| The Quorum Report
Editor: Harvey Kronberg
P.O. Box 8 Austin, Texas 78767
Voice: 512-292-8191
Fax: 512-292-0099
Email: kronberg@quorumreport.com
February 13, 2007 7:05 PM
ã Copyright February 13, 2007 by Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
NEW BUSINESS GROUP RALLIES AROUND MORE MONEY FOR PUBLIC EDUCATION
Constant criticism undermines teacher morale; reduced class size is critical they say
A group of business leaders that includes the CEOs of HEB groceries, Continental Airlines, Temple-Inland and AT&T is advocating greater state investment in pre-K programs and in lowering teacher to student ratios.
Also involved in the effort are former state Sen. Bill Ratliff and former Education Commissioner Mike Moses. In a press avail this morning to announce the formation of the new group, Raise Your Hand, Ratliff argued that the current accountability-based reform program could actually worsen schools’ performance.
He argued that businesses could not be expected to perform if the workforce was being constantly criticized. He wondered why teachers would respond any differently. He said pushing accountability measures year after year reminded him of the office joke that the "beatings will continue until morale improves."
"It’s not enough to just critique (teachers) for marginal performance," Ratliff said. "Accountability only goes so far. Weighing a cow does not make it heavier, you have to feed it."
Public education would be better served by making full day pre-K and kindergarten programs available to all 4 and 5 year olds, he said. One of the biggest problems facing the schools is the achievement gap between low-income students and the rest of the population.
Since it’s difficult for students to catch up once the gap occurs, the best strategy is to start all students learning together, he said. "For those at an early age, you made the case for all day pre-K and K."
In a similar vein, it makes sense to lower classroom size, Ratliff said. Reducing a class from 30 students to 20 students would allow teachers to give 50 percent more attention to each student, he said.
Ratliff didn’t have a price tag for the initiatives but he applauded the Governor’s inclusion of an extra $80 million for pre-K as a good first step. In the long term, Ratliff said the state should spend an extra $2,000 more per student, a figure that was presented in the last school finance lawsuit as sufficient to provide an adequate education.
HEB CEO Charles Butt said that he’s paid careful attention to state demographer Steve Murdock who has concluded that the state’s per capita income will decline unless something is done to better educate the state’s minority and low-income students.
The underlying theme is that business leaders are realizing that an educated work force is in their long-term best interest and that they need to provide leadership on the issue independent of the entrenched interests in the debate. In this morning’s presser, the group noted that its advisory board has with a single exception no affiliation with any school advocacy group.
The logic extends to the group’s argument against vouchers, which Ratliff said privileged a few students over the educational needs of the rest. Removing 100 students from a low-performing school won’t turn the school into a high performer, he said. It’s better to fix the school. "Don’t abandon 400 for the sake of 100," he said.
With the most recent battles over school finance just concluded, it would seem unlikely that lawmakers are willing to wade into debates on added school funding anytime soon. Butt indicated that his group planned to be around for the long term.
Butt and others involved with the group are regular political contributors, but Raise Your Hand has no intention of forming its own PAC. He envisions the group as a conduit for information or possibly for draft legislative language.
ã Copyright February 13, 2007 by Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved |
