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Today, I want to continue the discussion on School Finance Reform and what we can do to achieve this yet elusive objective. I have a policy proposal that I will need your help with. Winston Churchill
said: We are all aware of free market forces and how we use them to make democracy successful. We all know that market forces change, and that the market forces changes. It’s those changes that we have trouble keeping up with, in our education system. That’s why reform is needed to make the leap into the future because we can no longer build our future on an agrarian or assembly line model. We participate in a worldwide marketplace, so we must adapt to the forces of it. An example of a successful adaptation is The Free Enterprise System: Public companies are required to divulge Sales Revenues, Salaries, Costs, Profit, and the efficiencies in how well they produce their products or services. Their owners (stockholders) are represented by a Board of Directors who manage the CEO. Shareholders elect the Board and hold them accountable. Market conditions and events dictate the value of the current business as well as forecast its future value. Shareholders can choose to stay involved or sell off. Their performance is well-documented and updated quarterly through a Securities & Exchange Commission – there is daily control through information delivered in the Stock Market. School Districts are often the largest employers in their area, both in revenue and employees. They divulge their revenues and costs regularly, but not their efficiencies due to the lag in the processing of data. Their owners (stakeholders/taxpayers) elect a board that oversees their CEO-Superintendent. No one is completely sure how to figure their revenues, and shareholders are unable to sell off or become uninvolved. This is not to imply that school districts aren’t just as accountable as public companies. They don’t have the advantage of real-time information. Another challenge is the School Funding mechanism which is akin to a Black Box: money goes in 1 port and comes out through many others – and no one fully understands how. Centralized data collection and ratings are compiled by the TEA. Performance information is updated annually and is not easily understood due to its complexity and its volume. Efforts to simplify the numbers and the complexity remain sluggish. Because PEIMS is not fully internet friendly, Trying to get specific information is like trying to take a sip from a fire hydrant. Now, the advent of technology is accelerating (Gov. Perry recently announced DSL in Rural Areas, along with the $71 million T-STEM program) – Lets take advantage of current technology and the ability to get real-time information. For example: The 65% rule is a start. Is it the most effective percentage? School personnel have made some good arguments in favor of modifying it and Librarians, whom we pay as teachers, don’t understand its logic. I like the incentive of public awareness and input better. 65% is an input standard, but we are demanding outcomes! Enabling other forces of competition may adjust that number, especially when the system would be so transparent. Spending would become SELF CORRECTING if information feedback were faster and taxpayers were made aware of local factors and spending priorities. So let’s Standardize, Simplify and Speed up reporting (3 S’s) - The government’s job should be to make the process and situation easier to understand,: not harder– what good is information if you can’t use it? So with all these ideas in mind, I would like to lay out a policy proposal to you. I'd like to get your feedback, and hopefully it is something that we can develop together. I call this proposal the Texas School Data Exchange, or Texas School Exchange, because it would feature real time information about Texas public schools
The funding calculation should be simple enough for HS students to come up with the same answer. A walk thru on an ISD Web page could have ADA = WADA? Free & Reduced/Comp Ed; Bilingual & Special Ed Factors. Citizens would be familiar with the spending of their individual campus and compare it to other schools in the District and in Texas. The Texas School Exchange would enable entire communities to understand the funding and performance of their schools. The concept of more detailed reporting is not to punish but to educate and to improve. We do it in business now. We’ve tried to change the Funding Formulas to enable everyone to understand. Our patrons cannot demand meaningful change until they understand the environment: And better information will lead to better voter participation and better local control. And the 65% rule could become obsolete. “A Problem Properly Defined
is Half Solved” Since 2003, this is Special Session #4 coming up on School Finance. We cannot afford to fail. We need to find common ground with our fellow stakeholders. The job of School Finance Reform is an extremely large, daunting, and complicated task. No one has a monopoly of good ideas. We need to be bipartisan as well as bicameral. That’s not a reference to a camel which was a horse designed by a committee. Yes, we need to find common ground with common sense for the common good. The world is our competition now, not each other. Abraham Lincoln was once talking with a woman about how the North must treat the South after the war. She disagreed with him, and said that she felt that we must destroy our enemies. Lincoln replied, "What, madam? Do I not destroy them when I make them my friends?" That’s the attitude we’ve got to have. Legislative accomplishment is aptly described by Mick Jagger as “You can't always get what you want… And if you try sometime you find you get what you need. We’re all in this together. As Thomas Paine said when he found himself in a situation where cooperation and teamwork were the only solution: Remember he said “If we do not hang together, we shall surely hang separately.” I look forward to hearing from you.Thank you. |
