The destruction of America's public education system

[tokamak 6,431]

7 minutes ago, crash_davis said:

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."

 

1. Make public education shitty on purpose
2. "pUbLiC eDUcaTiON iS FaiLiNG oUR KiDs!!!"
3. Dismantle public education entirely
4. ...
5. Profit!

[tx 3 putt 76,976]

 

[crash_davis 23,113]

2 minutes ago, tokamak said:

1. Make public education shitty on purpose
2. "pUbLiC eDUcaTiON iS FaiLiNG oUR KiDs!!!"
3. Dismantle public education entirely
4. ...
5. Profit!

Fine, kill public education. Please remove the ISD taxes from our property tax bill. What the fuck is the state going to do when it doesn't have all that surplus Robinhood money to throw in the state spending coffers?

[bonnieblue 542]

13 hours ago, Texas Jeff said:

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.

I mean, I completely agree, but the state is probably only going to continue to make the Robinhood issue worse and I don’t see the teacher vacancy issue getting better either (due to lack of funds for raises and overall climate).
 

Between the TEA fuckery and the fun surprises that I’m sure the next leg session has in store for us, I feel like 5 years from now we will have classes of 40-50(via online teachers), our democratically elected school board ousted and replaced with Patriot mobile crazies, our book shelves bare, SPED completely defunded, the arts cancelled due to lack of funds and wokeness.
I’m sure LGBT teachers/students/ parents ousted or muzzled for being too “woke”, and at some point LGBT parents won’t be allowed to pick up their kids because it could be upsetting to the other students.

I hope I’m just catastrophizing and AISD keeps humming along despite the challenges as I’m a huge fan of the new facilities, community involvement and magnet programs they’ve established.

Talk me off the ledge!

[Texas Jeff 1,945]

10 hours ago, bonnieblue said:

I’m sure LGBT teachers/students/ parents ousted or muzzled for being too “woke”, and at some point LGBT parents won’t be allowed to pick up their kids because it could be upsetting to the other students.

 

Not in Austin ISD.  At the high school level, I saw all kinds of kids, teachers and parents being who they wanted to be and it didn't matter to most everyone else.

The kids that I saw were a lot more kind to each other and accepting than when I was in high school.  They are under a lot of pressure to do well now and there is a ton of anxiety that my generation didn't have.

10 hours ago, bonnieblue said:

I hope I’m just catastrophizing and AISD keeps humming along despite the challenges as I’m a huge fan of the new facilities, community involvement and magnet programs they’ve established.

The magnets are fine but you can find greatness at the neighborhood schools too.  While I was a parent, Austin High put kids into MIT, the Naval Academy, UC schools, lots of east coast schools, Plan II and STEM majors at UT, lots of kids at Texas A&M, and others.  There were, and hopefully still are, a core group of teachers that helped push them along towards their goals.  My fear is that they will eventually lose their teachers simply because it costs more to live in Austin than the school district can pay.  We collect plenty of money to pay our teachers enough to stay, but Robin Hood takes that away.

You mentioned a few things that might also drive teachers out of teaching -- large class sizes and online teaching -- that's a roadmap for burnout.

Imagine if you're a top-notch STEM teacher at a magnet high school.  Each year you bust your butt to teach kids who aren't always grateful, but sometimes are awesome.  You teach 'em up and help them get good grades on AP exams, spend extra time in office hours with them, sponsor clubs, and write recommendations that help them get into a good college.  And five years later that kid returns to Austin, gets a tech job, makes twice as much as you do right out of college, and buys the house that you had your eye on.

How long could you do that without tapping out and looking for a better life for yourself, even if you love teaching?

[Guest]

19 hours ago, crash_davis said:

Fine, kill public education. Please remove the ISD taxes from our property tax bill. What the fuck is the state going to do when it doesn't have all that surplus Robinhood money to throw in the state spending coffers?

LOLz.  Regardless of the circumstances, THAT will never fucking happen.  Hell that money doesn't even belong to us.  

If actual application and responsible spending were prerequisites for taxes, we'd pay significantly less across the board.

Edited April 5, 2023 by slorch

[CooterBrown 18,014]

On 4/3/2023 at 9:29 PM, Texas Jeff said:

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.  

Smaller schools foster better engagement with kids and parents, especially in the lower grades and that leads to better academic outcomes.  They also foster a commitment to the community because it your neighborhood school.   If we have to spend extra money on anything, I really prefer to spend it to keep smaller neighborhood schools intact  instead of moving to giant suburban style campuses.

 

[Nivek 16,933]

23 hours ago, tokamak said:

1. Make public education shitty on purpose
2. "pUbLiC eDUcaTiON iS FaiLiNG oUR KiDs!!!"
3. Dismantle public education entirely
4. ...
5. Profit!

4) send public money to private schools that are handpicked from right-wing donors and enjoy the campaign contributions.

[tx 3 putt 76,976]

11 hours ago, CooterBrown said:

Smaller schools foster better engagement with kids and parents, especially in the lower grades and that leads to better academic outcomes.  They also foster a commitment to the community because it your neighborhood school.   If we have to spend extra money on anything, I really prefer to spend it to keep smaller neighborhood schools intact  instead of moving to giant suburban style campuses.

 

 

[Texas Jeff 1,945]

12 hours ago, CooterBrown said:

Smaller schools foster better engagement with kids and parents, especially in the lower grades and that leads to better academic outcomes.  They also foster a commitment to the community because it your neighborhood school.   If we have to spend extra money on anything, I really prefer to spend it to keep smaller neighborhood schools intact  instead of moving to giant suburban style campuses.

A fair point, and especially at the elementary school level it makes sense.  At the high school level, if you want all schools to be equal and all schools to offer all athletic teams, all AP classes, all grade level classes, all fine arts, engineering programs, etc ... that is tough to do with 700 kids in a high school.

Austin ISD has about 100,000 seats and 70,000 students.  The latest demographic report projects enrollment of 66,000 students ten years from now.  They are trying really hard (and voters are helping) to fix up those 100,000 seats -- but it would be helpful to aim for a capacity of 80,000 seats rather than try to keep all 100,000 open.

[tx 3 putt 76,976]

 

[tx 3 putt 76,976]

 

[Pancho 44,809]

 

[WhatTheBuck 28,783]

Who can’t see that?

[atomheartbevo 89,675]

On 4/5/2023 at 9:00 PM, tx 3 putt said:

 

Counterpoint:

[TexasEd 8,067]

On 4/4/2023 at 9:45 AM, tokamak said:

1. Make public education shitty on purpose
2. "pUbLiC eDUcaTiON iS FaiLiNG oUR KiDs!!!"
3. Dismantle public education entirely
4. ...
5. Profit!

 

On 4/5/2023 at 9:44 AM, Nivek said:

4) send public money to private schools that are handpicked from right-wing donors and enjoy the campaign contributions.

I’m watching the money angle.  This is all about the money and they are running the same playbook that created the

• war on drugs ->private prisons and 3 strikes your out judges get kick backs for keeping them full
• neglected infrastructure -> private toll roads with public guaranteed bonds. Invest public money and privatize the profit while making sure your donors own the land on the right of way
• Kill public education -> transfer tax money to private schools run by your donor base

[Nice Guy Eddie 13,514]

1 hour ago, Pancho said:

 

It's important that the next generations do not realize how bad the GOP is, or the GOP will struggle to win election. Can't have that.

[Nivek 16,933]

They don't seem to be struggling with all the gerrymandering and propaganda.  

[Stilicho 1,397]

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/woodland-park-colorado-school-board-conservatives-rcna83311

I remember when New History textbooks were far-fetched enough to be part of the plot in Jericho.

[TexPx 2,323]

Good job Frisco for keeping two more extremists off our school board.

[UpperWestside 6,167]

17 minutes ago, Stilicho said:

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/woodland-park-colorado-school-board-conservatives-rcna83311

I remember when New History textbooks were far-fetched enough to be part of the plot in Jericho.

Such an amazingly beautiful area run by absolutely insane people on that school board. 

[ChuckNorrisActionJeans 2,678]

At the first board meeting in January with Witt as superintendent, the board voted to adopt the American Birthright social studies curriculum standard. No social studies teachers had been consulted prior to the vote, according to three current employees and an administrator who asked to speak anonymously to protect their employment.

American Birthright materials emphasize patriotism, argue that the federal government should have no authority over public schools and say teachers should not encourage civic engagement, such as registering to vote or petitioning local lawmakers on issues students care about.

“It is terribly important to be a disengaged citizen, and indeed, a disengaged student,” said David Randall, research director at the National Association of Scholars, a conservative organization that created the standards last year.

 

Am I reading this wrong, or is this a right-wing demagogue flat-out saying that an engaged student body and citizenry is bad??!

The fuck

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/woodland-park-colorado-school-board-conservatives-rcna83311

 

[Stilicho 1,397]

44 minutes ago, ChuckNorrisActionJeans said:

At the first board meeting in January with Witt as superintendent, the board voted to adopt the American Birthright social studies curriculum standard. No social studies teachers had been consulted prior to the vote, according to three current employees and an administrator who asked to speak anonymously to protect their employment.

American Birthright materials emphasize patriotism, argue that the federal government should have no authority over public schools and say teachers should not encourage civic engagement, such as registering to vote or petitioning local lawmakers on issues students care about.

“It is terribly important to be a disengaged citizen, and indeed, a disengaged student,” said David Randall, research director at the National Association of Scholars, a conservative organization that created the standards last year.

 

Am I reading this wrong, or is this a right-wing demagogue flat-out saying that an engaged student body and citizenry is bad??!

The fuck

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/woodland-park-colorado-school-board-conservatives-rcna83311

 

You're reading it right.

They're not bothering with hiding it anymore. They want the whole world to be drug down to their intellectual level. Scared, dumb, and full of rage at the random minority population du jour. 

A couple of folks, who I think may have been run off back during the Shag, used to run around shouting about "liberalism is a disease," mainly on white power grounds. Well, Christian Nationalism is starting to look an awful lot like a real socio-cultural disease with real body counts.

[TexPx 2,323]

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/woodland-park-colorado-school-board-conservatives-rcna83311
I remember when New History textbooks were far-fetched enough to be part of the plot in Jericho.

Next step is to go full on with Bob Jones University Press Christian worldview curriculum.

[tchookem 3,900]

The his just keep coming...

[tchookem 3,900]

The his just keep coming...

[Stilicho 1,397]

I mean... the Oklahoma public school system is shit and has been shit for a very long time. We're having quite the Jesus Civil War about it down at the capitol these days. Never thought I would see parity in the levels of insanity between Oklahoma and Texas public education. 

Ten years ago, every teacher I knew worth their salt was heading south to actually make a living wage. Now it seems we're all holding hands waiting on Hale-Bopp.

[atomheartbevo 89,675]

42 minutes ago, Stilicho said:

Ten years ago, every teacher I knew worth their salt was heading south to actually make a living wage. Now it seems we're all holding hands waiting on Hale-Bopp.

My cousin teaches in Oklahoma, and was considering moving to Dallas - shit the Oklahoma teacher of the year 5 or 6 years ago bailed for Texas - https://www.npr.org/2018/04/07/600322769/he-was-oklahomas-teacher-of-the-year-then-moved-to-texas-for-better-pay-now-what#:~:text=Sheehan%2FShawn Sheehan-,Setting up his new classroom in Texas this school year,classroom in Lewisville%2C TX!"

My wife taught for years, and is still in education, and a lot of her friends are looking out of state with everything that is playing out, and other states pay a lot better and aren't trying to force Jesus or the Dark Ages down their throats.

[bolverk 29,683]

Great. We're going to have christofasctist moles in our public schools now, enforcing their religious views on what kids can read.

[Hawndoh 2,386]

It's getting more and more likely I'll need to investigate a move to another state. It's just so expensive to not only move anywhere long distance, but to then get recertified in a new state. And I don't know that I would want to try that without a job already lined up, but it's hard to line up a job if you haven't done the certification yet.

Plus all the years I've already invested into retirement in Texas, assuming TRS even survives long enough for me to use it.

Just feels like there are no good options.

On the bright side, at least the most extremist school board candidates in my town all lost their elections, so that's good.

[atomheartbevo 89,675]

24 minutes ago, bolverk said:

Great. We're going to have christofasctist moles in our public schools now, enforcing their religious views on what kids can read.

Only thing we can do is get the Catholics pissed off at them, and get them pissed off at the Catholics.

18 minutes ago, Hawndoh said:

It's getting more and more likely I'll need to investigate a move to another state. It's just so expensive to not only move anywhere long distance, but to then get recertified in a new state. And I don't know that I would want to try that without a job already lined up, but it's hard to line up a job if you haven't done the certification yet.

Plus all the years I've already invested into retirement in Texas, assuming TRS even survives long enough for me to use it.

Just feels like there are no good options.

On the bright side, at least the most extremist school board candidates in my town all lost their elections, so that's good.

Wife's friend is making like $95,000 a year teaching at some place outside of Boston as a relatively new teacher (less than a decade), and she said Boston's school district has quite a few teachers making $100,000 or more.  Looking around at other New England states, they seem to pay pretty well.  She said they all seemed pretty intent on retaining teachers for the long run, rather than like here in Texas where there's a shitload of churn with a lot of younger teachers bailing for better-paying/less stressful jobs.  And she doesn't have to deal with religious nuts trying to find out what books she has in her classroom library.

  On the one hand, some place like Boston is expensive to live, but then Austin is going down that road.

[CooterBrown 18,014]

21 hours ago, ChuckNorrisActionJeans said:

At the first board meeting in January with Witt as superintendent, the board voted to adopt the American Birthright social studies curriculum standard. No social studies teachers had been consulted prior to the vote, according to three current employees and an administrator who asked to speak anonymously to protect their employment.

American Birthright materials emphasize patriotism, argue that the federal government should have no authority over public schools and say teachers should not encourage civic engagement, such as registering to vote or petitioning local lawmakers on issues students care about.

“It is terribly important to be a disengaged citizen, and indeed, a disengaged student,” said David Randall, research director at the National Association of Scholars, a conservative organization that created the standards last year.

 

Am I reading this wrong, or is this a right-wing demagogue flat-out saying that an engaged student body and citizenry is bad??!

The fuck

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/woodland-park-colorado-school-board-conservatives-rcna83311

 

Teachers grew particularly alarmed early this year when word spread that Ken Witt, the new superintendent, did not plan to reapply for grants that covered the salaries of counselors and social workers. 

At Gateway Elementary School in March, Witt told staff members he prioritized academic achievement, not students’ emotions. “We are not the department of health and human services,” he said, as teachers angrily objected, according to two recordings of the meeting made by staff members and shared with NBC News.

[Captainant 27,677]

Bunch of idiot boomers filled with hate running school districts now, determined to make everyone's kids just like them

[crash_davis 23,113]

The world will be a better place when all of these idiot Y'all Queda, KKKristian nationalists boomers die. I'm pissed Covid didn't kill off more of them. 

[Beau Vine 54,231]

4 minutes ago, crash_davis said:

The world will be a better place when all of these idiot Y'all Queda, KKKristian nationalists boomers die. I'm pissed Covid didn't kill off more of them. 

Don't get your hopes up -- they'll just be replaced by bigger, louder morons.

[Biff Tannen 45,691]

15 hours ago, tchookem said:

The his just keep coming...
 

Holy shit. So glad I don’t have kids. 

[Biff Tannen 45,691]

3 minutes ago, Beau Vine said:

Don't get your hopes up -- they'll just be replaced by bigger, louder morons.

The two people in that video explaining the chaplain thing are Gen Z age.

[Foosters 17,858]

1 minute ago, Biff Tannen said:

Holy shit. So glad I don’t have kids. 

Holy shit. So glad I don't live in Texas.

[Stilicho 1,397]

14 hours ago, atomheartbevo said:

My cousin teaches in Oklahoma, and was considering moving to Dallas - shit the Oklahoma teacher of the year 5 or 6 years ago bailed for Texas - https://www.npr.org/2018/04/07/600322769/he-was-oklahomas-teacher-of-the-year-then-moved-to-texas-for-better-pay-now-what#:~:text=Sheehan%2FShawn Sheehan-,Setting up his new classroom in Texas this school year,classroom in Lewisville%2C TX!"

My wife taught for years, and is still in education, and a lot of her friends are looking out of state with everything that is playing out, and other states pay a lot better and aren't trying to force Jesus or the Dark Ages down their throats.

Yep. In the mid-aughts, every rural teacher that could actually teach either went west into the Panhandle / Amarillo or south to the metroplex. 

We had a teacher strike in the 2018, but the oil barons and christofacists killed it without any sort of meaningful change outside of a salary increase. Now they're under siege from our own version of DeSantis, solely over woke books and teachers' unions, so that salary increase means jack shit if you get run off for assigning a book report over To Kill a Mockingbird.

Everything is a priority these days, but its going to take some serious FAFO folks to just keep education from slipping sideways right now. Dumbing people down and disengaging them from civil conversation, to my eyes, is just completely antithetical to the notion of American civic responsibilities. 

[crash_davis 23,113]

8 minutes ago, Foosters said:

Holy shit. So glad I don't live in Texas.

You'll get no arguments from me as I'm now at T-minus 4 years to retiring somewhere in Colorado. Texas especially sucks. But...

The article above is Woodland Park in Colorado. Idiots are everywhere. In Colorado, they are in Colorado Springs and surrounding areas and anywhere that Tits&Guns Boebert represent.

[tchookem 3,900]

Teachers grew particularly alarmed early this year when word spread that Ken Witt, the new superintendent, did not plan to reapply for grants that covered the salaries of counselors and social workers. 

At Gateway Elementary School in March, Witt told staff members he prioritized academic achievement, not students’ emotions. “We are not the department of health and human services,” he said, as teachers angrily objected, according to two recordings of the meeting made by staff members and shared with NBC News.

Tell me you don't know shit about education without telling me you don't know shit about education.

Perfect superintendent material there.

[Beau Vine 54,231]

Pretty much like an NFL team getting rid of all the trainers.

"We're trying to win games.  You win games with coaches and players, not trainers."

[Willfully Horn 8,017]

Replace counselors with chaplains? What’s the difference between chaplains and youth ministers, aka the profession seemingly most likely to include child rapists? What could go wrong?

[TexPx 2,323]

Sneaky fuckers.

[Stilicho 1,397]

I wonder how many evangelicals, men and women, were abused as kids and if now they think that sexual abuse is just "normal evangelical behavior."

I don't much care if folks are religious so long as they don't try to force me to live my life by their tenets, but religion seem to come awfully close to "grooming" when its directed specifically at kids.

[TexPx 2,323]

Replace counselors with chaplains? What’s the difference between chaplains and youth ministers, aka the profession seemingly most likely to include child rapists? What could go wrong?

Well, Hinijosa did put an amendment in that says they can’t have any sexual predator convictions and have to have background checks.

Who decides if they employ chaplains? School Boards?

[NWBuck 8,569]

1 hour ago, Willfully Horn said:

Replace counselors with chaplains? What’s the difference between chaplains and youth ministers, aka the profession seemingly most likely to include child rapists? What could go wrong?

Sure, but all of the counseling meetings will now include a dude strumming on a guitar...

[Mole 4,333]

In the military, chaplains fill a vital role for maintaining the spiritual health of young people — of all and no faiths — facing the stress of operating in an absurd and abusive bureaucracy with enemy combatants lurking around every corner. How are schools different?

[Stilicho 1,397]

3 minutes ago, Mole said:

In the military, chaplains fill a vital role for maintaining the spiritual health of young people — of all and no faiths — facing the stress of operating in an absurd and abusive bureaucracy with enemy combatants lurking around every corner. How are schools different?

Why does my kid's "spiritual health need maintained" at a taxpayer-funded public school? Religious guidance, of whatever persuasion, has no business in the public school system. 

[softlynow 1,816]

Just now, Mole said:

In the military, chaplains fill a vital role for maintaining the spiritual health of young people — of all and no faiths — facing the stress of operating in an absurd and abusive bureaucracy with enemy combatants lurking around every corner. How are schools different?

Firearm deaths aren't the #1 cause of death for service members. Children don't need chaplains, they need advanced tactical training and equipment.