PUBLIC SCHOOLS #2

THE SCHOOL SYSTEM OF THE STATE OF TEXAS NEEDS REPAIR.

I have made the statement that our school system is broken and need to be fixed, but I was not talking about an individual school district.  I am talking about the entire school system of the state of Texas.  Our individual school districts are doing a magnificent job of educating our children while dealing with the handicaps imposed by the state.  The state system is broken.  The State of Texas leads the nation in teenage pregnancies and in the high-school drop out rate.  Texas ranks near the bottom in SAT and ACT scores.  The State of Texas says that every student must be provided with a college prepatory education which requires four years of math and science.  Every student is not and does not need to go to college.  Many students are interested in a career that does not require a college education.  The standards of the schools must be raised to the point where they are meeting the needs of all of the students, which is not happening now.  The best students are being penalized by not being able to learn at the pace they are capable of because the students who do not need to be in the class are acting like an anchor. 

The State of Texas needs to emulate Copperas Cove ISD in offering a program that will allow students to have a sellable skill for the market place upon graduation from high school.  Copperas Cove currently offers students an opportunity to gain training to enter the work force in the areas of culinary arts, auto technician and broadcasting, or to be licensed as a certified nursing assistant or as a certified veterinarian assistant, when they graduate from high school.  These programs must be available in all schools.

The State of Texas requires every student in grades 3 to 11 to be tested.  When I say every student, I mean all of the students including those in self contained classes who are unable to communicate, feed themselves, attend to the basic biological needs themselves (the teachers must change the diapers of a junior aged child in my school), or understand the difference in the House of Representative and Senate (which is something the state of Texas says is essential for the child to be able to do).  So much emphasis is placed on testing and teaching the test that the teachers are unable to teach the materials that they know need to be taught.  The testing also raises the stress level faced by teachers and students alike. This, I suspect, is the reason that, while Texas has a shortage of teachers. The shortage does not need to exist because only about half of the Texans with teaching certificates are teaching.  Some will tell you that the reasons is pay, but I personally know some of these individuals and they left teaching and are working for less pay in a job because it is less stressful.