District 55 discussion schools

[lwoolley]

Letter supporting Ralph Sheffield:
Dear Friends,

Our children are only 25% of our population, yet they are 100% of our future. This fact is why it is critical that we have representation in the Texas House that will fight to improve Texas' education system and shape it in to an organization that will provide our children with a competitive advantage in an ever-changing world.

In the race for State Representative, we believe Ralph Sheffield is the right candidate to provide the leadership and vision we need to improve our schools. As our representative in Austin, Ralph will:

- Fight to ensure we maintain our best teachers by giving them the pay they deserve.

- Create clear, common-sense standards with a curriculum that stresses proven fundamentals.

- Work to build a culture of transparency that will showcase school districts that make the most of every tax dollar and will expose the excess spending of irresponsible districts.

- Return control to local leaders to make the crucial decisions about the education of their children.

- And, expand on efforts to move towards end of the year exams.

Ralph will carry out these clear, concise objectives by working with parents, local administrators and teachers. Ralph will have an open door to all teachers and concerned parents so they can talk to Ralph directly. Ralph wants to empower parents and the community.

He will fight to implement a statewide program that requires all school districts to post their financial ledgers on-line, enabling parents to see exactly how their tax money is being spent to educate their children. Ralph believes that transparency is the key to making the most of each education dollar.

Friends, we can all agree that our educational system must produce better results. Our children deserve no less. Our children deserve someone who will be able to sit down with the leadership of our state, create a plan and take action. With your help, we will have a strong voice in Ralph Sheffield that will implement the right type of change.

God Bless,

Teacher Supporters

[lwoolley]

This is a very serious subject. Our schools are failing. Dallas is likely the worst district in the nation, and is now $84,000,000 in the hole due to accounting irregularities. This sounds a lot like Fannie Mae. Fannie became an "affordable housing" program under the Democrats instead of it's mission to keep liquidity in the mortgage markets.

Likewise, our schools' mission of teaching has been changed by progressives into a mission of social services delivery and indoctrination. Like Ralph, I believe strongly that there are great teachers out there and that we need to support them. But there are also teachers and administrators who believe in social engineering in our schools.

I would like to see our elected leaders remove the cult of multiculturalism from our schools. I would like to see balance on issues such as climate change and evolution. I would like to see total English immersion and a cold-turkey end to bilingual education. As compassionate as it sounds, educating children who are in this country illegally is breaking our system.

Unless we can reform schools so that they FOCUS on the basic mission -- reading, writing, English, grammar, math, science -- and the other things that they should do, we must insist on school choice. Parents should not be afraid to send their kids to public school because they might be taught that America is ruining the planet.

Why do we conservatives have to dance around this issue? Are we afraid of the teacher's unions? Schools are a mess -- certainly worse in some places than in others. We need very strong reform and we need it now.

Lynn Woolley

[lwoolley]

Thanks, Lynn, for supporting those things that we know must be done to fix our public schools. Bless you and your voice of reason. Ralph asked Waynie and me to meet with him last month and was quite assertive until we finally found time to do so. Ralph actually listened to us and was not just trying to "use" us for his political purposes. I wish you had been a fly on the wall when my husband gave Ralph and Scott "a piece of his mind." Any administrator should have felt his ears burning. We visited with Ralph from 10:45 until almost 1:30, and he listened and asked us a great many questions. I really think he sincerely wants to rescue our schools and wanted to know exactly where the skeletons are buried. We told him about the online checkbook registers, the vendor bloating, the administrative salaries, the federal grants that administrators never seem to want the public to know about when reporting per pupil spending, the ravages of bilingual education, the Coalition made up of the status quo vendors, the TAKS and how the scores are manipulated, etc. We liked the fact that he is a small business owner (and not a high flying lawyer) and believes in true fiscal responsibility. We kept coming back to the same theme: The schools do not need any more money; they just need to spend wisely that which they already have allocated to them. I think Ralph got it!

Blessings,


Donna Garner
wgarner1@hot.rr.com

[lwoolley]

Lynn, I greatly admire your passion and pride for America. While I do not agree with you on every issue, I agree that the $$ spend on making public education and public services easily accessible to non english speakers is bankrupting the system. Leaders must realize this harsh, but true reality.

Lamar T. Collins, MPA
Bellmead Plant Operations

[lwoolley]

I just wanted to write and "second" Lynn's assertions. Those who recognize
the phenomenal challenges that we face in education, understand that what is
necessary are bold new initiatives and courageous politicians who are
willing to carry the message of REAL education reform through thick and
thin. We can talk all day long about "teacher pay" and "fully funding
schools", but we accomplish nothing until we recognize that the SOCIAL
element of school reform is what is fundamentally important... And by
focusing on the social elements of school reform, what will we discover?
We'll discover that...

- we will naturally begin to be more fiscally responsible as we eliminate
paying for multiculturalism indoctrination workshops for teachers
- as we end expensive and highfalutin classes that have no educational
value, we will also save money
- as we again begin to focus on the fundamentals, children will have the
skills necessary to succeed and fuel our economy
- as we end the type of social engineering that puts kids with severe
learning disabilities into regular education classrooms (inhibiting the
ability of teachers to focus on curriculum for all, rather than modification
for the few) we will improve education for students and become more
efficient
- as we institute policies that recognize the right of citizens to know how
and where their dollars are being spent through transparency, the less
likely school administrations will have the audacity to waste tax dollars
- And I could go on and on...

Lynn asks why conservatives are "dancing around the issues". It's a great
question, and I think the answer is simply that the task of really reforming
education is so extraordinary that most politicians don't have the courage
to do much more than pay lip service to the public about it. We mustn't be
afraid to explain what we see as the significant problems in public schools,
as well as having the courage to say "It's broken and this is what we need
to do. Follow me and fix it, or stand still and maintain the status quo."
As Lynn points out, we should not fear the simple lesson we have learned
from the free market: COMPETITION WORKS. A system of school choice will
benefit students and parents who have no say in the quality of education
their kids receive; it will benefit good teachers, as demand for high
quality educators in the free market means that the best teachers will be
able to sell their labor at a higher price based on their ability and worth;
and finally, it will save us money because dollars will follow students (if
it's done correctly) rather than being handed over to school districts.

To me, a conservative is one who is willing to embrace unpopular positions
when they know they are right, look his opponent in the eye, and explain to
him/her why the old liberal way of doing things has failed and needs to
changed.

Mike Pearce

[lwoolley]

Becoming a naturalized citizen requires some fluency in English, yet the Justice Dept requires a bi lingual (Hispanic) interpreter in each pct that has 5% Spanish surnames. Why? So illegal aliens can vote?

MAT

[lwoolley]

I will be happy to add my name to your list. [The original letter -- see first posting above] I'm a retired teacher and principal.

Nakonia (Niki) Hayes

Waco, TX 76708

[lwoolley]

To me, a conservative is one who is willing to embrace unpopular positions when they know they are right, look his opponent in the eye, and explain to him/her why the old liberal way of doing things has failed and needs to changed.

Unfortunately, this willingness does not always bring about change in the liberals. The world of politics seldom allows the truth-sayer to get into positions of power from which he/she can help bring changes. At the risk of being very cynical--especially after last night's Presidential debate--very few people who are truly honest can get elected to office.

It is only if you can get elected and RISE in power positions that we can see real change take place. In order to RISE, you have to learn how to play the game while also trying to maintain most of your principles. That's not just in politics. It's also in education, business, and even church circles.

Niki

[lwoolley]

I heartily "third" it

Am traveling and will provide more info this evening

Peggy Venable

[lwoolley]

I actually like the letter. I would like to see candidates taking a stronger position to help teachers gain control of their classroom activities and to put more of the existing education dollars in the classroom. I would agree with some that it may not go far enough, but we agree education is important. It is a shame that many public school administrators don't seem to remember that is why they are employed -- to educate children.

Temple ISD per pupil revenue is $8,885 and they spend only $4,204 per pupil on instruction..less than half (which is below the state average). Teachers make an average of $41,560 and SUPPORT STAFF make $46,560. The district employees 1,211 staff and less than half -- only 583 are teachers. That is well below the state average. Temple ISD's fund balance was 22% and the state average is only 18%. Almost 20% of the 9th graders won't gradate, and only 42% of their students take college entrance exams. The District is only rated Academically Acceptable -- which is second from the bottom. That should not be acceptable to taxpayers and to parents. I realize this is only one ISD in HD 55, but these figures can be gathered for all ISD's and they are generally all pathetic.

Questions need to be asked, and a stronger position needs to be taken to provide information to taxpayers. I hope if elected Ralph Sheffield will think outside the box. It is time we fund the child's education, not the educational institutions run by educrats who seem to have forgotten what business they are in. Teachers and students should be the priority and the numbers don't tell us that is happening.

Thanks for letting me share this information - Peggy Venable

The information above comes from this website:

This is the website with the ISD snapshot summaries: http://www.tea.state.tx.us/perfreport/s ... index.html

and here is the state total (for comparison purposes): http://www.tea.state.tx.us/perfreport/s ... state.html

and here is the percentile data: http://www.tea.state.tx.us/perfreport/s ... strib.html