Between the regular session and the special session, it was
easy for public education advocates to hit the wall! I know that I did. When you hear nothing but criticism (from much
of Austin), it’s easy to throw your hands up in the air and resign yourself to
the actions of the legislature. And
that’s exactly what many want us to do, led by the Lt. Governor and the chair
of the Senate Education Committee.
But that’s the last thing that we all should be doing! Much has been written and several groups have
initiatives underway to address the constant barrage of public education
criticism. In this blog, I’d like to
highlight two specific initiatives.
Texans for Public Education, a group founded by Troy
Reynolds, (Facebook – texans4publiced; texansforpubliceducation.com;
Twitter - @texans4e) has done a very nice job of putting together a scorecard
of where each legislator stands on public education. His is an evolving process and with the
support and input of all of us, he is constantly updating the “grades” of each
legislator. He also offers specific
commentary about reasons and actions that support the “grade”.
Texas Educators Vote (texaseducatorsvote.com), launched by
the Texas Association of Community Schools (web – tacsnet.org; Twitter - @tacsnet) under the
leadership of Barry Haenisch and Laura Yeager, was developed as a campaign prior to the last general
election to drive increased voter participation by educators … and it worked! Now
back and newly refined, Texas
Educators Vote is focused not just on getting out the vote, but making sure
that educators have access to information that helps them understand which
candidates are supportive of public education.
Texas educators can
make a difference at the polls and certainly continue to do so on a daily basis
in the classroom. It’s sad that some in
Austin fail to acknowledge educators’ efforts but the next round of primaries
and the general election will serve as a great opportunity to change the
mindset in Austin.
What all of this boils down to is the need for educators to
engage in the election process. Although educators are often criticized and
challenged for their efforts, these two outstanding groups have taken the initiative
to change the culture in Austin. They
are not alone but they can only do so much.
It’s up to educators and others who support public education to engage
and act … now. It’s time for us to do
our homework on who supports public education and do what we can to ensure that
those individuals have a seat in Austin, a seat that will make education a
priority for the more than 5.3 million Texas public education students.
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