LEAVING CHILDREN BEHIND WITHOUT LOOKING LIKE IT

Some of us listened for eight long years to the nauseating self-pronouncement that education was getting better under the George W. Bush “No Child Left Behind” program.   State leadership boasts most of our tests indicate public education in Texas is getting better.  While there are an abundance of indicators to suggest our Texas system may be failing many of our students, our Texas leadership continues to proclaim standardized tests given incrementally to various grades indicate we are doing fine.

We are still among the leaders of all states in dropouts, teenage pregnancies, and do not even lead all of the Southern states in our commitment to public and higher education, as evidenced by our miserly appropriations. 

A recent examination of the federal test results indicate that although a fourth of eighth-graders in Texas seem to be doing well according to state standards, we are trailing fourth in eighth-graders’ test results compared to most other states.  You might ask how this could be?   It’s fairly simple.   We have improved the quality of test scores in Texas by lowering the rating of test scores deemed to be satisfactory in the state.  As a matter of fact the analyses of federal results indicate Texas has the standards which are fourth from the bottom of all of the states of the Union.  In other words, Texas claims tests in reading and math of 188 and 225, respectively, are adequate scores to consider our system okay, the national base level in reading and math is 208 and 243.  In plain English, our state minimum standards are substantially easier than those recommended by the United States Department of Education.

One of the conservatives on our State Board of Education argues that parents are smart enough to tell whether or not schools are good schools or not–a statement with which I would take strong issue.  Unfortunately, there are too many parents in this state encouraged by such statements from State Board members who believe if the school house looks okay, doesn’t have a leaky roof and the football team has a winning season that everything is lovely.  Unfortunately, the above does not represent good measuring sticks for whether or not we have good schools.

While I am not an advocate of simply throwing money at schools and hoping they will get better, I am an advocate of more innovative programs which have been proven throughout the United States to work in elevating student achievement and learning.  Unfortunately, almost all of these innovative programs cost more money.  Until our State Board concerns itself more with improving education than they do political philosophy, I fear Texas and Texas’ students will still lag the nation in educational achievement.

COURAGE OF POLITICS

Carl Parker sez:

John F. Kennedy’s book, Profiles in Courage, is a collection of essays about being in public office faced with doing the politically expedient thing, or taking action which would endanger their political careers because it was right.

I am having a difficult time trying to figure out whether the Democrats’ actions related to health reform should be included among profiles in courage or great political blunders. 

Republicans continue to boast that they have transformed public opinion to where it currently is overwhelmingly against health care reform.  


It reminds me a lot of the little boy who continued to boast he and his dad had killed a bear.  Republicans, perhaps, have contributed slightly to the alteration of the American population opinion on health care; but they have done so with collaboration with special interest lobbyists who have spent millions each month in opposing health care reform.  


Republicans claim they do not know what’s in the bill, but apparently they know all they need to know to oppose it; and that cogent fact is that the bill is opposed by special interests such as pharmaceutical companies, as well as health insurance companies.

Clearly, the current bill has its shortcomings.  There is plenty that needs fixing with the American system of delivering health care to its citizens.   While it is often said the U.S. has the finest health care in the world, this is not necessarily true for all Americans.  


I will concede that America has the finest technology, technique and the best medical treatment that can be found.  Unfortunately, however, too many Americans do not have access to the upper-level standard of medical care available to some in this country.  Several other countries in the world, including Cuba, have better access for more of its citizenry than we do. 

President Obama struck a nerve with many American citizens, particularly the poor, when he campaigned advocating overhauling our system of health in this country.  Having too many people uninsured and uninsurable is a problem for those with long-term, life-threatening illnesses or injuries; poor people not being able to have access to specialists and hospitals being overwhelmed with uncompensated care at their emergency rooms.  


All of these are big problems for too many of our citizens.  These problems form a long enough list without starting in on abuses by uncaring, money-grubbing insurance companies who care little about health care and a lot about profit.

Perhaps for the Democrats who know more about the bill than I, they truly believe it to be an act of courage to support a bill which is disfavored in all of the public opinion polls by a majority of American citizens.  Perhaps the bill will fix enough wrongs with our health system to be a positive step forward and ultimate reform of that system.

On balance, my tendency is to agree with Dr. Howard Dean, former national chairman of the Democratic Party, that because creating an option to compete with insurance companies has been dropped from the bill, it likely is not substantive enough to waste the political capital in trying to pass it.  


Were I a political consultant directing the National Democratic Party, I would advise to let the Republicans kill it.  To me, the political issue would be more valuable to the Democratic Party than the small and weak reforms the compromised bill may accomplish.  


Were the bill to die, Democrats could explain to families who were going bankrupt because of having to treat a loved one’s incurable cancer, that it was the Republicans’ fault they were not covered by insurance.  They could explain to grieving parents their child could not see a specialist who might offer a cure because there is no government-sponsored insurance to cover the necessary procedures to save their child’s life.  Blame it on the Republicans!  They killed the bill.

On the other hand, if Democrats force the bill through Congress, everything wrong which befalls an American citizen in need of health care will be blamed on the Democrats for either placing impediments to free enterprise type medical care or failing to include a remedy in the bill.

I truly hope the measure amounts to a profile in courage because it carries a tremendous political risk.

LEAVING CHILDREN BEHIND WHILE TRYING NOT TO LOOK LIKE IT

Some of us listened for eight long years to the nauseating self-pronouncement that education was getting better under the George W. Bush “No Child Left Behind” program.   State leadership boasts most of our tests indicate public education in Texas is getting better.  While there are an abundance of indicators to suggest our Texas system may be failing many of our students, our Texas leadership continues to proclaim standardized tests given incrementally to various grades indicate we are doing fine.

We are still among the leaders of all states in dropouts, teenage pregnancies, and do not even lead all of the Southern states in our commitment to public and higher education, as evidenced by our miserably miserly appropriations.  

A recent examination of the federal test results indicate that although 25% of eighth-graders in Texas seem to be doing well according to state standards, we are trailing in eighth-graders’ test results compared to most other states.  You might ask how this could be?   

It’s fairly simple.  Our standards are lower. We have improved the quality of test scores in Texas by lowering the rating of test scores deemed to be satisfactory in the state.  As a matter of fact the analyses of federal results indicate Texas has the standards which are fourth from the bottom of all of the states of the Union.  In other words, Texas claims tests in reading and math of 188 and 225, respectively, are adequate scores to consider our system okay, the national base level in reading and math is 208 and 243.  

In plain English, our state minimum standards are substantially easier than those recommended by the United States Department of Education.

One of the conservatives on our State Board of Education argues that parents are smart enough to tell whether or not schools are good schools or not–a statement with which I would take strong issue.  Unfortunately, there are too many parents in this state encouraged by such statements from State Board members who believe if the school house looks okay, doesn’t have a leaky roof, and the football team has a winning season, then everything is lovely.  


Unfortunately, the above does not represent good measuring sticks for whether or not we have good schools.

While I am not an advocate of simply throwing money at schools and hoping they will get better, I am an advocate of more innovative programs which have been proven throughout the United States to work in elevating student achievement and learning.  Unfortunately, almost all of these innovative programs cost more money.  


Until our State Board concerns itself more with improving education than they do political philosophy, I fear Texas and Texas’ students will still lag the nation in educational achievement.