| A friend of mine visited her doctor yesterday. She has had some recurrent pains in her arm and neck. She examined to the doctor that she was a teacher and that the tension from the job built up in her neck, what could he do for her? The doctor made the off-hand remark that he had heard that school funding was being cut and he couldn't understand why we were not able to pay for public education, surely something could be done. She proceeded to inform him that the first thing to do was to vote for White and not Perry. She then gave him the basics: politicans run on tax cuts, must deliver same. School costs go up just like everybody elses do, but the state funding does not. Dump the necessary increased costs on local home owners, who protest at the burden . Politicans promise to cut their taxes, rinse , repeat ad nauseum.
There are a few things worthy of remark in this simple exchange. First , my friend knowing how to explain the basics of the situation so very well. Sadly, even some of my political friends don't know how to do this. I get angry and me, Mr. Civil Conversation, just spews. All power to our unnamed allies who do this small group advocacy every day. |
| The second remarkable thing is how uninformed this obviously intelligent man was about this fundamentally important issue. I ask why and I answer - the collapse of our MSM as watchdogs on issues like this. There is nothing sexy about explaining the Byzantine manuvers used to mask how bad the educational funding crisis is and has been for a long time. Worse, it is even less exciting to try and explain the fundamental problems with our public schools. Easier to keep score ( reminds me of horse race campaign coverage ) by means of TAKS numbers.
Rick Casey yesterday reported another reason for the problem: active disinformation on the status of even these worthless numbers. He reports on a discovery made by State Rep Scott Hochberg about those very numbers:
How schools get credit for a TAKS zero
What he found was so unbelievable that he asked me not to report it until he had a chance to show what he had found to TEA officials at a public hearing. He wanted to make sure he hadn't made a foolish miscalculation.
The good news is that, as chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Education, Hochberg can summon TEA officials to a public hearing.
The bad news is that, when he did exactly that last week, the hearing drew almost no public attention.
As with most hearings, there was a fair amount of tedium. But one dramatic moment made up for it.
Chriss Cloudt (pronounced Klute) is TEA's associate commissioner for assessment, accountability and data quality. In other words, she's the top official when it comes to the TAKS test and the accountability system that rates the state's schools. Cloudt was testifying alongside Adam Jones, TEA's chief operating officer and second in command to Commissioner Robert Scott.
Hochberg asked them what accounted for the huge increase in the number of schools and school districts rated as "recognized" and "exemplary" in 2009.
Jones said he couldn't "intelligently answer that question," but Cloudt jumped in.
"Yes, I can," she said. "Performance."
So far, so good. Our schools are doing better , we are winning the horse race. I won't comment again on how worthless this claim is , as I have done so many times before (see here ).
How schools get credit for a TAKS zeroHochberg appeared skeptical. He noted that the number of school districts given the top rating of "exemplary" based on TAKS scores had risen from 43 in 2008 to 117 in 2009.
He also noted that 73 of the 74 additional "exemplary" districts used the Texas Projection Measure to attain that distinction.
TEA says the Projection Measure is an effort to give schools and districts "credit" for students who hadn't passed the TAKS, but were showing improvement. So Hochberg asked Cloudt to use a calculator on the TEA website that adjusts scores according to the "projection" formula. The results were beamed to a screen on the wall.
The "projection" is based on an analysis indicating that if a child does well on math and reading, other scores will improve.
The formula includes a small adjustment according to the student's school, so Hochberg cited specific schools and asked Cloudt to assume the student made the minimum passing score for math and reading.
After a couple of examples in which a school got to count a student as "passing" with depressingly low scores, Hochberg asked Cloudt and an associate to see how many correct answers a fourth-grader with barely passing math and reading scores at Benavidez Elementary in Houston needed to be counted as "passing" the writing test.
The unbelievable answer Hochberg had reached himself was confirmed by Cloudt: The child needed zero correct answers for his or her teachers and administrators to get credit for his or her "improvement."
That's right: zero.
I knew the game was rigged , Scott is just revealing the most recent details of how it is done. Will Rick Perry and the Republicans who fathered this bastardized system be called to account for it? No, if history is any indicator. See Libby Shaw's peice form Saturday ( Rick Perry Stole from Texas School Children )Will this make the evening news. If it does , it will last about 30 seconds and never be heard again.
I think we must see the rise of Tea Party Nation in light of these facts: a failing public educational system, an increasing complex political agenda,and an economic crisis that really freightens average Americans. Ironically, I don't think the problem is that average Americans are being polarized. They are getting sick of political issues and debates they can't understand , but that is not the biggest problem. Rather our civil conservation is being polarized and with it our ability to compromise, to resolve our problems with a view to something approaching the common good.
And the fault for this lies more with our elites - media, party, intellectual , then with the "masses". I found this interesting piece of scholarship on point:
[Ordinary People in Extraordinary Times: The Citizenry and the Breakdown of Democracy
Smith, W. Rand, 1947-
Latin American Politics & Society, Volume 46, Number 3, Fall
2004, pp. 131-134 (Review)]
[Professor Nancy]Bermeo takes issue with ... [the] "blame the masses" view [of why democracies fail]. Her basic argument can be summarized roughly as follows (to paraphrase a famous writer): the fault (for democratic breakdown) lies not in ordinary people but in our elites, that they are inept, power-hungry, and ignorant of public opinion. In almost all her cases in which democratic breakdown leads to dictatorship, the essential dynamic is not that of voters deserting centrist, prosystem parties, but of elite polarization; namely, divisions among leaders in the military, government, and interest groups [the bolding is mine ]
So, is there anybody who still believes that Boehmer and the Repubs are not a large part of our problem? That Rightwing Talk Radio (and even leftwing TV commentary when it goes uber partisan) are not damaging our democracy? Collectively I would submit out elites are amplifying the Tea Nation phenomenea and making it impossible to address, nevermind solve our deepest problems. Healthcare was war, how much more so will be other reforms and how meaningful will they be?
Obama still seems to be clinging to the hope of Republican help for immigration reform. I don't think that is going to happen. We have already seen the serious weakening of Financial reform measures. Will it really take another Great Depression before necessary changes can be made? It seems increasingly so, as the Obama watershed election does not seem to have been enough. |
