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Executive Director's Message:
The 80th regular session of the Texas Legislature had more than its share of drama, especially during the closing days. Though it’s traditional for the final days of a legislative session to be controlled chaos at best, this year the tension was heightened as the House Speaker fought to hold his post against challengers while many of the session’s most important bills, including the budget, went down to the wire.
A session light on content
Given all the late nights and unexpected plot twists, it would seem that epic legislation should have passed. In reality, the session was light on content, and relatively few major bills were passed. Gov. Rick Perry surprised legislators with bold new proposals to require HPV vaccinations for adolescent girls and the sale of the lottery to a private entity; it was clear early on that the House and Senate don’t like surprises, and the governor played defense for the remainder of the session. Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst upset the rules of engagement for senators by taking advantage of an ill senator’s absence to allow a bill to be brought up requiring voter identification at the polls; he spent the rest of the session trying to restore the collegial relations the Senate usually enjoys. And Speaker Tom Craddick found his leadership under siege at a level that finally resulted in his raw declaration that, in essence, the House could not depose him.
The fact that the session did not result in many major new initiatives is not, however, necessarily a bad thing. The Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) for low-income families was significantly restored, and the Texas Youth Commission revised sufficiently to permit a major cleanup. The budget was passed, and perennial issues like highways, utilities, prisons and gambling were addressed.
Measuring victories
Sometimes what doesn’t pass is as important, if not more so, than what does. Early on in the session, the proposal to require that a majority of a teacher’s appraisal be based on student performance seemed to have traction. It was brought by the Governor’s Business Council (GBC), the same group responsible for the incentive pay proposals passed during last year’s special session, which has among its leadership a number of significant campaign donors. A convergence of factors resulted in the proposal’s demise, including the contacts made by educators with legislators explaining the damage being done by attaching so many high-stakes consequences to standardized testing, a major lobbying blunder by the GBC, a new chairman of the House Public Education Committee, and the emergence of a new business group with a different perspective and a membership including other prominent corporate and former political leaders.
We entered the session with very little talk among legislators of a pay raise for teachers, and ended it with funding for one. Though the amount is not what we would have liked and no pass-through is assured, this is the first time in memory that legislators have seen fit to make an adjustment to salaries in two back-to-back sessions. The tradition has been to adjust salaries fairly significantly once every two to three sessions, then watch as our less-than-stellar position in the national rankings of average teacher salaries slowly drops until the next raise. If we are ever to reach or exceed the national average, we’re going to have to make more than occasional progress.
Again this session, current educators found their interests pitted against those of educators who have already retired and are in serious need of a benefit increase. Members of the House, particularly, seemed loath to effectively impose further cuts on active employees in order to provide a benefit increase for retirees, particularly when the Legislature was leaving untouched an estimated $2.5 billion to pay for property tax reductions in 2009. It appears at the time of this writing that the decision regarding whether the active member contribution rate must be increased and if retirees will receive a 13th check will be made after the August 31 valuation of the Teacher Retirement System.
More thoughtful approach
Though the process is happening slowly, it appears that the climate is beginning to change at the Capitol. There are more public discussions about what the state’s spending priorities should be, and the sense that the views of educators are largely unwelcome is fading. There is clear recognition, reflected in the change to end-of-course examinations at the high school level, that the accountability system needs revision and that there are negative consequences to so much emphasis on testing. Decisions about how test scores (once the end-of-course exam approach is phased in) will factor into accountability ratings for districts and campuses, as well as what, if any, consequences will ensue for teacher compensation and employment have been largely deferred to the next session. The urgent need to “reform” seems to be diminishing, and a more thoughtful approach is being taken.
You’ll notice some of the changes next year in your classroom. For those of you who recite the Texas Pledge daily, it has been significantly lengthened by the addition of the phrase “one state under God.” More changes will come in the years ahead as the accountability system is revamped. The elections next year will provide us yet another opportunity to hold legislators accountable.
Continue doing what you do so well
In the meantime, it’s worth noting that once again TAKS scores rose in virtually every tested subject and grade level. My preferred measure, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) exam, arguably a truer measure of learning since nobody drills for it, shows Texas students exceeding the national average on three of the four NAEP exams. That’s particularly impressive when the most recent available data indicate that Texas ranks 40th in per pupil spending among states, and our average teacher salary ranks 33rd.
Perhaps, by deciding to let Texas educators largely continue what you’ve obviously been doing so well without a great many new legislatively imposed requirements and consequences, legislators showed great wisdom. Enjoy your summer.
Web posted: 06/12/07
