The destruction of America's public education system

[nbmishoid 962]

But the dems hurt you financially.   You were asked to enumerate , but you demurred.  

[fattyflattie 4,638]

16 minutes ago, nbmishoid said:

But the dems hurt you financially.   You were asked to enumerate , but you demurred.  

Again, I believe you are conflating me with @Poe It Up, which I am not. 

[Willfully Horn 8,049]

27 minutes ago, fattyflattie said:

Im ok with you @ me as long as it’s not some make believe shit I’ve never said. You aren’t one who regularly does that, iirc.  In that regard, I do believe you are conflating me with a post @Poe It Up made in the LGQBT thread, which I’m no longer able to post in. Personally, I’ve never had a struggle putting roofs over any head, in any administration (although my chances of adding a vacation roof are better with an oil friendly R (not TFG)). 
 

I don’t understand what confused you about my second sentence.  If you prioritize the best education, there are lots of options available outside of the shit offered by the state.  And I’m not talking about classes on the Ark.  

Understood, now.

I don’t begrudge you any of your achievements. But, I do think taxes are too low, starting with my own tax bracket, but especially on incomes with more than seven figures.

[fattyflattie 4,638]

7 minutes ago, fattyflattie said:

Again, I believe you are conflating me with @Poe It Up, which I am not. 

@nbmishoid I assume you are talking about posts #1362, #1373, and your post #1395, where you asked Poe to expand on his exclamation?  

[fattyflattie 4,638]

5 minutes ago, Willfully Horn said:

Understood, now.

I don’t begrudge you any of your achievements. But, I do think taxes are too low, starting with my own tax bracket, but especially on incomes with more than seven figures.

I couldn't agree more.   There are MANY brackets where the taxes are way too fucking low. 

[Patricio Swayze 17,058]

I couldn't agree more.   There are MANY brackets where the taxes are way too fucking low. 

Commie

[fattyflattie 4,638]

Just now, Patricio Swayze said:

Commie

Your not familiar with my posts on taxes. 

[Patricio Swayze 17,058]

Your not familiar with my posts on taxes. 

I’m joking. You know that is the button response when the left suggest raising taxes.

[fattyflattie 4,638]

Just now, Patricio Swayze said:

I’m joking. You know that is the button response when the left suggest raising taxes.

I know.  But you have to remember, most R's these days don't understand what Communism is. 

[Patricio Swayze 17,058]

I know.  But you have to remember, most R's these days don't understand what Communism is. 

Correct. They also don’t seem to understand community.

[nbmishoid 962]

50 minutes ago, fattyflattie said:

@nbmishoid I assume you are talking about posts #1362, #1373, and your post #1395, where you asked Poe to expand on his exclamation?  

Apologies, then.  

[Patricio Swayze 17,058]

Apologies, then.  

Yeah, I don’t agree with most of Fatty’s politics, but confusing him with Poe is a low blow.

[nbmishoid 962]

28 minutes ago, Patricio Swayze said:

Correct. They also don’t seem to understand community.

R’s do not want to contribute financially to society through collective effort.  They are against every tax increase, no matter the purpose ( outside of punishing alternative energy).  

[fattyflattie 4,638]

6 minutes ago, nbmishoid said:

Apologies, then.  

No prob.  It’s not your mo. 

4 minutes ago, Patricio Swayze said:

Yeah, I don’t agree with most of Fatty’s politics, but confusing him with Poe is a low blow.

I got booted from a thread for it. Still lurking because I watch Troph and safes pov, but won’t be engaging. 

[bonnieblue 542]

So assuming AISD, EISD, RRISD etc get ground into paste over the next few years, what are the remaining good educational options in the Austin area (apart from the already-competitive St. Andrews and St. Stephens) that aren’t religious and/or some sort of corporate chain with opaque motives and locations in shopping centers? 

[atomheartbevo 89,799]

2 hours ago, bonnieblue said:

So assuming AISD, EISD, RRISD etc get ground into paste over the next few years, what are the remaining good educational options in the Austin area (apart from the already-competitive St. Andrews and St. Stephens) that aren’t religious and/or some sort of corporate chain with opaque motives and locations in shopping centers? 

They aren't going to get ground into paste.  Shit, the TEA clearly bit off more than they can chew with HISD.

Your kids' success will ultimately come down to how involved you are with their education anyways.  If you are poor, working a helluva lot of hours every week, maybe a single parent, and don't have the time/energy to help your kid and don't have the money to get them things that can help them, they will most likely struggle.  Hold down a decent job, be married or in a relationship with somebody helping you out with the kid(s) and have the ability to spend the time and energy helping your kids, and do things that can help them that may require money, and can do things like take them to the library and other events, they will do better than the kids in the other situation.

My wife has had around 20 years in education, and taught at both ends of the spectrum in AISD, in both the poorest areas and the wealthiest, and the biggest difference she found was almost always centered around parental involvement.  It's not that the kids or the parents didn't want them to succeed, it just came down to, in a lot of cases, the parents ability to help the kids.  And unfortunately in the poorer parts of town, where a lot of kids struggle, there's a lot of people judging that or throwing out solutions, who have never been poor and/or don't understand what those parents are going through.

Oh, and all this was somewhat proven during COVID - that was a time where parents had to step up and parents who could help their kids when they were stuck at home, those kids did a lot better than the parents who had to leave their kids at home and go to work or who had to dump their kids into some kind of daycare situation, and they couldn't keep their kids from farting around on non-school stuff, etc.

[Guest]

18 hours ago, Patricio Swayze said:

Correct. They also don’t seem to understand community.

 

18 hours ago, fattyflattie said:

I know.  But you have to remember, most R's these days don't understand what Communism is. 

Nor do they embody/ support  fiscal responsibility.   Another thread though...

Fuck school vouchers and the scaredy-cat flight program.

[Beau Vine 54,430]

20 hours ago, fattyflattie said:

@nbmishoid I assume you are talking about posts #1362, #1373, and your post #1395, where you asked Poe to expand on his exclamation?  

Are you telling me that all of you broke brained assholes aren't just Immaculate Vibes socks?

[fattyflattie 4,638]

1 hour ago, Beau Vine said:

Are you telling me that all of you broke brained assholes aren't just Immaculate Vibes socks?

Hard to believe, but true.  It may just be habit from having the same handle for 20 years, but walruscigarette doesn’t flow off the tongue. 

[PenelopeWitherspoon 19,142]

On 3/24/2023 at 6:09 PM, fattyflattie said:

Again, I believe you are conflating me with @Poe It Up, which I am not. 

But you did say this.

Honestly, you are the worst of the two and here is why.  You say you support a woman's right to choose, but you keep pulling the lever for the party that is absolutely fucking determined to have women be no better than property.

You say you support LGBTQ+, but again, you continue to vote for the party that has used words like "eradicate" when talking about those folks. 

So spare us all your faux concern.  Do your kids even go to public school?

 

Edited March 27, 2023 by PenelopeWitherspoon

[4th&Five 41,590]

 

[tx 3 putt 77,428]

WOKE !!!!

[fattyflattie 4,638]

15 hours ago, PenelopeWitherspoon said:

So spare us all your faux concern.  Do your kids even go to public school?

 

Public.  We’ve gone back and forth on private. But IMO, unless you are in the legit named schools we all recognize, not sure you are getting your money’s worth.  The tuition would sting, but the well into five figure “donations” would be more difficult to justify. And there’s waiting lists with families with far greater wealth and name waiting, so doubt that would ever happen.  Not while we are in Houston, anyhow. 
 

With both of us contributing the time at night and weekends with homework, reading, generally staying very involved with their schooling, they’ve maintained at or above the level of the neighbor kids on the street, who are all private but us and 2 others.   We’ve been discussing bringing in a private tutor for the summer to try and get them ahead a grade on STEM subjects.  We were able to get the oldest a full grade ahead on everything when they were at home during Covid year.   That mostly speaks to the curriculum in public  though. 

[Guest]

1 minute ago, fattyflattie said:

Public.  We’ve gone back and forth on private. But IMO, unless you are in the legit named schools we all recognize, not sure you are getting your money’s worth.  The tuition would sting, but the well into five figure “donations” would be more difficult to justify. And there’s waiting lists with families with far greater wealth and name waiting, so doubt that would ever happen.  Not while we are in Houston, anyhow. 
 

With both of us contributing the time at night and weekends with homework, reading, generally staying very involved with their schooling, they’ve maintained at or above the level of the neighbor kids on the street, who are all private but us and 2 others.   We’ve been discussing bringing in a private tutor for the summer to try and get them ahead a grade on STEM subjects.  We were able to get the oldest a full grade ahead on everything when they were at home during Covid year.   That mostly speaks to the curriculum in public  though. 

Are your kids taking AP/ Honors level classes?

 

 

[bolverk 29,720]

Man, the north Dallas suburbs are going all in on the "tear it all down" ethos.

Carroll ISD may leave statewide school board group
The board’s decision comes after state lawmakers encouraged districts to cut ties with the association.

The Texas Association of School Boards, or TASB, is a statewide organization that supports local school boards with services like training, lobbying and insurance. Boards join voluntarily, and TASB boasts that all of the public school districts in Texas are members.

But that could change on Monday, when the board of trustees for the Carroll Independent School District will vote on whether to remain with the association, citing the statewide group’s promotion of “divisive political ideologies,” and the district’s ability to find cheaper substitutes for its services.

Liz Campbell, who covers northeast Tarrant County for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, spoke to the Texas Standard about what’s behind the possible departure.

This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity:

Texas Standard: You point out in your reporting that this may not have been an idea that generated within Carroll ISD first, because you’ve reported that a group of state lawmakers are actually encouraging districts to leave TASB?

Liz Campbell: That is correct. There is a state representative, Brian Harrison, out of Waxahachie. He is a Republican. And in January – in fact, on January 30th, to be exact – he sent a letter to all of the school districts encouraging them to leave the Texas Association of School Boards over what he said were concerns that that organization doesn’t align with the values of the majority of Texans.

So why might Carroll ISD leave this association of school boards?

Well, first of all, I will say that I posed that question in an email to the school board president to give me some comment on what the thinking was behind that. And he wrote a note back to me, which I included in my story, which basically said that the school board does not comment on items before all board members have had a chance to discuss and/or vote on them. I will just note here also that the resolution that is on the Carroll School District agenda also uses very similar language to what is in Harrison’s letter.

Is there any indication as to what values, what ethics they’re talking about specifically that TASB might promote that don’t align with the values of Texans?

Well, in his letter, Mr. Harrison criticized TASB for waiting almost a year to leave a national school boards organization which had called for federal law enforcement investigations of the behavior of and the actions of parents who had attended school board meetings. He also criticized TASB over issuing new legal guidelines on transgender policies in the school districts. And he said that – I’m kind of quoting here from my story – “appears to encourage school districts to refrain from reporting abuse and to obscure information regarding children exhibiting gender dysphoria from their parents.” So that is the point of view of Mr. Harrison.

Carroll ISD is the first district that we know of that is voting on whether to leave. Do we think that there would be more? 

That is the first that I am aware of. I am currently looking into whether other school districts also have plans on leaving TASB. I know that from monitoring board meetings in several of our North Texas school districts that during public comment sessions there have been comments from parents and others who have encouraged these school districts to leave TASB.

What would that mean? I mentioned lobbying, training, insurance – is this support that districts could get elsewhere? 

Well, in Carroll, for example, part of the resolution states that the superintendent would then be tasked with issuing a request for proposal for other services from “the free market.” That would come at a lower cost to taxpayers. So I honestly am looking into those questions right now.

[fattyflattie 4,638]

7 hours ago, slorch said:

Are your kids taking AP/ Honors level classes?

 

 

Oldest starts full load of AP next year (middle school is first time available here) along with whatever they call the accelerated math program.  We learned quickly that we outpaced our schools version of G&T at home, which was only additional reading assignments, so went back to “normal” load where she has multiple teachers and changes classes.  I wish they had a more robust G&T program that touched in other subjects.   She will take on second instrument (violin) next year, and we have her in Spanish (Babble type) until the school offers it.  Idea is she can start with French by high school and have English, spanish, and French somewhat sorted, along with 2 instruments.   I spend a considerable amount of time trying to find the line between kid stuff and burning her out.  Interested to see if she can handle it next year along with JO gymnastics.  It’s a lot.  Oldest and youngest have all of the drive, middle one takes after me I suppose. She’s trending to be on that SWT personality.   

[bolverk 29,720]

24 minutes ago, fattyflattie said:

Oldest starts full load of AP next year (middle school is first time available here) along with whatever they call the accelerated math program.  We learned quickly that we outpaced our schools version of G&T at home, which was only additional reading assignments, so went back to “normal” load where she has multiple teachers and changes classes.  I wish they had a more robust G&T program that touched in other subjects.   She will take on second instrument (violin) next year, and we have her in Spanish (Babble type) until the school offers it.  Idea is she can start with French by high school and have English, spanish, and French somewhat sorted, along with 2 instruments.   I spend a considerable amount of time trying to find the line between kid stuff and burning her out.  Interested to see if she can handle it next year along with JO gymnastics.  It’s a lot.  Oldest and youngest have all of the drive, middle one takes after me I suppose. She’s trending to be on that SWT personality.   

The best subjects you can work on for expanding their English vocabulary (other than reading for pleasure) is to have them learn French and memorize borrowed Greek & Latin prefixes/suffixes.

But also yes to Spanish for pragmatic reasons in Texas.

[fattyflattie 4,638]

12 minutes ago, bolverk said:

The best subjects you can work on for expanding their English vocabulary (other than reading for pleasure) is to have them learn French and memorize borrowed Greek & Latin prefixes/suffixes.

But also yes to Spanish for pragmatic reasons in Texas.

That's pretty much it.  Texas' demographics are trending towards more Spanish speakers, so it should be imperative to learn.  Also, I know enough that I taught her a bunch over a few years before she tapped my knowledge, then we started learning together with a program.   I figured with French, she could help me get around on a bad ass ski vacation there in a few years, and of course it could help anywhere from Houma to the islands.   I haven't been able to help on the Frech, I only know what I learned offshore.   Latin would be nice, at least for a Doc Holiday/Ringo recreation.  Several of my private school buddies learned a chunk of it growing up. 

[speed817 19,468]

9 hours ago, bolverk said:

Man, the north Dallas suburbs are going all in on the "tear it all down" ethos.

Carroll ISD may leave statewide school board group
The board’s decision comes after state lawmakers encouraged districts to cut ties with the association.

The Texas Association of School Boards, or TASB, is a statewide organization that supports local school boards with services like training, lobbying and insurance. Boards join voluntarily, and TASB boasts that all of the public school districts in Texas are members.

But that could change on Monday, when the board of trustees for the Carroll Independent School District will vote on whether to remain with the association, citing the statewide group’s promotion of “divisive political ideologies,” and the district’s ability to find cheaper substitutes for its services.

Liz Campbell, who covers northeast Tarrant County for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, spoke to the Texas Standard about what’s behind the possible departure.

This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity:

Texas Standard: You point out in your reporting that this may not have been an idea that generated within Carroll ISD first, because you’ve reported that a group of state lawmakers are actually encouraging districts to leave TASB?

Liz Campbell: That is correct. There is a state representative, Brian Harrison, out of Waxahachie. He is a Republican. And in January – in fact, on January 30th, to be exact – he sent a letter to all of the school districts encouraging them to leave the Texas Association of School Boards over what he said were concerns that that organization doesn’t align with the values of the majority of Texans.

So why might Carroll ISD leave this association of school boards?

Well, first of all, I will say that I posed that question in an email to the school board president to give me some comment on what the thinking was behind that. And he wrote a note back to me, which I included in my story, which basically said that the school board does not comment on items before all board members have had a chance to discuss and/or vote on them. I will just note here also that the resolution that is on the Carroll School District agenda also uses very similar language to what is in Harrison’s letter.

Is there any indication as to what values, what ethics they’re talking about specifically that TASB might promote that don’t align with the values of Texans?

Well, in his letter, Mr. Harrison criticized TASB for waiting almost a year to leave a national school boards organization which had called for federal law enforcement investigations of the behavior of and the actions of parents who had attended school board meetings. He also criticized TASB over issuing new legal guidelines on transgender policies in the school districts. And he said that – I’m kind of quoting here from my story – “appears to encourage school districts to refrain from reporting abuse and to obscure information regarding children exhibiting gender dysphoria from their parents.” So that is the point of view of Mr. Harrison.

Carroll ISD is the first district that we know of that is voting on whether to leave. Do we think that there would be more? 

That is the first that I am aware of. I am currently looking into whether other school districts also have plans on leaving TASB. I know that from monitoring board meetings in several of our North Texas school districts that during public comment sessions there have been comments from parents and others who have encouraged these school districts to leave TASB.

What would that mean? I mentioned lobbying, training, insurance – is this support that districts could get elsewhere? 

Well, in Carroll, for example, part of the resolution states that the superintendent would then be tasked with issuing a request for proposal for other services from “the free market.” That would come at a lower cost to taxpayers. So I honestly am looking into those questions right now.

UIL should ban them for all high school competition

[Dahobbs 17,682]

11 hours ago, fattyflattie said:

That's pretty much it.  Texas' demographics are trending towards more Spanish speakers, so it should be imperative to learn.  Also, I know enough that I taught her a bunch over a few years before she tapped my knowledge, then we started learning together with a program.   I figured with French, she could help me get around on a bad ass ski vacation there in a few years, and of course it could help anywhere from Houma to the islands.   I haven't been able to help on the Frech, I only know what I learned offshore.   Latin would be nice, at least for a Doc Holiday/Ringo recreation.  Several of my private school buddies learned a chunk of it growing up. 

In terms of understanding grammatical principles, I learned far more from 4-years of Latin than anything else. It helped not only with English, but with foreign languages, including non-romance languages. 

[Beau Vine 54,430]

14 minutes ago, Dahobbs said:

In terms of understanding grammatical principles, I learned far more from 4-years of Latin than anything else. It helped not only with English, but with foreign languages, including non-romance languages. 

I really hate that I could have taken Latin in HS and didn't.

[safe sex 11,761]

[Beau Vine 54,430]

 

Just wait till the Texas Leg outlaws foreign language classes in public schools.

Now that I think about it, I cannot believe a couple of school boards haven't tried.

[tx 3 putt 77,428]

1 hour ago, Beau Vine said:

 

Just wait till the Texas Leg outlaws foreign language classes in public schools.

Now that I think about it, I cannot believe a couple of school boards haven't tried.

 

[Al Bundy's Napoleon Hand 13,587]

You don't need the U, Soy Bubba!

 

[CooterBrown 18,029]

Texas 8th graders are quickly falling behind other states.

https://www.axios.com/local/dallas/2023/03/27/texas-8th-graders-behind

60% of Texas students in grades 3-12 can't do math for their grade level, and 48% don't read at their grade level.

Only 22% of Texas eighth graders get a degree or credential within six years of their high school graduation.

Nearly a fifth of eighth graders don't graduate from a Texas public high school.

Low-income students are affected the most by these challenges.

Abbott…

[Hawndoh 2,388]

The next step in the plan is the rating system. I believe they are pushing through a major change in how they calculate the school letter rating.

A bunch of schools that have always been rated as A will suddenly drop to B or C, even though nothing about what they were doing or how they are performing will be different.

But all the public is going to see is the letter grade, they aren't going to understand that it was calculated differently, and they will just assume everything went to crap even though it's identical to the previous year which was an A.

[Nice Guy Eddie 13,523]

Seems like as good as place to post this story.

Florida (the jokes write themselves) principal of a private, K-12, STEM-focused school was trying to get the attention of Elon Musk. She was soliciting donations for the school as it apparently has a $0 tuition rate.

Someone reached out to the principal as a rep for Elon, and perhaps acting as Elon. Everyone warned her this sounded fishy. The scammer told her that if she sent them 100K, it would return $6M. You can guess what happened next.

She and her husband resigned from the school.

https://winknews.com/2023/03/30/florida-principal-resigns-after-sending-100k-to-scammer-posing-as-elon-musk/

[Horn Under a Bad Sign 20,494]

I had no idea we have school district superintendents making 500k in Texas. Seems excessive to this property tax payer.

[Hawndoh 2,388]

Don't most executives in charge of organizations with tens of thousands of the employees and budgets in the hundreds of millions earn at least that much? 

[HamsterHookah 112]

1 hour ago, Hawndoh said:

Don't most executives in charge of organizations with tens of thousands of the employees and budgets in the hundreds of millions earn at least that much? 

Yea, exactly. I certainly don't begrudge them that pay-- if anything they might be underpaid with the crapshow they have to deal with (HISD, DISD, etc.). You are essentially a C-level employee with all the headaches of a non-profit and none of the upside of a private enterprise. God bless them.

[tokamak 6,441]

TEA moves to appoint conservator over Austin ISD. This was their first step toward taking over Houston ISD. State coming for all the big city school districts eventually.

A big attack front right now - it’s the reason specifically cited for the AISD conservator and it’s coming up a lot in the education saving account plan - is special ed. The big public districts have been starved of resources so they all have big backlogs of evaluations and overwhelmed teachers. Clearly they’re failing our most vulnerable kids! Better blow up the system and give all that money to private schools! No mention of the fact that many private schools just straight up won’t take special ed kids, or where all these new private special ed teachers are going to magically appear from. 

[CooterBrown 18,029]

What’s funny is that the state already limits the number of special ed kids in a school to 8% of the student average daily attendance. Every kid over that number can already get fucked. The state doesn’t give a shit about them.

[Patricio Swayze 17,058]

4 hours ago, HamsterHookah said:

Yea, exactly. I certainly don't begrudge them that pay-- if anything they might be underpaid with the crapshow they have to deal with (HISD, DISD, etc.). You are essentially a C-level employee with all the headaches of a non-profit and none of the upside of a private enterprise. God bless them.

I bet dealing with snowflake parents is the worst part of the job for teachers.  Parents trying to get teachers fired for teaching anything the right think is woke.  Such as learning to think critically.  I can't believe that in the US we are banning books are trying to make it look like a ruling class, which happened to be made of white people, didn't do horrible things to other races throughout the history of this country.  Can't teach the facts I guess.

[pacman 7,371]

1 hour ago, tokamak said:

TEA moves to appoint conservator over Austin ISD. This was their first step toward taking over Houston ISD. State coming for all the big city school districts eventually.

A big attack front right now - it’s the reason specifically cited for the AISD conservator and it’s coming up a lot in the education saving account plan - is special ed. The big public districts have been starved of resources so they all have big backlogs of evaluations and overwhelmed teachers. Clearly they’re failing our most vulnerable kids! Better blow up the system and give all that money to private schools! No mention of the fact that many private schools just straight up won’t take special ed kids, or where all these new private special ed teachers are going to magically appear from. 

The same TEA under federal investigation for.....failure in special education....

The same TEA that has admitted its underfunds special education in AISD by $80 million.

Not only has Texas sabotaged AISDs efforts in special education but they are going to send agency proven to be inadequate in the area of special education.

 

 

[tx 3 putt 77,428]

Abbott 100% has to take over harris / Travis / Dallas counties, one or another 

[pacman 7,371]

 

 

[tx 3 putt 77,428]

1 hour ago, pacman said:

 

 

[Texas Jeff 1,945]

On 3/24/2023 at 2:54 PM, bonnieblue said:

So assuming AISD, EISD, RRISD etc get ground into paste over the next few years, what are the remaining good educational options in the Austin area (apart from the already-competitive St. Andrews and St. Stephens) that aren’t religious and/or some sort of corporate chain with opaque motives and locations in shopping centers? 

Austin ISD isn't going to get ground into paste.  AISD is gradually replacing their schools after a generation of neglect, and the new schools are great.  The district is shrinking because no one can afford to live in Austin, so they have too many schools, but no one wants to close any of the schools.  They could help themselves financially by consolidating schools, but it's politically impossible.  The district is gradually getting more affluent because those who can stay have more money than those who moved out.

Their #1 problem is Robin Hood.  For every dollar they spend locally on salaries and such, they send one more dollar to the state.  It's too bad that the Lege won't give local communities the option of raising local taxes to pay local teachers.  I think folks in Austin care and if given the chance, they would raise their own taxes to pay teachers more.  Right now there is literally a formula capping what teachers can get paid, and in a high cost town like Austin, teachers are bailing out for cheaper towns or higher paying jobs.

[crash_davis 23,115]

TLDR: AISD, which gave almost a $1B dollars to Robinhood/the State, failed to meets standards for special education kids. As a result, TEA is proposing to put AISD in Conservator, which they did to HISD and then replaced the HISD super and board. TEA was cited in 2018 and 2020 for failing as a whole to meet standards for special education. TEA also misappropriates and un-spends $ billions of Federal education aid. So the State and TEA wastes almost a $1B of AISD money, and then wastes another $Billion plus in federal money, but wants to put AISD under Conservatorship. Maybe if they let AISD spend that $1B for AISD, maybe if they actually spent federal education aid towards education, the state as a whole and AISD could meet standards for special education. Fuck Abbott and the state leadership. Incompetent, fascist fuckers.

 

TEA moves to appoint a Conservator to oversee AISD because AISD's failing in serving students receiving special education. 2 weeks ago, TEA announced it would replace the Houston Independent School District's current superintendent and the school board with its own “board of managers” in response to years of poor academic outcomes. HISD had a Conservator before it decided to replace the super and board.

https://www.texastribune.org/2023/03/31/austin-isd-conservatorship/

The Texas Education Agency on Friday said it will move to appoint conservators to oversee the Austin Independent School District, citing the district’s failings in serving students receiving special education.

The TEA said in a statement that it had been investigating the district’s special education department and found that it had “systemic issues.”

“The Agency has developed a rigorous plan for AISD to implement so it can return to state and federal compliance and begin appropriately serving students in need of special education services as quickly as possible,” the statement said.

Austin ISD's board of trustees said in a statement Friday evening that conservators selected by the TEA would work with the district to provide special education services to students with disabilities. The board also said the district has a right to appeal the conservatorship, but did not state whether it would do so.

 

TEA is the same entity which funneled $5B of federal education money into state coffers and returned hundreds of millions because it didn't spend it.

https://www.austinchronicle.com/columns/2021-11-05/opinion-where-did-the-money-go/

"More than $5 billion in federal funds intended to help our students recover from the pandemic were diverted, and this diversion has mostly gone unnoticed. Those billions of dollars sent to the Texas Education Agency (TEA) were intended to help our students and teachers, and instead were absorbed into the state coffers to be spent on other things.

This is not the first time TEA has returned unspent funds so the legislature can reallocate them. At the end of the 2016-2017 biennium, TEA returned nearly $500 million in surplus and in the next cycle the agency returned more than $900 million. This practice shortchanges Texas children and cannot be allowed to continue."