So much work is going on at many levels of government to do something about the nation’s — and this state’s — schools that there should probably be a full-time nurse at every campus that treats students and staff for whiplash.
Most of the plans are rehashing the same plans that have come and gone, just with different names and probably all written in comic sans font.
For instance, Texas is revisiting school choice this legislative session, and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has put a priority on the issue.
In the 2023 session, several bills were introduced for school choice, and one actually passed in the Senate, but failed in the House. This year’s SB 2 is roughly the same, but with a bunch of additional funds tacked on to set up education savings accounts anywhere from $2,000 to $10,000.
My take on this is like it was two years ago, in that the overriding need for anything dealing with education needs to consider the students’ needs first. All social aspects need to be replaced with actual useful curriculum, and all control should be local, with deep parental involvement.
It’s not likely, though, since legislators gotta legislate, shaking their fists and screaming “Something must be done!”, and then clap themselves on the back while the schools and parents are left to navigate muddy waters.
On the federal front recently, a directive from Trump’s White House had schools holding their metaphorical breaths over whether grants dealing with school lunches and Title 1 programs (assistance for low-income families) would end. It wasn’t the case, but still, parents and teachers were rightly concerned.
Let’s not forget the federal government, and many state governments, needed to jump on the transsexual bandwagon to cater to a group of people while making everyone else suffer, a typical result from people who are far removed from reality (insert “lounging in their ivory towers” here).
President Trump also recently signed an executive order that backs school choice and parental involvement, which to me is a largely symbolic gesture, meaningless, but done because the recent information released in the latest National Assessment of Education Program show that students still are paying the price for the government’s response to the pandemic.
Having looked into the area schools on the Texas Academic Performance Report, many are moving forward and improving kids’ education, and that is with a set of guidelines that currently are the subject of a lawsuit because — administrators who gotta administrate — felt that the criteria used to judge schools needed to be changed.
All of these reports, though, are comparing apples to skyscrapers, because leaders feel the need to tinker with things because they control a lot of the funds needed by the school districts. But what is good for East Texas probably isn’t good for inner-city Chicago.
To me, government needs to get right out of school and instead learn that just because they won an election doesn’t mean they become omniscient, and make all control of education local.
It’s our children here, so let us do right by them.
Tony Farkas is editor of the San Jacinto News-Times and the Trinity County News-Standard. He writes opinion articles and his views don’t necessarily reflect those of this newspaper. He can be reached at tony@polkcountypublishing.com.
