Coastal Bend school leaders band together against tide of 'assault' on public education

About 20 school administrators and school board members met at a downtown Corpus Christi bar patio last week, banding together out of concern for the future of public education in Texas.

Far from a networking or casual after-work get together, the gathering was a rallying meeting for a new educational advocacy group, the Coastal Bend Public Education Advocacy Network, born from fears that public schools are under attack.

“We can’t recall another time when districts joined forces such as this,” Corpus Christi ISD Board of Trustees President Don Clark said. “But we also can’t recall another time when the situation was so dire that something like this was called for.”

Gov. Greg Abbott called lawmakers back this week for a special session beginning Monday, tasking them with an agenda including school vouchers, immigration issues and COVID-19 restrictions. Over the course of the 30-day session, Coastal Bend school leaders hope their voices will be heard.

The educators came from across the Coastal Bend, from Aransas Bay down to Baffin Bay. The group’s goals are based on the common ground shared by every school district in the region – a belief in a need for more funding and support and an opposition to private school vouchers.

Members of the Corpus Christi ISD school board arranged the gathering with the help of education advocacy group Raise Your Hand Texas.

Though only a handful of districts were able to attend in person, all 40 school districts in the region were invited to participate, with none raising objections to the slate of shared priorities, CCISD board member Dolly Gonzales Trolley said.

The participating school districts hope that by banding together they might have a shot at swaying lawmakers.

“It’s unfortunate that it takes something like this to move the needle, but I think it’s what it’s going to take for us to get where we need to go with what’s coming out of Austin,” Clark said.

As the school leaders are rallying, so too are retired teachers and others in the community. An hour after the special session began in Austin on Monday, about two dozen people staked out spots at the corner of Staples Street and South Padre Island Drive, one of the busiest intersections in Corpus Christi.

Gathered by the Corpus Christi American Federation of Teachers, the demonstrators held up signs declaring their opposition to vouchers and their support for Proposition 9, a state constitutional amendment up for election Nov. 7 that would give retired educators a cost-of-living adjustment to their pensions.

“We are here to make sure that our representatives and everybody else that has any kind of power votes against vouchers,” former teacher Martha Sauceda said.

Special session education priorities

When state lawmakers met in the spring for the regular session of the 88^th Texas Legislature, educators had a lot of hope. A state teacher vacancy task force, built on the insights of teachers in the classroom, had submitted a slate of recommendations for lawmakers, including raising teacher pay.

During the session, several bills were proposed that would have followed through on the work of the task force. But in the end, an effort to increase school funding was derailed by the political fight over vouchers, the two issues tied together with neither passing.

Abbott visited Corpus Christi last spring to make the case for education savings accounts, stopping by Annapolis Christian Academy to tout parent empowerment. In the weeks after, Corpus Christi private school leaders expressed some interest in the possibility of funding to benefit families interested private schools, as well as some concern should any future program tie funding to restrictions or oversight.

In calling the special session, Abbott specifically mentioned education savings accounts, immigration and COVID-19 restrictions.

“Together, we will chart a brighter future for all Texas children by empowering parents to choose the best education option for their child,” Abbott’s Oct. 5 press release announcing the session reads.

Public school funding and teacher raises weren’t mentioned in the session agenda. Lawmakers can file legislation in those areas, but the state constitution says that lawmakers can only pass bills related to the governor’s agenda during special sessions.

“The hope is still alive that the governor maybe expands the call to public school-related issues, especially funding and teacher workforce, but right now what’s on the call is just education savings accounts for all Texas school children,” Raise Your Hand Texas senior director of policy Bob Popinski said.

Raise Your Hand Texas is a non-partisan nonprofit organization focused on education policy.

In the first two days of the special session, lawmakers filed a slew of bills related to education. This includes Senate Bill 1, by Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, which would create a $500 million educational savings account program. Current public school and private school students and incoming kindergarten or pre-K would be able to apply for up to $8,000 annually to go towards tuition and fees at private schools or other educational expenses.

Separately, Creighton’s Senate Bill 2 calls for a $75 increase to the basic allotment, would double the current school safety allotment, adds teacher pay raises and increases funding for the Teacher Incentive Allotment, a program that boosts pay for teachers who meet certain performance goals.

The first priority of the Coastal Bend advocacy network is funding. The group would like to see an increase in the basic allotment. The basic allotment is the amount the state guarantees to schools to provide a basic level of education. It is currently set at $6,160 per student per year.

But that amount is lower than what educating a student for a year actually costs. In Corpus Christi ISD, it costs the district over $9,000 to educate a child.

Even if the current version of Senate Bill 2 eventually passes, the proposed education savings account for private education exceeds the basic allotment for public schools.

Gregory-Portland ISD Superintendent Michelle Cavazos said during the advocacy network gathering that she would like to see a perpetual increase, where the basic allotment is tied to the Consumer Price Index. With a measure like this, school districts would not have to fight for funding increases every legislative session.

The group also hopes for an increase to the school safety allotment, which currently rests at just over $9 per student.

The group’s second priority is that public dollars should remain in public schools. The group is opposed to voucher programs, as private schools are not required to meet the same standards as public schools and lack accountability oversight. Additionally, private schools are not required to accept all students.

Existing voucher programs vary state by state, but research of several voucher programs has not found evidence of improved student performance, including studies on low-income students showing achievement drops among students who switched to private school in Indiana, Louisiana and Ohio.

“We kind of know by looking at other states what Texas can expect if a voucher program passes,” Popinski said. “Number one, Texans can expect that there’s not going to be enough high-quality seats in those private schools that you want to get your kids into... Texas, because of that, can expect kind of pop-up private school and vendors in strip malls all over the state. You can expect private school tuition to go up.”

The third priority calls for funding and incentives for teacher recruitment and retention, allowing schools to offer competitive pay to educators and support staff.

Raise Your Hand Texas’s goal is for the state to meet the national average in school spending.

Popinski said that Texas is about $4,000 behind the national average in spending on students, and that the purchasing power of schools has decreased since 2019 as costs of fuel, food services and property and casualty insurance have all increased.

Special education is also underfunded in Texas, Popinski said.

“We’ve got a long way to go before we even consider what vouchers should be doing in the state of Texas,” Popinski said.

Public education under assault?

Since Texas lawmakers failed to address the needs of public education in the spring, those in public education have been vocal about an increased conviction that Texas public schools have become the victims and targets of partisan political fights.

“We’re here to hopefully turn the tide of the assault on public education coming out of Austin,” Clark said at the advocacy council gathering. “I don’t believe that to be an over-exaggerated word because that’s exactly what it is. Things are happening from a fiscal perspective and an accountability perspective to drop public education.”

This year, the Texas Education Agency was expected to release new A-F school accountability ratings based on a new set of metrics. Earlier in the year the agency advised schools that some would see their ratings potentially drop despite gains in student outcomes.

This alarmed school leaders, who say the state was raising standards too quickly, without giving schools enough notice or time to meet the new expectations.

“It’s set up to make people fail,” West Oso ISD Superintendent Kimberly Moore said.

Kingsville ISD partnered with six other Texas districts to file a lawsuit in August against Texas Commissioner of Education Mike Morath calling for a delay of the refresh. In the weeks since, about 100 districts, including Corpus Christi ISD, joined the effort.

Moore said she “absolutely” believes public education is under attack. In addition to insufficient funding and controversial state accountability plans, Moore also pointed to a national book ban wave — several Corpus Christi-area schools, including West Oso ISD, faced book complaints last year — and a law passed last spring expanding the authority of the State Board of Education, an elected board, to review textbooks.

“It’s this idea that you can’t trust teachers, educators, librarians – the idea that you can’t trust professionals to do their jobs,” Moore said.

Seeing the special session agenda, outlining school vouchers as a priority, but not school funding, only confirmed the feeling of an onslaught, Moore said.

“Parents have all this freedom, private schools have all this freedom, but the people running public schools don’t have much freedom at all,” Moore said.

Local activism in the Coastal Bend

Taking to the streets Monday, the Corpus Christi demonstrators held signs and wore pins outlining their opposition to vouchers and their hopes that voters will support cost-of-living increases to benefits for retired school employees.

“I feel very strongly about the vouchers, very strongly about taking money from public education,” retired teacher Frances Carney said. “We need more money, not less.”

Attendees included retired teachers, teacher union members, allies associated with other local unions and others in the community.

“We’re here protesting or at least making people aware, educating them,” CC-AFT President Nancy Vera said during the demonstration, adding that the union has also spread information about these issues on social media, including a livestream video featuring state Sen. Morgan La Mantia, D-South Padre Island.

During the school district advocacy network gathering last week, members of the advocacy network shared their individual efforts to connect with local lawmakers and expressed their commitment to continue doing so and to potentially visit Austin together as a group.

For small districts, it can be difficult to find the time and resources to advocate for change, Moore said.

“So, we band together,” Moore said. “The whole idea is we’re one strong voice.”

The group sent a letter to Coastal Bend lawmakers and lawmakers serving on education committees this week, in the beginning days of the special session.

“Having community members and parents directly being in contact with either their legislator or other staffers is important,” Popinski said. “They want to hear from people back in their school districts. They want to hear how their schools are doing.”

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This article originally appeared on Corpus Christi Caller Times: Coastal Bend educators urge lawmakers to oppose vouchers, hike funding