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For the first time in several years, Texas is experiencing a real interim – a break between regular legislative sessions uninterrupted by special sessions. Among the usual activities of an interim are the meetings and studies undertaken by interim committees. For the most part, these are the legislative committees that consider bills during the session; between sessions they are given topics to study and make recommendations on for the following legislative session. This interim also brings us a few special committees to keep an eye on.
Each of the nearly 60 legislative committees is assigned several charges, and many – even those outside of the typical education-related committees – are of interest to teachers. This interim’s study topics range from TRS investment policies to school facilities funding. (Our recent eUpdates, available on the TCTA website, provide more detail about the dozens of interim charges we’re monitoring.)
Risk of vouchers crops up with High School Council plan
One committee holds the potential to create policy and effect change prior to the legislative session, and has already created a stir in the education community by including the possibility of vouchers in its strategic plan. The High School Completion and Success Initiative Council was created in the 2007 legislative session and directed to improve the effectiveness and coordination of high school completion and college and workplace readiness efforts. One of the concerns is based in the unusual authority vested in the Council: the Texas Education Agency is prohibited from pursuing any initiatives that do not comply with the strategic plan adopted by the committee. The Council included in its plan, adopted in mid-March, a proposal that would effectively create potential for a backdoor private school voucher plan under which high school dropouts and at-risk students would be able to use state funds to be educated in alternative education settings or via alternative delivery systems operated by various entities including “nonprofits.” The concern is that the plan does not rule out the interpretation that private schools could be included as nonprofits.
The Council is also considering the issue of workforce and college readiness. This issue has become a hot topic in Austin, with some policymakers offering the position that workforce and college success skills are the same, and preparing students for post-secondary education should be a primary goal of the public schools. TCTA contends that success after high school may not necessarily include college, and that forcing students into a college path may be leading to higher dropout rates. The High School Council has included a proposal to offer “multiple pathways” to achieve post-secondary success.
Legislative Committees
The Senate Education Committee met in late February on several of its assigned charges, including the far-reaching topic of post-secondary success that is also being addressed by the High School Council (see above). TCTA’s testimony centered on the need to establish flexibility and options, including rigorous career/technology coursework, for students who may not be college-bound but who will still require subject-matter and workforce skills to be successful after high school.
The committee also discussed a charge involving the development of growth models to measure student improvement. TCTA cautioned the committee against using tests designed to measure student growth for other means – such as evaluation of teachers. As noted in our testimony, researchers maintain that “…each separate use of a high-stakes test – for individual certification, for school evaluation, for curricular improvement, for increasing student motivation, or for other uses – requires a separate evaluation of the strengths and limitations of both the testing program and the test itself.”
The House Pensions and Investments Committee has begun its deliberations, and held its first meeting in mid-February. Among the charges considered by the committee was one regarding the potential “pooling” of state-administered pharmacy plans (for example, combining the pharmacy benefit plans for TRS, ERS, UT, A&M, etc.). TCTA supports this concept and, in fact, had suggested this topic to the committee. However, the committee’s discussion centered more on other cost-saving measures and the need for “transparency” in pharmacy benefit management.
The committee also considered the composition of the Teacher Retirement System Board of Trustees. Currently the board is composed of five financial experts and four employee representatives, all appointed by the governor (the governor selects from a pool of three top vote-getters for the employee representative positions). TCTA and other education groups advocate more direct selection of the employee representatives on the board, as well as increased employee representation.
What else to watch out for
With scores of other committees meeting to consider hundreds of topics, it can be a challenge to determine where to focus our efforts, but a handful of issues, in addition to those noted above, bear the most potential for significant change – good and bad.
Both the Senate Education and House Public Education Committees, as well as the Select Committee on Public School Accountability, have assigned topics that include some mention of “teacher effectiveness” – a term that has become virtually synonymous with “tying teacher evaluation to student test scores” in the current Legislature. TCTA is working to minimize those connections given that there is no reliable data that can demonstrate any connection between student test scores and individual teacher performance, and we will be opposing further expansion of teacher performance pay or implementation of teacher appraisal components that rely on test scores.
One charge of the Senate State Affairs Committee covers a worrisome topic: Analyze the advantages and disadvantages of phasing in a defined-contribution pension for future employees versus the existing defined-benefit pension plan. Revising the TRS structure to a defined-contribution plan would completely change the nature of teacher retirement, removing the guarantee of a specific level of benefits to employees upon retirement and essentially becoming a 401(k) program. Though at this point we do not believe such a proposal is imminent, any threat to teacher retirement must be taken seriously.
On the positive side, the Select Committee on Public School Accountability (which includes Susan Lewis, recently elected 2008-09 TCTA President-Elect) has held two meetings, and some issues under discussion hold promise for potential improvement in Texas’ accountability system. Two topics in particular have been the focus of discussion and testimony. The committee could be considering a complete restructure of the accountability system, and is interested in revisiting elementary testing (particularly in the context of assessing growth). There is considerable interest in a more nuanced system that would be used to determine the need for intervention, rather than sanctions. Policymakers appear to be starting to recognize that the high-stakes nature of our testing system has had unintended consequences that have not resulted in a healthy environment for teaching and learning.
Most interim charges don’t survive the legislative process (if they even make it from the interim report into a bill), but it is crucial for teachers and other stakeholders to monitor and participate in the committee deliberations regardless. TCTA will continue representing your interests, and we encourage our members to let us know your thoughts on the key issues under consideration.
Web posted: 04/01/08 from The Classroom Teacher, Spring 2008
