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Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to this week's episode of The Tribe,

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cast live from the Austin Central Library. We're so excited

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to be taking this show on the road. I'm Eleanor Klibanoff,

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law and politics reporter at the Texas Tribune, joined as

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always by my co host, editor in chief Matthew Watkins.

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Speaker 2: Hello, Eleanor, Hello.

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Speaker 3: This is quite weird to be out in the real world.

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Speaker 2: Now we will actually be able to see people not

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laughing at our jokes live.

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Speaker 1: Not gonna be good for our egos, I'll tell you that.

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Speaker 3: Well.

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Speaker 1: You know, we're very excited for this conversation because education

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has been at the center of the political conversation for

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the last few months, with state leaders making a lot

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of political hay out of what they think teachers and

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students need. But most of these lawmakers have not been

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inside a classroom since probably their high school graduation, or

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perhaps a little earlier than that for some of them,

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so to understand the view from inside the classroom. We're

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joined by the Texas tribunes K through twelve report Texas

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tribunes K twelve reporter Jaden Edison. Jaden, thanks for joining us.

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Speaker 4: Thank you your fans, appreciate you for having me.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, And Chris Mahailsik, who teaches advanced placement environmental science

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at Westwood High School in round Rock and most importantly

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is the twenty twenty five TX t O t Y

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or the Texas Teacher of the Year. Chris, thanks for.

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Speaker 3: Joining us, Thank you for having me. So excited to

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be here.

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Speaker 4: He's been saying that all day, by the way, Yeah, yeah, yeah.

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Speaker 2: It's part of being the Teacher of the Year being

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able to handle unruly crowds. Can we rely on.

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Speaker 5: You if yeah, I can make sure everybody stays calm

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use your teacher voice, yes.

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Speaker 6: A crowdsurfer things.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, well, Christine, really, thank you for joining us and

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congratulations on this honor.

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Speaker 3: I mean to start and you know, tell.

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Speaker 1: Us a little bit about what it means to even

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be the Teacher of the Year and sort of what

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what that means to you.

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Speaker 5: So being a Teacher of the Year for a state

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is really about being of service to the educators of

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your state.

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Speaker 3: We call it our year of service.

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Speaker 5: So I've been talking to people, I've been This is

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my first real big podcast though, So I'm excited to

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be here and really just amplifying teacher voice and student

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voice across Texas.

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Speaker 1: Great, well, thank you so much for that. And as

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I understand it, you also get to now compete at

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the National Teacher of the Year competition.

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Speaker 5: I was in the running, you were in the runn

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but Ashley cross in one. She's the Pennsylvania Texas Teacher

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of the Year.

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Speaker 3: She's phenomenal.

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Speaker 1: Damn it, actually Crossing, we are coming for you.

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Speaker 3: Oh she's pretty nice. No, I'm sure she's amazing.

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Speaker 1: Well, you know, we want to get into the details

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of what this big legislative session for education will mean

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for teachers. You know, eight point five billion dollars flowing

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into public schools, and Chris maybe even sort of start

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us off actually and give us sort of the state

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of affairs. You know, how you've seen you know, what

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we've heard over the last couple of months has been

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you know, decades of underfunding of public schools. How have

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you seen that impact you, teachers like you and students statewide.

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Speaker 5: I think the biggest thing that we've noticed, especially the

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last two years after funding was not past the last

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legislative session, is a huge increase in class sizes. So

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two years ago, our science classes used to be capped

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at twenty eight students, and we'd cap our freshman biology

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at twenty four because they're kind of rowdy they need

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more help. And then last not this last school year,

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but the year before were our cap was at thirty.

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And then this last school year, the twenty four to

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twenty five, our cap was at thirty four. So in

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the last two years alone, we've had, you know, six

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more students per classroom, and that means lots of extra grading.

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You know, you have to be very mindful to keep

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things safe in a science lab, you know, really lots

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of impact on teacher workload.

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Speaker 2: So you had thirty four people in a class teaching biology.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, our biology, we tried to cap our freshman biology

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class is a little smaller. They were at thirty. But yeah,

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my fourth block class, who I loved. They are amazing humans,

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but there are a lot of large athlete senior boys

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in there, and it was crowded. My classroom is not

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built for thirty four, you know, large humans right all

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experiencing the high school live. That's a lot, yeah, a lot.

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You know, you gotta be mindful with the science safety

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with that many.

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Speaker 6: Folks, difficultiesers that pose.

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Speaker 4: I'm curious, like in terms of you know, when you

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have smaller us bigger, I imagine maybe more difficult to

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have individualized kind of attention, oh.

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Speaker 5: One hundred percent, the ability to really give deep individual

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feedback to thirty four students times. You know, my five

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classes of AP environmental science versus twenty eight kids. You know,

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that's a whole extra section of kids that we're trying to,

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you know, still give the very best possible education we can.

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To an English teacher at my school put it really well.

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Speaker 3: He's like, you know, I used to teach when I

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give essays.

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Speaker 5: It used to take me seven hours to grade my

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AP English essays, and now with the larger classizes, it

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takes me nine and a half.

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Speaker 3: Wow.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, jayden As I understand it. At least according to our legislators,

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this is all going to be fixed. Now everything's resolved.

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Eight point five billion dollars. Tell us a little bit

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about you know what where that money is going to,

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and you know how far is that going to take

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us to restore what some of this underfunding has done.

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Speaker 6: Yeah.

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Speaker 4: So I've been talking to superintendents and teachers all week,

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and I can tell you based off those conversations there's

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still a lot of work to be done. You know,

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it is eight and a half billion dollars and you know,

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really targeted investments, right. I think what makes this bill

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different from years past is the difference between flexibility and

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you know, restrictions on how districts can use the funding

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and so particularly you know, you see a huge chunk

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of the bill specifically focused on teacher pay, right. I know,

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Governor Greg Abbott and other uh you know leaders in

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the legislature have made that a top priority, right in

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terms of recognizing that obviously you know, who's in the

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classroom greatly has an outsized impact on student success as

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it relates specifically, you know to the classroom. I mean,

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we're going to see you know, a huge overhaul in

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the way that Texas fund special education, which is going

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to be huge. Those will going to effect the next

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school year, which the Commissioner, Mike Marath will have you know, uh,

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you know time you know between the bill going into

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effect September one this year and and the following year

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to kind of craft what that system is going to

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look like. A lot of investment in educator preparation because

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of the rise and uncertified teachers. Actually, you know, we'll

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see that teachers without formal classroom training will actually be

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phased out of foundational you know classes, so social studies, science,

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you know, math, reading by the year of twenty thirty.

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You know, there's investment in school safety. So it's a

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pretty comprehensibile I mean, it's two hundred and thirty one pages.

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Someone fact check me if I'm pretty sure I'm right.

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Two hundred and thirty one page of legislation here, yeah, right.

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Speaker 6: But going back to.

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Speaker 4: It, I think the biggest thing though, is, you know,

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I think I think districts are generally grateful for the money,

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though I do think that they also went into it

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hoping for more flexibility than what they ultimately ended up with.

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Speaker 2: I'm quoting from the razier hand Texas briefing that came

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after that eight point five billion dollars is not even

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half of the nineteen point five billion dollars that would

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have been needed simply to maintain schools purchasing power since

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twenty nineteen, and so I think it is simultaneously true

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that this is the biggest individual kind of cash infusion

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growth in school funding in the state, while also possibly

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true that a lot of people in the education community

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are saying there still needs to be more that needs

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to be done here, and I think also talking about

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how a lot of that money is prescriptive. Right, It's

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been an interesting political shift over the time that I've

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been involved in covering Texas politics and the way that

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a lot of our state leaders have talked about education

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and educators as well. You know, there was a lot

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of kind of ranker and concerns being raised by superintendents

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and other people in the education community about the lack

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of funding or the need for funding, and you saw lawmakers,

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you know, in some cases, kind of turn the blame

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back at the superintendents and saying, you know, this isn't

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the result of us not funding you enough. This is

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the result of you not being responsible with money that

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was coming in, including money that was designated for COVID

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and things like that. And then you know, you also

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just see I think a much more of a willingness

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of lawmakers to sort of question the effectiveness or whether

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even you should send your kids to public schools.

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Speaker 6: Right.

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Speaker 2: We'll get to vouchers here in a little bit, but

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I think you could maybe see that reflected a little

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bit and how this wasn't just here's an eight point

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five billion dollar blank check to the school districts, just

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spend as you see fit. But here's how you're gonna

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spend this money. You're gonna spend it on teacher pay.

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I'm sure you probably are okay with that idea, but

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crazy and various other things as opposed to just increasing

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you know, as the popular term, the basic allotment, right,

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which would have allowed people to spend that money the

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way they way they chose.

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Speaker 4: And I think the big thing to note with the

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flexibility component, as much as it has to do specifically

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obviously with you know, classroom instruction and you know raises,

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a big thing is operational costs, which we know, you know,

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since twenty nineteen, the last comprehensive education funding bill, we've

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seen inflation go through the roof. And so you know,

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the basic allotment, this kind of flexible funding mechanism that

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districts call them for is just as much to try

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to keep up and pay for bus fuel, right to

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make sure you know, they have you know, money to

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address the NEEDE specific to their campuses, and kind of

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what their argument is is that you know, when you're

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giving US specific funding. You're assuming that we all have

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the same issues, right as opposed to you know, this

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district in West Texas has significant differences from what's happening

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in Houston is ISD, right, and so it's been a

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really interesting thing to kind of observe kind of the

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you know, the kind of back and forth over the

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course of the session.

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Speaker 2: Can we talk a little bit about teacher recruitment, retention

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and pay here. I mean, that's a big part of

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HB two, the funding bill. There is there's two different

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factors here. There is the teacher pay raises, but there's

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also this effort to address what has been a concern

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in the education community about teachers coming in who did

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not have the sort of traditional training to become teachers

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and everything like that. I'm curious in your experience whether

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that was something you noticed as a teacher, that more

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uncertified teachers were coming in, and if so, was it

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a problem. How did you experience or witness that as

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as an educator out there in the field.

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Speaker 5: So I'm also the Science department chare in our school,

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and our school is very big on teacher leadership. So

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I've been in a lot of interviews in the last

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four years of folks coming in wanting to be a teacher,

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and we have been forced to hire somebody that's not

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been certified. We had somebody leave two years ago two

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weeks before school started to be an assistant principle, and

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we had to fill that position. And it is very

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hard to hire anybody at all two weeks before school starts,

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so we had a long term sub for six weeks

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and we hired somebody that was uncertified. She had a

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PhD in biology, and you know, she was fabulous with

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the content, but not having any classroom experience, classroom management planning,

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she did not She did not serve our teenagers, she

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did not engage with our students, she did not.

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Speaker 3: Serve our teenagers.

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Speaker 5: So she did not make it through the years. Hire

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someone else. We had the same thing happened last year.

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We had somebody leave to be an instructional coach. And

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I'm always happy when people can move up in education,

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but it's tough to find people. In July and we

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had somebody that was not uncertified, had not been in

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a classroom before. It didn't last very long. So there

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is huge value in having those folks come in that

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are certified that have gone through a program where they've

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interacted with teenagers before they get to us, and then

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it puts a huge burden on the teachers that have

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to work and mentor them and train them. Our mentor

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teachers were often spending two of their five off blocks

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a week directly working with teachers trying to get them

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up to speed and mentorship is amazing, but that was

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extensive mentorship because they just didn't have any experience with teenagers.

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So from my perspective, I want a good certified teacher

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in every classroom in Texas, and passing this and hopefully

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strengthening our pipeline will really help, I think well.

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Speaker 1: And I want to talk about the other side of that,

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which is like retaining qualified teachers. You've been in the

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field twenty three years. I'm sure you've probably would not

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have been Texas Teacher of the Year your first year,

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like oh no, oh no, Like what is the benefit

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of having teachers who have been in this for a

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long time? I mean, for in your specific classroom, but

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also you're talking about being becoming a mentor teacher.

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Speaker 5: Oh the things that you learn along the way, you know,

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even I started teaching ap environmental science eight years I

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think into my career and even my first year I

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was kind of horrible then too. Even though I knew

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how to manage students and work with them, I forgot

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two of the six major air pollutants.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, when I was teaching them.

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Speaker 6: So my, oh my god.

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Speaker 1: Now Pennsylvania they went back and checked and checked the

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record and.

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Speaker 3: Pennsylvania managed all six of them.

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Speaker 5: But no, there's there's so much value in getting better

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in your job and becoming a master teacher. You learn

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where the students misconceptions are. You learn how to help

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other people in your field grow. Uh, those are the

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ones that are running our major clubs, right, like our

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National Honor Society, that type of thing. So retention, I

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think there's been a lot of focus on like let's

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just get any human into the classroom, and I think

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really the focus needs to be how do we retain

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our good teachers?

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Speaker 3: How do we keep them the race helps? What else

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do we need to do?

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Speaker 4: Which is what ultimately created where we're at right now,

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right is that you know, you had so many teachers

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that left the profession, and so you know, I think

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you know what we found is that you know, through

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kind of particular legislation passed, you know, intending for one thing,

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ended up becoming a lifeline for many districts, you know,

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in terms of now you know, I'm able to bring

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in teachers because you know, qualified teachers are leaving the classroom.

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So it's a really it's an interesting It's interesting that

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this is a focus for lawmakers because in a lot

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of ways, you know, it was a problem created that

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they created, but almost it was unintended, you know, given

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the law that passed that allowed kind of the exemptions

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you know, for certification.

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Speaker 1: So well, and one of the things I found we

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did an entire episode of the trip cast about uncertified

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teachers and that sort of issue, and one of the

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things I found so interesting from that is like teachers

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who maybe would have otherwise gotten certified, who are now saying, well,

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if I get paid the same and I don't have

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to do all this training, like I'll just go in

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the classroom and figure it out as I go. So

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it's a disincentive even to teachers who might want to

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get certified if that's not required. So it briefly walks

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through like what the provision is, like they'll have to phase.

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Speaker 4: This out right, they'll phase it out, So that'll be

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by by twenty thirty that'll be I think, I forget

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the specificate, but it'll be twenty thirty when the commissioner

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when he can no longer allow exceptions to so it'll

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be a gradual kind of phase out. But the other

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important thing to notice that now you know, teachers will

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be able to be compensated or excuse me, teacher candidates

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will be able to be compensated for going through high

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quality preparation programs, right, whether that be you know, this

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this new kind of apprenticeship model that has come around

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and gained a lot of tracks in recent years, which

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basically I've actually visited one of these in huddle. They're

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kind of really cool when you go up and see them.

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It's basically, you know, you have these these teacher candidates

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who spend you know, considered amount of time in the

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class room working with a veteran teacher kind of learning

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under their wing. And so what they're trying to do

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again is to gradually kind of phase out these teachers

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specifically again to clarify in core kind of these core

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foundational subjects reading, mad science, social studies, while also incentivizing

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teachers to go through quality training programs and get them

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on a pathway to certification.

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Speaker 2: And then the other thing is to keep them, as

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you already mentioned, right, and a big part of that

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is teacher raises.

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Speaker 6: Right.

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Speaker 2: And so I'm reading this from a story that Jaden wrote,

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so you know, properly attributing here.

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Speaker 3: Public.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so districts in uh within school teachers with teachers

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in school districts with more than five thousand students with

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three to four years experience get a twenty five hundred

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dollars raise. Five thousand dollar rais for five or more

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years experience that's in increases to four thousand and eight

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thousand if you're in a smaller district, more likely a

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rural district where attracting teachers is more challenging. So my

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question to you is, I mean, I know this probably

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happened after school is out, and you know, but what

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is the feeling among the teachers you talk to? What

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is your feeling about this? Is this enough? Is this

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going to change things in terms of keeping teachers around

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or incentivizing people to join the profession.

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Speaker 5: I think it feels a little bit like just some respect,

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some respect for the profession, like, we realize you are

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not being paid.

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Speaker 3: You know, a lot of teachers have side hustle jobs.

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Speaker 5: We great essays in the summer, We mentor a lot

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of teachers in math, especially tutor So it feels respectful,

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like we're acknowledging that we haven't had a teacher raise

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in a while.

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Speaker 3: Our district gives teacher.

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Speaker 5: Raises, but this is probably the biggest raise I've ever

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gotten as an educator in my twenty three years.

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Speaker 3: And once, yeah, I.

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Speaker 4: Was talking to it, actually a teacher today in a district.

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They're about eight hundred and thirty students total in their district,

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so very rural community. And it was interesting because she's

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been teaching for like twenty four years as well, so

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you know, we were talking and she's like, you know,

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this all sounds great, but I'll believe it whenever my

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paycheck actually increases. So yeah, it's really interesting. But to me,

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it was funny. I laughed, but it highlighted kind of

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somewhat of this kind of distrust. I mean, you've gone,

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you know, so long with the kind of back and

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forth between the ISDS and lawmakers about you know, adequate funding,

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and that I think some people, teachers and maybe you

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could speak to this, are kind of just fatigued and

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are just like, Hey, if it's going to happen, it'll happen.

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When when my superintendent or principal tells me I'm getting

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the raise, I'll believe it. But for right now, I'm

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just gonna sit back and keep doing.

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Speaker 6: What I'm doing.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I think certainly.

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Speaker 1: I think, Like I remember, I mean two years ago

385
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when the funding sort of fell apart, that there was

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a lot of sort of teachers who were like I

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was sort of banking on that. I kind of thought

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that was happening. I would imagine this time around owned

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a lot more skepticism and a lot more wait wait

390
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till I see it.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, for sure, I think with the way the bill

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is structured, you know, it'll be quite some time before

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I think the story's actually written on house build too,

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because there are these kind of new funding mechanisms. One,

395
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I think districts have to actually get the money in

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their hands and kind of realize, you know, understand, kind

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of you know what's allow here? How can I use

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this money there?

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Speaker 6: Right?

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Speaker 4: Because of the different restrictions and whatnot. So I think

401
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people are generally grateful right now, but again there's there's

402
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a lot of time I think until again the verdict

403
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will be out on whether the money did what it

404
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was intended to do and what lawmakers ultimately hope it

405
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will accomplish.

406
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Speaker 2: How would you compare you said you've been in teaching

407
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for twenty three years, how would you compare teacher morale

408
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right now compared to earlier in your career.

409
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Speaker 5: Well, I think my first couple years I was pretty clueless.

410
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I was just trying to kind of make it happen.

411
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But I think the last two years, teacher morale is

412
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lower than I've ever seen in probably the increase in

413
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class size, the feeling that like there was plenty of

414
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money in the Rainy defund last legislative session and nothing

415
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was done because vouchers didn't get passed. I think teachers

416
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are struggling a little bit right now.

417
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Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I think COVID, you know, hit everyone

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pretty hard obviously in many sectors, but I think teachers

419
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really are dealing with the long tail of that.

420
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Speaker 3: For sure.

421
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Speaker 1: I do want to talk about what you alluded to

422
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and sort of what has gotten in the way of

423
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these sort of deals in previous sessions and what really,

424
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if we're being honest about the political process, got this

425
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money over the finish line this time, which is that

426
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it was tied to passing. You know, Texas's very significant

427
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voucher program. Texas now has the largest day one voucher

428
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program in the country, a billion dollars to allow families

429
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to receive about ten thousand dollars per child to send

430
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them to private schools. Talk about a bill where the

431
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story is yet to be written a little bit, but

432
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Jane tells a little bit about you know, do we

433
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have any sense of what the impact will be on

434
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public schools from this long term?

435
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Speaker 6: Yeah? You know, it's interesting.

436
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Speaker 4: There's always a lot of focus on kind of you know,

437
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enrollment in particular. Well, we see in other states, you

438
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haven't seen kind of this mass exodus that that people anticipate.

439
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Speaker 6: We'll always draw attention to.

440
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Speaker 4: I think though, it's going to be funding right in particular,

441
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and so what I mean by that is, you know,

442
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the state won't always be operating at a what's the

443
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surplus now twenty five billion somewhere somewhere along those lines,

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and so you know, you have a billion dollars right now.

445
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You know, towards this particular program, which we know will

446
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grow in size as the program kind of grows in

447
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future years. Is law makers allocate more funding toward it.

448
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When you get in a situation where you know, you

449
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are in a budget crunch, where do you cut from?

450
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Speaker 6: Right?

451
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Speaker 4: You know, is it public education right, which you know

452
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really is the hardened foundation of you know, Texas communities,

453
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you know, really all across the state, right, we all

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know Friday night lights and particularly in our rural communities

455
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where you know, these are major employers for families and whatnot,

456
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you know, or do you cut from you know, the

457
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valuer program, so that that's what is more interesting than

458
00:22:08,720 --> 00:22:11,559
me per se, not as much enrollment because again I

459
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don't think you're gonna see this mass exodus. And that's

460
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just looking at evidence in other states that have implemented

461
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you know, the these large universe what they call universal programs.

462
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But certainly, you know, when it comes to budgetary decisions

463
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in the future again, I mean right now, I mean,

464
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you know, there was eight and a half billion dollars

465
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in HB two. There are people probably in this room

466
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lawmakers who say that, you know, it should have been

467
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nine and a half. You pulled the money from from

468
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the voucher program, right, So that's where I think the

469
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conversation gets really interesting.

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Speaker 2: I think the thing that I particularly will be watching

471
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will be demand for these right because if you do

472
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the math right, the number of private school students right now,

473
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if you multiply that by around ten thousand, which is

474
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around how much a voucher will be worth, that number

475
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is more than a billion dollars, right, And so are

476
00:23:01,319 --> 00:23:04,440
we going to see a situation where demand for these

477
00:23:04,559 --> 00:23:09,759
vouchers is immediately more than what the supply is available?

478
00:23:10,000 --> 00:23:11,839
And if so, what are lawmaker is going to do

479
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about it? You know, there was a thing, I think

480
00:23:13,319 --> 00:23:16,480
it was the Legislative Budget Board put out an estimate

481
00:23:16,519 --> 00:23:19,559
that you know, this could quickly escalate to four point

482
00:23:19,640 --> 00:23:22,720
eight billion dollars by twenty thirty. There was a lot

483
00:23:22,720 --> 00:23:25,160
of pushback among the lawmakers on that and saying like

484
00:23:25,240 --> 00:23:27,839
they're making this, They're not basing this prediction on anything,

485
00:23:27,880 --> 00:23:30,519
like we make the decision as to whether we increase it.

486
00:23:31,000 --> 00:23:36,880
And I think if demand does significantly outstrip supply outpaced supply,

487
00:23:37,759 --> 00:23:41,039
how much pressure will there be to expand the program

488
00:23:41,440 --> 00:23:44,839
and will they want to do that? And If so,

489
00:23:46,000 --> 00:23:49,079
that's where you might see it start to be more expensive.

490
00:23:49,839 --> 00:23:54,400
If not, you know, I think eight point five billion dollars.

491
00:23:54,400 --> 00:23:56,440
I think a lot of school district would would take

492
00:23:56,519 --> 00:23:59,599
eight point five billion dollars with a one billion dollar

493
00:23:59,680 --> 00:24:02,079
voucher program. They'll they'll look back at this and see

494
00:24:02,079 --> 00:24:05,200
its successful. Though you know, we just don't know how

495
00:24:05,240 --> 00:24:07,440
that's gonna play out yet. You can guess, but we'll

496
00:24:07,440 --> 00:24:08,519
have to just see.

497
00:24:08,680 --> 00:24:10,400
Speaker 4: One quick thing that's interesting to noteut you know, I've

498
00:24:10,440 --> 00:24:14,119
been watching following closely at Tennessee because this year they

499
00:24:14,119 --> 00:24:18,160
actually you know, passed their voucher program and the implement

500
00:24:18,200 --> 00:24:20,960
implementation is kind of now in play, and so they've

501
00:24:21,000 --> 00:24:25,759
already seen you know, at the onset, you know, more

502
00:24:26,319 --> 00:24:30,319
applications than spots available, and so you have to imagine

503
00:24:30,319 --> 00:24:32,200
I mean, the state, the size of Texas. Right, you're

504
00:24:32,200 --> 00:24:35,079
gonna again think about it. I mean, if you're even

505
00:24:35,119 --> 00:24:37,759
if you're you know, if you're a family that has

506
00:24:37,839 --> 00:24:40,480
children that road in private schools already, right, this is

507
00:24:40,640 --> 00:24:42,279
this makes all the sense in the world for you

508
00:24:42,319 --> 00:24:43,960
to apply, right, and you are I'm sure you know

509
00:24:44,039 --> 00:24:46,960
that the schools will be advertising it, right. So the

510
00:24:46,960 --> 00:24:49,000
one thing that makes Texas unique is that there is

511
00:24:49,039 --> 00:24:51,119
this kind of gap year to kind of really build

512
00:24:51,119 --> 00:24:53,559
the program out and to get kind of awareness out there,

513
00:24:53,720 --> 00:24:55,960
because you know, usually you know, you might see, like

514
00:24:56,000 --> 00:24:58,039
in Tennessee, for example, you passed the program, it's going

515
00:24:58,119 --> 00:25:00,000
to be implemented, you know, the next school year around

516
00:25:00,240 --> 00:25:02,559
this time around you this is we have until twenty six,

517
00:25:02,640 --> 00:25:05,559
twenty seven school year. The comptroller who oversees the state's

518
00:25:05,559 --> 00:25:08,200
finances will be kind of ironing things out, you know,

519
00:25:08,240 --> 00:25:10,599
between September and May of next year. So a lot,

520
00:25:10,640 --> 00:25:12,720
there is a lot to your point, that has to

521
00:25:12,759 --> 00:25:14,400
kind of get figured out. But it'd be really interesting

522
00:25:14,400 --> 00:25:17,839
to see given the size of Texas and where we are.

523
00:25:17,960 --> 00:25:20,839
Speaker 1: Yeah, Chris, I mean, how are public school teachers feeling

524
00:25:20,839 --> 00:25:24,079
about this? I mean, what is the you talked about

525
00:25:24,119 --> 00:25:27,400
the rays feeling like respect from lawmakers? How is this

526
00:25:27,480 --> 00:25:29,599
voucher program sort of being received?

527
00:25:30,640 --> 00:25:34,720
Speaker 5: Obviously, most public school teachers would prefer the money go

528
00:25:34,799 --> 00:25:37,559
to public school kids. I think the big issue that

529
00:25:37,680 --> 00:25:40,279
sticks in a lot of teachers, Craw is that the

530
00:25:40,400 --> 00:25:43,400
rules aren't the same. Now that that you know, private

531
00:25:43,400 --> 00:25:46,920
schools are getting public tax payer dollars, they should have

532
00:25:46,960 --> 00:25:49,119
to play by the same rules we do, right, Like

533
00:25:49,160 --> 00:25:51,279
they should have to hire certified teachers and they don't.

534
00:25:51,480 --> 00:25:53,880
They should have to get their attendance a lot meant

535
00:25:54,119 --> 00:25:55,839
day by day like we do. We have average daily

536
00:25:55,839 --> 00:25:57,759
attendance and we get based on how many kids are

537
00:25:57,759 --> 00:25:59,599
in our class every day. And there just seems to

538
00:25:59,599 --> 00:26:03,960
be getting the ten thousand dollars. You know, it just

539
00:26:04,039 --> 00:26:08,920
doesn't feel like we're playing by the same rules. There's

540
00:26:08,920 --> 00:26:11,559
no real accountability system that they have to We have

541
00:26:11,599 --> 00:26:13,000
to give the star and then we get rated A

542
00:26:13,039 --> 00:26:14,640
through F. Is there going to be an A through

543
00:26:14,680 --> 00:26:16,039
F for the private school? Is there going to be

544
00:26:16,039 --> 00:26:19,000
star accountability? I mean it sounds like no. So it

545
00:26:19,039 --> 00:26:21,720
doesn't feel fair now that public funds are going to

546
00:26:21,759 --> 00:26:24,240
private schools that they don't have the same level of

547
00:26:24,240 --> 00:26:25,160
accountability we do.

548
00:26:26,000 --> 00:26:27,880
Speaker 1: And I think a lot of this sort of and

549
00:26:27,920 --> 00:26:29,799
Matthew sort of alluded to this is in this larger

550
00:26:29,839 --> 00:26:35,000
thing of like lawmakers seemingly at odds with public schools

551
00:26:35,039 --> 00:26:38,960
or wanting more oversight, wanting more it's sort of just

552
00:26:38,960 --> 00:26:41,119
a little bit of like what seems like a fundamental

553
00:26:41,160 --> 00:26:43,759
like distrust of the schools and of what's being taught

554
00:26:43,759 --> 00:26:48,759
in the schools and the amount of sort of control

555
00:26:48,799 --> 00:26:51,960
they have over all of that. I do want to

556
00:26:52,000 --> 00:26:54,599
talk about sort of did you do something on vouchers before.

557
00:26:54,400 --> 00:26:56,200
Speaker 2: We Well, no, I mean I was just going to say, like,

558
00:26:56,240 --> 00:26:59,559
there's there's there's two arguments that were pushed for this.

559
00:26:59,599 --> 00:27:01,799
One is that, right, like you saw Governor Rabbit go

560
00:27:01,839 --> 00:27:04,400
around the state and talk about, you know, a concern

561
00:27:04,480 --> 00:27:06,839
that a lot of parents have about what you know,

562
00:27:07,319 --> 00:27:10,400
values are being taught to their students, right, and this,

563
00:27:10,799 --> 00:27:13,799
he says, gives them a choice to go seek a

564
00:27:13,839 --> 00:27:16,839
school that more aligns with their values. The other one

565
00:27:16,880 --> 00:27:19,200
would be, I mean the case that they make, whether

566
00:27:19,279 --> 00:27:23,640
you agree with it or not, is that if that

567
00:27:23,799 --> 00:27:28,240
the accountable accountability system for school vouchers is the sort

568
00:27:28,240 --> 00:27:31,119
of free market system. Right, if you don't think this

569
00:27:31,519 --> 00:27:36,680
school is doing well for at teaching your kid, you

570
00:27:36,720 --> 00:27:39,279
can go and send your kid to another school, whether

571
00:27:39,279 --> 00:27:41,480
that's leaving a public school to a private school, or

572
00:27:41,519 --> 00:27:43,200
a private school to a charter school, or all those

573
00:27:43,200 --> 00:27:47,119
different types of things, and you know, we will see

574
00:27:47,240 --> 00:27:51,240
what happens and whether whether those outcomes improved. It's I mean,

575
00:27:51,279 --> 00:27:54,400
it's there's there's we're now at the moment where it's

576
00:27:54,440 --> 00:27:57,119
just kind of like it's happening and let's see how

577
00:27:57,160 --> 00:27:57,519
it goes.

578
00:27:57,960 --> 00:28:00,519
Speaker 1: It's like two core tenants of the current you know,

579
00:28:00,559 --> 00:28:03,960
governing party in Texas, which is free market and you know,

580
00:28:04,640 --> 00:28:08,359
stamp out liberal you know, indoctrination. I mean, these are

581
00:28:08,400 --> 00:28:11,279
two if anything, you know, the latter is sort of

582
00:28:12,079 --> 00:28:15,880
times rising and influence and over the former. I do

583
00:28:15,920 --> 00:28:18,519
want to talk about some of those bills that did

584
00:28:18,559 --> 00:28:22,839
sort of purport to stamp out at liberal indoctrination or

585
00:28:23,000 --> 00:28:25,759
give parents more oversight over that. A big one, you know,

586
00:28:26,039 --> 00:28:31,880
is about libraries themselves, school libraries you know, going forward,

587
00:28:31,960 --> 00:28:35,160
parents through the school board. But really, you know the

588
00:28:35,720 --> 00:28:38,680
premise of this bill is that parents will have more

589
00:28:38,799 --> 00:28:41,759
say over the books that are on school library shells

590
00:28:41,799 --> 00:28:46,559
going forward, rather than librarians themselves. This builds on legislation

591
00:28:46,599 --> 00:28:48,720
from last session that you know, aim to do something

592
00:28:48,759 --> 00:28:52,880
sort of similar. Jaden, We saw a lot of pushback

593
00:28:52,920 --> 00:28:56,240
to this bill from Democratic lawmakers. I watched some of

594
00:28:56,279 --> 00:28:58,440
these hearings. You know a lot of librarians showed out

595
00:28:58,480 --> 00:29:02,279
in full force. Honestly, a terrifying group to piss off,

596
00:29:02,359 --> 00:29:05,880
is what I learned from that. You know, talk a

597
00:29:05,880 --> 00:29:07,160
little bit about what the impact of that bill is

598
00:29:07,160 --> 00:29:10,000
and sort of how that fits into this larger narrative

599
00:29:10,039 --> 00:29:13,000
around you know, giving parents more say in the classroom.

600
00:29:13,440 --> 00:29:16,079
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's really interesting what it reminds me of. You know,

601
00:29:16,119 --> 00:29:18,519
I've you know, been back here in Texas. It'll be

602
00:29:18,559 --> 00:29:20,440
a year actually coming up here in a couple of weeks,

603
00:29:21,279 --> 00:29:23,640
and it just reminds me. I was watching somewhat I'm

604
00:29:23,640 --> 00:29:26,839
related but very much connected state Board of Education meeting

605
00:29:26,880 --> 00:29:29,799
maybe this was around this time last year, and there

606
00:29:29,839 --> 00:29:35,039
was you know, a parent who who was basically an activist, right,

607
00:29:35,039 --> 00:29:36,559
and she showed up. She's like one of the only

608
00:29:36,559 --> 00:29:41,039
people who's testifying during like the public speaking portion, and

609
00:29:41,079 --> 00:29:44,240
she's just like harping at the uh the state Board

610
00:29:44,240 --> 00:29:47,119
of Education members for you know, the lack of remedy,

611
00:29:47,200 --> 00:29:51,200
what she feels when it comes to you know, books,

612
00:29:51,200 --> 00:29:56,160
and she's reading off the most explicit, like vulgar things,

613
00:29:56,240 --> 00:30:00,759
you know, excerpts from books. What's interesting is same person

614
00:30:01,640 --> 00:30:05,799
is testifying, you know, during public hearings here this year

615
00:30:06,519 --> 00:30:08,279
during the session. And so while I bring that up,

616
00:30:08,279 --> 00:30:10,319
I mean, what I'm trying to get at is that

617
00:30:10,480 --> 00:30:13,480
you know, Ultimately, what you're seeing is you know, people

618
00:30:13,599 --> 00:30:17,920
who you know, as part of this larger movement that

619
00:30:17,920 --> 00:30:20,240
we've seen really start brewing, you know, really at the

620
00:30:20,240 --> 00:30:23,160
brunt of the pandemic where you know, it's part of

621
00:30:23,200 --> 00:30:26,680
this larger kind of you know, I guess backlash to

622
00:30:26,799 --> 00:30:29,519
the way schools go about you know, teaching. You know

623
00:30:29,599 --> 00:30:32,160
America's you know history of racism, you know how it

624
00:30:32,240 --> 00:30:35,240
accommodates you know, uh, you know, trans students.

625
00:30:35,359 --> 00:30:35,559
Speaker 6: Right.

626
00:30:36,359 --> 00:30:38,599
Speaker 4: I think what we've seen this session, particularly with the

627
00:30:38,640 --> 00:30:41,799
library bill, you know, takes that a step further right,

628
00:30:42,599 --> 00:30:44,880
and ultimately, what the legislature is saying, and what they've

629
00:30:44,920 --> 00:30:47,440
been very clear about is that they believe that parents

630
00:30:47,880 --> 00:30:50,559
need to be in the driver's seat. Now, obviously, a

631
00:30:50,559 --> 00:30:52,920
lot of the pushback, you know, the question becomes, you know,

632
00:30:52,960 --> 00:30:55,279
which parents are we talking about? Right, because you know,

633
00:30:55,319 --> 00:30:56,880
there are a lot of parents who show up and

634
00:30:56,920 --> 00:31:00,319
testify at the Capitol and other places whose voices, you know,

635
00:31:00,519 --> 00:31:02,240
who they feel like their voices aren't heard. And so

636
00:31:02,319 --> 00:31:04,559
it's been it's been interesting. But I bring that up

637
00:31:04,599 --> 00:31:06,279
is that it's been bruined. Is that you have these

638
00:31:06,319 --> 00:31:08,440
people who are you know, really you know kind of

639
00:31:08,480 --> 00:31:10,839
locked in on you know, what's going on in different places,

640
00:31:10,880 --> 00:31:12,759
and you know they're part of these kind of different

641
00:31:12,759 --> 00:31:17,240
movements or organizations and connected with different people who really

642
00:31:17,279 --> 00:31:19,680
across the country have made this, you know a thing

643
00:31:19,799 --> 00:31:22,400
over the course of the last uh, you know, half

644
00:31:22,519 --> 00:31:23,079
decade or so.

645
00:31:23,440 --> 00:31:24,960
Speaker 1: Right, I mean we're seeing I mean some of those

646
00:31:25,000 --> 00:31:27,799
people get elected. I mean Representative Hillary Hickland. That was

647
00:31:27,839 --> 00:31:30,039
sort of her origin story was you know, she was

648
00:31:30,400 --> 00:31:32,680
got involved at school boards and in like you know,

649
00:31:32,759 --> 00:31:35,480
what she would say is like trying to get obscene

650
00:31:35,480 --> 00:31:37,920
materials out of libraries. And now she's in the state

651
00:31:37,920 --> 00:31:42,680
House carrying that legislature that so it's certainly seems to

652
00:31:42,720 --> 00:31:44,640
be taking hold. You know, this has like been a

653
00:31:44,720 --> 00:31:48,519
sort of conservative what's sort of like like the field

654
00:31:48,519 --> 00:31:50,400
team to sort of you know, get up to the

655
00:31:50,519 --> 00:31:51,400
to the major leagues.

656
00:31:51,559 --> 00:31:55,759
Speaker 4: Just one thing about quick like watching lawmakers listen to

657
00:31:55,920 --> 00:31:57,920
the excerpt from those books. It has been really interesting

658
00:31:57,960 --> 00:32:01,000
because you see almost how it's happening in real time.

659
00:32:01,039 --> 00:32:03,000
Because no, I think I don't think anybody would deny

660
00:32:03,000 --> 00:32:04,640
that the things that we're hearing at those meetings are

661
00:32:04,640 --> 00:32:09,119
like whoa like you know, like WHOA Right, So It's interesting,

662
00:32:09,200 --> 00:32:11,720
right the question become obviously now we can talk about,

663
00:32:11,759 --> 00:32:13,920
you know, whether certain things are out of context or

664
00:32:14,000 --> 00:32:16,279
you know, there are different there's kind of nuance to it.

665
00:32:16,319 --> 00:32:19,000
But just in terms of the kind of lawmaking process,

666
00:32:19,720 --> 00:32:22,119
it's been really fascinating to kind of watch that up close.

667
00:32:22,119 --> 00:32:24,599
I mean, I've seen you know, you know Chairman, you know,

668
00:32:24,680 --> 00:32:26,799
Brad Buckley, you know who's the House of the Public

669
00:32:26,880 --> 00:32:29,359
Education Committee, who they're sitting up listening to you know,

670
00:32:29,400 --> 00:32:31,920
the excerpts, and in real time you're kind of seeing

671
00:32:32,000 --> 00:32:33,640
things developed.

672
00:32:35,319 --> 00:32:37,759
Speaker 2: Yeah, just just to your point about the politics of this,

673
00:32:37,839 --> 00:32:40,599
it's been interesting to watch. It's really been swinging back

674
00:32:40,640 --> 00:32:45,440
and forth, right because you saw that big wave of

675
00:32:45,599 --> 00:32:49,039
lawmaker of school boards, you know, in South Lake and

676
00:32:49,440 --> 00:32:52,400
then beyond where where this became really a winning issue

677
00:32:52,480 --> 00:32:57,119
in school boards this past May when they're you know,

678
00:32:57,119 --> 00:32:59,519
when the legislature was doing all these things. Another thing

679
00:32:59,599 --> 00:33:03,200
that happen then was a bunch of school board elections

680
00:33:03,279 --> 00:33:07,319
in which almost all of the school boards supported by

681
00:33:07,640 --> 00:33:10,400
this kind of you know, these packs and these these

682
00:33:10,400 --> 00:33:15,200
other forces, their candidates were voted out or lost, you know,

683
00:33:15,240 --> 00:33:18,640
and so the pendulum kind of keeps swinging back and forth,

684
00:33:18,680 --> 00:33:21,880
and you know, I'm interested to see what impact this

685
00:33:22,119 --> 00:33:27,519
actually has. You know, are there really that many books

686
00:33:27,839 --> 00:33:32,440
in school libraries that have this kind of material in there?

687
00:33:32,559 --> 00:33:35,359
Is this going to have a material impact?

688
00:33:35,400 --> 00:33:35,640
Speaker 6: Also?

689
00:33:35,880 --> 00:33:39,519
Speaker 2: Are kids still checking out these books? You know? A lot?

690
00:33:39,559 --> 00:33:41,000
Speaker 1: Well? And like, I think a lot of it comes

691
00:33:41,000 --> 00:33:43,359
down to, like do you trust librarians to kind of

692
00:33:43,440 --> 00:33:46,400
run their library right and to be responsible of that? Chris,

693
00:33:46,400 --> 00:33:48,960
I'm curious, like how you've have you spelt sort of

694
00:33:48,960 --> 00:33:55,279
this rising tide of parental involvement or of scrutiny of

695
00:33:55,319 --> 00:33:57,200
the work you're doing. Have you felt that in your district?

696
00:33:58,640 --> 00:34:00,000
Speaker 3: Not a whole lot. I think.

697
00:34:00,000 --> 00:34:02,720
Speaker 5: I think our librarians are amazing, and I think they've

698
00:34:02,759 --> 00:34:05,079
been able to kind of run their library as they

699
00:34:05,160 --> 00:34:08,280
so choose. The thing that I find so interesting about

700
00:34:08,320 --> 00:34:10,239
this whole like we're going to ban these explicit books,

701
00:34:10,239 --> 00:34:12,639
Like kids can get all kinds of things on their phone.

702
00:34:12,760 --> 00:34:14,599
Oh yeah, you know, so it's sort of like, why

703
00:34:14,599 --> 00:34:17,000
are you know, what are your kids doing on their phone?

704
00:34:17,000 --> 00:34:18,760
Because it's probably worse than the book they're not checking

705
00:34:18,760 --> 00:34:19,599
out from the library.

706
00:34:19,639 --> 00:34:21,440
Speaker 2: Well they can't, you know, they can't take their friends

707
00:34:21,480 --> 00:34:23,760
school anymore either, right, isn't that they'll be developed?

708
00:34:23,840 --> 00:34:24,320
Speaker 6: Yeah.

709
00:34:24,599 --> 00:34:25,880
Speaker 4: The one thing I was going to add though, is

710
00:34:25,920 --> 00:34:28,519
that this bill, in my opinion, again I'm not a lawyer,

711
00:34:28,519 --> 00:34:30,400
but it has legal challenge written all over. And the

712
00:34:30,440 --> 00:34:32,960
reason I say that is because there's a particular provision

713
00:34:33,000 --> 00:34:35,280
in the bill that you know, if a book gets challenged,

714
00:34:35,320 --> 00:34:37,960
it's pulled off the shelves, right, And so you get

715
00:34:37,960 --> 00:34:40,199
into this territory. We're'll be curious to see. Again, I

716
00:34:40,000 --> 00:34:42,559
don't I can't predict the future, but it'll be interesting

717
00:34:42,559 --> 00:34:45,039
to see kind of what the you know, how kind

718
00:34:45,079 --> 00:34:47,079
of legal groups will response to this. We know they've

719
00:34:47,079 --> 00:34:50,320
been very vocal about other legislation kind of in the

720
00:34:50,360 --> 00:34:53,679
same vicinity, and so it'll be I don't think you know,

721
00:34:53,719 --> 00:34:56,840
the discussion is over on you know, obviously, you know

722
00:34:57,840 --> 00:34:59,800
it goes into effect. You know, we'll see kind of

723
00:35:00,159 --> 00:35:01,559
you know, what happens after the fact. But I think

724
00:35:01,599 --> 00:35:03,119
folks will have something to say about it, because again,

725
00:35:03,639 --> 00:35:05,840
what it does is it puts it. I mean, really,

726
00:35:06,559 --> 00:35:10,559
what they're saying is that you know, these parents, they

727
00:35:10,719 --> 00:35:13,400
are ultimately they altoately have the power to determine what

728
00:35:13,480 --> 00:35:16,079
the community's values are right, and that's a big part

729
00:35:16,119 --> 00:35:18,719
of how the legislation. I mean that's actually like specific

730
00:35:19,000 --> 00:35:22,199
like language and the bills it talks about like community values,

731
00:35:22,599 --> 00:35:25,159
and so again, it's really interesting. I'll be curious to

732
00:35:25,159 --> 00:35:27,480
see how this also fits into like the national landscape

733
00:35:27,519 --> 00:35:32,119
as well. Given again texasercise, it's always has outside influence.

734
00:35:33,039 --> 00:35:34,840
But yeah, I think there's a lot still to be

735
00:35:34,920 --> 00:35:36,559
kind of written on this particular topic.

736
00:35:37,039 --> 00:35:39,199
Speaker 1: And certainly we've seen bills like or laws like this

737
00:35:39,280 --> 00:35:41,559
get challenged in court and in some cases get basically

738
00:35:41,639 --> 00:35:44,239
knocked down. So yeah, I think that's a pretty solid

739
00:35:44,280 --> 00:35:47,480
prediction librarians not taking this laying down.

740
00:35:48,159 --> 00:35:50,880
Speaker 4: I talked to a librarian earlier, and you know, one

741
00:35:50,880 --> 00:35:53,599
thing that really struck me was just like how much

742
00:35:53,639 --> 00:35:57,119
I don't think people actually realize like like librarians. And

743
00:35:57,320 --> 00:35:59,000
I think she was telling me earlier, like you know,

744
00:35:59,280 --> 00:36:01,599
we're required to have master's degrees, right, like we are,

745
00:36:01,760 --> 00:36:04,360
Like this is a very like rigorous process, so we're

746
00:36:04,400 --> 00:36:06,599
not just people who just show up and just you know,

747
00:36:06,679 --> 00:36:09,000
scan a book you know here, and they're like it's

748
00:36:09,039 --> 00:36:11,519
a pretty like hard job and like takes a lot

749
00:36:11,519 --> 00:36:13,440
of skill in telling that. So I think that's why

750
00:36:13,480 --> 00:36:15,440
you probably saw a lot of the backlash, and it's like,

751
00:36:15,719 --> 00:36:18,320
you know, we want you to understand exactly what we do, right,

752
00:36:18,320 --> 00:36:19,599
and we need to be at the table if you're

753
00:36:19,599 --> 00:36:21,519
making decisions having to do with our.

754
00:36:21,440 --> 00:36:24,000
Speaker 1: Profession, right, yeah, trust us to do our job sort

755
00:36:24,039 --> 00:36:28,880
of to just I want to briefly talk about an

756
00:36:28,880 --> 00:36:30,599
issue that a couple of the kids in the room

757
00:36:30,679 --> 00:36:35,719
might care about, which is the not dead yet Star Test.

758
00:36:36,559 --> 00:36:41,320
The attempt to get rid of this large annual assessment

759
00:36:42,039 --> 00:36:45,039
and now they lawmakers were unable to strike a deal,

760
00:36:45,119 --> 00:36:48,039
so the Star Test lives. Chris, can you talk a

761
00:36:48,039 --> 00:36:51,679
little bit about like the Star Test, how do teachers

762
00:36:51,679 --> 00:36:52,280
feel about it?

763
00:36:52,480 --> 00:36:54,280
Speaker 3: The students and generally just.

764
00:36:54,159 --> 00:36:56,960
Speaker 1: Like this test, teach to the test mentality. I think

765
00:36:57,000 --> 00:37:00,760
lawmakers were worried about well. Testing causes a lot of

766
00:37:00,760 --> 00:37:03,559
anxiety for our students, especially I think in the younger grades.

767
00:37:04,360 --> 00:37:05,719
By the time they get to high school, they're a

768
00:37:05,719 --> 00:37:07,719
little bit more jaded about it, but it still takes

769
00:37:07,800 --> 00:37:10,159
up quite a bit of our time, you know, making

770
00:37:10,199 --> 00:37:12,039
sure those kids. For example, of the English skills for

771
00:37:12,079 --> 00:37:14,840
the English Test or the O in our worldest is

772
00:37:14,840 --> 00:37:18,719
the Biology test. I think teachers were not thrilled about

773
00:37:18,760 --> 00:37:22,239
the idea of three tests a year, So I think.

774
00:37:22,119 --> 00:37:23,480
Speaker 3: Maybe that's good that that's gone.

775
00:37:24,679 --> 00:37:26,880
Speaker 5: But yeah, testing is a challenging one and I really

776
00:37:26,880 --> 00:37:29,280
wish there was more teacher representation with the people making

777
00:37:29,320 --> 00:37:31,840
these decisions that really have been in the classroom that

778
00:37:31,960 --> 00:37:33,880
understand Like, I could never make a decision about how

779
00:37:33,920 --> 00:37:36,159
elementary school testing could go, you know why as a

780
00:37:36,239 --> 00:37:38,519
legislator that has never been in the classroom before making

781
00:37:38,519 --> 00:37:40,400
those decisions for us, I'd love to see more teacher

782
00:37:40,440 --> 00:37:41,800
input on testing.

783
00:37:42,920 --> 00:37:46,000
Speaker 2: Yeah, it just seems like it's a very it's a

784
00:37:46,000 --> 00:37:48,360
good applause line if you're a politician to be like,

785
00:37:48,360 --> 00:37:51,920
we're getting rid of the Star test because people don't

786
00:37:51,960 --> 00:37:55,119
like it and people don't like standardized tests. Right, But

787
00:37:55,159 --> 00:37:57,559
then you kind of get into the nee gridy of like, Okay,

788
00:37:57,599 --> 00:38:01,679
we there needs to be some way to measure how

789
00:38:01,800 --> 00:38:04,880
successful schools are, right, there needs to be some way

790
00:38:05,000 --> 00:38:08,239
to hold them accountable. And then it starts to sort

791
00:38:08,280 --> 00:38:11,320
of break down from there and it gets a lot harder. Right,

792
00:38:11,400 --> 00:38:13,519
you just talked about like they were talking about three

793
00:38:13,599 --> 00:38:16,719
separate tests which would have been maybe designed to you know,

794
00:38:16,760 --> 00:38:19,480
in their minds be a bit more effective of measuring.

795
00:38:19,519 --> 00:38:21,880
But then now you have three high pressure tests throughout

796
00:38:21,880 --> 00:38:24,800
the school year that that is also stressful for people.

797
00:38:24,800 --> 00:38:30,440
And uh, it's it's I think it's less complaicated on

798
00:38:30,480 --> 00:38:33,159
the campaign trail and more complicated when you actually get

799
00:38:33,159 --> 00:38:35,840
into how are we going to do this and how

800
00:38:35,840 --> 00:38:38,360
are you actually going to make sure that our students

801
00:38:38,679 --> 00:38:42,039
are getting what they need in order to you know, succeed.

802
00:38:42,639 --> 00:38:44,639
Speaker 4: I think one thing that we I think, you know,

803
00:38:44,679 --> 00:38:46,320
we also have to mention a big part of that

804
00:38:46,400 --> 00:38:48,840
bill would at least, you know, in the Senate version,

805
00:38:49,000 --> 00:38:51,840
would have given the Commissioner of Education a considerable amount

806
00:38:51,840 --> 00:38:54,880
of authority when it relates to basically what they were

807
00:38:54,880 --> 00:38:56,880
trying to do is lay the hammer down toward districts

808
00:38:56,920 --> 00:39:00,119
who sue, you know, whenever they disagree about you know,

809
00:39:00,159 --> 00:39:02,719
the accountability system, and so you know, it would have

810
00:39:03,119 --> 00:39:07,039
honestly put them you know, you know, uh, they could

811
00:39:07,079 --> 00:39:09,239
have been you know, liable to have a conservator you

812
00:39:09,239 --> 00:39:11,559
know appointed, you know, you know in their district if

813
00:39:11,559 --> 00:39:14,800
they were to sue you know against you know, changes made,

814
00:39:14,800 --> 00:39:17,119
and so obviously it was a big part of it

815
00:39:17,199 --> 00:39:20,320
was the test itself, right, and I think it's actually interesting.

816
00:39:20,360 --> 00:39:22,360
Like that was the one thing that seemed to have

817
00:39:22,480 --> 00:39:25,039
like somewhat kind of universal agreement was that like we

818
00:39:25,039 --> 00:39:29,320
need to get rid of the star. But ultimately, once again,

819
00:39:29,519 --> 00:39:31,280
you know, it didn't happen. I'll be curious to see

820
00:39:31,320 --> 00:39:33,800
kind of it. Perhaps it sounds like they feel like

821
00:39:33,840 --> 00:39:37,440
they made some progress and momentum this session, just judging

822
00:39:37,440 --> 00:39:39,519
on I was in Salado last week at the House

823
00:39:39,559 --> 00:39:42,559
Built Too bill signing, so I'd be curious to see,

824
00:39:42,599 --> 00:39:45,159
like if this, if this is actually like if this

825
00:39:45,280 --> 00:39:47,840
was meaningful in the long term, where when they come

826
00:39:47,880 --> 00:39:50,800
back in what twenty seven, you know, they're picking up

827
00:39:51,039 --> 00:39:53,480
you know, at a you know, at a better place

828
00:39:53,519 --> 00:39:56,199
maybe than where they have in previous years.

829
00:39:56,199 --> 00:39:58,480
Speaker 6: But but to your point, we'll see kind of what happens.

830
00:39:58,840 --> 00:40:01,440
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely well, we're gonna have to leave it there.

831
00:40:01,480 --> 00:40:05,559
But before we do, Chris Jaden, I'm hoping you guys

832
00:40:05,599 --> 00:40:08,159
each I mean, it was a huge legislative session for education.

833
00:40:08,480 --> 00:40:11,079
A lot of promises made, a lot of stuff changed.

834
00:40:11,639 --> 00:40:14,719
If you had to give the Texas legislature a grade

835
00:40:14,960 --> 00:40:18,480
on a scale of an A to F in terms

836
00:40:18,480 --> 00:40:20,760
of you know, Chris, I want from you you know

837
00:40:21,719 --> 00:40:25,440
on you know, promises upheld to teachers. Jaden, just generally,

838
00:40:25,480 --> 00:40:27,880
you know, how are we feeling about how education got

839
00:40:28,719 --> 00:40:29,679
made it through the session?

840
00:40:30,239 --> 00:40:32,119
Speaker 3: Matthew thoughts on this before.

841
00:40:31,880 --> 00:40:35,639
Speaker 2: They do this, great, just be careful Jaden.

842
00:40:35,519 --> 00:40:37,960
Speaker 1: Yeah, just on and you know how how well did

843
00:40:38,000 --> 00:40:41,000
they uphold their promises from the beginning of session?

844
00:40:42,159 --> 00:40:45,480
Speaker 3: Okay? I have two grades B plus on teacher pay.

845
00:40:45,639 --> 00:40:49,639
Speaker 2: Great, do schools get B pluses? I think the eight

846
00:40:49,679 --> 00:40:51,199
through F doesn't do a plus or minus?

847
00:40:51,280 --> 00:40:54,639
Speaker 1: Right, Okay, she can do it, get B this is

848
00:40:54,639 --> 00:40:55,320
the classroom.

849
00:40:55,760 --> 00:41:00,519
Speaker 5: And then I think for funding of schools d I

850
00:41:00,559 --> 00:41:04,079
really would have liked to see some more of an

851
00:41:04,119 --> 00:41:09,280
increase in basic allotment to help fund basic operations for schools.

852
00:41:10,039 --> 00:41:11,719
Speaker 1: Jade lest out if you're ever going to hear back

853
00:41:11,719 --> 00:41:12,880
from Chairman Buckley.

854
00:41:13,000 --> 00:41:14,760
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, I don't know if I have a you know,

855
00:41:14,800 --> 00:41:16,760
particular grade, I mean the one. The one thing I

856
00:41:16,760 --> 00:41:19,440
will say is that I think, you know, what didn't

857
00:41:19,440 --> 00:41:24,239
happen in twenty twenty three may I think makes the perception.

858
00:41:24,119 --> 00:41:25,079
Speaker 6: Of house built too.

859
00:41:25,519 --> 00:41:27,880
Speaker 4: Uh. It's a little it's a little bit difficult to

860
00:41:27,880 --> 00:41:30,280
celebrate for some people out in the public. Head community

861
00:41:30,719 --> 00:41:34,480
just because again you know, since you know, the comprehensive

862
00:41:34,519 --> 00:41:36,239
funding bill did not pass in twenty twenty three. I

863
00:41:36,239 --> 00:41:38,960
mean we're seeing you know, school districts the size of

864
00:41:39,079 --> 00:41:42,159
Houston ISD that are considering you know, closures. You know,

865
00:41:42,159 --> 00:41:45,480
we're seeing budget deficits, you know, in droves. Obviously we

866
00:41:45,480 --> 00:41:48,199
talk about our special education funding gap, which I know

867
00:41:48,280 --> 00:41:50,480
lawmakers you know, made some significant changes this year that

868
00:41:50,519 --> 00:41:52,199
will kind of chip away at that, but there are

869
00:41:52,199 --> 00:41:55,039
just some really significant needs. And so you know, as

870
00:41:55,039 --> 00:41:56,599
a reporter, as I look at the as I look

871
00:41:56,599 --> 00:41:59,519
at the situation, you know, I think, you know, it's

872
00:41:59,599 --> 00:42:02,079
my job right to ask those questions of yes, this

873
00:42:02,119 --> 00:42:05,320
is a moment that obviously you're celebrating, but there was

874
00:42:05,360 --> 00:42:07,000
a lot also left on the table, you know, two

875
00:42:07,079 --> 00:42:08,960
years ago that are going to have lingering impacts, and

876
00:42:09,000 --> 00:42:11,320
then not even just two years ago. Prior to that,

877
00:42:11,400 --> 00:42:13,760
you know, you know, schools is base funding, you know,

878
00:42:13,800 --> 00:42:16,760
which gives them the flexibility to address operational costs, and

879
00:42:16,920 --> 00:42:18,639
you know, the things that are unique to their campuses

880
00:42:18,679 --> 00:42:21,719
hadn't been raised since twenty nineteen, and so there's a

881
00:42:21,760 --> 00:42:23,320
lot of work the legislature has to do. I think

882
00:42:23,360 --> 00:42:27,000
they they I'm sure they understand that. And while you

883
00:42:27,000 --> 00:42:28,599
know this is you know, they see this is kind

884
00:42:28,639 --> 00:42:30,960
of a historic, huge moment. I think, you know, as

885
00:42:30,960 --> 00:42:33,519
I've been out, you know, talking to districts and teachers,

886
00:42:34,159 --> 00:42:36,119
I think people are grateful for the money, grateful for

887
00:42:36,159 --> 00:42:38,960
the investments. But make no mistake, I don't think anybody's

888
00:42:38,960 --> 00:42:41,000
saying that the job is done and that you know,

889
00:42:41,559 --> 00:42:44,159
you know, this is it. I think, you know, Matthew

890
00:42:44,199 --> 00:42:47,199
pointed out earlier, I think the gap between you know,

891
00:42:47,280 --> 00:42:49,679
the money now and the twenty nineteen funding levels is

892
00:42:49,719 --> 00:42:51,679
somewhat roughly ten billion or something like that.

893
00:42:52,519 --> 00:42:54,079
Speaker 6: So a lot of work to be done.

894
00:42:54,800 --> 00:42:56,360
Speaker 3: This is why they hate journalists.

895
00:42:56,679 --> 00:43:00,599
Speaker 1: We're like, good work, more to do though, yeah, always yeah, Well,

896
00:43:00,599 --> 00:43:03,679
thank you so much. Uh, first to Jaden for joining us.

897
00:43:03,760 --> 00:43:08,239
Also to Chris Mahil Sick. And that is this week's

898
00:43:08,239 --> 00:43:09,920
episode of the Trim Cast.

899
00:43:21,440 --> 00:43:21,480
Speaker 2: H