Tank Yew, Gubaner Abboott
I am proud to announce that Texas is on the downturn from excellence in education. Hell, we don’t need no damn education in this state.
Texas fell to the bottom fifth of U.S. states in an annual report on education quality.
Texas is now ranked 43rd in the nation, falling from 39th last year in the annual “Quality Counts” report from national education publication Education Week.
Look at our state legislature – dumber than bean dip but happier than a hog in slop.
And here’s why —
In school finance, Texas ranked 45th in the nation, earning a D grade based on per pupil spending, state spending as a percent of taxable resources and other factors.
That gives them more money to sue Obama, give their staff outrageous bonuses, and fight to keep fried food in school cafeterias.
Thanks to everybody who can read for the heads up.
Thank God for Mississippi.
1The R-Klan in general is responsible for the national downward trend in education and scientific/medical research due to their obsession with cutting funding, suspicion of higher education and insistence on the inclusion of religious beliefs as facts. They have brought about a rebirth of The Dark Ages in this country. Unfortunately Texas is under their control and the results are disgraceful.
2Is our children still learning?
3“fight to keep fried food in school cafeterias”? There’s food in school cafeterias? When did that happen?
While the snacilbupeR are busy building their newer mousetraps called education, they ignore the one consistent feature of public education that leads to student success: smaller classroom sizes. Until classroom size is at 20 or less, hire more teachers. That takes money, so maybe don’t spend more money on NFL quality stadiums for HS sports.
4But note that TX ranks 24th in high school graduation rates! After all, who would ever drop out of high school before four full years of football season?
PKM is quite right on class size; that’s one of the very best predictors on the school side. The other huge predictor, though, is on the child-side: poverty. Even the best of teachers, in a class of 15 kids, will be fighting against the odds if children lack adequate food, clothing, housing, medical and dental care, especially if they don’t even get to stay in one school consistently because of their families’ insecurity of jobs and housing.
5I teach the products of Texas K-12 education. They are bright kids, even the ones from less affluent families. But they are not very educated. They know popular culture – through social media primarily – but basic writing skills, math principles, and such, are really low. They want to learn, but they aren’t used to any sort of self-discipline that is a critical need for success in higher education. My heart aches for them, although the ones I have are at least given a chance to get a decent education…if they can manage to afford it!!
6“We’re Number 45! We’re Number 45!”
Just ensuring lots more GOP voters. Those kids sure don’t need to know squat about the Constitution or any of that science stuff.
7Ummm – – and isn’t Texas the one state that gets to decide what’s in everybody else’s textbooks?
Houston, we have a problem.
8I must share this link re: education at my local high school which is working with a very diverse group of students with many issues that could provide a reason not to succeed in school, but instead they are doing very well indeed: http://www.seattletimes.com/education-lab/the-revival-of-foster-high-a-school-filled-with-refugees-makes-a-comeback/. It turns out that when my granddaughter attends this school in four more years that she will be part of the white 14% of the student body make-up! Quite a change from the very white make-up of earlier years 🙂 My children, grown now, attended the same high school and while it was diverse then, I believe that about 47% were white. They always say they are glad that the student body was so diverse because it helped them realize that all kids are basically the same under the skin/identifying dress and want pretty much the same things out of life. The experience certainly made them far more accepting of others than they may have had the school been most white at the time. BTW, this is a small school district: 3 elementary, 1 middle, and 1 high school.
9Rhea: 45… out of 100 states… that’s not bad.
10Considering the last 3 Texas Governors were all Rhodes to Nowhere Scholars inspiring the Texas lege into ignorance, I suggest we let Myrtle’s Nail Salon and Lawn Mower Repair handle the education plans for the kids from now on.
Future Texas leges can report to kindergarten every other year to catch up on what they missed the first time: honesty, empathy, compassion, fairness, sharing, kindness… and how to count money without taking some off the top for themselves.
11Laurel, you are absolutely correct! While it is incumbent upon the state to provide the conditions of learning, it is paramount to us as a society to ensure that each child has their basic needs met. Let’s vote.
Voting is our only chance to overcome the snacilbupeR response to what we know to be true. “Feed the little moochers? As fetuses they receive all the nutrition they’ll need for life in the womb.”
12PKM: as we say in Quaker world, “This Friend speaks my mind.” Vote. Get others out to vote. And help people wake up to what is going on in the world.
I’ve done intake 1-2 nights a week at our winter-season homeless shelter since it opened (now in 9th season, and still needed, alas.) We have two families there, one with 5 kids, one with 2 kids. Were it not for the shelter, they’d be sleeping in cars. They are struggling to keep kids in same school but will have to switch when they get into apartments. At least we give them a roof over their heads, home-cooked dinner, and breakfast before they go to school, and we try to help with other needs, and we’ve been able to give the families a separate room for their cots, so they can get a better night’s sleep. But you have to think that this has a huge effect on the kids’ ability to focus in school and to study.
13Welcome to the Lower Tier; CA dropped to the same place a few years ago, but I can’t remember to what level. Now that they’ve finally drop-kicked the Rethuglicans from being in charge of the budget I am hoping that they will recover somewhat.
And re:1smartcanerican @#8: Yes, it is a real advantage to have kids interacting with one another, learning that we are all more alike than we are different, and by the way, Vive la Difference!
America had the opportunity to learn those important lessons in the ’60’s, and the southern states declined to embrace the opportunity. Result: Charter Schools, Home Schooling, ignorance. Welcome to the 21st Century.
14Laurel,at the very least these kids should grow up educated enough to never vote for a wingnut. They will have been exposed to compassion and caring that wingnuts have never seen and have no clue about. It really sucks to see children treated thusly,all the while the white skinned weasels in congress are looking for more tax breaks for the wealthiest.
15@ PKM. Delete high school sports in Texas? Now that is going too far. There are only three sports in Texas. High school football, college football and spring practice.
16Just recently saw a listing of the top high school districts in the country. Texas had a whole lot of them, but if you look closely at the photos, they are all generally in white suburbs and are squeaky new! Now how can that be? Where is the $$ coming from?
17Well, the two families who are there now seem to be in transition to longer term housing, so I am hoping. But we house up to 25-40 adults in addition to the kids, on most nights in winter season, and some of them have been there since our first year. It’s a humbling experience to help out even as little as I do. I see more generosity by far from people who have next to nothing – even to giving up their bed for someone who needs it more, if we are at the cap – than from every snacilbupeR I know, combined.
Maggie, the top districts in TX are just like those in CA. The $$ is already there, in the parents’ pockets, and the kids walk through the door prepared to succeed, or else. Equalizing the state funding doesn’t equalize these advantages. If you plunked Palo Alto down in the middle of the Mississippi delta, or in the Rio Grande valley, they’d still find a way to have the best schools around.
18The answer of course to Texas’ education problems is to cut spending even further.
19Why wait for low information voters when you can grow ’em…
20Sam in San Antonio-or…….throw more guns at education. That orta ficksit.
21I grew up in the state ranked #51 for education – South Dakota. When I was a kid it #38, but the Koch paid snacilbupeR have owned SD for about 30+ years.
22I don’t just blame Republicans. I blame all the Democrats and Independents who STAY HOME on election day. Our hero, Bernie Sanders, introduced a bill to make it a federal holiday.
VOTE! If you’re not registered, what are you waiting for? If your friends, family, colleagues, congregants, neighbors need your help (a small money gift or loan, rides to the DMV, internet access, etc.) do everything in your power.
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