Thanks, Rick.

Yesterday the Texas State House voted to give me a pay raise.

That in and of itself is a good piece of news, but do you know what makes it ever so sweet? The pay raise resulted from an amendment proposed by Rep. Rick Noriega (D-Houston) to take the funds that were being set aside for Rick Perry’s, Warren Chisum's, and Tom Craddick’s teacher incentive payment program and rechannel them into a two-year across the board pay raise for all teachers, librarians, counselors and school nurses in Texas public schools.

Rick challenged the House membership to do the right thing: “Bottom line, members, do we want to give teachers a pay raise?''. And they rose to the occasion.

I don’t think that there is a teacher in Texas who favored the incentive plan. The plan they proposed is divisive and morale-killing. Around the time that Houston ISD teachers were insulted with the HISD incentive plan, I posted this commentary about Pay for Performance.

House Democrats were united in voting for Noriega’s amendment, and they even picked up some Republican votes to carry the day. The vote was 90 to 56.

Yes, 56 Republicans voted no to teacher pay raises.

Get it? They took funds away from that evil and heinous program and distributed it fairly and evenly to the some of the most poorly paid educators in the nation. That’s not just justice, it’s poetic justice.

And this must have put them in a good mood, because almost immediately afterward, when Rep. Joe Heflin (D-Crosbyton) headed the effort to “ban spending any money allocated to the Texas Education Agency on a program in which state tax dollars pay for private-school vouchers”, that got passed as well and by a huge majority: 129-8. It wasn't too long ago that similar legislation was voted down by a very slim majority. Very clearly House members have finally heard Texans loud and clear that Texans support our public school system and take a dim view of taking state funds away from public schools.

I think Dr. Leininger is out of business. Now he needs to find some other part of the state budget to rob so he can sell his hospital beds.

I hear that House Democrats were not so lucky in getting other amendments to the budget bill passed, but for public school educators in Texas, it was a very good day.

Oh, and by the way, Rick Noriega's wife, Melissa Noriega, is running against a herd for Houston City Council At-Large Position 3 seat. No? You didn't know that? Early voting in the special election starts in just one short month so go here and do something for her campaign, OK?

UPDATE: The Senate put teacher pay for performance back in the budget. Swine.

James Leininger All Set to Kick 2000 Kids Out Into the Streets

No, I didn’t say it, he did. Texas millionaire James Leininger has told the Texas legislature that they need to take over his project – a 10-year, $50 million commitment funding a program for students in San Antonio's Edgewood school district - which is set to expire next year.

If they don’t act, Leininger says, the 2,000 students that attend a private school under his personally bankrolled school voucher program will be "out on the street".

Man, that’s a little cold.

And a little wrong.

First, I assume that these students who have been, up to now, the beneficiaries of a private school education will have no trouble getting themselves enrolled in a publicly funded school system. Unlike private schools, public schools cannot boot kids out into the streets (although, speaking as a public school educator, you sometimes wish . . . ). Public schools are, by law, obligated to admit anyone under the age of 19.5 years and give them an education.

Here is what Kathy Miller of the anti-voucher Texas Freedom Network said about Leininger’s plans:

"Private schools may be willing to put those kids out on the street, but the great thing about our neighborhood public schools is that they would never do that."

Not only wouldn’t but couldn’t.

Texas Education Code Title 1 Chapter 1§ 1.002:

EQUAL EDUCATIONAL SERVICES OR OPPORTUNITIES. (a) An educational institution undertaking to provide education, services, or activities to any individual within the jurisdiction or geographical boundaries of the educational institution shall provide equal opportunities to all individuals within its jurisdiction or geographical boundaries pursuant to this code.

Leininger’s private schools don’t have that rule to live by. How nice.

I think it’s time for James Leininger to take stock of his grand plan. He has fewer supporters in the legislature in this session than last, and the vote just isn’t there. Besides that, he has just illustrated for us one of the less obvious reasons why school voucher programs are a bad idea. What if someone pulls the plug on the voucher system, like Leininger plans to do with his program? Private schools will turn out their voucher students by the thousands, leaving them no choice but to go back to the public schools, which will have no choice but to admit them. These will be schools that will have been underfunded for years because the voucher system redirected funds from public schools to private schools.

And another reason to rethink school vouchers? No one wants them.

School Vouchers: an Unholy Attack on Texas Public Schools

Actually, I need to be slapped around from time to time. Carole Keeton Strayhorn did not invent school vouchers, she merely supported them so she could get elected. Imagine that, an ex-teacher stumping for school vouchers.

Dr. James Leininger practically invented school vouchers – in Texas anyway.

A far right religious conservative, Dr. Leininger is often cast as a person who wants taxpayer money to be diverted from public schools to private (and preferably Christian) schools. He wants tax dollars to be spent by the state to fund religious schools so children can “Come to Jesus”. But I am not sure that is his entire motivation. According to Debbie Nathan of the Austin Chronicle in an excellent compendium of articles on James Leininger, James Leininger was born to a family with deep ties to a branch of the Lutheran church that had a few strident beliefs. However, back in the 70’s there was a unanimous "turn-away" from the Lutheran Church on the parts of Leininger and his siblings. His subsequent return to the fold and his religious-ness has been labeled by Nathan, as “Sun Belt Entrepreneurship”.

Leininger made his bones in hospital beds. You know, the health industry. That they sometimes malfunction and maim or poison their occasional occupants probably has no relationship to Leininger’s other vital interest in torte reform. But I digress.

Take a look at the statistics summarized on a bar graph showing the total yearly outlay of the state of Texas from 1985 to 2005. THE two largest capital outlays are education and health and human services. Nothing else even comes close. Both have gone up nearly every year, but notice the rate of expansion of health and human services? Far greater than education. Capital outlays have expanded year by year such that over the last 3 years Health and Human Services outlays have actually exceeded that of Education.

Now we all know about the rise in medical expenses, but look at that graph. Can the bubble pop? How will we be able to accommodate that continual upward gradient? Easy. It costs the state, on average, about $4500 to educate a child in public school. Private secular schools are even a little more pricey. But private sectarian schools are dirt cheap.Why? You get what you pay for:

Nearly all teachers in Texas traditional public schools are certified, yet slightly over half of charter school teachers are certified. Few to no private school in Texas requires all of their teachers to have classroom teacher certification. That makes teacher pay negotiable. Private school teachers are among the most poorly paid teachers in the education community. In any school system the greatest expenditure is employee salary – just as it is for any given business. Lower employee salaries mean lower overhead and that means lower tuition fees.

So Leininger et al. want people to take state school vouchers, put their kids in sectarian private schools, the state saves money that it can now spend on getting more hospital beds. And everybody’s happy, right? Well, except for one small thing:

School vouchers is a stupendously bad idea. No one wants them.

Voucher schools are not accountable to taxpayers and legislators. At the same time the Texas Legislature and President Bush are imposing stringent accountability mandates on public schools and barring promotion and diplomas to children who do not attain mastery on all TAKS tests. On the other hand, increasing accountability would rankle the sensibilities of sectarian educators.

The best way to assist all low-performing students is by strengthening their public school and addressing individual learning problems directly. Vouchers could take away tax dollars from the public schools where children have the greatest needs.

Right wing arguments against vouchers are a little paranoid, but still carry some validity (they’re only misguided, not stupid). They argue that putting taxpayer dollars into private education would allow the government to make demands on content and accountability.

So everyone is happy but the children. Like government construction jobs, they want to award our children’s education to the lowest bidder.

Dr. James Leininger’s claims that he only wants to “help poor kids in San Antonio who can't get out of a bad school”. This is disingenuous snake oil. Like Hal Holbrook’s character, “Deep Throat” said in the movie “All the President’s Men”, all you have to do is “follow the money”.