McAllen teachers: No happy campers
I was going to write a story about McAllen ISD’s new budget (does it cheat teachers or does it not?) and why so many McAllen teachers are upset with it after the school board approved it last month by a 5-2 vote (the minority votes — Crane Aliseda and Lizzie Kittleman).
Then I found out how complicated this story really is, not to mention convoluted, how the district has been spending its money in some questionable ways that may not benefit taxpayers, and it’s going to take more time to compose than I have time remaining in this week’s writing cycle.
Plus, I was still getting info about it well into this week. It’s still fluid.
Common refrain from a McAllen teacher who’s been around the block for 30-plus years: “I’ve never seen so many teachers this upset.”
The Big Election/Vouchers
After all, in May of 2023, McAllen ISD election brought four new trustees to the board, and now more teachers are supposedly upset than ever before? What happened?
This year was supposed to be the district’s kumbaya moment, with a new board majority in place, no more free jello shots on SPI at school conferences, shared condos, school equipment used for “personal vids,” but the district ends up as dysfunctional, in the minds of some, as it was prior to the May 2023 election?
How is that possible?
Then I spoke with some people from the other side of the budget debate, who say that the McAllen teacher’s union is being unreasonable, the district did all it could to placate all the stakeholders, and the union should just be happy that no one lost a job, and they got a two-percent raise across the board, in the process, even though in today’s harsh inflationary period, two percent is like the old 10 percent.
A complicated mess to be sure. So look for the McAllen ISD story in either next week’s Advance print issue, front page, or later this week online at anjournal.com.
The main problem, besides looking at how the district spent (or misspent) its money over the past two-plus years, is that these days, school districts across the state are being asked to do more with less money.
This is even before the governor gets his school-voucher program passed next legislative session. So if you think this year’s budget process was rough in McAllen and other districts as well, just wait a year or two after Gov. Greg Abbott’s private schools really gain traction, thanks to his vouchers, and then see how many public school teaching jobs have to be cut.
This year’s budget process will look like a walk in the park, compared to the governor’s planned attack on this state’s traditional public-school districts, once his vouchers are in place.
Last week, an old friend who’s a Republican, asked me why I so disliked Gov. Greg Abbott.
Where to start?
I mean, I don’t like most Democrats save some local ones, so it’s not like I’m a partisan, just an observer.
But having George W., Rick Perry, and Greg Abbott back to back, three in a row? What did we ever do to deserve that fun trio?
Anyway, with regard to my Republican friend who asked me about the governor, I told him that Abbott’s gotten a few things right, but the main thing he’s got wrong is his fight to bring school vouchers into this state.
According to a story published in the Texas Observer last October, the vouchers are bad news for all but a few.
The Observer headline read: “Abbott’s voucher fight isn’t about kids. It’s about money, politics, and religion.”
Here’s one of the biggest takeaways from that story:
“Arizona’s education savings account voucher program, which was billed at $2.5 million in its first year in 2011, has now expanded to a universal program costing the state $943 million, creating a $319 million state deficit for the 2024 fiscal year. Fifty-three percent of all primary education spending goes to only 8 percent of Arizona students.”
Now, that’s not to say that Arizona’s voucher program is exactly like the one planned for Texas, but I know one thing, it’s mainly about the money it will make for some people with the right connections.
Private Schools — Ka-ching
That’s why Abbott could get so many big private operators from out of state to pump money into this state’s March primaries, which helped the governor unseat those few disloyal Republicans who had stood in the way of getting his voucher program passed in 2023. With them gone, replaced by pro-voucher Republicans who spout Bible verses and God Bless America all in the same breath, Abbott’s got a lock on the voucher vote next year.
Take IDEA Public Schools, for example. Clearly one of the most dysfunctional charters to cross the horizon, operating like it was a private school for rich administrators.
Private jets. Lush seats for Spurs games. Mercedes SUVs handed to administrative staff, a Tesla handed to one of the school’s co-founders, Tom Torkelson, who was pulling down almost a million a year as supe (title later changed to CEO, so he’d no longer make TEA’s list of top-paid superintendents).
Other perks handed to him — a paid membership to the McAllen Country Club, a big life insurance policy, you name it, Tom T. got it. Until he got the boot, even if he did resign.
That’s one of the reasons for school board elections, which don’t take place at private schools. People have a say in how their tax dollars are spent.
Which is why the state now runs IDEA. At least for the time being.
Still, despite all that negative publicity, IDEA has convinced too many people that it’s still a better option than, say, McAllen ISD, which is how it somehow convinced McAllen parents to transfer approximately 2,500 students to IDEA last year.
When more private/religious schools open up — preaching either Jesus, Allah, or Hare Krishna thanks to Abbott’s vouchers, what’s that going to do to traditional public-school numbers?
It’s not really the small- to mid-sized charters that have hurt the traditional public schools, but rather, big players like IDEA.
The pie is only so big.
Split it into smaller pieces — new big charter-school operators (think Jeb Bush), new private schools, new religious schools — and see how much money districts like McAllen stand to lose over the next five years, along with most other public schools in South Texas.
So why do I dislike Abbott and the job he’s doing?
School vouchers alone would do it for me. The public school system is, in part, what made this country so great. A free, quality education.
Also, the fact that he let DPS Director Steve McCraw keep his job post Uvalde.
Why some people want to tear down traditional public education, well, there are many theories.
The simplest one I can think of is two tiered — money and votes.
As a final anecdote, my wife and I sent our son to four schools before the eighth grade, three were so-called Christian, and one was public.
Out of the four, the only one that operated well was the public one; and for a secular institution, in many ways, the people who ran the schools and the district acted more “Christian like” than those I ran into at the private schools.
Why?
Because it had school board elections. In contrast, the private schools appoint board members from within, and they usually include people that the head of the school can manipulate. The board members show up for free coffee, a free breakfast or lunch, and head back to the office, home.
Actually, I think politicians, many, prefer confused people, which is what Greg Abbott’s voucher deal is going to create — confusion.
The money that school districts are going to lose, watching as the dollars move to private schools, is going to kick the legs out of public education.
According to a story published earlier this year by the National Education Association (NEA), recounting the experience Arizona was having with its voucher program:
“Recent audits revealed that private school parents, and now voucher recipients, have used the funds for a slew of, at best, questionable expenses, including kayak lessons, horseback riding lessons, home gyms, televisions, and more. Earlier audits conducted prior to the most recent expansion revealed similarly questionable uses.”
According to an Arizona high school teacher quoted in the same story, who perhaps said it best:
“These lawmakers don’t care about the strain on the budget or what this does to our schools and our communities,” says Michael McGowan, a high school teacher in Glendale. “It’s just an attack on public education. Taking money out of the system, draining resources, weakening our schools — that’s the point.”
That is the point — down the road, more stupid people added to the ones already elected, voted into office by equally stupid people?
I bet China’s doing things differently.