Author: mopress

Following closing arguments in the Texas school funding trial on Sept. 15, 2004,

Judge John Dietz (250th District Court of Texas) issued three rulings, an advisory, and public

comments. Copies of the documents have been provided via email from the judge’s office. After each

of the three rulings below, I have added an editor’s

note:

Rulings

Ruling 1. The Court

declares that for plaintiff districts and others, the costs of meeting the constitutional mandate of

adequacy and/or the statutory regime of accreditation, accountability, and assessment exceeds the

maximum amount of revenues that are available under the State’s current funding formulae. Therefore,

the State’s school finance system fails to provide an adequate suitable education as required by

Article VII, section 1 of the Texas Constitution.

Editor’s Note:

“Adequacy” is one of three standards (suitability,
adequacy, and efficiency) used by the Texas

Supreme Court to test the constitutional
validity of any educational system established by the

legislature. As the wording
of the ruling indicates, the “adequacy standard” determines whether

resources
provided are sufficient to ensure that a “general diffusion of knowledge” is

offered to Texas school children. The Judge here says that the legislature
has not provided enough

resources to meet its constitutional obligations. In
ruling number three below, the judge will

also rule that the system is not
sufficiently”efficient”. But it is interesting to note that

the judge did
not rule against the “suitability” of Texas education. In other words, he

seems to be satisfied that the curriculum standards offered in Texas education
are appropriate,

but need to be more widely supported with resources. I take
this to mean that Texas educators have

developed an appropriate curriculum,
and may even be doing the best they can with the resources

given them. The
failure in this regard belongs mostly to agents who are supposed to make sure

that the state gives out “adequate” resources to support its educators and
students. In other

words, it is the elected officials of Texas, not the administrators,
educators, or students who

are chiefly at fault in this judgment.

[See additional rulings, editor’s notes, and

comments from the judge in Read More below:]

Ruling 2. The Court

declares that for some of plaintiff districts and others are forced to tax at the $1.50 statutory cap

on the M&O tax rates to provide a general diffusion of knowledge and/or a statutory accreditation,

accountability, and assessment regime. These districts have lost all meaningful discretion in setting

the tax rate for their districts, thereby violating Article VIII, section 1 (e) of the Texas

Constitution.

Editor’s Note: This is the main issue that motivated the

lawsuit from the “property-rich” districts of Texas, otherwise known as the West Orange Cove

plaintiffs. They argued that because they were taxing at or near the maximum allowable rate of $1.50

(per hundred dollars of taxable property value for purposes of Maintenance and Operation) and because

they were using nearly all the resulting funds to attempt to provide basic state and federal

requirements, that they were subsequently unable to offer desired local options for enrichment and

excellence. This, they argued, meant that their local property taxes had in effect been hijacked for

state purposes, making the property tax a state tax. And a state property tax is unconstitutional in

Texas. The Judge agreed that the $1.50 limit on local taxes had resulted in an unconstitutional state

property tax.

Ruling 3. The Court declares that the State’s school

finance system is neither financially efficient nor efficient in the sense of providing for the

mandated adequate education nor the statutory regime of accreditation, accountability, and

assessment.

Editor’s Note: This is the famous “Robin Hood” ruling.

As
headlines blared the morning after the judge’s ruling, “Robin Hood” as we know
it has

been found lacking. But this does not mean that the “Robin Hood” system
has been overturned. In

fact, the judge here is saying that the state does
not yet do enough to “equalize” the funding

disparities between property rich
and property poor districts. This ruling is a victory for the

Edgewood Interveners
represented by the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund (MALDEF) and the

Alvarado

Interveners represented by “Buck” Wood and his associates. Here the judge
is

saying that the legislature needs to adopt an even more equitable “Robin
Hood” scheme. Bad news

for all fans of the Sheriff of Nottingham.

Judge’s advisory: I will

enter an injunction that state funding of public schools cease unless the legislature conforms the

school finance system to meet these constitutional standards. The effective date of the injunction

will be one year from the date I enter the order, which will be approximately October 1,

2004.

Judge’s Public Remarks (as read in court):

I have

kept this yellow sticky on my computer monitor and it is a quote from Edgewood IV, it says: The people

of Texas have themselves set the standards for their schools. The court’s responsibility is to decide

whether that standard has been satisfied, not to judge the wisdom of the policy choices of the

Legislature, or to impose a different policy of our choosing. To the best of my ability, I have tried

to follow the Supreme Court’s admonition of judicial restraint.

Texas has experienced

phenomenal growth of population over the past decade and a half. We are now the second most populous

state in the country. This growth has shown itself in our schools. Texas now has 4.4 million public

school children and we are adding approximately 80,000 students a year to our system.

There is, in our current system, unquestionably, a significant gap of more than ten points in

educational achievement between economically disadvantaged students and non-economically disadvantaged

students. This is really remarkable when you consider that over half of our public education students

in Texas are economically disadvantage. In other words, half of our students in Texas are significantly

behind in achievement compared to the other half.

The state demographer, Steve Murdock,

whose 500-page report is in evidence, has projected what happens to our Texas population if this

educational achievement gap continues on into the future. If the education gap persists on into the

year 2040, Texas average household income falls from about $54,000 presently to $47,000. If the gap

persists to 2040, the number of adult Texans without a high school diploma will rise from 18% presently

to 30%. Additionally, the population in prison, on welfare, and needing assistance will likewise rise

significantly. In other words, Texas in 2040 will have a population that is larger, poorer, less

educated, and more needy than today.

Who in Texas would choose this as our future? The

answer is no one. Not a single Texan, from Brownsville to Dalhart or El Paso to Beaumont, would pick

that as a future for Texas. Well, what can we do to keep this dismal future from becoming a reality?

The key to changing our future is to close the gap in academic achievement between the

haves and the have-nots. The state demographer projects that if we could close the gap in educational

achievement just half way by 2020, then Texans would be wealthier than today in real dollars spend more

money for our economy pay more taxes for our government.
If the education gap were completely

closed, then Texas would be wealthier and would spend less in real dollars on prisons and the needy

than it does today. The solution seems obvious; Texas
nee
ds to close the education gap. But the rub is

that it costs money to close the educational achievement gap. It doesn’t come free. So, are Texans

willing to pay the price, to make the sacrifice to close the education gap, to secure their future and

their children’s future?

Our willingness to make the sacrifice depends upon our vision

and our leadership. Throughout our history as a state, our leaders have understood the importance of

education.
Chief among the complaints of Texans, in 1836, declaring their independence from the

government of Mexico, was that the government of Mexico with its boundless resources had failed to

establish any public system of public education. It’s there in the Texas Declaration of Independence.

In our very first constitution, our founders gave the legislature a mandate to establish a system of

public education, a provision that was repeated by our leaders in the 1876 Constitution.

Are we, at this present day, to turn our back on our 168 years of heritage of Texas public

education and say that we aren’t prepared for the sacrifice? Are we to say that to close the gap is

too hard, too much money, and that we simply give up?

Are we prepared for a future in

Texas that is dismally poor, needy, and ignorant? I think not.

Again I repeat it is the

people of Texas who must set the standards, make the sacrifice, and give direction to their leaders.

And the time to speak is now. These problems only get more difficult the longer we

wait.

The lesson is this, education costs money, but ignorance costs more money.

Money invested in education benefits first the children of Texas, or in other words, our future.

It also benefits our entire economy because educated people make more money, spend more money, and pay

more taxes.

I have abundant optimism that the people of Texas are willing to pay the

price and make the sacrifices necessary for the education of our children. As Texans, we can and must

do better for our future, our children. It’s the right thing to

do.

By Marco Portales

Thank you for joining us to celebrate Hispanic Heritage

Month at Texas A&M this year.

Many people need to be thanked for organizing the festive

activities planned between September 16 and October 15, 2004. Let’s hear an _expression of

appreciation for the organizers, the Hispanic Presidents Council, the Professional Hispanic Network,

the Aggie Memorial Student Center, Dr. James Anderson, V.P. for Institutional Diversity and Assessment,

Dr. Dean Bresgiani, V.P. for Student Affairs, and the group I represent here, MALFA, the Mexican

American/Latino Faculty Association.

Since I mentioned MALFA, I want to use this opportunity

to let all new Aggies know that, after working with the University’s administration for more than two

years, on May 28, 2004 the Board of Regents accepted President Gates’ recommendation to create MALRC,

the Mexican American/U.S. Latino Research Center. Currently a search committee is in the process of

selecting the founding director for a research center that seeks to study all aspects of the Latino

experience. Why? Because Latinos in the U.S. now number roughly 40 million people, including more

than 7 million Latinos here in Texas.

We, the Texas A&M Mexican American and Latino

faculty, are convinced that we need new knowledge and information about the largest American ethnic

group in virtually every discipline under the sun. Latinos, as we know, hail from all races and from

21 different countries. El Diez y Seis de Septiembre celebrates Mexico’s independence from Spain in

1821, but each of the other 20 Spanish-speaking countries also has its own history and stories of

independence.

On a festive day like today, ordinarily we talk about the past, about the

Diez y Seis de Septiembre, about El Grito de la Independencia promoted by Father Miguel Hidalgo in

Mexico, but, given where Latinos are today in the U.S., we need to consider the Latino Present because

that will shape our future.

When I was your age and in college more than 35 years ago, I

longed to read books written by Mexican American writers. I wanted to read books that spoke to the

world about our Latino lives and experiences in the United States. After all, Texas belonged to the

Spanish empire for 308 years before the Battle of San Jacinto ushered in The Republic of Texas in 1836.

For 308 years, the language of Texas era el Español, Spanish, and Hispanics or Latinos resided

throughout the Southwest in the areas known today as New Mexico, Arizona, California, and the southern

parts of Utah, Nevada, and Colorado. But following the 1846 to 1848 War with Mexico declared by

President Polk, all of these lands, or 55% of the land that Mexico owned was ceded to the United States

for the nominal sum of $15 million, the same amount of money that Thomas Jefferson bought the Louisiana

Purchase from France in 1803. Such was the power of Manifest Destiny, the idea that God intended the

people of the U.S. to take over Native American lands from the Atlantic to the Pacific. That story, as

we know, is known as American History; and, as all of you know well, students are required to take

courses in that area.

What we are not required to take are courses in the people who

were displaced, the people whose histories we have know about and who have had to tough it out for many

generations. Over the years, I have discovered that is why Mexican Americans and Native Americans have

not written books that are widely known. In college I read Ralph Waldo Emerson, the writer who said

that every generation writes its own books. So where are the books written by the previous generations

of Mexican Americans, I asked when I was 19.

Well, our Latino ancestors were too busy,

struggling to make a living. They did not have the luxury of writing books. When one did, such as

Americo Paredes, who finished writing George Washington Gomez when he was 25 in 1940, editors told him

they were not interested in publishing the work of a Mexican American because they felt no one would

read such books. That is why Paredes’ book was put away and not brought out until 1990, or half a

century later, a year before I arrived at Texas A&M to teach.

Today, Latinos have

definitely arrived as far as the public consciousness is concerned. But here is the important point:

we have been here all along. Partially to celebrate that fact and mainly to provide you with what I

did not have when I was your age, I have been writing some books about the Latino experience since

arriving on campus. In November the Texas A&M University Press will published my nonfiction book,

“Latino Sun, Rising: Our Spanish-speaking U.S. World.” I wrote this book to share my experiences and

to provide future generations with some life stories, the type of stories that I missed when I was

growing up. It seems to me that people can use some narratives for traction, as it were, on which each

of you students can build your own future contributions.

Our challenge essentially means

that you have to ask your professors what the Latino contribution has been. We study and study and, as

most of you know, the disciplines and areas that most of you are required to study tend to be silent

about Latinos. How can it be that Latinos have lived in Texas and in the Southwest since 1528 when

Cabeza de Vaca roamed Texas and have so little to show for it? That is 476 years. How can Spanish-

speakers live for 24 generations (count them) and not have more than a handful of known books that tell

us stories about ourselves? How many of us, for example, can name, say, 5 Latino books? Try it. You

now know George Washington Gomez by Americo Paredes. Any other ones that immediately jump to mind?

People who know the field, of course, can name titles and authors, but most Americans will find the

challenge difficult.

There are, of course, other answers to the questions we are

raising. It is difficult to change the status quo, or the way things are. Why? Because the status

quo tends to block solutions to our needs. Because power concentrations usually run on established

tracks that have not traditionally taken us into account, brought us into the picture.

That is why, as Aggies, we need to encourage you to network, to learn how to develop common

goals so that the “Hispanic Voice” repeatedly emphasizes our needs and desires.

What we

need to pursue is what I am beginning to call Integrative Research. Integrative research because

Latinos have always been part of American society. Integrative Research because we need to discover

and then articulate how we have always been here and what we have done. Integrative Research because

most of us do not know about our Latino accomplishments and the nature of the lives of previous

generations, because we have not been seen as players, participants and doers. This means that even

ancestors who have been exceptions to the rule have not often received credit for their achievements

and contributions. Let me give you a backyard example on which I will close.

I was

walking by, admiring the new Chemical Engineering building that Texas A&M is building on the north side

of campus next to where the English Department is housed in Blocker. Working on the grounds, I saw a

worker who looked at me as I passed, so I said that the building looked very attractive. Without

skipping a beat, he quipped, “Si y todos somos Mejicanos,” that is, “Yes, and all of the workers are

Mexicans.” Do you think that the workers who helped build the wonderful-looking Chemical Engineering

building will even be in the pictures that we will see when the building is dedicated? Take a look at

the ground-breaking pictures of the people credited for building the George Bush School of Public

Service and that will tell us something.

I teach an Asian American nove
l by Frank Chin

ca
lled Donald Duk (1991). In this imaginative recreation of history, Chinese American workers who were

hired to lay track for the Transcontinental Railroad from 1865 to 1869 were systematically excluded

from the American History book pictures. The Irish crews, on the other hand, the workers who “looked”

more “American” to the Public Relations-minded railroad leaders were given picture credit for building

the railroad– at the expense of the Chinese workers who were left out of the history books. Chin’s

novel attempts to rectify that fact. But how many people have read Chin’s work? Since we do not know

of that historical injustice, do we notice that the Mexican workers won’t be given much credit for

helping to build that building and others on campus?

I hope you can now see why we have

to carry out Integrative Research that will help us to include or integrate and then articulate us into

past history so that we can have a better present. By doing so, our Mexican, Mexican American and

Latino sons and daughters will gain confidence in themselves because they will know that their parents,

or people who looked like them, worked in constructing these buildings. They will have a vested

interest in Texas A&M because the energies of their parents have been invested in this campus. The

campus will not be a foreign, intimidating place, but a place that they will want to be at, and perhaps

graduate from.

If we educate our sons and daughters better, perhaps some of the

chemical engineers working in that building in 15 to 20 years will also be the offspring of those

Mexican workers. If we do not make a conscious effort to include them and other Latinos in American

society, history has shown us that we will be left out, much as I argue in “Crowding Out Latinos.”

(2000) If we do not change how Latinos are seen, we will always continue to look like new arrivals,

when, indeed, most of us have been here all along–for more than 20 generations, as we have seen. To

put more than 20 generations in perspective, we need to remember that we have only had about 6

generations of Aggies since Texas A&M was founded in 1876. And that we are only about 11 generations

or so away from the 1776 U.S. Declaration of Independence.

Thank you for your kind

attention.

Harvey

Kronberg notes that several headlines in Texas (and apparently on television, too) announced the death

of Robin Hood after yesterday’s ruling. So while media outside the state ignored the story, media in

Texas misrepresented it. But it was not difficult to see this one coming. Most pre-ruling reports

about the trial lumped all the plaintiffs together into an anti-Robin Hood pack, without distinguishing

between property-rich plaintiffs and property-poor intervenors. “It’s broke,” was the usual depth

of analysis given to the school funding crisis. Then, after weeks of mostly empty press galleries, it

was a perfect storm of media yesterday. Should I mention the name of the television reporter who

actually closed his eyes and seemed to fall dead asleep behind the cameras? Naw, that would be too

cruel.

Thank you Greg for your excellent article in Counterpunch…education…equality…some,

many feel america has never had anything close to either…I am one of the

many…

Classism, class-discrimination, hatred, violence, war, pollutions, depleted

uranium, the system by the rich for the rich, represented by the rich…and all that star spangled

B.S……

Keep writing Greg…

Joe Ciarrocco
posted by

permission

————————-

If you’re concerned about

Education, Children, Society, please read John Taylor Gatto’s magnum opus, The Underground History of

American Education. It’s about $30, or free on the Web at http://www.johntaylorgatto.com . The educational

system is so structured as to nullify, by pre-framing, any arguments for or against busing, or any

other issues within public education as it exists–in fact, it only serves to maintain and further the

objectives of the current power structure. At least you care–most people seem to just be watching the

lobotomy box, and consuming whatever they see and hear there.

Thanks, and peace,
Al

Levine
posted by permission

[Editor’s Note: I’ve taught Gatto’s work in

Philosophy of Education. Reminds me that the most elegant solution to great education remains: hire

good teachers and keep them at all cost!–gm]