Keeping Schools Out of the OR
As Texas legislators and education officials are scrambling to find ways to reduce school spending, a few of the politically savvy ones are spinning the budget crisis as a means to “reinvent public education in Texas.” However, the cost-saving measures they are proposing are simply more strongly-worded versions of the same complaints we’ve heard from both sides for years. Administrators want to roll back the introduction of new achievement tests and reduce other costly requirements imposed on their districts by the state. Legislators want to cut the fat by slashing funding for expansive new programs like grants for full-day Pre-K. While the specifics might have changed slightly this time around, it largely remains the same old song and dance, just at a more frantic pace. To be sure, carefully evaluating new programs and unfunded mandates is a worthwhile exercise, but it is at best a cosmetic fix, given the huge hole we’re in now. Legislators and school leaders need to do some deeper thinking and truly reevaluate the structure of our public education system and the way we intervene with struggling students. One of the biggest drags on the school system that has yet to be mentioned in the midst of all this budget slashing is the problem of in-grade retention. One study estimated holding kids back a grade cost Texas roughly $1.7 billion a year, which is...
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