[CSPS] WSJ on Texas schools

[Jonathan Coopersmith]

The Wall Street Journal: A lesson for Texas schools

Thursday, December 01, 2005

The Texas Supreme Court did the expected recently and struck down the 
statewide property tax for funding public schools. But what was surprising 
and welcome was the court's unanimous ruling that the Texas school system, 
which spends nearly $10,000 per student, satisfies the funding "adequacy" 
requirements of the state constitution. Most remarkable of all was the 
court's declaration that "more money does not guarantee better schools or 
more educated students."

Think about that one for a second. To our knowledge, this is the first time 
anywhere in the country that the judiciary has flatly rejected the core 
doctrine of the education establishment that more dollars equal better 
classroom performance. And it is potentially very good news for students, 
especially those from the poorest neighborhoods, because it shifts the 
policy emphasis from money to achievement. Better send the paramedics to 
check for heart failure at National Education Association headquarters.

Even more encouraging, the court endorsed more choices for parents and the 
state's 4.3 million school kids. It said flatly: "Public education could 
benefit from more competition."

The Texas Public Policy Foundation, which provided much of the academic 
research for the court, looked at the Edgewood school district in San 
Antonio, where donors started a privately financed voucher program. The 
results indicate that not only have the kids with the vouchers benefited, 
but so have kids in the public schools that are now forced to compete for 
students.

We hope courts and school boards across the country study the Texas 
decision ­ including its comments on school financing: "The Constitution 
does not require a particular solution," Judge Nathan Hecht wrote for the 
majority. "We leave such matters to the discretion of the Legislature." In 
other words, it's not the proper role of the judiciary to intervene in the 
operation or financing of the public schools.

That kind of judicial thinking tends to be the exception these days. Over 
the past two decades, courts in more than 30 states have intervened in 
education policy and ordered billions of dollars spent on schools in the 
name of boosting student performance and ensuring equitable financing. The 
result has been an avalanche of new spending on inner-city and rural 
schools, but, alas, not much measurable achievement by the kids who were 
supposed to be helped.

In one of the most notorious cases, in Kansas City, Missouri, in the 1980s, 
a judge issued an edict requiring a $1 billion tax hike to help the failing 
inner-city schools. This raised expenditures to about $14,000 per student, 
or double the national average, but test scores continued to decline. Even 
the judge later admitted that he had blundered.

The hope now is that, as Republican Gov. Rick Perry and the state 
Legislature search for a new school financing mechanism next year, they 
will accept the court's invitation to open up the school system to a wide 
range of options, including charters, vouchers, scholarships and rewards 
for quality, such as teacher pay for performance.

If so, the Lone Star State, once the home of some of the worst public 
schools in the country, could become the national model for educational 
excellence.

http://www.statesman.com/opinion/content/editorial/stories/12/1texschools_edit.html?COXnetJSessionIDbuild107=DPtGfKYHJW4u4Hnse2TvqKEe2wzINZw584RVFCVxPhx35UQg9y0R!72575533&UrAuth=aNcNUOcNUUbTTUWUXUTUZTZU^UWU^UbUZU%60UbUcTYWVVZV&urcm=y

Jonathan Coopersmith
Associate Professor
Dept. of History
MS 4236
Texas A&M University
College Station, Texas  77843
979.845.8584
979.862.4314 fax

Secretary
History & Philosophy of Science Section (L)
American Association for the Advancement of Science
aaas.org 
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