TribLive: Patrick on Public Education
At Thursday's TribLive conversation, state Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, talked about "turning things upside down" in the public education system.
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Comments (5)
Rudy Gonzales
There he goes again! 'Ol lying Dan Patrick! Patrick is the classical Treacherous Egotistical Activist.(TEA) Espousing the TEA party credo that public education should not be publicly funded. A member of the Toxic Errant Agnostic(TEA) party, he backs “The revolution is working, we have infiltrated the Republican Party, and we will convert the Republican Party to defenders of liberty” - This statement was made at the TEA party meeting in Texas with Ted Cruz, Ron and Rand Paul and other Taxation Eradication Anarchists.(TEA)
Alice Taylor
Patrick lost me when he said that teachers "teach 20 years in the system and make 70 grand a year, whether they're good or bad". A reasonable grasp of the numbers is one of the basic requirements, one would think, of a chairman of the Education Committee. Does he really think the average Texas public school teacher with 20 years in makes 70K?
I'm a Texas public school teacher who came in to teaching at age 40 and I have 14 years in the system and will retire at 20. My pay has been frozen for the last two years and this year I'll get a 2% raise. Most districts can't even manage that. I doubt if I'll make 55K when I retire at 20 years.
From what I'm seeing in the statehouse, performance pay is dead in the water. Oh, there's a lot of talk, but not a dime is being proposed to pay top teachers. What I'm seeing is a lack of funding that is resulting in frozen wages, less time to teach and less time to prepare. I dont see Patrick addressing any of those issues at all, and neither did his mentor Shapiro.
Yes, it is all about the kids, not the adults. I totally agree with that. I just don't see our legislature acting on those sentiments and I certainly didn't hear Patrick and Shapiro worrying too much about kids when they were wielding the axe during the last go round. When you vote to de-fund public education the way our last legislature did you're not looking out for kids. You're looking out for business interests and lame-duck governor's political ambitions.
GS Crispus
Oh these "Ivory Tower" conservatives...
Patrick was simply pandering all over the place in this interview. Shapiro sold out to the Pearson testing lobby long ago, and it should be clear to everyone, that an endorsement of her is an endorsement of the business cronyism rampant in the Republican party in this state. Why would "Mr. Tea Party" advocate we continue the policies of a woman who has sold herself for thirty pieces of silver to private corporations?
For all the talk of blue collar work, Patrick has been more than happy during his tenure to push 4x standards (4 years of science, math, english, history at the high school level) and back regulations that limited graduation avenues through career and technology and work-study programs.
Again, to hear Patrick pandering for vouchers, which would double up administrative costs after he advocated to consolidate local districts and centralize school districts at the county level to save money... it as if he has no understanding of finance beyond the populist rhetoric he throws out. Why is it acceptable to throw money at vouchers, and yet unacceptable to have local control?
To hear him complain of teachers who have stayed on the job for 20 years and making $70,000 and then make suggestions we lengthen school years (that might require raising revenue through taxes!), and throw out incentive pay (which has shown itself to be a failure) indicates to me that he is preaching what people want to hear, but lacks the intellectual credentials (or honesty) to be in the position he inhabits.
We have elected a moron in District 7.
Kelly Hastings
Dan Patrick says that we should change education, and says that he supports the STAAR test. He, also, says that everyone has the option to go to college, but not everyone should be “tracked” to go to a university.
Then why does the STAAR test for college readiness?
Don't we have enough illogical policies and procedures in place for education?
gypsy314 ne
Anyone but the Obama fraud and liar democrats and sorry rhinos!