside entities, including for-profit companies, to manage the state's worst-performing schools.

A House committee also is considering a bill that would allow public schools to contract with private companies to create virtual classes where students, including those who go to private or home schools, would take classes over the Internet.

"We know we need to find funding for our neighborhood schools," said Kathy Miller of the Texas Freedom Network, which monitors social conservatism in government. "They're struggling to find the money they need to barely keep pace with enrollment growth and inflation. At the same time, (lawmakers) want to carve out pieces of those dollars to give to private companies."

Supporters of giving businesses a crack at reviving failing schools say school boards and administrators should not retain control of schools that have suffered on their watch. They also champion the virtual schools as a way to reach students who have dropped out or whose local schools offer a basic menu of classes.

"A lot of people are in a comfort zone with the status quo," said Rep. Kent Grusendorf, R-Arlington, chairman of the House Public Education Committee. "But our kids are just too important to make decisions for the purpose of protecting the status quo."

Several lawmakers also have filed bills to create voucher programs that would give students public money to attend private schools. Those bills have not yet been heard in committees, but they're likely to receive heavy consideration in the GOP-run Legislature.

House Bill 2 calls for the state education commissioner to hire an outside entity to take control of a school if, for two years in a row, it does not meet federal guidelines and lands in the bottom 5 percent of the Texas Education Agency's ratings. Both the state and federal requirements are largely based on standardized test scores.

Five percent of the campuses translates to nearly 400 of the state's 7,800 schools.

Defenders of the takeover provision point out that the commissioner could name nonprofit groups of parents or teachers, as well as local colleges and universities, to run the schools.

"If a school is not performing well, we have to be aggressive in making a change," Grusendorf said. "Two years is a long time in a kid's life."

Senate Education Committee Chairwoman Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, said she wants to include a similar provision in Senate school reforms. But instead of focusing on schools that rank in the bottom 5 percent, she would apply the provision to schools that are rated "academically unacceptable."

One percent of the schools in the state received that rating last fall, but state officials are reviewing the ratings criteria and are likely to make them more stringent by the fall of 2006.

Shapiro said the state should, after the first year, thoroughly review any group or company that takes over a school. She also said she wants the state to provide more help to schools after one year of low ratings so they never become subject to takeover.

"What happens now is we wait two or three years down the road to ever intervene," she said.

But Carolyn Boyle of the Coalition for Public Schools said school districts should continue to use scores on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills to see where to focus their resources, not to justify the use of for-profit companies.

"The TAKS test is helping communities to know which groups of children need more help and more tutoring, and people are working on it," Boyle said. "Plus there's no proof that if you turn over a school to a for-profit corporation the student achievement will improve."

Opponents of bringing in private companies to run the schools point to Dallas, where the school board voted in 2002 to end a contract with the for-profit Edison Schools Inc. after two years. District officials said the schools failed to match the performance of other campuses with similar student populations, according to published reports.

Also stoking privatization fears is House Bill 1445. It would allow school districts, charter schools and education service centers to hire companies to develop online education programs. The schools that administer the programs would receive money from the state for educating those students. But Miller said she worries that most of that money would be passed through to private vendors to develop the online tools needed to offer the classes.

While schools regularly buy textbooks and other materials from for-profit companies, "what schools typically contract out for is not the wholesale education of the student," Miller said.

Grusendorf, whose committee heard testimony on the bill last week but did not act on it, said he hopes the panel will send it to the full House for a vote.

GOP Rep. Jerry Madden of Richardson, the author of the bill, said students enrolled in the programs would use class materials from the Internet, computer software, video and traditional textbooks. Teachers would instruct students and answer questions over the Internet and the phone.

Students could enroll in virtual programs if they are unhappy with their local schools or if they're trying to pick up a course or two that is not offered nearby.

"This is an opportunity program for any kid to get the best teacher in this state and the best course in this state," Madden said.

Shapiro said she supports a virtual-learning program because it has worked well at her local schools, in Plano. But she said she has not studied the specifics of the Madden bill.

The Legislative Budget Board projects that more than 10,000 students from private or home schools would enroll in virtual programs, which has raised concerns among teacher groups.

"You're talking about adding a significant number of (private and home-schooled) students into an already stretched funding system," said Lindsay Gustafson, a staff attorney with the Texas Classroom Teachers Association. "We want more transparency and accountability. Really, this is a step back."


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The Texas Republicans are pushing for private schools. Think about a society without a free, solid public school system. Alert your friends. Tell your state reps. Write a letter to the editor of your paper.

It will only be a matter of time before the 'faith-based' ideologues would move in and take over the educational systems. Beware.........the earth will again become flat, masters and slaves will become the accepted order of societies and despair will totally encircle the earth.

I am concerned about the current legislative session in Texas. The Republicans are not only trying to endorse private schools through vouchers, they are using regressive tax measures to reward their wealthy constituents. (i.e. reducucing property taxes while raising sales tax by 1%) This greatly benefits the wealthy and must be stopped. If you live in Texas write your Senator and representative and let them know that you oppose HB2! We must be vocal. I am a member of The Texas Teachers Federation (TFT). They have some letters that you can customize on their website (www.tft.org). Get involved!

****************************Action Alert*****************************************************



- TAKE ACTION – TESTIFY AGAINST VOUCHERS APRIL 5 IN AUSTIN



- LEGISLATIVE UPDATE



*** CHECK OUT OUR NEW WEB SITE, WWW.TFN.ORG, FOR MORE INFO *****



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TAKE ACTION – TESTIFY AGAINST VOUCHERS APRIL 5 IN AUSTIN



VOUCHERS – Public hearing on vouchers set for April 5

Three voucher bills are headed for public hearing on April 5 in the House Public Education Committee. This will be the one-and-only chance the public can speak out against private school vouchers. We expect a large turnout from the pro-voucher camp – two years ago bus loads of parents currently receiving a voucher from James Leininger packed the hearing room.



We need our side of the story told. Please make plans to come testify. It’s important that the committee hear from parents, teachers, school board members, business owners, etc. That means you! Please contact Heather Alden, heather@tfn.org, if you can testify and to get more details!



Following are the proposed House bills on vouchers:



· H.B. 12 by Rep. Corte, R-San Antonio, is a pilot voucher program that would drain money from neighborhood public schools to pay for tuition at private and religious schools in urban areas. Not only would the bill take hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars from our neighborhood schools, private schools receiving the money wouldn’t even have to be accredited by a recognized organization.



· H.B. 1263 by Rep. Harper-Brown, R- Irving; Jodi Laubenberg, R-Parker; and Carl Isett, R-Lubbock, creates a pilot voucher program for educationally disadvantaged students in counties with a population of more than 800,000 people. Those counties include Harris (Houston), Dallas, Tarrant (Fort Worth), Bexar (San Antonio) and Travis (Austin).



· H.B. 3042 by Rep. Riddle, R-Tomball, opens up private school vouchers to any student in the state who is eligible for public school. This is the most far-reaching of the three voucher bills.



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LEGISLATIVE UPDATE



Today the Senate Education Committee began hearing testimony on H.B. 2, the omnibus school finance and education reform bill by Rep. Gruesendorf, R-Arlington. The chairman of the committee, Sen. Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, said that there will be a much different version of H.B. 2 coming out of the Senate. Besides the pitiful lack of funding, the House bill also includes provisions to privatize and erode state education standards. One provision in H.B. 2, for example, would allow exemplary schools to ignore quality education standards like small class sizes, teacher certification and early reading intervention that have helped students make progress over the past two decades. Another provision in the bill would allow private companies (such as Edison Schools) to run low-performing public schools. Studies have shown, however, that many public schools run by private education companies have a poor record of improving academic performance.



VIRTUAL CHARTER SCHOOLS



· H.B. 1445 by Rep. Madden, R-Plano, creates a “virtual school network” to allow local school districts and charter schools to develop online courses to be taken by any school-age child in Texas, including home-school kids. H.B. 1445 would create a de facto virtual voucher program because it would allow school districts and charter schools to contract with private companies to develop and administer these online courses at state expense. A substitute bill to H.B. 1445 is expected this week.



SBOE/TEXTBOOKS



· NEW! H.B. 2534 by Rep. Chisum allows the State Board of Education (SBOE) to determine content requirements and limitations for facts and theories (theory of evolution), citizenship, patriotism and free enterprise (history and social studies), divergent individuals and groups (“may not encourage lifestyles that deviate from generally accepted standards of society”). This bill would set into law the kind of textbook censorship TFN has fought at the SBOE for the last 10 years. The bill has been referred to committee, but a hearing has yet to be scheduled.



· H.B. 220 by Rep. Howard, R-Sugar Land, would give the SBOE the authority to reject a textbook or require its revision simply because it did not conform to the political or religious beliefs of SBOE members. This same bill was filed in the Senate last week as S.B. 378. H.B. 220 and S.B. 378 have both been referred to committee, but hearings have yet to be scheduled.



· H.B. 973 by Rep. Madden, R-Plano, would give the SBOE broad authority to change the state’s social studies curriculum by allowing the SBOE to decide whether or not textbooks “focus in an unreasonably negative manner on American values, culture, or history.” This bill has been referred to House Public Education Committee, but a hearing has yet to be scheduled.



· H.B. 2576 by Rep. Grusendorf is the Texas Education Agency Sunset bill. This bill opens up a door to vouchers, virtual charter schools and lessening of school standards. The bill has been referred to committee, but a hearing has yet to be scheduled.