[CSPS] WSJ on Texas schools

[Gene and Maggie Charleton]

Considering the attitude taken here by the WSJ, a comment on public school
funding Democratic gubernatorial candidate Chris Bell made at Blinn the
other evening is interesting.

 

He pointed out that the top private schools in Houston - often held up as
models for the quality of education public schools should be (and by
implication, aren't) producing - charge as much as $15,000 a year in
tuition. Yet no one suggests that they are spending too much money per
student, he said.

 

-----Original Message-----
From: csps-bounces at PHILEBUS.tamu.edu [mailto:csps-bounces at PHILEBUS.tamu.edu]
On Behalf Of Jonathan Coopersmith
Sent: Thursday, December 01, 2005 11:07 AM
To: lisa at mailppri.tamu.edu; csps at philebus.tamu.edu
Subject: [CSPS] WSJ on Texas schools

 


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_ed
it.html?COXnetJSessionIDbuild107=DPtGfKYHJW4u4Hnse2TvqKEe2wzINZw584RVFCVxPhx
35UQg9y0R!72575533
<http://www.statesman.com/opinion/content/editorial/stories/12/1texschools_e
dit.html?COXnetJSessionIDbuild107=DPtGfKYHJW4u4Hnse2TvqKEe2wzINZw584RVFCVxPh
x35UQg9y0R!72575533&UrAuth=aNcNUOcNUUbTTUWUXUTUZTZU%5eUWU%5eUbUZU%60UbUcTYWV
VZV&urcm=y> &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

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://philebus.tamu.edu/pipermail/csps/attachments/20051202/3ffb6601/attachment.htm