EduLege Top news in school communications

EduLege Extra

Some of the timely issues that have been addressed in recent editions of EduLege

Red meat is good for the political diet…

The Texas Legislature has convened for a 30-day special session, and Governor Abbott — who will seek a third term in 2022 — has instructed legislators to tackle a “red meat” agenda that is designed to appeal to his conservative political base and infuriate Democrats.

The 11 issues that the governor directed legislators to address include such conservative-pleasing measures as tighter election laws, border security, Critical Race Theory and abortion regulations.

The governor also asked legislators to pass another hot-button issue from the regular session — banning transgender girls from competing in girls’ sports in Texas public schools.

Republican supporters of the ban said it would ensure competitive fairness and promote safety, while opponents called it an unnecessary attack on a vulnerable population that deserves access to the benefits of sports like any other student. Abbott also asked legislators again to try on a measure he vetoed after the regular session adjourned — Senate Bill 1109, which required that Texas middle schools and high schools provide instruction on preventing child abuse, family violence and dating violence.

The governor said he vetoed SB 1109 because parents did not have the ability to opt their children out of the instruction. Also on the governor’s agenda is adding a 13th check as a one-time payment for retired Texas teachers and other former school employees.

According to the Texas Retired Teachers Association, there has not been a cost of living increase since 2013 when one was provided for members who retired before 2004. For everyone else, no COLA was granted, meaning members who have been retired for 17 years have yet to benefit from an adjustment. Most of Governor Abbott's special session agenda failed to pass during the regular session that ended on May 31 — some because of Democratic delaying tactics, and others because Republicans could not agree on a particular course. "We have unfinished business to ensure that Texas remains the most exceptional state in America," the governor said on the eve of the special session.

State Rep. Eddie Rodriguez, D-Austin, accused Abbott of loading the special session with issues designed to shore up his Republican support, as he already faces two ultra-conservative challengers in the 2022 GOP Primary election.

"This list isn't good government, but rather Texans being held hostage for the sake of Republican primary politics,"

Representative Rodrigues said. "Where are the essential reforms to our power grid or Medicaid expansion?"

The Texas governor is the only official with the power to call a special session and set its agenda.

Governor Abbott’s long-awaited to-do list for legislators also includes: • Limit bail options for those who are accused of violent or sexual offenses. • Tackle complaints that social media companies are censoring conservatives. • Appropriate money for property-tax relief. • Address cybersecurity threats. • Attract private providers to the state’s overwhelmed fostercare system. • Limit the availability of abortion-inducing drugs to the first seven weeks of pregnancy, instead of 10 weeks as allowed under federal guidelines. • Provide money to "support law enforcement agencies, counties and other strategies as part of Texas’ comprehensive border security plan." • Restore funding for the Legislature and affiliated agencies that Abbott vetoed in retaliation for the Democrats blocking the passage of tougher voting requirements.

This is the second special session that Governor Abbott has convened since taking office in 2015. Abbott has already promised to call another special session in the fall for legislators to deal with redistricting and the allocation of billions of federal dollars for local pandemic relief and recovery efforts.

CRT is short for ‘buzzwords’…

A conservative Austin think tank and lobby group recently released a list of words and phrases that is says are associated with Critical Race Theory, saying that it wanted to alert parents that CRT might be taught in their child’s classroom. In a tweet that was subsequently deleted, the Texas Public Policy Foundation warned of the things to look for if they are worried about disagreeable historical content in public school courses in Texas.

The list of so-called buzzwords includes: “systemic racism,” “white privilege/supremacy,” “colonialism,” “social justice,” “Black Lives Matter,” “inequity,” “unconscious bias” and “microaggressions” among others. It should be noted these terms are not unique to what is considered CRT but are widely used in various contexts when discussing race and equity.

A now-deleted tweet by the Texas Public Policy Foundation. CRT has become a major focus of social conservatives recently, much as the false attacks were a decade ago against the Common Core classroom curriculum.

According to the Washington Post, CRT dates back to the 1970s and is aimed at addressing injustices in how the legal system has historically treated people of color.

The Legislature, in regular session, passed House Bill 3979 — legislation that restricts the extent to which classroom teachers can engage students on current events, especially as they pertain to race and social justice. But Governor Abbott says HB 3979 does not specifically ban Critical Race Theory from Texas classrooms, and he now wants legislators to do so in special session.

Coming soon to a school board meeting near you…

Chants of “No CRT!” rang out at a recent meeting of the Fort Worth School Board, only to be countered by others in the audience shouting, “Stop whitewashing history!”

Parents, pastors, teachers and recent Fort Worth graduates packed a routine school board meeting that became one of the first major conflicts since Governor Abbott signed HB 3979 into law.

Still, many in attendance decried CRT, although they had difficulty articulating exactly what it refers to. Others, however, implored trustees to push for honest conversations about America’s often painful past and present.

“Keep steadfast on this racial equity work,” parent Martina Van Norden urged trustees.

While one Fort Worth community member held a sign that reads “Erasing history is white supremacy,” another individual holds a poster that reads “Stop Critical Race Theory.”

Some parents urged Fort Worth Trustees not to abandon the district’s current initiatives to achieve broader diversity and inclusion, anti-racism training or its multicultural curricula because of the bruhaha over Critical Race Theory.

They threatened to leave the district if it abandons those programs.

Team building 101…

If Governor Abbott, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick and House Speaker Dade Phelan are not able to curtail the harsh words and soothe the bruised egos that erupted when the regular legislative session adjourned in May, then the special session could quickly dissolve into a political meltdown — among the state’s three top Republican leaders.

Since House Democrats staged the walkout that killed the Republicans’ priority elections bill, the Governor and the presiding leaders of the State Senate and the Texas House have diverged notably about how they are planning for the special session. Notably, the three Republican leaders are displaying tensions over how to approach the elections bill that Governor Abbott wants to be passed in the special session.

Leadership tensions exist among Lieutenant Governor Patrick, Governor Abbott, and Speaker Phelan.

Abbott hopes that state legislators “understand the need for speed,” when it comes to enacting election controls. The governor says that he is “satisfied” with the election bill that died in the House when Democrats broke the chamber’s quorum. Patrick vowed that Senate Republicans are “not gonna soften the bill.”

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Speaker Phelan, however, says that he would prefer to break the comprehensive election law overhaul into smaller pieces. A more piecemeal approach, Speaker Phelan said, could help members “feel more comfortable about what’s in each piece of legislation and give everyone a better opportunity to vet the ideas.”

Omnibus bills, he said, can sometimes “become just too weighty.”

Whatever the election legislation looks like in the House during a special session, Patrick says Speaker Phelan needs to take a harder line against Democrats. But Speaker Phelan told the Texas Tribune recently that he is “not going to lock the doors and arrest people, even though I have that ability.”

Democrats say Speaker Phelan should continue to recognize his role is unique from that of the governor and the lieutenant governor, both of whom are elected statewide. The House Speaker is elected by a majority of the 150-member House.

“The most important thing Dade can do is to remember he’s not elected by Republican primary voters across the state,” said State Representative Trey Martinez Fischer of San Antonio, one of the Democrats who walked out. “He’s elected by House Democrats and Republicans.”

Remote instruction equals lower student proficiency…

Texas elementary school students — especially those who are economically disadvantaged and those who learned virtually rather than in the classroom — fell dramatically behind in Math during the COVID-19 pandemic, dipping to the worst proficiency levels in six years. While economically disadvantaged students fared worse than their peers, the largest decline was seen in Texas school districts with higher percentages of students who learned virtually.

“This means probably 800,000 or more students fell below in Math than usual,” Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath said. “It is important to remember that these are not numbers, these are children.”

The number of students in grades 3 through 8 who did not meet state standards in Math increased from 21 percent in 2019 to 37 percent in 2021, results from the 2021 State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness show. The STAAR tests were not administered in 2020 because of the pandemic.

As national trends also suggest, there was little negative impact in English test scores of Texas students at all grade levels. Math proficiency was impacted the most among core subjects because, unlike literacy and language skills, students are less likely to learn math skills outside of the classroom.

“Where there was (cq) very significant rates of remote instruction, we saw the most significant declines in student proficiency,” Commissioner Morath said. Districts with less than a quarter of students learning in person for most of the year sustained greater learning loss, according to

an analysis by the Texas Education Agency.

The results are not surprising, said Cathy Horn, chair of the University of Houston’s Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies.

“When we think about a really technical subject area like mathematics, the opportunities to interact and to ask questions are not as readily available in virtual learning,” Dr. Horn told the Houston Chronicle.

Peer-to-peer learning interactions, which greatly help some students master math, also became more elusive during COVID-19, Dr. Horn said.

More federal funding is on the way…

With many Texas students struggling academically and emotionally because of the pandemic, more federal financial help will soon be on the way.

Texas will receive another $4.1 billion in federal stimulus money to address the post-pandemic needs of public school students. The funding comes as the U.S. Department of Education announced that it has approved Texas’ plans for spending the $12.4 billion in student recovery funds that have already been allocated to the state. While some of the money will be spent on improving academics, the funding also aims to address student inequities that were worsened by the pandemic, as well as kids’ social and emotional needs.

The Texas Education Agency estimates that students in the state lost an average of 5.7 months of learning last school year. Meeting student and staff mental health needs, expanded tutoring, providing high-quality instructional materials and jobembedded learning are included in the plan.

“The approval of these plans enables states to receive vital, additional American Rescue Plan funds to quickly and safely reopen schools for full-time, in-person learning; meet students’ academic, social, emotional, and mental health needs; and address disparities in access to educational opportunity that was exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic,” U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said in a news release.

The DOE distributed $81 billion nationally earlier this year, which accounted for two-thirds of the American Rescue Plan’s emergency relief funding for K-12 schools. The remaining funding will be distributed to states as their plans are approved. Texas received $8.3 billion in late March.

Virtually ignored…

Despite pleas from dozens of Texas school districts, Governor Abbott has thus far shown no interest in adding to his special session agenda legislation that would allow them to operate — and receive state funding for — virtual learning programs.

The bill that would have ensured that Texas school districts receive funding for each student who is enrolled in online-only classes died after House Democrats broke quorum to kill the controversial voter control bill. The virtual learning bill was expected to pass until the House was forced to adjourn for lack of a quorum.

The signatories of one letter to the governor — which includes the Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin and San Antonio school districts — note that virtually all Texas districts have been forced to scrap their plans for virtual learning this upcoming school year after the bill died.

There is no statutory framework authorizing remote instruction without the legislation, according to the Texas Education Agency. Education Commissioner Mike Morath used disaster authority for the 2020-2021 school year to okay funding for remote instruction, but he says that authority cannot be used for the new school year.

“There are thousands of students across the state of Texas who thrive in a virtual environment, and we have an obligation to ensure that they receive the best education possible by providing them with the choice to receive their learning virtually,” the letter reads. “We have an opportunity to expand public school choice for families, and meet our students where they are, instead of letting them fall through the cracks of a system that was not built for them.”

‘May I not see a passport, please…’

Governor Abbott has banned state agencies and other taxpayerfunded entities — and that includes school districts — from requiring so-called “vaccine passports,” joining a growing number of Republican leaders who have pushed back on the idea of showing proof of vaccination.

"The government should not require any Texan to show proof of vaccination and reveal private health information just to go about their daily lives," Governor Abbott said in a video. “We will continue to vaccinate more Texans and protect public health, and we will do so without treading on Texans' personal freedom.”

The Governor’s Executive Order does not affect private businesses that require a vaccine passport system for customers, although the proclamation applies to private entities that receive state funds “through any means,” including grants, contracts, loans, or other disbursements of taxpayer money.

“No consumer may be denied entry to a facility financed in whole or in part by public funds for failure to provide documentation regarding the consumer's vaccination status,” the order reads. Vaccine passports or credentials have gained momentum among private companies as a way to ask for proof of vaccination against COVID-19. Other countries are working to create their passports for travel.

But White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki says that there will not be any federal mandate to require every American to obtain a vaccine passport.

The warning signs are there…

Students who made plans to attack schools — but were thwarted before carrying out their plans — demonstrated the same types of troubled histories as those who carried them out. They were badly bullied, often suffered from depression with stress at home and exhibited behavior that worried others. Those conclusions are contained in a study released by the U.S. Secret Service that examined 67 thwarted school plots nationwide. The study by the Secret Service's National Threat Assessment Center is a follow-up to an earlier report on school shootings. The center analyzed 100 students responsible for plotting 67 attacks nationwide from 2006-2018 in K-12 schools.

"The findings demonstrate there are almost always intervention points available before a student resorts to violence," said Dr. Lina Alathari, the center's director.

All of the plots that were studied were serious planned attacks, and the plotters took at least some initial steps toward carrying them out. The informants who brought the plots to the attention of authorities likely saved lives.

Many of the contemplated school attacks were planned for April when the Columbine shootings occurred. Most of the schools targeted were public high schools, with 37 percent in suburban areas and 14 percent in cities.

The plotters were overwhelmingly male; five were female. Most were motivated by grievances against them, usually peers and bullying. Many were suicidal or had depression. Eight expressed a desire for fame or notoriety.

More than half had been impacted by adverse childhood experiences like substance abuse at home or parental mental health issues, and many had intended to kill themselves as part of the attack and used drugs and alcohol.

In 75 percent of the attacks, the plotters had access to weapons, mostly from inside their own homes, and more than half had already acquired weapons. Some had assembled homemade explosives. More than half documented their plans through a to-do list or some kind of written justification for their actions.

Nine plotters displayed an interest in Adolf Hitler, Nazism or white supremacy.

But most importantly, the researchers said, about 94 percent talked about their attacks and what they intended to do in some way, whether orally or electronically, and 75 percent were detected because the plotters talked about them. About 36 percent were thwarted within two days of their intended attacks.

Long-time TSPRA member Andy Welch, the retired Communication Director for the Austin Independent School District, compiles and writes two issues of EduLege every week during the school year, copies of which are typically distributed by the state TSPRA office to members on Mondays and Thursdays. That schedule is altered for holidays, and for winter, spring and summer breaks—and when he needs the occasional day off.

Email any questions, suggestionss or concerns to Andy at andywelch1@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter at @welch_andy.