Budget Plans Question Value of Incentives and Testing
In budget proposals that the House and Senate released this week, legislative leaders signaled their priorities as much by what they funded as by what they didn’t.
Neither budget offers new funding for controversial economic incentive programs run out of the governor’s office.
The draft House budget does not include any money for standardized testing in schools, while the Senate budget appropriates $98.4 million for student assessment programs.
A House official who briefed reporters Tuesday said both moves were done out of an acknowledgment that many lawmakers have concerns about both the state’s approach to student ...
Comments (11)
Susan Topper via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Get rid of STAAR!
Andrew Goldberg via Texas Tribune on Facebook
first we need to get a lock on actual "knowledge" in this state. The teatards are trying to rewrite history and eliminate science. that has to be stopped first.
Mac Mcclure via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Get back to basics. Gun Appreciation Day is this Saturday.
John Lyon via Texas Tribune on Facebook
I'd get rid of the incentives program; why does a for profit company need a hand out?
Merryl Redding via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Good, less testing, more learning!
Karen Spivey-Cummings via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Typical. Mandate with no $$$$$$.
Nora Dearing via Texas Tribune on Facebook
We need to assess our students with the same test the other 48 states are using to have a true comparison to how well or how weak Texas students are.
Marsha Jeffus Burris via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Give the Algebra 2 & Physics STAAR to the lawmakers & watch them squirm! Then have their scores printed in the newspaper! Not all graduates are college bound - when will people realize this!!! I have no problem with assessing our students- it's called a six weeks test & semester exam! Just as TAKS was an albatross - STAAR is going to cause more drop outs of at risk students and then the teachers & administrators will be blamed- not the parents! We cannot make students come to school, we cannot make them learn. We cannot make them behave!!!! Compare our top 10% to the rest of the world, that's who they test- because we offer a free public school education to EVERYONE -other countries do not!
Christie Smith
I'd say we know how weak Texas students are since one of the commentators thinks we should administer the same test as the other 48 states. Gee, last time I checked we had 50 states. So 48+1=????
Evidently education has been dumbed down in this state for years.
blanca fogleman
The writing is on the wall. Parents, teachers, students, superintendents, and school boards all agree with Robert Scott. The standardized test has become a perversion. It keeps teachers from teaching core subjects instead we teach the students how to answer questions regarding core subjects but only in question form not in any format that encourages discovery or learning that sticks. So... get ready for "choice" because unless the legislature comes up with a paradigm shift regarding testing, choice will happen. The unhappy parents of today are not going to wait 4 or more years until things get better. No caring involved parent will give up that kind of time. I hear more and more parents home schooling or choosing private school. As an educator who gave 30 years to public school, I say we can do so much better. We do not need fancy expensive programs. We need to simplify. Make teaching readiness more rigorous at the college level. Then attract those talented teachers with better pay and working environments. Why should anyone want to go into teaching in 2013. The talented young teachers that I know are leaving education. It is toxic to students and teachers. It has been but now every knows the truth of it.
Michael Hull
Christie Smith--yea, either somebody thinks we have 49 states or her typing 48 was a mistake--a typo--you do know the 8 is next to the 9 on the keyboard.
That being said, Texas education is substandard.