By Plano ISD Council of PTAs Legilsative Chair
Annette Maule

The Plano Council of PTAs Wants Your Help in Lobbying for Education

What will it take for America to continue to lead the way in innovation in the future? What will it take for the American workforce to lead the world into the careers and industries of tomorrow? It takes a commitment and investment in the education of our children. Today, not just parents and educators, but every citizen, needs to recognize the critical urgency of making this investment now.

As of today, we really don’t know how much in budget cuts each district is facing, but we know they will be staggering. Here in Plano ISD, the cuts could be anywhere between $57M and $65M. How much money is that and how does that affect a district? Well, to give you an idea let’s look at some hypothetical scenarios to put that amount of money into perspective. In Plano, all general administration, bus drivers, maintenance workers, custodial services, librarians, nurses, counselors, fine arts and special academic programs and athletics could be cut and that would total $60.5M. Don’t like that scenario, try this one, we could close 1 senior high school, 2 high schools, 3 middle schools and 9 elementary schools. That would total $59.9M. That doesn’t sound good either! So what’s another option? Cut 1,146 teacher jobs, that equals $60M. We at Plano Council of PTAs don’t like the way any of this sounds so we are partnering with our district to advocate for our children. We are encouraging PTAs across the Metroplex to do the same. We can’t let this happen.

Plano Council of PTAs is urging you to mobilize with us to be strong voice for children during this Legislative session. Every voice counts as our elected officials in Austin make decisions that will affect the efficiency and success of our investment in the future, the education system. Plano Council of PTAs has adopted a Legislative Agenda that we are asking the public’s support on. We invite the tax payers of North Texas to make a commitment to the prosperity of our collective future by making a phone call, email, or fax a letter to those in Austin, and tell them how important our education system is.

Item one on our Legislative Agenda is The Texas State Legislature should consider recommendations from the states School Boards and Superintendents when making decisions effecting school funding.

Two, State Legislators should take up legislation to end high-stakes, standardized test and end of course exams which are costly to both the state and districts and ineffective in assessing "21st century skills" such as higher order, complex thinking skills and knowledge.

Next, Districts should be allowed to measure a child's progress over time using multiple measures that encompass the whole child including but not limited to classwork.

The state of Texas should not stifle development of superior approaches in classrooms or districts in the name of standardization.

Legislators should oppose funding nonpublic school programs with public school tax dollars.

State Legislators should allow districts to decide which additional courses count toward the core curriculum graduation requirements set forth in 4x4 based on what is best for individual students.

Legislators should give school districts control over school year calendar.

Ban possession and distribution of any herbal incense mixtures that contain synthetic cannabinoids, such as K2 or Spice.

Pass Cyber-Bullying Criminalization statute that defines cyber-bullying and strengthens penalties. Identify student, staff and parent education requirements.

While each citizen may not agree with every item on our Legislative Agenda, we urge you to advocate for the item that you feel is most important. Whether you feel ending high stakes testing like TAKS, and starting next year STAAR and EOC exams, and replacing them with a system that takes into account the whole child with more emphasis on progress measurements and growth setting goals or giving districts more control over the curriculum is more important. Maybe you feel our point on getting the law makers out of the classroom by way of standardization and letting educators educate in a way that will stretch the limits of their creativity and allow for teaching individuals and not widgets, is what will really move classrooms into the 21st Century, or maybe you agree that administrators and parents should have the final say on where budgets are streamlined while maintaining enterprising classrooms. Where ever your beliefs intersect with ours we urge you to stand with us in our efforts to keep the education system moving three steps forward instead of two steps back during this difficult economic predicament Austin finds itself struggling with. We urge you to go to http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/ to find the contact information for your representative, members of the education committee and the financial committees. Fill their inboxes, faxes and phones with your opinions. It is not enough to comment on articles or posts on blogs, these comments have to make their way to Austin. We are lucky enough to live in a democracy. That doesn’t just mean you go to the polls on election day and vote. A democracy is a government by the people. We elect representatives and then, we, the people, have to actively let them know where we stand on the issues. We have an obligation to actively participate in the decisions the people we vote for make. We don’t just vote for them and then leave them to their own devises. It is our duty to the well being of our democracy to let them know how we want them to vote. They work for us. Enough positive voices standing together can change the world.

What better lessons to show your children how important their education is, then to participate in the democratic process in the name of allowing education to be preserved and prosper.