STATEMENT FROM EDUCATION REFORM CAUCUS REGARDING SPECIAL SESSION AND THE STATE’S ROLE IN EDUCATION REFORM

AUSTIN, Texas (April 27, 2006) — The Texas Education Reform Caucus (TERC) today urged our state’s leaders to focus on a new method to fund public schools during this special session so they can move onto education reform issues either during this special session or in January.

TERC Chairman Vidal Martinez issued the following statement:

“Clearly, school finance is the priority for this session. However, if the Legislature allocates any new money for education, we ask that those dollars be tied to education improvements that are measurable and most directly improve classroom learning.

“During the last two decades, we’ve seen marked improvement in Texas’ schools due to a balance of three elements: accountability of schools for results, local control and building capacity of the system.

“The state’s role has been to set high standards and hold districts accountable for meeting them, give districts the freedom to design their own policy framework for results and provide adequate resources and other capacity measures.

“Since 1995 when the Education Code was revised, the state’s funding has dropped to its lowest level in decades while it has passed numbers of new requirements impinging on local control such as the 65 percent rule.

“We ask our policymakers to maintain their role of focusing on the results, not the “how to” so schools can innovate and develop their own reforms. Clearly, districts have different needs that largely determine how they manage their human resources and allocate their dollars to make the most improvements in a school.”

Founded in 2000, the Texas Education Reform Caucus is a non-profit group of more than 250 elected officials, educators, school administrators and civic and business leaders who have joined together to promote public education innovation and improvement. The group is based in Dallas.