March Down Congress for Texas Schools

            Teachers, educators, parents, and supporters alike banned together in protest on the capitol steps in attempt to save Texas schools.

Saturday Feb. 23 2013 at 10:45 a.m. thousands of people gathered on the corner of Riverside and Congress to march across Congress Avenue Bridge to the steps of the Texas State Capitol. Members of Save Texas Schools, a nonpartisan volunteer organization consisting of parents, teachers, educators, business leaders, concerned citizens, community groups, and faith organizations, are coming together to fight for quality public education for all Texas students pre-k through college.

 The Save Texas Schools organization wants state elected officials to hear their motto of “saying no to underfunding and over-testing and yes to great schools for all Texas children.” Said Ken Baliker President of Clear Creek ISD Board of Trustees, the first school district to join the Save Texas Schools organization.

Saturday morning’s rally consisted of many Save Texas Schools support speakers, Edgewood Independent School District Board of Trustees President Joseph M. Guerra said, “There are two major problems in Texas public schools, Dan Patrick’s Texas Senate Bill 2 and funding.”

Senator Patrick’s Senate Bill 2 is said to consist of removing the cap on charter schools in Texas. The current cap is 215, leaving more than 100,000 students on waiting lists to get in. His bill would set up a commission charged with approving and overseeing charter school performance. Schools that don't meet academic or economic standards three out of their first five years could be closed by the commission. Charter schools could also purchase or lease unused facilities from school districts at a fair market value said the Texas Senate News.

36^th Comptroller of Public Accounts, Carole Keeton Strayhorn said, “We have a crisis, and the crisis is; the public sector wants to take away our public schools and the private sectors want to privatize our public schools.”

Guerra said, “Equal education opportunities for all Texas students’ starts with keeping our kids in school, and taking back the $5.4 billion dollars cut from public education over the past two years. The answer is to focus on public schools, not investing money into private state funded charter schools.”

Supporters of the Save Texas Schools rally are motivated to have standardized testing removed from public schools and begin treating each student as an individual, Strayhorn says “Media outlets say public schools are failing, but it is not true. The test scores today on the National Assessment of Educational Progress federal test are the highest they have ever been in history.”

“Test are the highest they have ever been for white children, black children, Hispanic children, and Asian children; that’s a secret public officials don’t want you to know, and it’s not because of testing it’s because of our superb teachers” said Strayhorn.

Texas leads the nation in both math and science examination passing rates, and have achieved and 80 percent passing rate on reading exams reported CBS News on Feb. 21, 2013.

“Texas’ future relies on the education of its children and all of its children, we have to take action and provide the education these children deserve or suffer consequences later” said Strayhorn.