TRS pension bill on track; San Antonio creates 18 in-district charters; and Grow Your Own Educator gets support
by Rob D’Amico, Texas AFT Communications Director
(Follow on Twitter @damicoaustin and @TexasAFT)
Bills moving to help retired educators
The big, good news today is that House Bill 9 — which would up the state’s contribution to the TRS pension fund 2 percent to 8.8 percent and provide a 13th check for retirees (capped at $2,400) — was heard in a House committee this morning and received favorable remarks from committee members. Our Retiree Plus members were out in full force for the hearing donning Texas AFT pins, but letting one spokesperson — Rita Runnels, formerly of Aldine ISD — give testimony.
You can hear Runnels describe (YouTube / Facebook) how important it is for retirees to be on a path to a cost-of-living increase with her testimony detailing the significant medical bills she has faced due to her husband battling cancer.
Also in the news in the Texas Tribune and Austin American-Statesman yesterday was the passage of SB 12, which would raise TRS contribution rates, but for active school employees, districts and the state. It also would provide a 13th check capped at only $500. We’re supporting the House version as the best way forward, but the two bills will need to reconcile in some way moving ahead, so we’ll keep you posted on developments.
San Antonio school board hands off 18 schools to management groups in move to get extra money for charter campuses
Yesterday I reported on a proposal at San Antonio ISD to contract with five “non-profit” groups to run 18 schools under the in-district charter model authorized by SB 1882. The proposal passed unanimously after glowing reports from principals on the intensive engagement they conducted with their teachers, parents and community members on how the turnovers would work. Here’s the Express-News account of the meeting:
The meeting was packed with teachers, parents and administrators who supported the partnerships, and other teachers and community members who opposed them.
…..The San Antonio Alliance of Teachers and Support Personnel, the union representing teachers and non-administrative district employees, asked for the vote to be postponed so parents and community members could have more time to review the management agreements, which were posted Friday afternoon to SAISD’s website.
“If the board approves this, it will be the wholesale giveaway of the operations of these schools to various management groups,” said Shelley Potter, the union’s president. “These schools belong to the public.”
Indeed, for as much engagement supposedly accomplished on the campuses, the superintendent ignored that goal for the district at large when he published the agenda item Friday afternoon (only three days before the meeting) with 1,200 pages to digest in charter agreements and management contracts with the entities — most of which were completely unknown to observers and reporters covering the meeting. A couple of these entities were offshoots of other groups that registered as nonprofits with the state in the past month and week.
In fact, the previous February 14 Express-New article noting that plans for these partnerships were in the works included this less-than-transparent statement from the district “innovation officer.”
[Mohammed] Choudhury declined to list the campuses mulling partnerships because some still are checking with parents, employees and potential partners.
Those that decide to pursue an agreement must take their applications to him first, and he’ll screen them for the school board to vote on next month. The board-approved applications will be submitted to the Texas Education Agency.
There are numerous problems with this deal — regardless of whether these nonprofits are actually capable of running a successful campus — as our San Antonio Alliance Union President Shelley Potter outlined in remarks to the board. While the teachers and other staff at these campuses will remain San Antonio ISD employees, these 10-year management contracts give the “partners” almost total autonomy on running the schools, while also giving them a management fee out of the $1,000 to $1,400 extra per-pupil that the district will get from the state to create these partnerships. Expect more coverage on this as I seek more answers to some of the shadier aspects of this deal.
A common-sense way to incentivize paths to the teaching profession
Glad to see some coverage on KXAN TV of a press conference we attended with partners supporting bills for the Grow Your Own Educator program, an expansion of the Educational Aide Tuition Exemption, which provided free tuition to aides seeking teaching degrees and certificates. The bills proposed this session would change the name of the Educational Aide Tuition Exemption to the “Grow Your Own Educator” program and would add high school students to the list of eligible candidates. As KXAN reports:
House Bill 3893, authored by Rep. Ana-Maria Ramos, D-Dallas, and Rep. Rafael Anchia, D-Dallas, along with Senate Bill 2425 by Sen. Jose Menendez, D-San Antonio, would expand a program for some teacher aides to include high school students. They would be exempted from their college tuition while they work towards earning a teaching degree if they agree to teach in a critical shortage area.
…. “Anything we can do to encourage someone to come back to the teaching profession, through helping them offset the cost of education through their loans, anything we can do, will not only help cure the shortage, but also the diversity cannot be understated…the diversity of people in the classroom so that they can be role models, so that we can have more women teaching math and science,” Menendez said during a press conference.
Also worth a read (or look)…
- State monitor orders Houston school trustees to halt superintendent search, according to reports (Texas Tribune, March 25, 2019)
- HISD leaders ‘pretty satisfied’ with gains under campus turnaround plan (Houston Chronicle, March 22, 2019)
- TASBO video shows the value of the entire school team at Leander ISD
