Magnolia ISD lost their TAX HIKE ELECTION August, 14, 2018 known as a Tax Ratification Election (TRE). They are humbly claiming that they did not message for the taxpayers their TAX HIKE correctly. Let’s us take a look at their messaging.
1) They held a clandestine public hearing on this Tax Hike at 7:30 am on a school morning. Not a single taxpayer was in attendance other than the board and school administration. I am in agreement with the district that is TERRIBLEMESSAGING.
2) The district had a professional video made promoting this TRE election claiming that there would be NO TAX HIKE and the TRE passed teachers would get raises, funds for curriculum needs and security. Note: The Security Needs was already being funded and voted on in Commissioners Court. They claimed they were just doing a “penny swap” from to one account to another though there were no pennies involved. This was all smoke a mirrors and taxpayers started waking up to this fact.
Who saw this video? The district made sure their teachers and staff watched the pro TRE video prior to summer break encouraging them to vote YES. In essence the district used the teachers as guinea pigs in hopes of winning this election. The video was then removed from public view until few weeks prior to the election. The district has zero information on the TRE election until a few weeks prior to early voting. As a matter of fact many received and mailed back their mail in ballots prior to the district posting any information regarding the election.
TERRIBLE MESSAGING (there was none)
3) The district decided to hold the election in the dead of summer while many taxpayers may have still been on vacation, giving no thought that the district was holding a TAX HIKE election. The exception was teachers and staff were starting in-service at this time just prior to school starting. (do not think that is not planned)
TERRIBLE MESSAGING!
4) School Board member, Kristi Baker takes to social media insinuating that taxpayers are just “poor unsuspecting people” and are basically incapable and lack the intellect to figure out the district is scamming. If not for a few activist working for three weeks including myself worked to get word our about the election. And the ones that were spending their time informing the taxpayers were LIARS according to Baker.
TERRIBLE MESSAGING
5) The district fails to tell the taxpayer’s that they are throwing wasting thousands on a UNITED NATIONS PROGRAM International Baccalaureate (IB) that does not value American values or Exceptionalism.
IB World Schools endorse the UN Earth Charter which contradicts our Constitution as well. Earth Charter promotes redistribution of wealth, same sex marriage, pantheism, and military disarmament. The district also just build a 6 Million dollar Event Center to rent out. That is right they used our tax money and built an event center to compete with the private sector.
TERRIBLE MESSAGING
6) This is probably one of my favorites. School Board members after taxpayers were learning the truth posed for their own personal video in an attempt to rebuttal the truth that the TRE election was indeed a TAX HIKE. Board Member, Joe Duncan stated that the “any claim that after the TRE should pass we are going to IMMEDIATELY increase the I&S is simply not true”. So they are going to do it but not immediately? How thoughtful.
TERRIBLE MESSAGING
7) School Board member, Kristi Baker within the “apology” video attempts to make the case claiming the ballot language is what confused taxpayers and that is the reason it did not pass. What she is not saying is that there is a “TRUTH in TAXATION LAW”. The ballot can’t lie. So she is apologetic to the taxpayer that ballot has to be truthful. Seriously? So is she actually saying the district would have worded the ballot in order to trick the taxpayer to vote for the TAX HIKE?
TERRIBLE MESSAGING
Truth-in-taxation is a concept embodied in the Texas Constitution that requires local taxing units to make taxpayers aware of tax rate proposals and to afford taxpayers the opportunity to roll back or limit tax increases.
Do not think for one minute the district actually thinks this election failed due to their poor messaging. Their messaging was intentional but failed this election. Thanks to the taxpayers getting out and voting.
Texas State Senator Paul Betterment is working to inform the taxpayer of these clandestine TAX HIKE elections.
Thank you Sen. Bettencourt.
Magnolia ISD’s School Board need replaced. We have three board members whose terms are up this spring.
Charlie Riley band member, School Board President, Gary Blizzard.
This is a very long, but very important post. I hope you will read and consider it as our current legislative session rolls forward. Yes I wrote it.
Most of you know my political leanings. I’m not shy about sharing them. Most of you are shocked when you hear me say I am against school choice. I want to first say that this is a political issue only because it has been made one. In reality, it is a family issue, a parent issue, and most importantly a child issue. That is what matters and it matters far more than politics.
In it’s current form – or at least the form that is being bantered about in Texas in recent days, ESA (or voucher) funds would be used to provide money to charter schools, private schools and even some homeschoolers. These funds would be derived from public money – your tax dollars. There is, theoretically, a limited amount of tax dollars available to entities for the public good. ie: hospital districts, school districts etc. They operate under budgets constrained by the amount of tax money they have available to them.
Some people want to divvy these funds up, taking them away from public schools and redistribute them to private entities for the purpose of educating kids. On the surface this sounds like a phenomenal idea. Maybe some underprivileged kids could go to private schools. Maybe we can have great charter schools in our communities that will do a better job than the public schools. And even homeschoolers could afford to spend more on curriculum and online education, or hire private teachers with that money. Admittedly there are some low performing public schools, so privatizing schools will force them to compete for students, thereby shutting down the bad schools, and providing alternatives. Please bear with me here, I really want you to understand why so many think this is a great idea. It all sounds wonderful.
Before we go on – please name any instance in history where acceptance of money from the government (dug directly out of taxpayer’s pockets) has not been accompanied with strings or conditions. It does not exist. There is no free government money without restrictions, rules or regulations. Even the money you overpay to the IRS has some condition attached in that you must file a return to get it back. They don’t just hand it back willingly.
Let’s talk about charter schools first. There are some great charter schools. Now suppose that those charters will accept vouchers or ESA funds. Now they are subject to additional rules, regulations and restrictions. What might those strings look like? Limits on curriculum choices for one. Subjecting of charter students to whatever standardized testing the government deems best, and a school grading/rating system for another. STAAR. Sound familiar yet? Salary caps on teachers, excess administrative personnel. Charter schools – even the best charters with the greatest of intentions – would soon start to be just like the public schools we already have. If you love your charter school, you do not want school choice. You want it left alone. So now charter schools have rapidly narrowing profit margins. Eventually charters will begin to go belly up, as regulations increase overhead and decrease profit margins. How will that benefit our kids, or education or the public at large? And how will it benefit the taxpayers who are funding all of this? Are we to bail out these private entities with more tax dollars?
Private schools will not be left out of the red tape either. They don’t have to take the ESA funds – at least not now. EEOC, ACLU, et al will likely come into play at some point, how could they not? The funds are government funds after all. Someone is bound to deem themselves slighted. You have chosen a private school in keeping with your families religious or cultural beliefs. You have paid dearly in tuition and fees, it would be great to have some help with that. But now your carefully chosen private school will be limited to certain curriculums, chosen by the government of course. Add STAAR testing or some iteration of it to that formula. And now what of the separation of state and religion? Here we go again. Furthermore, what family who can’t afford a $16,000 a year private school can now afford it on $3000.00 to $4800.00 in voucher or ESA funds?
Homeschool? Many families do it successfully if not exceptionally well. The Texas State Homeschool Association won’t tell you this as they jump through the hoops of school “choice”, but homeschool families do NOT want government controls, interference or regulation. And the majority of them don’t want voucher or ESA funds either. The tax money paid into schools that they don’t use is frequently thought of as “just leave me alone” money. They don’t have it back now, they don’t want it back later. They simply want to be left alone to keep doing what they are doing. They do not want the state’s involvement and resultant oversight of home education. They do not want any infringement upon a child’s right to learn in a way that works for THAT child. They don’t want anyone to step on their rights to teach their kids whatever they darn well please, without the interference of entities who have no real interest in their kids or families. Furthermore, is 4k in voucher funds the deal breaker in being able to not work so you can homeschool? There are many families who do both successfully.
So lets say this all passes, and that the ESA or voucher system is a great success. We have kids learning great things in charter schools and private schools, homeschool families are scoring great on those tests. Are those charter and private and home schools required to provide special education services? If so, to what percentage of their students? At what cost? Who bears the additional cost? What if the charter (and only) school close to you can’t provide the special education services your child needs? What if the nearest one that can, is 48 miles away? Rationing special education services worked well for kids in Houston, no? So many great charters though. Specialized schools like Winston or Shelton school are only 20k a year – give or take a few thousand. Well there are so many great charter schools that your local public elementary school is now down to 72 students on campus. All in special education programs. Mainstreamed. Like a boss.
If you have not figured it out by now, I am pretty straight forward about it. I am a very conservative leaning libertarian for the most part. That means I want less government involvement in my life wherever I can get it. I find it absurd that our Republican representatives are making this a hill to die on. What part of being a true conservative involves redistributing our money and turning it into other people’s money in a card game? I am still trying to figure that one out. It has the very smelly appearance of a sham that results in the hiding or transfer of tax dollars under the tables of private entities without transparency or accountability.
Why do I care about public schools? If I am so libertarian, why do I care at all about public education? Why should the state even be allowed to educate kids at all? Less government, right? So let’s say the entire public education system – including current charters and public schools, shut down tomorrow. Would people just stop educating their children? There would be some period of chaos and confusion. Some kids would fall through the cracks for certain. But at some point, communities would work together to come up with their own solutions. It would happen. Eventually. How does that serve our kids now though? Oh – and does that mean they will then give us back our tax money? They will. Right?
I can go all the way to the conspiracy theories – Bill Gates, Pearson and the rest. It’s a conspiracy to make society obedient, dumb, dependent blah blah blah. Honestly, if we allow school choice to weasel its way in, in the way it appears to be planned, none of that will matter. What will matter is the absolute and total loss of parental input into the education of our children. Our school rating system and STAAR testing is already a glaring case of the emperor’s new clothes. Parents are beginning to remember THEY have control of their kids – they are waking up. It appears at this point however many of our legislators are resolutely and deliberately blind to these issues. They are doing a great job of creating the biggest elephant in a room I have ever seen. They are choosing instead to focus on the diversion of school “choice” instead of focusing on fixing the things that are actually wrong with our public schools. And data collection on our kids, social emotional learning… I could write an entire OTHER diatribe on these issues but they aren’t what we need to address right now. By pouring the concrete foundation first, those things get eliminated on their own, for lack of merit.
School choice is a misnomer because it is not choice at all – it is more control and intrusion in schools, it is the definancing and debasing of the public school system. It is the dumbing down of the kids in our society who most need to NOT be dumbed down. It is the overarching infiltration, like a cancer, of common core and agendaized education. There is nothing Grassroots about this school choice movement, don’t be fooled. It is being heavily funded by the entities who have a stake in getting their hands on your tax money – YOUR KIDS education money. I don’t know of any better way to say it than that. And for those who are proponents of this “free market” school “choice” solution – how is anything that the government or tax dollars is involved in, a free market, ever?
If you know me, you also know that I don’t mind speaking up about a problem, call it griping if you will. If I gripe about a problem, I also like to propose solutions. So let’s think about this. What could be the fallout if we did the following instead?
– Find a way for public schools within a district and neighboring districts, to compete against each other based on types of curriculum, innovative course offerings, sports or other activities limited to this school or that school. (Does every high school need a drama department?) and gasp – yes – even test scores and graduation rates. A real, validated, proven and experienced test like the IOWA test – not STAAR.
– Do away with federal funding in Texas schools. It is 9% of the budget. It is 100% handcuffs.
– Do away with most standardized testing – this would eliminate the need for the federal handcuff money
– LET TEACHERS TEACH. Teachers are the trained and experienced experts in this equation. Administrators and self-important small time politicians are not. Great teachers do not need a standardized test to know where their students are and what they need – this is even more true when you have smaller classes
– Privatize extracurricular activities and sports. Seems the YMCA and the local leagues are pretty good at that. Let’s let them do it. We don’t really need more coaches or million-dollar football stadiums. We need more teachers. Let’s get our priorities straight. Sell bonds to pay for those things if the place you live desires to do it. But the schools and taxpayers don’t need to fund the rest of the infrastructure and equipment. Not every sport needs to be select or elite either. What happened to fun? Teamwork? Camaraderie?
– Cut down class sizes. Send early elementary kids to class for half a day instead of all day so there can be classes of 10 or 12 kids instead of 22? Or 28, or… 30? In any case, the schools should be focused on education, not on providing taxpayer funded daycare. Schedule high school classes like college classes. There can still be afterschool care programs for parents who work, but kids should have time to be kids. More recess, fewer worksheets.
– Toss the TEA out on it’s ear. defund it, unlegislate it, sundown it, whatever it takes. Leave school districts alone to choose their curriculum and manage their affairs. After all, if they have to compete with bordering or neighboring districts, they will find a way to perform and be cost effective about it. They won’t survive if they don’t. Understandably, some will need some help to do so, and there should be a way to do that, but there should not be endless funding of nepotism, corruption or negligence. A little more stand and deliver, on all levels, a little less pomp, would go a long way towards improving the real foundations of our public schools.
– On the stand and deliver note – give teachers the tools, resources and backing they need to be THAT kind of teacher. There are a lot of them out there. It is the reason why they teach. They can’t be THAT teacher when their hands are tied and test scores are being held over their heads.
In Texas – we already have school choice. We can charter, public, private or home school without anybody telling us which of them we are required to do, and we can currently do it without a lot of government interference. The current public school system has been strangled by over regulation and the handing over of tax money to corporations who provide NO benefit to kids or education. Why do we want MORE of that? Without school “choice”, charters can be free to do what they do, private schools can carry on in private, and homeschoolers can do as they please. Parents can choose for their children whatever they think best. That is true choice. I don’t stand for “School Choice”. I stand for freedom.
PS. I am not a teacher or school administrator, I am a nurse practitioner and I am not employed in education. I am a mother of 5 kids, 4 of whom went to public schools and 1 of whom is home schooled. I have 2 grandchildren in public schools. My interest is personal, not political.
I have been saying for years that school board members do not represent their constituents, that they have morphed into being “rubber stampers” for ISD administrations. School Boards now are a “team of 8”, a superintendent and 7 elected board members (or in Magnolia’s case appointed) geared towards “Group Think”. You will rarely find a school board where there will be a dissenting vote on any matter. The Texas Association of School Boards (TASB) is to blame for brainwashing our school boards through their conference training. They frown upon a board member that actually can think for themselves and have labeled them as “trouble makers”. As matter of fact during the 2014 TASB/TASA conference there was a break-out session titled: “Dealing with Mavericks, Malcontents and Mutineers” led my TASB consultant, David Koempel. School board members are unapproachable, they will not return phone calls if they have knowledge you are not on board with the ISD’s agenda. This attitude is represented in Magnolia ISD school board member Ms. Kristi Baker’s retweet on twitter.
On the heels of exposing Cscope (more on Cscope) and the corruption within the Texas Education system in 2013, I then decided to run for school board in hopes of making a difference. I could see our country was at stake. So I applied to run for position 4 of the Magnolia ISD board, my opponent was incumbent Kristi Baker. Ms. Baker was appointed to the Magnolia ISD School Board, August 2013 a position vacated by member Brent O’Neil.
I did not know and never met Ms. Baker so I had no personal vendetta. My running had to do with the education system as a whole “state wide” knowing how the federal and state mandates were changing our public schools and not for the better. I truly wanted to make a difference. I even reached out to Ms. Baker after announcing my candidacy in hopes of telling her why I was running and my knowledge of the Texas Education system. She never responded and it became apparent Ms. Baker took it personally.
If there were to be an ugly, hateful, spiteful race this race could win hands down with the help of the Magnolia ISD administration. Magnolia ISD superintendent, Todd Stephens visited his campuses and told the administrations they needed to get their teachers out to vote. Substitutes and parent subs were sought so teachers could vote during the school day. Students and teachers were utilized and on behalf of the Magnolia ISD High School principal, Jeff Springer and a bullying campaign was raged against me also during class time throughout the whole school day. I can only assume no school work needed to be done.
Over a year has passed since the election and I am regularly contacted by disgruntled parents and teaches around the state that are seeing the changes I have been alerting them to. Last spring a church member informed me that Magnolia ISD was working on implementing the International Baccalaureate Program (IB). For those that will do their research you will find that the IB program is affiliated with the United Nations Marxist ideology (collectivism) and the handing over the education of our students to a foreign entity, Switzerland. Magnolia ISD has already spent over 50K on implementing the program with plans of spending that or more this year though the program will not be in effect until the fall of 2016. I have been speaking out about this waste of taxpayers funds at school board meetings and alerting the uninformed public. As expected no school board member or the administration will have an intelligent conversation regarding the program, at least not with me. What would I know?
This leads me back to Ms. Baker who has not been active in politics until the school board race and is now knee deep in it. LOL She recently joined the board of directors of the “NEW” Magnolia Area Republican Women’s Group and seems to regularly show up at meetings that I have regularly attended. I am glad that our race prompted her to become more involved in the political process. As a matter of fact I saw Ms. Baker at a Rep. Kevin Brady town hall meeting last night. Since these board members are unapproachable I found an opportune time to approach her and asked, “Kristi, where are you on this UN International Baccalaureate Program?” She looked at me and said, “Run Along Ginger.” as if I were some dog. I was not phased I knew she would be rude so I asked her again. She fumbled around for the words to say and responded with, “Good Night Ginger.” I gladly left. As expected Ms. Baker was dismissive of my question. Why? Isn’t she is a “conservative” republican? Now that Ms. Baker is on the board of the Magnolia Area Republican Women’s Group one could only assume she would not want the United Nations Program in our local school district indoctrinating our children. Or does she? As Kristi would parrot “Let’s do it for the babies.”
The new Math TEKS were implemented this school year, 2014/2015. The math Teks greatly aligned with the common core standards. Due to the outrage not only from parents and teachers relating to the complexity of the new TEKS the Texas Commissioner of Education released the following statement stating that the STAAR scores for grades 3rd through the 8th were excluded from the state accountability system. In other words there was no repercussion to the students that did not pass the math STAAR test.
Aransas County ISD seems to want to capitalize on their student’s failures. The following was sent to a student at Aransas County’s Live Oak Learning Center stating the student failed the STAAR Math and needed to attend districts Summer School program. Why? . Surely the district is aware the students math STAAR scores were excluded for grades 3-8.
There are two new alleged cases of Texas teachers taken into custody for sexual misconduct in the classroom. One, a male elementary school teacher in the Houston area, was charged with indecency after upskirting an eight-year-old girl with his iPhone. The other, a female Dallas high school teacher, was arrested for an improper relationship with a male student.
ABC-13reported that Pasadena Independent School District (ISD) teacher Luis Pasos, 43, was criminally charged with two counts of indecency with a minor on April 27. Pasos was a teacher at Laura Bush Elementary for eight years. He has been under investigation over allegations of taking a lascivious photograph of the first grade student. Earlier this month Pasos denied the allegations to administrators. When the probe began, he resigned from his teaching position.
According toABC- 13, a witness came forward saying he saw the teacher take out his iPhone and “hold it underneath the skirt of the victim.” In court documents obtained by the Houston ABC affiliate, it said that Pasos “destroyed the iPhone after realizing he had been caught” and “broke the phone by snapping it in half and throwing it into a storm drain.” It also noted that he “led police to the broken phone… where it was recovered.”
Court documents also revealed the alleged victim’s 14-year-old sister claimed Pasos acted inappropriately with her, back when she was in his class. The teen came forward after learning what happened to her younger sister.
“These charges are very serious and this behavior will not be tolerated in Pasadena ISD,” read a statement released by the school district. “The safety and well-being of our students and staff is of paramount importance throughout the District. When a teacher violates the trust of a child, it creates a great challenge for the majority of educators who truly care about the well-being of students. We will continue working together to provide an environment that is safe and secure for children learn.”
Upstate in Dallas ISD, Molina High School English teacher Mary Lowrance, 49, turned herself into campus police on Thursday morning, April 23. She has since been formally arrested for an improper relationship with a student.
CBS-11Dallasreported that district police officer Craig Miller said his department was “made aware of the relationship after Lowrance admitted it to a co-worker.” He added that that Dallas ISD PD conducted several interviews, including one with the student. An arrest warrant was subsequently issued. Lowrance made the $5,000 bail, and is currently out of jail.
Breitbart Texas has reported on the troubling spike in these inappropriate sexual relationships. Recently, another North Texas high school teacher was charged with felony counts for lewd behavior twice in two months, for making more than one under-aged love connection.
The uptick is troubling, and not just in Texas. The nationwide epidemic prompted an independent study by Houston-based Drive West Communications, a research firm that tracks reports of such misconduct. It is headed up by Terry Abbott, a former chief of staff for the US Department of Education. He holds online platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and text messaging responsible for the explosion of classroom sexual predators, charging that social media has “created an open gateway for inappropriate behavior,” including developing “improper relationships with students out of sight of parents and principals.”
In 2014, about 35 percent of the sexual misconduct cases between educators and their students involved social media nationwide. The Drive West Communications report revealed that 116 of the nation’s 781 recorded cases of sexual misconduct came from Texas. That revelation came on the heels of the Texas Education Agency (TEA), experiencing a 27 percent jump in this depraved behavior over a three year period, from 141 cases in 2009-10 to 179 in 2013-14. Between September 1, 2014 and February 28, 2015, 74 new allegations of incidences have been filed with the agency.
In response to the latest purported cases, TEA spokeswoman Debbie Ratcliffe told Breitbart Texas in a statement, “Parents expect their children to be safe when they are at school. Maintaining a safe environment is one of our highest priorities.”
“The vast majority of our teachers are working in an ethical and moral manner each and every day,” Ratcliffe emphasized. “However, when anyone suspects that an educator is acting inappropriately, it should be reported to TEA immediately so that we can investigate the situation.”
Texas has 20 Education Service Centers located throughout the state. Texas education service centers were initially set up to assist rural district with services. The ESC’s are funded with some state money as well as your local school district through service contracts and professional development and conferences. The ESC’s have become retirement homes for superintendents who have funded them through ISD’s with your tax money.On TEA’s website states that the guiding principles for the ESC’s are…..
Accountable – ESCs are responsible and answerable to TEA and the commissioner, the Texas Legislature, the ESC Board of Directors, stakeholders, customers, and the general public. Accountability comes in many forms and is used in all aspects of ESCs’ daily business. I am laughing in my seat at this statement. The ESC’s are the ones who started their own non-profit company, Texas Education Service Center Curriculum Collaborative (TESCCC) and leased a secretive online curriculum management company to 900+ school districts called Cscope. They requested teachers to sign a non-disclosure statement that saying the contents of the curriculum would not be released or they would not say anything negative about it the product.
Communication – ESCs communicate with internal and external stakeholders in a manner that is clear, concise, and accurate. The stakeholders in this communication circle are those that can profit of the backs of our kids. Public education is no longer about giving your children a proper academic education. it has become a haven of corruption while they try to tranform the philosophy of education based on the Collective.
Cost Effective – ESC decisions and business transactions have a greater benefit than cost. COST EFFECTIVE? SERIOUSLY? The audit performed by the Texas Attorney Generals office shows there is 6.1 Million dollars are missing from the Cscope debacle and the corruption did not stop there. Unfortunately, the corruption continues today. They have tried reviving Cscope under with a name change, Teks Resource System and continue to LEASE it to the school districts. TEACHERS, parents and students hate it. There is nothing on the Cscope website any longer. There are NO lessons, NO Tests. There is a vertical alignment that can be downloaded for free on TEA’s website. ****Now this beats anything I have seen. The original Cscope director, Ervin Knezek was housed of ESC 13 (Austin). In 2010/2011 the 81st TX Legislature awarded a Rider 42 grant giving the ESCs and TEA 150 Million+ to do professional development (PD) to align with the new TEKS. Ervin Knezek went to the PD training and then left ESC 13 and started his own company Lead4ward. Lead4ward (Knezek) started selling the same services he was trained to do for ESC 13 to the ESC’s and ISD’s. Knezek even took with him numerous employees from ESC 13 that worked with Cscope including the last Cscope director, Wade Labay. In a nut shell the Rider 42 money was to give professional development for teachers free of charge but our ESC’s are outsourcing their professional development to Lead4ward costing taxpayers millions. I can bet there were no other organizations considered for this outsourcing. Another interesting fact is ESC 10 even hired Ervin Knezek to speak on Cscope for over 10,000. The corruption never ends.
Customer Centric – ESCs demonstrate putting customers and partners at the center of everything. Who are their customers? Our School District that spend our tax money.
Efficient – ESCs maximize productivity of all personnel and capital resources of the center. LIE!
Ethical – ESC employees visibly demonstrate ethical, honest, and clear behaviors and outcomes and follow through to the best of their ability in the timeliest manner possible to produce results that benefit school districts, charter schools, and the public. ESCs adhere to the requirements of Texas Administrative Code §247.2 – Code of Ethics and Standard Practices for Texas Educators. Another lie!! Cscope proved of how unethical our ESC’s are. We also have ESC employees that have confirmed how unethical their employer is.
Focused on Improvement of Student Performance – ESCs’ main focus is student, school district, and charter school performance, both academically and financially. ESCs stress the importance of student improvement in activities, products, and services developed and provided to school districts and charter schools. ESCs analyze student improvements achieved. ESC’S main focus is trying to stay viable by creating a means to draw in more cash out of the school districts across the state. Unfortunately for students and taxpayers they have been successful.
Teamwork – ESCs operate as a system of 20 education service centers with a unified approach to improve public education across the state in alignment with individual education service center strategic plans regionally designed to meet the unique needs of the school districts and charter schools within the region.The ESC’s were setup as regional centers in helping the district in their area and today they have partnered with each other in creating companies within the system selling those service to school districts giving way for more government bureaucracy and corruption.
Transparent – ESCs ensure facts, figures, and processes are visible, predictable, and understood by all who come into contact with the ESCs. Seriously? I will never forget the day with ESC 6 Cscope director, Lindy McCullogh confronted me after testifying at a Willis ISD school board meeting as a private citizen stating “If you want to know anything about Cscope you can come see me in front of my lawyers”. This statement was a red flag for me and I knew we had a serious problem in our education system.
Unfortunately, the corruption continues which entails a lot of work on behalf of the grassroots in alerting our legislatures of the corruption taking place. Cscope, Common Core and the International Baccalaureate program are all part a plan to radically transform our education system from a traditional system to a Marxist one, based on the collective as well along with data mining your kids.
The ESC’s are slowly becoming a household name with a bad reputation. The Texas Association of School Administrators (TASA) is coming to their defense sending out the following brochure to all Texas Superintendents.
ESCs are now tooting their own horn on social media in attempting to keep a positive image. To late and millions of dollars short on their attempt. Below was their latest tweet on twitter attempting to promote the idea that the ESC’s save our school districts money. I would like to see the study showing how much the ESC’s save the average school district. I would also like to see who has done the study. If the study was or is to be preformed by RESOURCES for LEARNING, the study should be thrown in the trash. Linda Wurzbach is the President of Resources for Learning. She used to work for the Council of Chief School Officers which is closely tied to Obama’s Common Core Standards. She graduated from the University of Texas, taught in the Austin ISD, and worked for the Texas Education Agency (TEA). Her company performed the following study called the Cscope Science Teks Review. I wonder what ESC 13 have to paid for that? The tangled web in Texas education is wide and deep.
TEA keeps dreaming up new ways to disrupt the focus of the core curriculum: reading, writing, math, science, and social studies.
TEA and the 20 Texas Education Service Centers have more than 80% of the Texas School Districts indoctrinated with the progressive common core education philosophy –AKA– Discovery Learning. This method of education puts the student in charge of his/her education. The teacher just present problems and the students on their own discover the necessary facts to solve the problem. Discovery learning is successful with gifted and talented students, but only if they are self-disciplined and self-motivated.Thus, discovery learning is unsuccessful with the majority of students.
Discovery learning is a method where students take charge of their education and teachers are only to be “guides on the side.”
What is the point of requiring teachers to have college degrees if students are to take charge of their own education?
The discover learning method depends on students coming to school with a desire to learn and information that they can share with other students. The idea is that each student has something different to contribute, thus by brain storming students can solve problems themselves. I started my teaching career in 1966. Teachers were expected to be in control of their classes. Teachers were expected to be knowledgeable about the subjects they taught and they were to provide students with the basic facts necessary to solve problems. During my teaching career I taught many different sciences at different grade levels and in different school districts. I started out with one if not the best mentor ever, Ms. Marcille Hollingsworth, who wisely taught me that a teacher must have control of the class in order to present the concepts necessary for problem solving. That was 49 years ago and now veteran teachers like Ms. Hollingsworth are encouraged to leave the teaching profession. They are considered trouble makers because they do not agree with what is being called the “Twenty First Century Progressive Discovery Method” of teaching.
How is the 21st Century Progressive Discovery Method working out?
I recently volunteered to mentor a new 8th grade science teacher and help create a science lab room. To say that I was shocked at the behavior of the students doesn’t come close to describing my experiences. Teacher friends had told me that students were difficult and the new teaching philosophies made it next to impossible to maintain order in the classroom. You cannot come close to imagining how the progressive discovery method has destroyed the learning environment of our public schools.
Some of these 8th grade students must have their tests read to them. Yes, there are 8th grade students who cannot read well enough to read their tests and are in regular class rooms without any particular assistance. The idea is that by being in regular classes these non-readers will learn more than if in a small class with teachers trained to help them. It is really sad to see a student making every effort for other students not to know they cannot read. By working in groups non-readers have learned to copy the work of other students even though they cannot read and understand what they write. Some are behavior problems. Some misbehave instead of doing any work because they cannot read and their writing skills are so poor. They would rather be viewed as being disobedient instead of thought of as being dumb.
Mixing students of different abilities is called Inclusion and is hailed as a system to provide equal education to all students.
I do understand that parents want their children to have the best education. Parents of students who have learning disabilities have fought for the rights of their children. They won the right for their children to be in the same classes with children having no specific learning disability. Now, instead of their children being in small classes with several specially trained teachers to help overcome and/or learn in special ways, children with learning disabilities have less special assistance. All inclusive classrooms move at the same pace. Administrators promote the idea that teachers are able to provide individual assistance to students who need extra assistance. Teachers are to prepare lessons for students with different abilities, thus gifted students and students with learning as well as emotional disabilities all receive lessons designed especially for them.
STOP!
First of all students are suppose to be taking charge of their own education–working in groups and sharing ideas with teachers not giving them facts—remember teachers are to be guides on the side. But with inclusion there are students who are not capable of taking charge of their education. The truth is that no student can do this in elementary and few in upper grades. When questions about students with learning disabilities, administrators “craw-fish” and put the responsibility of providing special lessons for these students.
Public education is a mess.
Some of the 8th graders I work with can read but have little comprehension. Most of the students have little self-discipline. None of the students have the skills to design a science investigation to discover the answer to a problem. This is because all of the students have very little science knowledge to draw on. They have been in charge of their own education for so many years that many have such a poor education they could not apply for the most basic jobs.
The teachers are also trained to use the Fundamental Five Steps of teaching taught by “Lead Your School.” This requires teachers to have students working in groups among other things, such as having the perform critical writing at the end of every class period. I read the book for this course and it gives no clue what is considered critical writing. Basically students are to summarize what they learned during the class period.
Students do not have textbooks that they bring to class. Instead, a worktext is issued and it remains in the classroom. The pages in this book are perforated so they easily tear out. These books were originally developed for common core standards. The publisher had a group of Texas educators to revise some of the sections so that these worktexts can be said to align with Texas standards called TEKS. These hodgepodge revised worktexts have students doing mindless busy work. A few students who are either self-disciplined enough to want to learn and/or have parents who encourage them to learn do the work and those in their group copy the answers.
In Waco ISD, students who want to learn are allowed to attend classes with other students of the same mind set. Waco ISD has a special school for these students. I’ve had the honor of being invited to work with these students. It was like stepping back a few years when teachers were in charge of their classes. Yes, traditional education, which has been described by our Texas Educational service systems as old fashion, not acceptable in our modern 21st century technology education systems. What a joke.
In classes where teachers are not in charge, students often tend to be loud and not focused on the lesson. .Why are teachers being blamed for the failure of our education system when those at the state level force teachers to allow students to be in charge of their own education. The 8th graders that I work with would not have a clue how to behave in the event of a true emergency. During one of the labs, I tripped and fell on the floor hitting my head on the edge of a cabinet. There were students near me but none made an effort to help me. I was not badly injured and purposely remained on the floor as I screamed–
“I’ve fallen, will someone help me.”
The teacher in the adjoining room came in immediately, but most of the my students never acknowledged my cry for help because they were loudly talking to each other. I cannot control the behavior of these students. I ask the administration for help and was told to have a discipline plan–rules for students to follow and consequences. There are no consequences that these students fear.
Are is there? I recently observed something I’d never seen in the school before.
A substitute teacher who has never been indoctrinated with all the CSCOPE and Lead Your School nonsense monitored classes for one of the 8th grade teachers. For the first time I saw 8th grade students sitting quietly as they did their individual work. The substitute was busy assisting the teacher by grading papers. Had the teacher been there, he would have been reprimanded for sitting at his desk and grading papers.
It appears that only substitute teachers are allowed to have a quiet classroom. Only substitute teachers are not allowed to sit at their desks. Regular teachers must be walking around the room guiding and encouraging students who are working nosily in groups or making poster board projects etc…… Students are to appear to be enjoying the class. A quiet class with students doing individual work is only to be observed during the multitude of testings.
All the TEKS are to be taught before the STAAR tests in April
I am discovering that there is really not enough time to teach students the content of the TEKS before the assessments (STAAR/EOCs) are given.
Think about it:
Some days are cut short so that teachers can be trained to encourage students to go to college. This is called “No Excuses University.” Teachers are given a book to read so they can better encourage students to go to college. This book has nothing to do with the content that each teacher is hired to teach. I read the book—It would be good for teachers training to be teachers. Those in the professions should know everything in the book. But, since our 20 Education Service Centers are now training people to be teachers, principals, and even superintendents, maybe they do not know how to teach–or lead.
Think about this:
The 20 ESCs are forbidden to write and sell lessons to schools because of the faulty, antiAmerican, anti-Christian CESCOPE lessons. Yet, these same people who purposely created instruction materials that were never reviewed are in charge of training people to teach our children; training people to be principals and superintendents as well as training school board members. In other words, the 20 ESCs have more control over Texas Public Education than TEA, the Commissioner of Education, and all the legislative education committees.
Since many students cannot read well and have little comprehension of what they read, TEA has solution for these problems:
1. Make the TEKS and STAAR/EOC tests more rigorous.
2. Add more for teachers to present as they guide from the side.
Now teachers are to incorporate College and Career Readiness into their “lessons.”This is another education scam–meaning that more material can be sold to schools–more programs sold to schools for college and career readiness when time needs to be spent teaching students to read.
DUH! WILL SOMEONE IN AUSTIN LISTEN?
MANY OF OUR CHILDREN CANNOT READ AND WRITE. MAKING THE TESTS HARDER DOESN’T IMPROVE THEIR READING SKILLS.
I WANT SENATORS AND STATE REPRESENTATIVES TO SPEND TIME IN CLASSROOM. I INVITE YOU TO VISIT THE CLASSES THAT I WORK WITH. CONTACT ME HERE
WHAT IS WRONG WITH OUR EDUCATION SYSTEM IN TEXAS?
PEOPLE WHO DO NOT CARE AND LOVE OUR CHILDREN HAVE TAKEN OVER EDUCATION. IT IS ALL ABOUT MONEY AND HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH EDUCATION.
“Tortured language” has been an important government tool for years. (Just ask Jonathan Gruber, chief architect of ObamaCare, who bragged about the use of tortured language in writing that controversial piece of legislation.) Such “tortured writing” uses euphemisms and flimflam when taking falsehoods and twisting them so that people will misconstrue them as truth.
ESC 11’s chart claims that Common Core and TEKS are equal in content and scope. Therefore, they say schools can buy Common Core-aligned materials and feel safe that the materials support our TEKS. This is pure flimflam – “tortured language.”
I was a member of the Texas math curriculum standards writing team when we wrote the new 2012 Math TEKS. I can state unequivocally that the new Math TEKS that we wrote and the Texas State Board of Education adopted are not the same as the federally-driven Common Core math standards.
First, our TEKS document is a brand name product that was developed by 80 citizens who put in 12-hour days during three separate meetings over four months. We were charged with developing quality standards that would benefit our children and Texas citizens. We built our TEKS starting with a draft first created by a panel of mathematics experts that was commissioned by the Texas Education Agency (TEA); then we researched specific states with outstanding math standards at the time (such as Minnesota, Massachusetts, and Indiana). Most importantly, we brought to the table professional knowledge and experiences as educators in Texas classrooms. We knew our state’s children and their needs. The TEKS were personal to us.
In contrast, Common Core is a generic brand created largely by unknown individuals outside of Texas. Some of the main writers, whose names were finally released publicly, had never even been classroom teachers. For many reasons, not the least of which is cost, numerous states are now struggling to back out of their federal Common Core contracts.
Even though Texas was one of the few states that said “NO” to the Common Core, one of the Texas Education Agency staffers tried to urge our Math TEKS writing team to use the Common Core Math Standards to craft our Math TEKS. As a member of the Grade 3 – 5 team, I made it clear that we should not be looking at the Common Core Standards for guidance since Texas had refused to adopt Common Core Standards from their inception.
The same TEA staff member resisted efforts to have the required use of the “standard algorithms” specified in the TEKS. (This is the procedure used in multiplication and division that our parents and grandparents learned and which is used internationally.) The staffer said standard algorithms are considered a “traditional math” approach and were thus considered inferior by many math reformers.
I also wanted a restriction against the use of calculators for daily problem solving in elementary grades. Reformers on the writing team supported the push for technology in K-12 rather than the traditional methods (paper and pencil) of student learning.
Even though I vociferously advocated for standard algorithms and the restriction against calculator use among elementary students in Grades K-5, I was losing the debate. Therefore, I contacted Dr. James Milgram, one of the panel experts hired by TEA, and asked for his help. He stepped forward, and a higher-up official at the TEA also got involved. References to the Common Core by the TEA staff ceased. The required teaching of standard algorithms and the restricted use of calculators in Grades K-5 were adopted in the final Math TEKS document.
Despite some philosophical differences on what we should include in the Math TEKS, our group did agree that the standards had to be explicit, direct, and clear. They had to be understandable not only for elementary teachers (many of whom fear mathematics and need clarity and brevity in instructions) but also for parents as well.
Our TEKS writing team agreed that the new TEKS standards had to be measurable with objective criteria and that each element had to be testable through objective measurements. Our team knew that the new TEKS would not be perfect but that they needed to be traditionally oriented standards (a.k.a., Type #1) as compared with the 1997 TEKS which were “fuzzy” standards (a.k.a., Type #2).
The chart that ESC 11 has created attempts to show that Common Core’s “process standards” match our new TEKS “process standards” and that makes Common Core and TEKS similar in scope. That is ridiculous! The new Math TEKS standards that our writing team finally produced in 2012 has strong and specific expectations listed in the “Introduction” before each grade level. No such clear, explicit, competency-based language is found in the Common Core.
Next, the public needs to look at our final TEKS Math Standards and compare those definitive and clear statements with Common Core’s wordy, complex explanations, many of which are not understandable because of the confusing and complicated wording. (Federal or state curriculum standards are also not supposed to mandate pedagogy [how to teach]; that is to be left up to the local educators.)
Below is a comparison example from the Math TEKS and from the Common Core:
TEKS, Grade 5, Number and Operations 3.H:
“Represent and solve addition and subtraction of fractions with unequal denominators, referring to the same whole using objects and pictorial models and properties of operation.”
Common Core, (same standard but labeled NF1 and NF2):
“Add and subtract fractions with unlike denominators (including mixed numbers) by replacing given fractions with equivalent fractions in such a way as to produce an equivalent sum or difference of fractions with like denominators. For example, 2/3 + 5/4 = 8/12 + 15/12 = 23/12. (In general, a/b + c/d = (ad + bc/bd). Solve word problems involving addition and subtraction of fractions referring to the same whole including cases of unlike denominators, e.g., by using visual fraction models or equations to represent the problem. Use benchmark fractions and number sense of fractions to estimate mentally and assess the reasonableness of answers. For example, recognize an incorrect result 2/5 + 1/2 = 3/7 by observing that 3/7 < 1/2.”
In numerous cases, there are additional Common Core standards that, if utilized, would add to the already packed TEKS. This would not help educators prepare their students for the STAAR-End-of-Course tests. Why risk wasting time, energy, and money on unproven and generic materials (Common Core) when the traditional approach to math has been proven successful for generations, in spite of those educators who say it hasn’t?
Speaking of time, it is time for many of these education “leaders” to have to teach for one year in a classroom and use the directives and requirements they have put on classroom teachers. These leaders should also be required to receive the credit or the blame for any poor student achievement.
More to the point, why are Texas education service centers, administrators, and political leaders allowing ESC 11’s false narrative and chart to be presented to teachers and parents as truth, especially when it is against state law to use Common Core materials and standards in Texas as stated by the Texas Attorney General (TAG). (Re: Use of the Common Core Standards Initiative by Texas school districts to teach state standards. RQ-1175-GA — https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/opinions/opinions/50abbott/op/2014/pdf/ga1067.pdf)
Why are Texas leaders ignoring the TAG’s ruling and flaunting the law by using public tax dollars for illegal purchases by school districts and ESC’s?
I believe if Texas leaders had led their classroom teachers to teach the new Math TEKS when adopted in 2012, rather than waiting until they were required to do so in 2014, students’ scores on this year’s STAAR and End-of-Course math tests would have shown considerable improvement.
School leaders should make sure all students in Texas public schools have instructional materials that teach the fact-based, clearly stated, explicit, grade-level specific, measurable requirements as outlined in our state’s Math TEKS.
Texas children, teachers, and parents deserve clarity, not confusion, from their leaders on education issues. That includes their not being victimized by curriculum materials such as Common Core that use “tortured language” and make material unnecessarily difficult to understand.
********
CORRECTION TO PODCAST: In 2012 the Math TEKS (Texas’ curriculum standards) were adopted in K-12 by the elected members of the Texas State Board of Education; however, the K-8 Math TEKS were not required to be implemented fully into the schools until 2014 when the textbooks (e.g., instructional materials – IM’s) were available for purchase. The high-school Math TEKS are not required to be implemented fully until 2015-16 when the new Math IM’s will be available for districts to purchase.
12.3.14 — PODCAST – Alice Linahan of Women on the Wall — conference call with Nakonia (Niki) Hayes, the author of The Story of John Saxon
In 2011 Education Week reported that Texas was pulling out of the Council of Chief State School Officers, a influential Washington Organization due to philosophical differences. Robert Scott the Texas Education Commissioner at the time felt the values of Texas and CCSSO did not line up not to mention the CCSSO was behind creating national standards aka Common Core. The organization Achieve is another Washington group (surprised?) behind creating the Common Core standards and the philosophy behind it. Achieve Texas is a subsidiary of the Washington group.
Unfortunately this week the current Texas Education Commissioner, Michael Williams appears to be proud that Texas is now becoming a national leader with meeting some of the goals of CCSSO. You can read his comments below.
Informed activist across the state knew that HB 5 was just another step to be completed for those behind the national education reform. Setting students up on Career Pathways before they are old enough to have any true life experiences in making an educated decision as to a career path is a shame. Students today have become to the state cogs in a wheel for the powers at be. Along with the education reform comes data collection from the time a child enters the public school system through out their career. Texas has implemented the Longitudinal Data System. All data is open to 3rd parties and the data collected ranges from test scores, disciplinary actions, medi,cation religion, political affiliation, etc.
After finding a social studies assignment within the controversial curriculum Cscope, sold by the Texas Education Service Centers calling for students to draw a new Communist Flag I am greatly concerned where we in Texas are heading.
The revised elementary math TEKS are above grade level.
The math TEKS are designed for a 36 week school year. Since the STAAR tests are given in April, teachers have about 24 weeks instead of 36 weeks to teach all of the math TEKS.
The STAAR tests are given in April to provide time during the school year for retesting.
TEA sets the testing date early knowing that students do not have enough time to learn all the TEKS. Thus TEA is responsible for the low performance on the STAAR tests. Retesting is very expensive. Who benefits from the retesting? Not our children.
Once the STAAR tests are taken, students who pass are given busy work for about 6 weeks while students who fail are retested.
Not only are the TEKS increasing in difficulty, teachers are not given ample number of instructional days to prepare students.
The same is true for every course being tested.
What is the purpose of giving STAAR tests? It has nothing to do with education.
Many students across the State of Texas failed by record numbers the State STAAR test during the following 2 school years 2012/2013 & 2013/2014. Since passing scores for the STAAR test are not decided until after all the STAAR test have been completed, in response to the failing scores the passing grade was then lowered.
Who is actually in charge over what is going on in Education has yet to be determined. Why are students failing is outlined below. It would appear to me that a child that was held back due to their failing math scores have grounds for a lawsuit.
In 2006 Math TEKs K-12 were written. They were written for the current state TAKS test.
Problem: These same TEKS were used for the STAAR Tests given in April 2012, April 2013, and April 2014.
Changing from the TAKS to the STAAR was done so that a more rigorous math test would be given. The problem is that the TEKS were not revised to prepare students for the more rigorous STAAR math tests.
2012 Revised Math TEKS K-12 were Approved by the SBOE and shelved so that textbook companies had time to prepare their products so they aligned with the new revised math TEKS.
Problem: The SBOE knew the math TEKS used for the TAKS tests were being used for the math STAAR tests, which was given for the first time in April 2012.
TEA and the SBOE as well as the Commissioner of Education knew that students were taking more rigorous math STAAR tests and teachers were given the same math TEKS used for the less rigorous TAKS tests.
The ESCs also knew this and yet sold new CSCOPE math lessons that were to be used to prepare kids for the more rigorous STAAR tests.
The Math TEKS approved in 2006 are Word for Word the same as the TEKS used last year to prepare kids for the STAAR 2014 math TESTs.
Commissioner Williams had the guts to say that Texas students are not receiving rigorous class instructions thus are not prepared for the more rigorous STAAR tests. He did not point out that the Math TEKS for the TAKS tests were used for the STAAR math tests in 2012, 2013, and 2014.
2014 Revised math TEKS K-8 implemented. These are the math TEKS that were approved in April 2012 and shelved by the SBOE until the 2014-2015. While waiting for the book publishers, TEA use the old 2006 math TEKS to prepare kids for the more rigorous STAAR math tests. Thus, TEA was assured that more kids would fail the math STAAR tests and more kids would have to be retested. Who benefited financially by this?
2015 Revised math Teks 9-12 will be implemented.
This means that students in 9-12 will again be taking math STAAR tests using the old math TEKS.
PARENTS MUST GET INVOLVED. DON’T LET THE EDUCATION ESTABLISHMENT INTIMIDATE YOU. THAT IS THEIR MODE OF OPERATION.
*5th grade new math teks are exactly aligned with Common Core.
OUR TEXAS SCHOOLS ARE FAILING OUR CHILDREN. I HAVE HAD REQUEST AS TO WHAT TO SUPPLEMENT FOR A MATH PROGRAM. THE BEST PRODUCT OUT THERE IS SAXON MATH UP THROUGH THE 3ED EDITION.
* after the 3rd edition a different company purchased Saxon and they have now aligned it with Common Core.
Texas is Cloning Teachers
The Texas’ education system is made up of different groups that are supposed to work together. If they actually did work together, Texas would be providing the the best education in the world.
The Texas Education Service Centers are Cloning Teachers
Texas ESCs Are
Cloning Teachers
One reason the different parts of the Texas Education System do not work together is that the Commissioner of Education has allowed the different agencies to basically do their own thing.
1. The State Board of Education (SBOE) is in charge of the TEKs-state standards. There is no verification that these standards are correct. No verification that the groups writing the TEKS are qualified.
2. The Texas Education Agency (TEA) is in charge of STAAR/EOC tests that are suppose to be aligned to the TEKS. TEA test writers make their own interpretation of the TEKS but do not share this with Texas educators. There is no verification that these TESTs are valid to assess students.
3. The ESCs –Education Service Centers have taken control of interpreting the TEKS and school superintendents are responsible for purchasing the ESCs TEKS interpretations. The Commissioner of Education, Michael Williams allows the 20 ESCs to govern themselves. Governor Perry chose the Railroad Commissioner, Michael Williams to be the Commissioner of Education.
The ESCs now train teachers with a minimum of five years of teaching experience to be Instruction Coaches. These Coaches are given authority to govern what teachers teach. These coaches mandate that the ESC interpretation of the TEKS, AKA Unpackaged TEKS, are used with fidelity. Meaning that not one word that is not in the TEKS may be included in lessons. These Instruction Coaches are part of the PLC program.
The diagram of people with no facial features is a good representation of the cloned teachers that the Texas Education Centers are now creating with their new PLC program.
The PLC program is not restricted to Texas. In fact it is more of a common core program that the ESCs are implementing.
Following is a teacher’s comment about working in a school with a PLC Instruction Coach.
AnonymousSeptember 28, 2014 at 2:29 PM
I transferred to a campus with the “PLC” mentality after eight reasonably successful years of teaching. I had been used to a system where we’d share ideas once a week, we’d be teaching the same SE, some of the materials we used were the same because they worked well for all of us. However, we were always free to review or extend as needed, and to use alternate texts if we felt they would work better with our particular students – as long as we were teaching the skill and could show results.
On this new campus, I was immediately thrown into a world in which I not only no longer had an opinion, but was essentially prohibited from adding any personal touches to the lessons that were given to us by the department heads under the guise of “collaboration”. It was same day, same story, same “foldable”, same power-point for everyone in the department – and none of it was near the standard of quality that I had previously implemented in my classroom. A lot of it was disjointed, or shallow, or only loosely connected to the SE… but saying as much made me a huge target.
On the first common assessment, I was “caught”, as my students scored significantly higher in some areas than my colleagues – and instead of being questioned about my methods in some positive way, I was reprimanded, because they knew I was tweaking what they had been giving me. The team leader began a vicious campaign against me, interrogating me during meetings, accusing me of doing a poor job, etc. – and the administrators were right with her. They began visiting my classroom several times a week, e-mailing me about the words or bits of assignments that didn’t seem to be consistent with my colleagues…
Additionally, we were required to use 4 out of 5 of our weekly planning periods (which are legally protected in my state from organized activities by the administration) to attend these “planning meetings” in which we were told what to do, how to do it, and interrogated as to whether we were in lock step.
To make a long story short, I lasted 3 months, began having panic attacks, and was reprimanded for it. This worsened the anxiety, and despite being under medical care, they panic attacks increased in frequency… The constant threat of visits, the interrogation, being told I was not doing well after years of being respected by former colleagues… it was all too much. I resigned for medical reasons, and I’m unsure if I’ll ever teach again.
When CSCOPE hit the news, most of the attention was focused on the lessons.
Much less attention was paid to the money side of CSCOPE.
But there were so many questionable practices from contracting to accounting, that the Texas State Auditor was
asked to get involved.
The Auditor’s report stated that the ESCs had such poor accounting practices that:
“auditors were not able to fully answer the audit objective to determine the amount of revenue and expenditures
related to the development, installation, distribution, and marketing of CSCOPE.”
The ESCs collected $73.9 million for CSCOPE, but they couldn’t account for over $6 million of public funds.
No one involved suffered any consequences. They are all still on the public payroll because, according to the Auditors report:
“the education service centers do not have specific contract laws that they must follow “
“there were no specific state funds appropriated for the development, implementation, and operation of CSCOPE.”
And even though the CSCOPE contracts “lacked fundamental provisions to help protect the State’s and taxpayers’ interests,” none of it was illegal because
What I found, from the standpoint of financial accountability, is another “CSCOPE.”
But this time, instead of just having poor contracting and accounting procedures with public funds, I have a video of a government entity explaining how they defied the Legislature and by-passed Texas law in order to operate TxVSN, and their elected officials rationalizing their actions.
I don’t have enough room to print everything, so I have chosen a few highlights of my findings to share here.
The Texas Legislature passed SB 1788 in 2007 establishing the Texas Virtual School Network (TxVSN) and funding the
operations with state funds.
The Commissioner of Education was given authority over the network resources and instructed in statute to contract with an
ESC for“the ESC to operate the network.”
The Legislature chose ESCs to operate the network because one of their statutory purposes is to “implement initiatives
assigned by the legislature.” (8.220)
Texas Education Agency (TEA) issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) entitled “Central Operations for the Texas Virtual School Network” with the deadline for submission 3/5/08. Eligible proposers were limited to the 20 Texas ESCs.
The purpose was to “identify the regional service center to operate the network.” The RFP stated, “a collaborative of ESCs will also be considered.”
The RFP included other qualifications such as HUB percentages, an understanding of
TxVSN, etc. as well as a statement that the proposer had not
“communicated directly or indirectly the proposal or bid made to any competitor or any
other person engaged in such line of business during the procurement process for this
contract.”
According to discussions held in a public meeting on 2/26/13, The Harris County Department of Education (HCDE) wanted
to bid for Central Operations of TxVSN, but was excluded by the mandates of the legislation because they are not an ESC.
Excerpts from HCDE’s public discussion concerning TxVSN:
(Note: Translation is approximate because some is difficult to understand. Please watch video for exact wording.)
John Sawyer (HCDE Superintendent): “… we wanted to bid on the contract. So I negotiated with (ESC)Region 10 who said, “We don’t know how to do it.” And I said, “We do. But we can’t bid.” So they bid and we are doing about 70% of the infrastructure work. And they are the front of the Texas School. And they handle the money and the student registrations and all that. ..“
John Sawyer (HCDE Superintendent):“…When the law was passed the wording in the law said that the only people who could bid were Regional Service Centers…We don’t qualify as a Regional Service Center. I never could decide if that was purposeful or accidental, but it didn’t matter. We got our share of the business anyway…”
Kay Smith (HCDE Trustee):“I have a question just for clarification. We could not bid on this directly?”
Sawyer: “That is correct”
Smith: “So they bid on it and then they sub it out to us?”
Sawyer:“The director at Region 10 is a former school superintendent that I happen to know pretty well… When I realized that we were not going to be allowed to bid on the project, and the bid was due in Austin on Tuesday of (the) next week…I called Buddy and said, “OK. Here is the deal.” I told you that conversation. He said, “John, we don’t know how to do this.” I said, “We do. But we can’t bid.” So we sent a team to Dallas…And spent the weekend. Wrote the proposal. We delivered it to TEA on Tuesday. Jointly. I mean we helped them with the proposal. And they got awarded the contract and we get about 70% …”
(Note: After the discussion, only one Trustee, Kay Smith, voted not to approve the contract.)
Three weeks before the final proposal for Central Operations of TxVSN was due, TEA held a conference in Austin “to assist potential proposers in clarifying their understanding of the scope and nature of the work…” It was open to “all potential proposers.”
Records show exactly who attended:
ESC-11 sent 3 people
ESC- 4 sent 1 person
ESC-12 sent 1 person HCDE – not qualified to bid – sent 6 people
ESC 10 – DID NOT ATTEND
Yet, TEA awarded the contract to operate the Texas statewide on-line school to ESC-10, an ESC that:
did not even attend TEA’s proposers conference, and
John Sawyer claims said, “We don’t know how to do it.”
(Note: I requested to view the winning bid from ESC-10, but TEA asked for a ruling from the Texas Attorney General Open Records Division – brings back more memories of CSCOPE.)
Esc-10’s first TxVSN contract period was 4/10/2008 through 8/31/2008 for $750,000.
ESC 10 immediately subcontracted with HCDE
(NOT an ESC and NOT an HUB) to provide 74.5% of the work for $559,138.
The first sub-contract with HCDE covered the same dates, 4/10/2008 through 8/31/2008.But records show the work began months before the contract was formally signed. HCDE’s Board didn’t even vote to approve the contract until 2 WEEKS BEFORE IT ENDED.
4/10/08 – Sub-contract began
7/15/08 – HCDE’s expenditure sheet for $325,997.98
7/24/08 – ESC-10 signed sub-contract
7/28/08 – ESC-10 received $325,997.98 HCDE invoice
(Note: I did not find records showing the date HCDE signed the contract.)This sub-contract has been renewed or extended every year with the same discrepancies repeating themselves.During HCDE’s February 2013 Board meeting, HCDE Trustee Erica Lee Carter asks this question about their 12/13 TxVSN contract:“Why are we voting on a contract thatstarted last September?”
But dates and signatures are only part of the contracting concerns.
Documents show that ESC-10 did not request bids before it sub-contracted the development of TxVSN Central Operations
to HCDE.
Instead, ESC-10 claimed, “No bid required since professional services.”
But this was a TEA contract which had to follow State of Texas contract guidelines. Texas Government Code 2254 defines “profession services” as services within the scope of the following professions:
accounting
architecture
landscape architecture
land surveying
medicine
optometry
professional engineering
real estate appraising
professional nursing
Technology is not listed.
Appendix 1 of the TEA contract reads:
“No funds shall be used to pay for food costs (ie refreshments, banquets, group meals, etc.) unless requested as a specific line item in the budget by the contractor and approved (prior to expenditures occurring) by TEA.”
I did not find budget line items or TEA prior approval documentation, but I did find the following purchases in the HCDE check registry under TxVSN budget codes:
Statute dictates that an ESC will operate the network and TEA awarded ESC 10 the Central Operations contract.
But I found multiple contradictory statements as to who is actually “operating” the network:
The TEA website claims: “ESC Region 10 serves as central operations for the TXVSN” and “oversees the day to day operations of the network”
The ESC 10 website claims: “ESC Region 10, in collaboration with the Harris County Department of Education, has been awarded Central Operations of the TxVSN”
The TXVSN website claims: “ESC Region 10, in collaboration with the Harris County Department of Education, is Central Operations.”
The HCDE website claims:“Harris County Department of Education, in collaboration with the Education Service Center (ESC) 10, has been awarded central operations of the TxVSN.”
“Harris County Department of Education was awarded Central Operations of the TxVSN.”
Since TxVSN is online school for thousands of students across Texas, I decided to see who is really operating the network by checking who registered and owns “txvsn.org.”
The result? HCDE I checked the form participating school districts need to send to TxVSN Central Operations for the mailing address.
Whose address is it? HCDE
If you call the TxVSN Central Operations Help Desk…
Where is the phone answered?
HCDE
Then I looked at the original “Scope of Work” descriptions spelled out in ESC-10’s sub-contract with HCDE, it is obvious who is actually “operating” the TxVSN.
TEA / ESC -10
HCDE
But there are two major issues with HCDE operating the TxVSN. First – State statue dictates that an ESC will operate TxVSN. HCDE is NOT an ESC. (30A.052) Second – Documents show the name “HCDE” is actually an “aka” of the “County School Trustees of Harris County.”
Why would a government entity go down to the county courthouse and file documents in order to conduct business under an assumed name?
Well, HCDE is actually an old county school board leftover from the days when counties still ran the public schools (1889 to mid-1900s) – before Texas instituted our current ISD system. They still exist in Harris County because of a loophole in the law which allows them to remain in operation under old, repealed county school statutes.(11.301)
“After December 31, 1978, no state funds shall be used to support … a board of county school trustees…”
TxVSN central operations is funded with state dollars.(30A.152)
Would someone question a contract using state funds being issued to “County School Trustees of Harris County?”
They might.
Would someone question a contract using state funds being issued to “HCDE?”
Much less likely.
Just as with CSCOPE, I end up asking a whole series of questions….
When it comes to Texas education dollars, who is watching the store?
Do the ESCs and other government business enterprises like HCDE really operate unchecked?
Do the Commissioner of Education, TEA and the Legislature really not know what is going on – or are they part of the problem?
Could the answers to all of these questions be something as simple as… … follow the money? Is it just a coincidence that less than a year after leaving TEA, Robert Scott, the Commissioner of Education from 2007-2012, became a paid “consultant” for HCDE?
(Note: Notice this first payment from HCDE to Rob Eissler was 12/21/12 – while he was still officially the Chairman of the House Public Education Committee??? )
Is it also just a coincidence that emails show when HCDE’s Superintendent warned Rob Eissler this past May that his lobbying group’s $269,500 HCDE “consulting” contract may be in jeopardy, Eissler called a current member of the Texas House Public Education Committee,Rep. Dan Huberty, who then called HCDE Board President, Angie Chesnut, and the contract remained intact?
I am sure, just like the HCDE name change, they are all just remarkable coincidences.
With CSCOPE, the ESCs got off scott free because the Legislature left so many loopholes in the statute governing them.
But with TxVSN, the Legislature dictated the funding and the operations in statute so I have personally asked the State Auditor’s Office to investigate the contracting of the TxVSN.
If you agree, you may contact the State Auditor’s Office and urge them to investigate Texas Education Agency’s TxVSN contracting with ESC-10 and HCDE @ 512-936-9500 or email.
You may contact the Texas Senate Education Committee and urge them to request a state audit of TxVSN contracting @ 512-463-0355 or email
You may contact the Texas House Public Education Committee and urge them to request a state audit of TxVSN contracting @ 512-463-0804 or email
Dr. Stan Hartzler is a veteran Math professor who quit teaching at Luling ISD due to being forced to teach the controversial Cscope curriculum. After quitting his position he ran for school board and won. Hartzler felt like he was committing a crime using Cscope due to it failing to educate the students properly in mathematics.
Dr. Cathy Moak employed at Texas Education Service VI wrote some of the math lessons within Cscope. Moak has shown her indignation to those of us that have exposed the substandard Cscope program.
Dr. Moak posted the following Facebook message accusing those that teach from the math curriculum Saxon do not understand the academics of mathematics are they are lazy.
As a home school mother who taught Saxon math I would have to say it is one of the best programs out there. My oldest graduated from Texas A&M in accounting and my son-in-law also a home schooler educated with Saxon graduated #1 academically from the Engineering school at Texas A&M. Saxon is self explanatory and great for those parents whose expertise may not be math. You can find their books @ http://www.christianbook.com/saxon
“Backstory on HB 2103: Data Mining in Texas” – by Donna Garner
I pleaded with all Texas Legislators not to pass HB 2103 because it would open Texas students, parents, and teachers up to possible data mining by third party entities. Then I wrote to Gov. Rick Perry on 5.31.13 and asked him to veto HB 2103. Unfortunately, my concerns were ignored; and Gov. Perry signed it into law on 6.14.13.
This bill if passed would be a field day for hackers! Also, liberal-left professors will most likely take over the Centers for Education Research projects; and all of our personal data will be shared among various agencies in Texas and in other states. The data shared can go back 20 years.
CONCERNS ABOUT HB 2103
Basic Fact of Life: The further that data gets away from the original source, the less people tend to protect it.
The data can include confidential information that is permitted under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (20 U.S.C. Section 1232g).
A database funded by Bill Gates called iBloom, Inc. has already collected personal student data from seven states and will most likely morph into the national database under the Common Core Standards Initiative.
According to the Washington Post article, the information already collected “holds files on millions of children identified by name, address and sometimes social security number. Learning disabilities are documented, test scores recorded, attendance noted. In some cases, the database tracks student hobbies, career goals, attitudes toward school – even homework completion.”
DETAILS OF THE BILL – HB 2103
This bill sets up cooperating agencies including the Texas Education Agency (TEA), the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB), and the Texas Workforce Commission (TWC) that will share data.
Three centers for education research (CER’s) will be set up to conduct research using the data from the TEA, THECB, and TWC that goes back at least 20 years.
The data will be known as the P-20/Workforce Data Repository and will be operated by the Higher Education Coordinating Board.
The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board will establish three centers for education research (CER’s) to conduct studies and share education data, includingcollege admission tests and data from the National Student Clearinghouse. The CER’s must operate for at least a 10-year period of time.
The Commissioner of the THECB will create, chair, and maintain an advisory board over the three research centers that must approve by majority vote all research studies and/or evaluations conducted.
The advisory board will meet at least quarterly and will be live streamed.
The Advisory Board will consist of:
A representative from the THECB, designated by the commissioner of higher education
A representative from the TEA, designated by the Commissioner of Education
A representative from the Texas Workforce Commission, designated by the commission
The directors of each of the three education research centers or the director’s designee
A representative from preschool, elementary, or secondary education
Research proposals can come from a qualified Texas researcher or from other states, a graduate student, a P-16 Council representative, or from a researcher who says the research will benefit Texas education (Pre-K through 16).
These research centers can be at a public junior college, public senior college or university, a public state college, or a consortium of all.
The data collected by these three education research centers can come from:
cooperating agencies
public or private colleges/universities
school districts
a provider of services to a school district or public or private institution of higher education
an entity approved as a part of the research project
After the three research centers are established, they must be supported by gifts and grants.
The data agreements are supposed to protect the confidentiality of all information used or stored at these centers and is subject to state and federal confidentiality laws. However, we know there have been hundreds of hacking incidents and the free sharing of personal information by many agencies.
Basic Fact of Life: The further that data gets away from the original source, the less people tend to protect it.
The data is not to be removed or duplicated from a research center without authorization.
State education agencies from other states can negotiate agreements for these Texas education research centers to share Texas data.
The research centers can also form agreements with local agencies or organizations that provide education services to Texas students, including relevant data about former students of Texas public schools.
HB 2103 is to take effect immediately.
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A person might want to do a search under “PEIMS, new name,” and he will find training power points that the Texas Education Agency has put together to train PEIMS data entry personnel on the new updates. Of course, all of this training for PEIMS was BEFORE HB 2103 was passed. I can well imagine that other data may very well be collected and shared widely.
So far as I know, that data in Texas is not being transmitted out of the state to a third-party vendor yet; but at some future time such a thing could occur. I do know that when Texas took the Stimulus funds, they (as well as every other state in the U. S. that took the funds) had to completely redo the database that had been previously used in Texas because they had to send the data to D. C. in a certain, prescribed format. This, of course, was the Common Core Standards Initiative laying the foundation for the future national database.
Here are some links that explain what data is collected by PEIMS:
I once thought Texas School Superintendents worked for the district they were hired in. Not the case today. Texas Superintendents seem to be busy traveling across the country and the state working to transform Texas Education unbeknownst to local parents and taxpayers. School Board members elected by the voters no longer answer to their constituents and are beholden to the superintendent and his agenda. Sad for our children and our country your superintendent now is working on implementing a Marxist teaching philosophy in every school district across the state of Texas. For years parents and taxpayers had been left in the dark when it came to the controversial curriculum Cscope, used by their local school districts. Cscope, based on the same philosophy of the national curriculum Common Core and Project Based Learning with the use of technology, assessments, etc .. was intentionally keep a secret by Texas Education Service Centers and Superintendents in their plan of transforming Texas education. Since the discovery of Cscope I have found that educators across the state are working with liberal organizations outside the state of Texas to further implement the transformation. Unfortunately the United Nations agenda has made it’s way within our Texas Education Service Centers and school districts. Consortium for School Networking (COSN) is a organization in Washington DC promoting technology and progressive education practices in school districts across Texas and the country. COSN works with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to further implement their agenda.
In 2012 COSN held a symposium with UNESCO in Washington DC.
The Texas Chapter of Consortium of School Networking is called Texas K-12 CTO Council. It states perfectly what their agenda is in the yellow highlighted part below.
I am a retired Texas Science Teacher, science author of 52 published science investigation books for kids and educators, and now design thermochromic products and activities for Hallcrest, inc.
I tell you this so that you know that I do have an understanding of science and education. Thus, have the expertise to evaluate science curriculum, such as the flawed, incorrect science in the CSCOPE instruction material.
As part of a group of concerned Texas citizens, I testified at the first Senate Education Committee hearing on CSCOPE. My daughter, Ginger Russell, and I created two separate websites dedicated to present information to the public about the flawed CSCOPE material. Redhotconservative.com and TxCSCOPEReview.com
I live within the boundaries of the Marlin ISD, which has consecutively failed the state tests for seven years. Two years ago I spoke to the interim superintendent, Marsha Ridlehuber and the curriculum director Jamie Johnson about helping the 5th grade science teacher. Both were very negative and both refused my offer. They did not want me to have access to the CSCOPE instruction material because it was at that time not being shown to the public. Ridlehuber is gone but Jamie Johnson is still in postion to keep CSCOPE lessons in the classrooms. I am still not welcome to work with the elementary science teachers even though the 5th grade continues to fail the state test.
TEA has assigned Elizabeth Rowland and a team of others to help Marlin ISD. Sir, failing schools have become the “CASH COW” for TEA monitors and conservators. From the results of Rowland’s improvement plan for Marlin ISD, Rowland has a lifetime job in the district. Taxes are raised to continue to pay for the inept programs of Elizabeth Rowland and others assigned to help improve student performance. Not one of the approved improvement programs actually focuses on improving teacher understanding of core curriculum being taught.
Commissioner, I am questioning the use of Title I money to pay for professional development for the purpose of monitoring how a teacher presents his/her lesson. Rowland has approved Title I money for Lead Your School, which is a list of teacher actions monitors can observe and check on a list. One teacher was written up for sitting at his desk while he recorded attendance on his computer. Teachers are not allowed to sit at their desk unless students are standing around it.
Commissioner, the local ESC-Region 12 receives millions of dollars for money every year to develop professional development. But, most of their professional development programs are expensive. What are they doing with all the grant money? Region 12 is the culprit selling CSCOPE to Marlin ISD.
Sir, something is very wrong with the entire Texas education system. TEA cannot be trusted to send qualified helpers. TEA cannot be trusted to monitor the grant money given to the ESCs, such as the $200 Million dollars from the Rider 42 TEKS grant to be used specifically for teacher professional development. I can provide much more information (facts) about this.
The SBOE cannot be trusted when Thomas Ratliff, a lobbyist for Microsoft is the vice-chairman on the board. Ratliff files charges on grassroot patriots who interfer with anything he promotes. Ratliff promotes CSCOPE because it is an internet program so he promotes that teachers not be allowed to give students textbooks. Marlin provides no textbooks for students.
Sir, How are students going to improve in reading if they are not given books to read?
Senator Patrick, chair of the Senate Education Committee made a behind the scenes deal with the 20 ESCs. Patrick thought he had bargained for CSCOPE to be removed from the Texas schools. But the ESC directors tricked the senator. The results being that Patrick helped delay the Sunset review of the ESCs and in return the ESCs gave the CSCOPE lessons to all the schools who had previously been purchasing these lessons. While the ESCs can no longer sell the CSCOPE lessons, they are allowed to continue selling at the same fee the schedule for using the K-12 lessons as well as the unit assessments for the CSCOPE lessons.
Governor Perry mandated that Common Core not be used in the Texas Schools, not one peep has been heard from him about the ESCs having conventions with workshops using common core or TASA going to common core conventions.
The past Commissioner of Education, Robert Scott, supported TASA, never responded when he received questions about CSCOPE, instead he quickly resigned.
Commissioner Williams, you sir are in a position to Turn Texas Education Around. I am asking you to take a close look at what is going on in Marlin ISD, the lowest academic school in the state of Texas. Help this school district and I am convinced that like falling dominoes, other schools will fall in line.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has raided the Beaumont Independent School District and homes of two top School Officials. The FBI is assisting the US Attorney’s Office investigate allegations that School Officials created bogus accounts to steal money from the school and from the taxpayers. There is no official figure but rumors are that the total stolen could be in the millions of dollars.
According to KBMT Channel 12 News in Beaumont, “Agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation raided the administration building early Thursday morning. They also raided the home of the district’s Director of Finance Devin McCraney and the home of District Comptroller Sharika Allison.”
The Texas Education Agency is currently investigating BISD. It is believed that the TEA discovered the mismanaged money trail and contacted the Federal Authorities which led to the raid. The State of Texas denies that they knew anything of the FBI raid and the TEA says their investigation is unrelated to what the FBI is investigating.
Will this latest incident be the straw that breaks the camel’s back and forces the State of Texas to take over Beaumont ISD? This would not be the first time. Beaumont ISD has a long history of corruption and the State of Texas has had to take over the School District at least once before.
BISD School Board Member Mike Neil has been fighting to correct problems in the school district ever since he was elected. Neil told KFDM Channel 6 Newsin Beaumont, “There’s no doubt in my mind there’s been corruption in the past,” said Neil. “Whether or not there’s currently corruption, I’m not going to say. But there’s no doubt in my mind this is not a correctly run district, especially from a business standpoint.”
No one should really be surprised at this I suppose. We are talking about the notoriously corrupt Beaumont ISD. I have written several articles about Beaumont ISD corruption in the last few years and I never even scratched the surface. My most recent article about Beaumont ISD was only a couple of weeks ago and was about a 
