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3 Editor:
Bastrop County parents facing school enrollment deadlines might want to consider the work done by those of us working on a local education project, the Lost Pines Education Center (LPEC). This effort was spawned by the defeat of the ACC tax annexation in November 2010 in BISD, McDade ISD and San Marcos ISD. We always felt that the ACC election was an unfortunate diversion from the real educational issues in our local public schools. As I observed in my letter to the Advertiser on Sept. 23, 2010, “Bastrop SAT test scores are a full 95 points below average scores in our region (Educational Service Center Region XIII), but not for lack of an Austin CC campus.”
Based on recent Texas Education Agency school assessments, matters have not improved.
SAT scores of BISD high school graduates are now 100 points behind those in the local area and only 34% of BISD graduates score as college ready, versus 54% for the local area. Moreover, both BISD high schools have been rated as academically unacceptable by the TEA. Unfortunately these metrics are accurate predictors of success in college. The most recent data available for graduates (2009) of BISD enrolled in Texas colleges reveals that 32% had a GPA of less than 2.00 (less than a C).
During its efforts to explore the need for a post-secondary campus, the LPEC group conducted interviews with a number of Texas colleges and came away with consistent advice: “Don’t bother with another campus; just send us Bastrop area students who are college ready.”
During our assessment of K–12 public education, we reviewed four groundbreaking documentaries which outline the heartbreaking problems in American public education, “Stupid in America,” “Waiting for Superman,” “The Lottery” and “The Cartel.” Any parent who cares about education should review several of these documentaries, all of which present a central common message: The solutions to our public education problems lie in school choice, competition and technology.
Fortunately parents already have considerable choice. The LPEC found a number of competitive alternatives to the traditional public school system.
There are excellent private schools in Austin such as Hyde Park Baptist High School and Bastrop Christian Outreach Center in Bastrop, but these are relatively expensive.
Home schooling is enjoying growing popularity, especially with parents who are concerned with drugs, gangs, violence and the lack of religious ethics in public schools, but private home schools may be as expensive as regular private schools (exception: see virtual charter schools below). For more information contact the Texas Home School Coalition.
Parents are not necessarily constrained to their assigned neighborhood schools and may be able to enroll their child in other public school districts. Did you know that Smithville ISD offers open enrollment?
A local group is working to create a “brick and mortar” charter school in the Bastrop area, but this maybe a year or more from fruition unless an existing school is “repurposed.”
The most exciting possibility was brought to our attention by some parent-members of the LPEC who have enrolled their children in virtual charter schools offered by Texas Virtual Academy and Connections Academy. I was floored when it dawned on me that these online campuses have already been established by the State of Texas and are paid for by taxpayers through their current property taxes. In other words, they are “free” after you pay property taxes. In addition to the obvious cost benefits, there are many other advantages, pertaining to learning pace, flexibility, and remedial opportunities. A vast array of courses is available. If you want your child to take Latin, he or she will be able to enroll online. Unfortunately distance education offerings are rationed by the State of Texas and enrollment is on a first come, first served basis. Fall 2010 “free” enrollment is restricted to 2,500 for Connections Academy and 4,000 for Texas Virtual Academy. If you are interested, you need to move quickly.
We can expect that virtual education will expand exponentially. Virtual charter schools are now available in 27 states and have enrolled 200,000 students. In Florida, every public school must offer virtual schooling, but Texas seems to be a step or two behind. We need to fix that in the 2013 legislative session.
As the cyber revolution comes to the fore in Bastrop County and in America, we can expect a massive substitution of technology for labor. Hybrid public schools offering a mix of on-site and online instruction are highly cost effective and able to offer higher teachers’ salaries and one-on-one tutoring. Local taxpayers and ambitious school board members should sit up and take notice. Hybrid schools are potentially a win-win, providing a cost-savings gold mine and superior educational results.
The LPEC will work to expand the bridgehead established by virtual education. We hope to help expand existing public facilities which include computer centers (such as public libraries and the superb community center in Smithville) and will work to expand services for both the K–12 and college-level education. Website links pertaining to the information contained on this report may be found in the website for the Bastrop County Taxpayers Association at http://bastroptax
payers.org/.
Bob Parmelee
Acting Chairman, Lost Pines Education Center Study and Investigation Group
(512) 635-4276
Don’t Overlook the Positives of Public Education
A response to Mr. Bob Parmelee’s recent letter to the editor:
After reading Mr. Parmelee’s letter, it seems that making sure our children have the best education possible is one issue that we can all get behind. I believe that how and where a family chooses to educate their children is a personal choice and I appreciate the fact that there are choices available. Let’s face it. Traditional public schools do not work for everyone. I happen to be a strong advocate of public education. I also believe there is room for improvement in every system, whether that is traditional public education, charter schools or virtual schools.
Since the beginning of this year I have been learning quite a bit about the issues surrounding public education funding. In February, we learned that our district (Smithville ISD) was facing a $2 million dollar deficit for the 2011-2012 school year. The thought of losing almost 30 positions in our school along with many programs was devastating. In March we found out that public education would be cut by several billion dollars.
In response to this funding crisis, a spark was lit in our community and many wonderful things have developed because of it. The Association of Citizens for Education (A.C.E.) was founded with a mission to educate our community regarding current public education funding issues and to support our local schools by raising money for our district through various fundraising efforts. A.C.E. board members researched education foundations. With input from SISD and community members, it was decided that Smithville should have its first ever education foundation. A.C.E. has been working all summer long to raise funds that will be distributed back to the district in the form of “Innovative Teaching Grants” and “Program Enhancement Grants” These grants will directly benefit the students of SISD. Grants will be awarded in the spring of this school year.
As a founding member of A.C.E., I have a new found respect for our school district and staff and our community as a whole. What I have experienced is a true desire to do the best possible job educating our students. I have also found an openness and willingness from SISD to seek out ways to become more effective and more efficient. I have witnessed a community come together to support their school by passing a Tax Ratification Election (TRE) in a time when raising taxes is almost unthinkable. The fact that a TRE was passed, tells me this community really cares about the education of its children.
We did take quite a hit, along with many other districts, when the recent Texas Education Agency (TEA) accountability ratings were released. Smithville ISD received an overall “academically acceptable” rating. The high school and junior high campuses received a rating of “academically acceptable”. The primary and elementary campuses received a rating of “academically unacceptable”. The primary and elementary campuses are what are referred to as “paired” campuses, so they received the rating as a pair, not individually. After talking to Ana Murray, the elementary principal, I learned that if 1.3 more children passed the TAKS in writing, the primary and elementary campuses would have also been rated as “acceptable.”
After researching how a school is rated, I found that a few things led to this downgrade in rating. First, the test is more rigorous in math and science. A measurement called the TPM (Texas Projection Measure) was removed. The TPM, according to the TEA, “was used to track individual student achievement on state tests from one year to the next, giving schools credit for student improvement over time.” This means that if a student did not pass the TAKS test but was on track to pass it on future tests, the student could be counted as passing. Also student groups that were not included in previous years such as special education and English as second language (ESL) were included in the 2010 results. These subgroups had lower overall scores than other subgroups. That being said, SISD takes this rating very seriously and is actively working on an improvement plan and public input is welcome.
The reason I go into the details of the accountability ratings is that we should know the components that go into such measures. The overall scores were not the only issue, but more about the changes to the way the ratings are calculated. The new accountability ratings affected not only traditional public schools, but charter schools as well. As I mentioned earlier, I believe that it is a good thing to have choices when deciding how to educate our children. I am skeptical however, when the benefits of one choice are vigorously highlighted while the benefits of other choices are completely overlooked. I did watch the documentaries sited by Mr. Parmelee in his letter to the editor. However, I did not find them to be “groundbreaking”. Instead I found them to be incredibly biased and heavily in favor of “alternatives to traditional public education”. When a case is made for an issue with such obvious bias, it makes me wonder about the underlying motive. As with any issue, there are pro’s and con’s to both sides and we need to diligently research them for ourselves.
When researching the TEA website recently, I came across the Annual Evaluation of Texas Charter Schools: 2009-10 (State of Texas Education Research Center at Texas A&M University, July 2011). The following findings were noted in their report:
“There are few systematic and reliable differences in educational outcomes between charter campuses and matched traditional public school campuses. There were some measures of performance where charter campuses outperformed matched traditional public school campuses, some measures where they underperformed, and many measures where there was no reliable difference between charter and matched traditional public school campuses. Nothing in the analysis supports a conclusion that charter schools were systematically better—or worse—than matched traditional public schools serving similar student bodies.”
The results of this report lead me to believe that there are benefits and shortcomings to both traditional public education and alternative choices such as charter and virtual schools. One must sift through the information and make the best choice possible for their family.
I choose to remain with traditional public education for my family because I feel it is the right fit for us. I believe in my school district, those who run it and those who teach my children. I believe the school is, and always has been the anchor of a cohesive community. I am excited about the changes to come, the improvements to be made and the relationships to be forged between students, schools, city and community groups and businesses. I am grateful to live in a wonderful community like Smithville. If any community can come together for the benefit of all, it is this one.
Here are ways you can get involved or learn more about local education issues:
• Attend the next City of Smithville Comprehensive Planning meeting in regards to education. The next public meeting is scheduled for 6pm, Tuesday, September 6, at the Smithville Recreation Center.
• Attend the monthly SISD board meetings on the 3rd Monday of each month at 6pm, Red Brick Building, SISD administration building.
• Join one of the many active student organizations or booster clubs at SISD.
• Attend the monthly Association of Citizens for Education (A.C.E.) meetings on the 3rd Tuesday of each month @ 7pm at Smithville Public Library. You can also donate your time as a volunteer or contribute financially to help support our students. Visit our website at http://www.ace4schools.org, email info@ace4schools.org, or write us: P.O. Box 227, Smithville, TX. 78957.
Education is simply the soul of a society as it passes from one generation to another.
Gilbert K. Chesterton
Michele Rutherford
Secretary, Association of Citizens for Education (A.C.E.)
Citations:
http://www.tea.state.tx.us
Michele, I think you missed the point in the documentaries you watched about alternatives to public education… They may have a similar outcome to a public education in some studies (which I don’t agree with after attending both public and private schools, but let’s just say it’s true), but they do so at a much lower cost than public schools spend per student. We already know what a horrible job the public schools have done, which was evident in a recently released study that said only 1 out of 3 high school grads are vocation or college ready. So if the public schools are failing the taxpayers so horribly by throwing money at the problems and seeing no results why not let someone else try? There’s always a chance they will do better! My own children attend the same private school I attended in Austin and the drive is a pain, but it is a wonderful investment. And they only spend about $7,000 a year per child where most public school districts in the country are spending thousands more per student. It would be easy for me to do the easy thing and drive five minutes to our local school every morning and pocket all the money I would be saving, but I’m not a big gambler and don’t like the numbers or excuses I see coming from public schools!
Michelle,
I did see in a TEA report that charter schools operate at a lower rate per student. I am not sure though if that includes costs such as bussing, special education, extracurricular activities, etc. I have not been able to find information on what is being compared or included in that finding. Are we comparing “apples to apples”? I don’t know? You say “We already know what a horrible job the public schools have done…”. I don’t feel that way. I feel that I have, until recently, been derelict in my duty as a parent and a taxpayer by not being as involved as I should have been. Since I have been more invlolved, I have found there are wonderful people working to educate my children and that they truly care about their students and how well they do. I can only speak to my own situation in SISD. As I learn more about how our public schools operate, I have even more respect for those in the “trenches” and what an incredibly difficult job they have. I want to be a positive support system for the educators in my district because I see all of the negatives they deal with everyday. As for the study you mentioned, please let me know which one you are referring to. I am always interested in learning more about this very complicated issue. I have heard the term “college ready” quite a bit, can you define that term? You also say the “public schools are failing the taxpayer” and that they are “throwing money at the problems”. You mention that the private school your children attend “spend only about $7,000 a year per child”. I looked up the amount of money BISD and SISD recieve for each child per year. BISD receives about $5,100 per student and SISD about $5,200 per student. As a taxpayer I feel that is incredibly resonable. If there are 170 to 180 days in a school year, that comes out to about $28-$30 per day. I am not sure it could be done on any less. How much is too much? How much is too little? Can you give examples of wastefulness? If there are ligitimate areas where money is being wasted, that must be rectified.
Michele Rutherford