State Board of Education Moves to Improve Texas Education

Legislatures premature push of technology into classrooms a concern   By Geraldine Tincy" Miller State Board of Education Member District 12   It is said:  The goal of education is the advancement of knowledge and the dissemination of the truth …history must not be written with bias." At the recent State Board of Education (SBOE) meeting the Board continued its debate on the States Social Studies TEKS.  The debate focused on whether a proposed draft of the new standards removed or changed significant historical references. The concern about the Social Studies TEKS was first examined at the SBOEs March meeting when Brooke Terry of the Texas Public Policy Foundation brought the issue to light.  In her public testimony she identified places where individualism free enterprise system and personal responsibility were changed or removed from the Social Studies TEKS draft update by the Social Studies Writing Committees.  Terry also pointed out that references to George Washington Daniel Boone Pecos Bill Paul Bunyan and Robinson Crusoe were eliminated. As a member of The Committee on Instruction (COI) we took up the discussion in April and made recommendations to the full Board. We supported maintaining traditional American values as a part of the curriculum and recommended that the Boards panel of Social Studies Expert Reviewers assess the current standards and review the Writing Committees updates. The source of the debate sprung from confusion as to what the starting document would be when building the Social Studies TEKS.  Apparently the teachers on the Writing Committees integrated the Texas Council for the Social Studies Draft into the document without approval from the Board.  In response to concerns about the changes the Board clarified that existing TEKS would be used as the basic document for the Writing Committees to use. Thankfully the SBOE took swift action to address these troublesome changes.  I am all in favor of presenting a more balanced and well-rounded illustration of our history but we cannot allow it to be re-written.  We have a lot to be proud of when it comes to the ideas of our forefathers and we must maintain those in our school curricula.  I am grateful the Board took a strong stand on this issue. In addition to the discussion on the Social Studies TEKS the Board addressed funding for the Reading textbooks and instructional materials in Proclamation 2010.  This Session the legislature voted to give our schools only 85 of the full funding for textbooks next year.  These materials include the newly adopted Phonics-based English Language Arts Reading TEKS and are essential for teachers to adequately prepare students for end-of-course exams and to ensure college readiness. At my recommendation the Board drafted a letter urging legislators to fully fund reading textbooks and instructional materials next year.  Additionally we requested that the funding not be used to purchase technology equipment such as laptops as this would further drain funding for Proclamation 2010 putting students and teachers at an even greater disadvantage. Though legislators were stuck with a difficult budgetary decision in my mind this was not their finest hour.  Our students deserve to have the materials they need up front to succeed in school.  The SBOE has a duty to set aside sufficient funds for students textbooks and with this decision the legislature has really tied our hands.  Governor Perry can still increase the amount of reading textbook funding to 100 by executive order and I will be urging him to just that. As you know the question of whether or not to spend funds intended for textbooks on technology equipment-devices (laptops) has long been a priority of mine.  The Attorney General issued an opinion (GA-444 2006) stating that textbook funding should not be used for this purpose.  In fact the opinion made it clear that a laptop is not a book … i.e. A book is defined as instructional content in either traditional print or technology such as DVD/CDs.  Yet the legislature (and the powerful computer lobby) have continued to insist that we dip into these resources for the purchase of hardware.  Some call this a backdoor raid" on the Kids Textbook Fund (PSF).  This is not the intent of this money and it goes against data that show the students who were given laptops as a medium for learning did not perform at higher levels. In the January 2008 Evaluation of the Texas Technology Immersion Pilot reports showed that laptops and online technology did not improve student achievement in reading and writing (www.teer.org/research/etxtip/documents/y3etxtip.quan.pdf. )  Additionally two polls conducted by Baselice & Associates commissioned by Texas Citizen Action Network show that some 74 of Texas voters agree that textbooks cannot be replaced with technology and 85 agree that textbook funding should be protected to ensure that money in the Permanent School Fund (PSF) is used for up-to-date math and science reading textbooks as opposed to technology. In the final three weeks of the just ended Legislative Session the legislature voted in favor of HB 4294 by Rep. Dan Branch (R-Dallas) which diverts money from the Kids Textbook Fund (PSF) and uses it to purchase electronic textbooks such as Kindles and laptops for public schools.  The Computer Lobby is behind this bill code name Vendor/hardware Bill".  Though a number of SBOE members spoke to legislators at length about the negative repercussions of this bill they insisted on moving forward with it.  I am aggravated by the Legislatures decision and you can rest assured I will continue to advocate for the proper use of the PSF dollars in the future. At my request to the Chair our Board endorsed another follow-up question to the Attorney General for the Constitutional definition of textbook.  Our forefathers wrote into our Constitution that every child in public school has a free textbook and the SBOE would set aside enough money for this purpose. In the next month I will be launching my Web site where I hope to have a more consistent dialogue with you on the happenings of the State Board of Education.  I will be in touch to let you know when it is up and running.  Have a safe and relaxing summer holiday. P.S.  The Session has ended and HB 4294 (the technology vendors bill) passed and is now on the way to the Governor for signature.  The devil is always in the details ... Although you will see Legislators such as the authors of the bill Rep. Dan Branch and Sen. Florence Shapiro touting the passage of this electronic textbook bill it is pure and simple a Vendor Bill for selling Kindle hardware to school districts. In my opinion it represents a raiding our constitutionally-PSF (Kids Textbook Fund) for the purchase of these hardware devices (laptops and Kindles). The Technology Lobbyists may have won the legislative battle ... although now the questions at issue become ones of:

1. Equity for every Texas student;
2. Accuracy of content;
3. No typical SBOE oversight (and therefore public oversight as well) of what our children will be taught with these Kindles; and
4. Only the Commissioner of Education and TEA havng the right to decide what the content of these devices will be.

Fact:  The SBOE has required our textbook publishers to have cutting edge technology in their current textbook packages for each student. For several years textbook providers have included CDs & DVDs on-line technology and more-additional content for EACH STUDENT in our public schools. Fact:  Each student is required by the Constitution to have a free book (traditional print and/or CD/DVD. Fact:  Each classroom has at least set of textbooks and each student takes his or her textbook materials home.  Fact:  Texas has already had for quite some time a technology allotment.  Texas also has a textbook allotment.  These two previously separate allotments will now be co-mingled and sent straight to the local  School Districts ... by-passing what many experts call the best in the nation State Adoption & Review Process. Regretfully HB 4294 is all about money ... not our children. Tincy Miller represents Dist. 12 on the Texas State Board of Education.  A Member since 1984 she was appointed by Gov. Rick Perry to serve as Chair from 2003-2007.