More Control for Local School Boards

Mike Goldman, 10 years ago

Ms. Patterson,

Thanks for this question!

It’s time the state stop mandating every single facet of school operations. Genuine local control means making tools and resources available, but it’s up to parents, teachers and principals to avail themselves of those tools.

The Gold Standard pre-K programs proposed in Educating Texans would be required to use the most rigorous TEA-approved Pre-K guidelines, but within that framework, teachers and principals would be able to decide on a local level how to actually teach the curriculum in a way that best meets the needs of their students.

Qualified schools that opt in to the gold standard program would be free to spend the money they receive in a variety of ways, so long as spending is designed to improve the overall quality go the district’s pre-kindergarten program and the district continues to meet the program’s eligibility requirements.

Mike Goldman
Policy Analyst
Texans for Greg Abbott

Julie Jumes, 10 years ago

The program’s eligibility requirements involve, in large part, the state defined testing of children 9yo or younger? These children will be earning or not earning state money for their district based on test scores, correct? A teacher’s pay and position is based on this funding isn’t it?

Simplified terms:
The state takes money from tax payers, districts who agree to attempt to implement the state’s defined “Gold Standard Pre K” get money from the state to spend with much local level freedom as long as kids can prove up to the state’s accountability tests? Would the tools used to assess these kids happen to be adaptive assessments? Might adaptive assessments be harmful to young children and the future of Texas if they were defined by the wrong people in Austin? Might our state avoid these harms by staying out of the Pre K assessment business, leaving that to parents?