But Do Your Homework First, P. 6

Texas AFT Texas A Union of Professionals Teacher WINTER 2016

But Do your Homework First, p. 6

Open door for new accountability, p. 2 Supporting DACA students, p. 11 Questions to ask candidates, p. 8 (From left) Shonda Below, Norma Barahona, and Julie Wilburn of Northeast Houston AFT. The group is an organizing committee— which includes Channelview, Galena Park and Sheldon ISDs—and plans to charter as a full local union in May.

How to join us... 1. Check the list of local unions and organizing committees 2. If not, you will be joining the Associate Member Program. and their school or college districts below. If you work in one Contact us directly at 800-222-3827, or go to texasaft.org and of those districts, contact the local union directly. click on “Join the Union.”

Aldine ISD: Aldine AFT Edinburg ISD: Edinburg AFT North East ISD: Northeast AFT (281) 847-3050 (956) 502-5340 (210) 227-8083 Alief ISD: Alief AFTSE El Paso ISD: El Paso AFT Northside ISD: Northside AFT (281) 589-6644 (915) 562-3738 (210) 733-9777 Amarillo ISD: Amarillo AFT Flour Bluff ISD: Corpus Christi AFT Pharr-San Juan-Alamo ISD: PSJA AFT (806) 359-4487 (361) 855-0482 (956) 631-4333 Austin Community College: ACC AFT Fort Bend ISD: Fort Bend Pflugerville ISD: Pflugerville AFT (512) 448-0130 Employee Federation (512) 448-0130 Austin ISD: Education Austin (281) 240-1865 Round Rock ISD: Education Round Rock (512) 472-1124 Galena Park ISD: Northeast Houston AFT (512) 448-0130 Bastrop ISD: Bastrop AFT (281) 864-5491 (512) 448-0130 San Antonio ISD: San Antonio Alliance of Goose Creek ISD: Goose Creek Teachers and Support Personnel Brazosport ISD: Brazosport Federation of Education Federation (281) 427-2091 (210) 225-7174 Teachers (979) 265-9701 Gregory-Portland ISD: Corpus Christi AFT Sheldon ISD: Northeast Houston AFT Calallen ISD: Corpus Christi AFT (361) 855-0482 (281) 864-5491 (361) 855-0482 Houston ISD: Houston Federation Channelview ISD: Northeast Houston AFT of Teachers (713) 623-8891 Socorro ISD: Socorro AFT (915) 593-2801 (281) 864-5491 Houston ISD: Houston Educational Corpus Christi ISD: Corpus Christi AFT Support Personnel (713) 660-8435 South San Antonio ISD: South San Antonio AFT (210) 227-8083 (361) 855-0482 Killeen ISD: Killeen Federation Cy-Fair ISD: Cy-Fair AFT of Teachers & Support Personnel Spring Branch ISD: Spring Branch AFT (713) 466-1125 (254) 690-2538 (713) 468-4700 Dallas ISD: Alliance AFT La Joya ISD: La Joya AFT Tuloso-Midway ISD: Corpus Christi AFT (214) 942-4663 (956) 682-1143 (361) 855-0482 Del Rio ISD: Del Rio AFT Lancaster ISD: Southwest Dallas AFT Victoria ISD: Victoria AFT (512) 448-0130 (214) 321-8100 (512) 448-0130 Desoto ISD: Southwest Dallas AFT Lone Star College: AFT Lone Star Waco ISD: Waco AFT (214) 321-8100 (281) 889-1009 (254) 755-0276 Duncanville ISD: Southwest Dallas AFT McAllen ISD: McAllen AFT West Oso ISD: Corpus Christi AFT (214) 321-8100 (956) 682-1143 (361) 855-0482 Member Benefits: Medical Bill Negotiator

Did you know that as a union member of Texas AFT, you at least one outstanding have access to a free service to help negotiate lower medical bills? unreimbursed medical Angela Neal, a member of the Kansas Organization of State expense of at least $400. Employees (an AFT affiliate), discovered just how useful the The end result? “The service can be when she was faced with overwhelming medical Union Plus medical bill bills. negotiator helped knock as “Trying to lower the debt from medical expenses is so hard,” much as 50 percent off of explained Neal. “Some of the bill people can be harsh. They want some of my medical bills,” to get every penny from you as soon as possible, but you can’t she said. “It’s a big help squeeze blood from a turnip.” when someone is there to Dealing with the stress of mounting bills, coping with an help you negotiate medical ongoing health condition, and working full-time to provide debt. It was a real blessing. critical social services to families in need was a lot for Neal to It was nice knowing that AFT Member Angela Neal handle. She isn’t alone. A report by the Commonwealth Fund someone was working for found that 41 percent of Americans of working age have medical me just because I am a bill problems or are paying off medical debt. union member. I didn’t realize this union benefit existed, but I’m Neal found hope when a co-worker encouraged her to check so glad it does. It put me in a much better position to pay off my out the Union Plus Medical Bill Negotiating Service. When she medical bills.” clicked on UnionPlus.org/BillNegotiator, Neal was thrilled to see that it was easy to sign up for the free service. To qualify for help, For more information on the service, see she only needed to be an active or retired union member with www.UnionPlus.org/BillNegotiator.

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Texas AFT 3000 South IH-35, Suite 175 Celebrating 40 Years Austin, Texas 78704 800-222-3827 El Paso AFT (formerly the El Paso 512-448-0130 www.texasaft.org Federation of Teachers and Support Personnel) celebrated its 40th year Louis Malfaro: President as an AFT union in November at Ray McMurrey: Secretary-Treasurer an anniversary party. Phil Kugler, Rob D’Amico: Editor AFT’s organizing director, presented the union with AFT’s “Comeback Texas AFT represents more than 65,000 teachers, paraprofessionals, support personnel, and higher-education employees Award” for turning around the across the state. Texas AFT is affiliated with the 1.6-million-member local and significantly increasing American Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO. its membership. Also on display was the union’s original charter certificate from 1975. facebook.com/TexasAFT twitter.com/TexasAFT

WINTER 2016 Texas Teacher 1 VIEWPOINT The Every Student Succeeds Act: An open door for new public school accountability

Th e congressional rewrite of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) gives Texas an enormous opportunity to recast our public school accountability Louis Malfaro system into one President that better serves students and teachers. We have a chance to leave behind for good the disastrous misuse of standardized testing we’ve endured for some 13 years under NCLB. Th e new law—named the Every After signing the Every Student Succeeds Act into law, President Obama offers supporters— Student Succeeds Act—enjoyed broad, including AFT President Randi Weingarten—thanks for their efforts supporting the law. bipartisan support in Congress. It sailed through both chambers and was supported disadvantaged, eff orts to label schools our students will bemoan that it still and signed into law by President Obama in as failures in hopes of shaming or requires all students in grades 3 through December. browbeating students, parents and teachers 8 to be tested every year, and high school Under the law, Texas and other states into producing better results have done students at least once, and that those tests will no longer be under federal mandates more harm than good. Assigning a bad must play a role in defi ning academic grade to a school may stigmatize students profi ciency. But the bill also authorizes Nor will Texas be forced to use and teachers but does absolutely nothing states to use a variety of alternative school “turnaround” models to address the underlying challenges assessments to gauge academic success. like ﬁ ring all of a school’s staff, students face. Th ose alternative measures could include closing campuses or turning Instead, with the new law, Texas successful completion of advanced neighborhood schools over to could give priority to assisting struggling coursework, as well as portfolios and charter school operators—all of students with the proven success of the performance tasks to demonstrate which have had dismal results Community Schools model, which shift s achievement. in raising the level of student how we think about schools and the way Diehard defenders of our current achievement. we educate children. Services provided testing system likely will claim that we are at these schools refl ect the specifi c needs dumbing down education. But the tide is of “adequate yearly progress” that absurdly identifi ed by parents, teachers, and against them as more and more Texans and brand almost every school in the nation as community stakeholders. Th ese may their elected leaders question the validity a failure. Nor will Texas be forced to use include: academic programs like tutoring, of standardized tests and recognize they school “turnaround” models like fi ring enrichment activities, early-college-start have been misused. all of a school’s staff , closing campuses programs; medical services like vision, Th e Every Student Succeeds Act or turning neighborhood schools over to dental, nutrition and mental health; and also prohibits the federal government charter school operators—all of which programs for parents like adult education, from requiring teacher evaluations to have had dismal results in raising the level ESL classes, housing assistance, and job be based on their students’ standardized of student achievement. training. test scores—a misuse of testing proven to In Texas, where more than 60 percent Yes, critics of the new Every Student yield erroneous high-stakes decisions on of public school students are economically Succeeds Act who are tired of overtesting teacher employment and compensation.

2 Texas AFT www.texasaft.org The U.S. Department of Education’s insistence on forcing states to adopt this model—or face sanctions and possible loss of federal Commission on Next Generation funding—produced an even greater overemphasis on teaching to Assessments and Accountability the test. The governor, lieutenant governor and House speaker in Texas legislators wisely eschewed giving our commissioner of November announced appointments to the Texas Commission education the authority to mandate these evaluation requirements on Next Generation Assessments and Accountability called for in Texas school districts, and that led to an ongoing battle with by the Legislature last spring. The commission will study and the feds. Now, with the new law’s passage, that issue will be moot. make recommendations for changes in the state’s testing and In November, Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, and accountability system, with a report due by September 1, 2016. Texas House Speaker Joe Straus announced appointments to Appointed members are: the Texas Commission on Next Generation Assessments and • Mike Morath – Dallas ISD Trustee* Accountability, which will study and make recommendations • Kim Alexander – Superintendent, Roscoe Collegiate ISD for changes in the state’s testing and accountability system. The • Jimmie Don Aycock – Chair, Texas House Committee on Public commission’s report is due by September 1, 2016, and provides a Education, Killeen vehicle for all of us to use to ensure that Texas turns away from • Erika Beltran – Member, State Board of Education, District 13, the ill-conceived path of NCLB. Fort Worth The Every Student Succeeds Act won’t give us an entirely • Paul Castro – Superintendent, A+Unlimited Potential Charter blank canvas to redesign our failed accountability system, but School District, Houston it will give Texas plenty of flexibility to create something that • Pauline Dow – Chief Instructional Officer, North East ISD, San focuses resources on struggling students instead of labeling them Antonio failures and prescribing punishments. • Maria Hernandez Ferrier – Director of Mexico and Latin NCLB’s demise is long overdue and will be the first step in America Relations A&M System, San Antonio giving Texas teachers, students and parents a voice in shaping the • Andrew Kim – Superintendent, Comal ISD, New Braunfels “next generation” of accountability. • Michael McLendon – Dean, School of Education, Baylor A previous version of this column originally was published in the University, Waco December 6, 2015, Austin American Statesman. • Kel Seliger – Chair, Committee on Higher Education, Texas State Senate, Amarillo New Commissioner of Education: • Catherine Susser – Member, Board of Trustees, Corpus Christi Dallas ISD Trustee Mike Morath ISD, Corpus Christi • Larry Taylor – Chair, Committee on Education, Texas State Gov. Greg Abbott on December 14 appointed Senate, Friendswood Mike Morath–a Dallas ISD School Board trustee– • Theresa Trevino – Board Member, Texans Advocating for as commissioner of education, the post that Meaningful Student Assessment, Austin oversees the Texas Education Agency. • Quinton Vance – Executive Director, KIPP: Dallas-Fort Worth “With pressure coming from parents and College Preparatory Charter Schools, Dallas teachers to move away from test-obsessed • John Zerwas – Chair, Texas House Committee on Higher Mike Morath accountability, and with the new opportunities Education, Richmond afforded us by the recent changes in the federal * Reportedly will step down and be replaced after being named commissioner of education law, we look forward to working with Mr. Morath,” said education. Texas AFT President Louis Malfaro. “We will urge him to focus on things we know are proven to work: expanding early childhood embrace of a failed “home rule” initiative seeking exemption from education and building on the governor’s initiative; involving state quality standards and safeguards and of a local system of parents, teachers and community members in efforts to raise teacher evaluation and compensation that misuses the scores of student achievement through Community Schools; giving teachers teachers’ students on standardized tests. and school staff the support, training, professional respect and Morath has a chance to make a fresh start in a spirit of discretion they need to get the job done.” collaboration with Texas educators on the agenda Gov. Abbott Malfaro added that Texas needs to make greater investments set out in announcing this appointment: advancing “innovative in PreK-12 and higher education and that Morath should make a strong case to the Texas Legislature that education should be the solutions that will empower Texas principals, teachers, and state’s top priority. students” to strive for the highest in education excellence. Morath, as a member of the Dallas ISD school board, has “If Commissioner Morath reaches out to Texas teachers in often been at odds with teachers, parents, and much of the that spirit, he will receive a friendly reception in Texas classrooms,” community over matters of educational policy. These include his Malfaro said.

WINTER 2016 Texas Teacher 3 From the Secretary-Treasurer Ready to go on the offense? As a result of more than a decade test. Going on the offensive to win back our neighborhood of fighting against bad education laws schools necessitates a stronger relationship with the parents of the and policies, our union has developed a students we teach. solid and successful defensive strategy. In Douglas County, Colorado, in November the community Quite frankly, we have become great at organized to fight ineffective and divisive programs like defense. performance pay for teachers, privatization efforts and anti-union However, we must develop an policies. The coalition of parents and teachers worked to win back offense that complements our defense. three school board seats (including a seat won by a teacher), and Recent developments and victories their success demonstrates the power of teachers and parents at home and across the nation offer a coming together to decide the future of their schools. Ray McMurrey vision of what fighting forward with an Another great example of going on the offense resulted in a Secretary-Treasurer offensive strategy to improve schools recent state district court ruling that halted a political plan in New can look like. The recent surge of events sharpens the focus and Mexico to evaluate teachers based on student test scores—often importance of the fast-approaching 2016 primary election, and referred to as using value-added measures (VAM). The ruling our need to elect pro-public-education candidates as part of that was the result of a lawsuit filed by the Albuquerque Federation of strategy. Teachers. The district court judge called Gov. Susana Martinez’s The inception of NCLB in 2001 and the Orwellian-styled plan to use VAM a sham. This is a powerful judicial decision that school “accountability” system did nothing to improve academic could help redefine the legal debate over fair and accurate teacher achievement and much to deny resources and real supportive evaluations. In Texas, the Houston Federation of Teachers is intervention for students. We see and feel the reality of a false and currently suing Houston ISD over VAM-based teacher evaluations that will help advance the debate at home. These are examples of Another great example of going on the offense union and community power challenging so-called reformers and resulted in a recent state district court ruling that turning the tide. halted a political plan in New Mexico to evaluate At the national level, a major shift is occurring with the latest teachers based on student test scores. reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), which passed in December as the Every Student Succeeds misguided accountability system every day in our schools. As a Act (ESSA). For the first time, the federal mandates and pressures result of these failed policies intentionally designed to defund fostering the test-and-punish culture—bred out of No Child Left schools and deprofessionalize teaching, parents, community Behind and Race to the Top—will be scaled back significantly. members, and educators are starting to wise up and organize The battleground will return to the states, which now will have to reclaim the promise of public education. Recent victories in enormous flexibility in defining their accountability systems. Texas and across the nation give hope for real education reform Thus, there is now even more opportunity for an offensive strategy emanating from educators and the community with positive at the local and state level. Educators, parents and community results. members can collaborate to define real accountability for the In Dallas parents recently organized to protect recess for benefit of our students. elementary students after it was nixed as a consequence of In Texas and across the country, AFT is taking the lead in high-stakes testing pressure. Recess and other developmentally an effort to create the supportive resources needed for struggling appropriate activities are being squeezed out of the curriculum schools with Community Schools initiatives, which support both due to obsessive testing, and parents are pushing back. In Florida parents and students with a variety of academic and social service recently a new bill was filed to ensure recess as a student right, not resources. Real accountability involves meeting students where to be squeezed out by testing. they are by providing real inputs and resources impacting the Moreover, the Texas Opt Out movement is growing, and whole child. In Texas, Austin and El Paso ISDs are collaborating organized parents are more forcefully opposing the harmful with AFT and investing in Community Schools. These are effects of misusing high-stakes testing by keeping their kids home the kind of solutions driving an offensive strategy to redefine on testing days. That movement is spurring legislators to step back interventions for struggling schools. and re-evaluate testing policies. Houston ISD recently developed a So yes, school employees can use the power of their union formal Opt Out policy for parents wanting to boycott the STAAR and collaboration with their communities to effect positive

4 Texas AFT www.texasaft.org change. But remember that the vast majority of education and informed. We must learn to look beyond party politics. We policy—especially now that we are out from under the yoke have to be unified—supporting both Democrat and Republican of many federal mandates—is driven and created by our candidates who are truly standing with educators, students, and state legislators. So it is crucial that we elect lawmakers who parents. Texas AFT stands ready to inform our members with our understand the failures of NCLB and are ready to embrace a more 2016 election updates. (See www.texasaft.org/election16 for more productive accountability system. information.) Reclaiming the promise of public education will require us Winning for public education requires an effective offensive to stand together on election days. The March 2016 primary is and defensive strategy. AFT members must be actively engaged in approaching fast, and we should be laser-focused on ensuring the political process and partnering with their communities to put that our union members and our allies are registered to vote students first. So let’s organize, campaign, and vote!

Thousands more children benefit from First Book Texas AFT local unions continued their record-breaking distributions of free books to schoolchildren this summer and fall with events spearheaded by La Joya AFT and Pharr-San Juan-Alamo AFT. First Book—a nonprofit that acquires free books for children—partnered with AFT to go directly to school districts for book distributions across the country. More than 50,000 books were handed out at each event.

Above, Pharr-San Juan-Alamo AFT volunteers get ready for hundreds of parents and students who attended the event.

At left, La Joya students enjoy a new selection of books to take home. Setting the record straight on charter schools in Texas At a state Senate Education Committee hearing on December charters get from the state an amount, equal to average district 7, Texas AFT Legislative Counsel Patty Quinzi helped to set the funding, that actually exceeds what large public school districts record straight on some of the dubious claims made for charter in the same area receive in combined state and local funding. schools in Texas. Toenjes said Houston ISD, for example, last year received $5,460 Quinzi, noting an oft-cited claim that more than 100,000 while KIPP Houston charter schools received $6,265—an $805 applicants to attend charter schools are on waiting lists for lack of disadvantage per pupil for HISD. space, pointed out TEA data showing that in fact 108,000 charter The Senate committee’s study assignment from Lt. Gov. slots approved by the state have not been filled. Apparently a Dan Patrick focused on the needs of charter schools for facilities handful of charter schools with good reputations account for funding. But Quinzi stressed that traditional school districts face the waiting lists, while many charter operators struggle to fill a severe shortfall of facilities funding themselves, and charter their classrooms. This pattern makes sense, considering that schools do not deserve to be first in line for new funding when the vast majority of charter schools, in Texas and nationwide, overall school aid remains extremely inadequate. She said the state underperform when compared with traditional public schools. share of funding for school districts’ facilities has fallen by more Another witness, scholar Larry Toenjes, debunked the than two-thirds over the past 16 years, making it particularly oft-heard claim that charters receive $1,000 less per pupil than difficult to justify devoting new state facilities funding to charter traditional public school districts. Toenjes pointed out that operators without also addressing school districts’ needs.

WINTER 2016 Texas Teacher 5 ELECTION 2016

Th e March 1 primaries will be your fi rst opportunity in 2016 to back candidates who not only will support public education, but also will stand up to a harmful agenda that seeks to defund and privatize our schools. For a Texas AFT guide to the candidates and other election information, visit www.texasaft .org/election16. Texas AFT members also should be on the lookout on the local level for spring school board races and bond elections in their areas. Check with your local union or ballotpedia.org for local information.

Your Homework: Key issues to understand for the primary election

Funding public education will be blighted, with average income of In 2011 the Legislature cut per-pupil Texans declining signifi cantly over the Important Dates for formula funding by $4 billion and cut next 30 years. March 1 Primary Election discretionary grants to school districts by $1.4 billion. Since then, the Legislature has School fi nance: Early Voting: partially restored formula funding but left equitable funding February 16 to 26 average per-pupil funding below the level School funding in Texas remains reached before the 2011 budget cuts. profoundly inequitable from one school Last day to register to vote: February 1 Even before these deep cuts, changes district to the next, with available in school fi nance enacted since 2005 had resources still far too dependent on local Last day to apply for ballot by mail provided no more than a stopgap, not property wealth. Schools in property- (received, not postmarked): February 19 an answer to the long-term needs of our wealthy districts have tens of thousands of Primary Election: Tuesday, March 1 schools. Just to keep up with enrollment dollars more per classroom than property- Primary Runoffs: Tuesday, May 24 growth and rising costs of current poor districts to educate their students, at services requires roughly $1.5 billion each the same level of tax eff ort. Th is inequity Web sites for election information biennium. in funding is compounded by obsolete Texas AFT: www.texasaft.org/election16 Restoring the pre-recession funding formulas used to adjust funding to account State of Texas: www.votetexas.gov level of 2008 would require billions of for variations in per-student costs based on Ballotpedia: www.ballotpedia.org dollars more per biennium in additional special student needs (e.g., for low-income funding. If Texas fails to invest at least students, students with disabilities, English at that 2008 level on a sustained basis to Language Learners) and variations in the adequate services for high concentrations educate 5.2 million students in our public cost of education in diff erent regions of the of high-need students. schools (60 percent of them economically state. disadvantaged and in need of intensive At the same time, even some high- Private-school vouchers educational services), our state’s economy wealth districts are hard-pressed to deliver Private-school voucher legislation

6 Texas AFT www.texasaft.org would authorize the use of taxpayer dollars to send children to private and religious Our Agenda Our Opposition schools. Tuition tax credits accomplish • Fully fund public schools • Defund public schools the same goal by giving corporations tax • Fix school finance • Resist fixing school finance relief in return for their funding of private- school scholarships. • Fund universal pre-K • Limit pre-K funding Both proposals would undermine • Support neighborhood public • Greatly expand charter schools the ability of public schools to provide schools • Promote “charterization,” for a quality education for all children in • Increase oversight of charter turning public schools over to Texas. Both would drain a public-school schools charter operators funding system ranked among the lowest • Craft new accountability system • Fund private-school vouchers in the country and transfer taxpayer based on supportive resources • Continue misuse of testing for dollars from under-funded public schools instead of “test and punish” “accountability” and teacher to unaccountable private schools, which • Initiate “Community Schools” to evaluations do not serve all comers as public schools provide support for struggling • Abolish quality safeguards like must do. campuses class-size limits • Continue secure retirement • Convert pensions to unsecure Secure retirement for teachers benefits for school employees defined-contribution plans and other public employees with defined-benefit pensions • Oppose new funding for school Groups focused on a narrow • Make health care affordable employee health care ideological agenda are supporting • Increase teacher pay and • Water down teaching credential nationwide efforts to dismantle retirement professional standards requirements plans providing secure benefits for • Retain voluntary payroll • Abolish voluntary payroll public employees. In Texas, hedge-fund deduction for employee deduction for employee speculators and private-school-voucher organization dues organization dues proponents are campaigning to destroy traditional pension systems for our lowered again in others. in 2001, and 14 years later the combined teachers, firefighters, police, and other The pension fund has been kept in total remains frozen at $225 per month, state and local government employees. solid financial condition through these despite years of increases in premiums and In our state, public pension plans years by generally withholding benefit other health-care costs. As a result, the are supported by shared contributions increases retirees need to keep up with amount many employees pay for premiums from the employees and from the state or rising living costs and cutting benefits has almost quadrupled over that time, even local government employers. The Teacher already earned by currently working while benefits have been cut. In the face of Retirement System of Texas (TRS) fund employees. premium and out-of-pocket cost increases, and most other plans are in excellent In 2013, the Legislature again cut active school employees are moving toward financial condition, are responsibly and benefits for current and future active lower-benefit health-care plans or even professionally managed, and pay benefits employees but provided some balance dropping health insurance altogether. that are modest but secure. The most by giving about two-thirds of retirees the The state maintains a separate TRS- important factor in ensuring pension first permanent cost-of-living adjustment Care health program for retired school financial health is maintaining necessary since 2001 and by making a promise of employees. The state, active school contribution levels. sustained higher state contributions to the employees, and local school districts all The vast majority of public school TRS pension fund. contribute a portion of employee pay to employees and local public workers in help offset retirees’ premiums. Retirees pay Texas are not covered by Social Security. Affordable health care for substantial premiums and out-of-pocket Their only pension comes from the school employees and retirees costs out of their pension annuities, which public retirement system to which they Teachers and other school employees have remained largely flat and have lost contribute. working in Texas classrooms bear the more than 20 percent of their purchasing During most of the past 20 years, the responsibility of paying for their own power to inflation over the past dozen Legislature kept the state contribution rate health-insurance premiums with limited years. to the TRS pension fund at the minimum assistance from the state and employing In 2015, the Legislature provided required by the state constitution. In school districts. The state amount and the enough funding to allow this program to some recent years that contribution minimum school-district contribution for limp forward but did not address the was increased for some years only to be school-employee health insurance were set long term.

WINTER 2016 Texas Teacher 7 Questions to Ask Candidates

• Will you support increased funding for public education and measures to reduce inequities in state funding formulas for public education? • Will you support the use of the state’s Rainy Day Fund, projected to have more than $10 billion available for 2017-2018, to help supply the education funding our students needs? • Will you support phased, across-the-board increases in teacher pay, and will you support measures to ensure that future state- directed pay raises actually reach teachers and are not undercut or nullified by local salary reductions? The answer to all questions should be “YES.” • Will you support free, full-day public pre-K and kindergarten for all children? • Will you oppose deceptively labeled privatization proposals such as the parent trigger, home rule, and achievement districts? • Will you support legislation to promote the Community Schools model to help parents, educators, and community partners improve their neighborhood schools? • Will you oppose private-school vouchers, also known as “opportunity scholarships?” • Will you support a reduction in the classroom time spent on standardized testing and test preparation? • Will you support measures to ensure that standardized tests are used to help guide instruction and inform parents and communities, and not for high-stakes decisions regarding students, teachers, and schools—uses for which scores on standardized tests are not valid and reliable? • Will you support legislation to repeal the A-F ratings mandate and develop a better accountability and assessment system focused on identifying needs and marshaling support and resources for students at struggling campuses? • Will you support a more rigorous process for the initial approval of charter applications, plus stronger state oversight and enforcement of charter schools’ compliance with state quality standards, governance requirements, and financial accountability? • Will you support repeal of the recent legislation that authorizes school districts to convert some or all of their campuses to the equivalent of charter schools and that thereby enables them to nullify state Education Code safeguards for teachers, students, and parents? • Will you oppose efforts to weaken or dismantle state or local public pension systems—efforts such as converting secure, efficient defined-benefit plans, which guarantee a pension, into 401(k)-style defined-contribution plans, where each employee would bear all the risk for investment returns while being charged high administrative fees? And will you support maintaining the state contribution to TRS at least at the current rate? • Will you support significant increases in state contributions toward health insurance for active and retired school employees and funding mechanisms to enable those contributions to adjust for changes in health-care costs?

Testing and not fundamentally corrected, by the standardized testing prevalent in our accountability reform Legislature. Reducing the number of schools. HB 743, if enforced, would require The test-driven educational rating end-of-course exams that students must independent verification of the validity system in Texas, with its proliferation pass to graduate has not reduced the test and reliability of standardized tests. SB 149 of mandatory, standardized tests and obsession driven by the punitive use of encourages consideration of alternatives attached penalties, has forced our students, standardized testing under the State of to standardized tests—such as completing teachers, and schools to spend far too Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness college-level courses successfully—as much time on test preparation, practice (STAAR) rating system for districts and the basis for graduation eligibility. HB testing, and test administration—to the schools. 2804 has created a Texas Commission detriment of real instruction. The excessive However, several pieces of legislation on Next Generation Assessments and emphasis on standardized testing so passed in 2015 have opened the door to a Accountability to recommend new far has been only partially addressed, fundamental rethinking of the high-stakes systems of student assessment and public

8 Texas AFT www.texasaft.org Big numbers will help defeat big money! Grass-roots support of candidates and volunteering to help number of small donations can their campaigns are keys to securing electoral victories for outgun fewer donations from friends of public education. deep pockets. Visit www.texasaft. org and click on Membership > But unfortunately corporate interests promoting educational Join the 1,000 Club to pledge pseudo-reforms and efforts to privatize our schools are your support to COPE II. By join- dumping a lot of money behind candidates who espouse ing the 1,000 Club as a found- their agenda. ing member, you’ll receive a free T-shirt showing you are ready to stand up for change at the Texas Capitol! You can help fight back with your own donations, no matter how small, to the Texas AFT Committee on Political Educa- Texas AFT only can solicit from its members and their immediate family members for contributions to COPE II. (If you are unsure about eligibility, tion (COPE II), which supports candidates of all parties who give us a call.) For more information on COPE II, visit www.texasaft.org or support public education. Recent history has shown a large contact Ray McMurrey, Texas AFT secretary-treasurer, at 800-222-3827. school accountability. Meanwhile, the high-poverty schools, not to find a more quality while encouraging charter U.S. Congress in December 2015 passed effective way to stigmatize them and their proliferation. a new federal education law reversing communities. punitive, test-based federal mandates and Local “charterization” encouraging states to develop alternatives. Charter schools Recent legislation gives local school Charter schools (privately operated districts multiple options to achieve A-F school ratings but publicly funded schools) were charter-style exemption from state quality The 2015 Legislature narrowly passed originally conceived as laboratories standards and safeguards. These options a bill providing for simplistic A-F ratings for innovation and improvement of jeopardize state class-size limits, teachers’ for schools, but the A-F system will not educational practices. Texas AFT statutory contract protections, due-process be implemented until the 2017-18 school supported the state’s original experiment guarantees for students, parents, and year. That gives the next Legislature a with charter schools in 1995 on that basis. employees in the enforcement of student chance to reconsider and undo the A-F But the sad reality is that so-called “open discipline, and many other hard-won mandate, as other states disillusioned with enrollment” charter schools in Texas, with provisions of state law. this scheme have done. a handful of exemplary exceptions, have The A-F model is touted as a proven generally inferior academically Community Schools vs. transparency tool, but in reality it does not to traditional neighborhood schools, privatization schemes give parents the information they need to even though the charter operators are In recent legislative sessions interest understand what is going on at their child’s allowed to exclude students with discipline groups looking for ways to turn over school and would reinforce the misuse of problems and find various other ways to neighborhood schools to private operators standardized tests as the be-all, end-all of filter out students they don’t want (e.g., by have latched on to several mechanisms educational performance. The A-F system not offering adequate services for students to carry out their agenda. For example, has been used in other states as a trigger with disabilities or English Language the privatizers have pushed one such idea for issuance of private-school vouchers Learners, or by not offering free or deceptively called “parent trigger.” Another at taxpayer expense with minimal reduced-price lunches). Their governance example is the “home rule” model, which accountability. and financial accountability to taxpayers like “parent trigger” allows private interests Another lesson from other states is also leave much to be desired. Yet there to manipulate petition drives to trigger that low grades under the A-F scheme continues to be strong pressure from private control of public schools. Yet tend to correlate closely with high charter boosters for the proliferation of another pathway to private takeover is concentrations of low-income students— charter schools, including inferior online the “achievement district” scheme, under serving more as a gauge of socioeconomic “virtual” charters and corporate charter which a state education czar seizes control disadvantage than of school performance. chains, with little regard for educational of local schools and hands them over to The real issue is how to get needed quality or accountability. Recent legislation private operators. Proposals to advance resources and community supports into has done too little to improve charter all these privatization mechanisms were

WINTER 2016 Texas Teacher 9 defeated in the 2015 Legislature. In contrast to these “Trojan horse” versions of school reform, there is a proven model of school improvement that genuinely empowers parents, educators, and local communities to develop homegrown solutions to support student achievement at their neighborhood schools. Th is Community Schools model National Races is an “all hands on deck” approach that AFT has endorsed Hillary Clinton for president. You can fi nd more information on the pulls together parents, faculty and staff , endorsement as well as a breakdown of issues in the election at: and community partners in designing www.aft.org/election2016. and implementing their own plan for improving their neighborhood school, of lagging pay rates, districts routinely access to high-quality pre-kindergarten turning it into a community hub for assign roughly 50,000 educators outside and kindergarten programs. In 2011, coordinated educational, health, and social their fi eld, covering subjects they are not the Legislature actually eliminated $208 services for students and their families. properly prepared to teach. million per biennium for grants for full- Th e model has proven successful in Texas Instead of closing the teacher-pay day pre-kindergarten. Th e Legislature and nationwide, and it maintains local, defi cit, the Legislature in 2011 went in the since then has put back some of the democratic control of public schools. opposite direction, authorizing districts money for pre-K, but it is not dedicated Legislation to provide state support for to roll back previous state-mandated to full-day pre-K programs, which have community schools passed the Texas pay raises and reduce teacher pay. For been identifi ed as a highly eff ective way House and had strong support in the Texas any future state-directed pay raises to be to produce lasting gains in educational Senate in 2015. passed through to teachers as intended, achievement. Teacher pay this anti-rollback provision removed in 2011 must be restored. Voluntary deductions for dues Texas still lags $7,000 below the national average in teacher pay and In addition to federal and state $10,000 to $15,000 behind the pay level of Funding universal pre-K constitutional rights of association individuals with comparable credentials and kindergarten and redress, the Texas Education Code in other sectors within the state. In fact, Early-childhood education is one specifi es the right of educators to join an average teacher pay here recently ranked of the most powerful contributors to employee organization, to participate in 46th in the nation when measured against academic success for our schoolchildren. political aff airs, and to have organizational salaries for similar occupations within Th e state does provide funding to make fees and dues voluntarily deducted from the state (roughly 20 percent below pay pre-kindergarten and kindergarten their paychecks. In past legislative sessions, for jobs demanding similar levels of available for many students. But funding proposals have been off ered to restrict knowledge and skill). In large part because is still not suffi cient to guarantee universal these rights.

AFT issues groundbreaking report on racial equity AFT leaders and members have spent the past year having blunt, tough, uncomfortable, but courageous conversations about how to address the lingering effects of racism and inequity in our nation—especially related to black males. As a result of those conversations, the AFT on October 9 became the fi rst public sector union in modern history to issue a substantive, action-oriented report on achieving racial equity in America.

The report, “Reclaiming the Promise of Racial Equity: In Education, Economics and Our Crimi- nal Justice System,” provides a framework for the development of policy in national and state legislation, at the school board level and inside the AFT itself. Shelley Potter—the president of the San Antonio Alliance of Teachers and Support Personnel, our local affi liate for San Antonio ISD—served on the Racial Equity Task force that helped develop the report. You can view and download the report at www.texasaft.org/racialequity.

10 Texas AFT www.texasaft.org Schools should be safe havens where children can achieve their dreams

By Mary Cathryn Ricker The woman for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and AFT Executive Vice President suffered deep Deferred Action for Parents of Americans cuts and serious (DAPA) programs. We have created I became a teacher to make a injuries to her education forums and pre-screenings. We difference in people’s lives. And I’ve never face. Her attacker have helped more than 4,000 students and met another teacher who didn’t feel the sent a message of community members adjust their status same way. hate — one that is through DACA and citizenship clinics. This is why National Educators reinforced by the Leading up to National Educators Coming Out Day was so important to me venomous rhetoric Mary Cathryn Ricker Coming Out Day, many of our members and the teachers, paraprofessionals, early we hear from some signed a pledge to support undocumented childhood educators, and higher education presidential candidates and some in students. As educators, we believe that faculty and staff across the country who Congress that aims to deport millions of all schools should be safe havens where I represent — and the millions of students immigrants. children can dream their dreams and we serve. We are “coming out” in support Either all immigration stories have achieve them, and it is our job to help of undocumented students. We are value and contribute to the strength of them get there. And as educators, we stepping forward to say enough with the America, or none of them do. believe that it is up to us to help every xenophobic rhetoric that drives fear in the Right now, there are millions of child feel safe, protected and loved . hearts and minds of our most vulnerable undocumented youth across the country Our union’s work with community on students. We are stepping forward to stuck in legal purgatory as those in DACA and DAPA is just one piece of our combat the vitriol too often heard in Congress and the courts debate their overall work to teach our students that if the debate on immigration with a new official status. As educators, we teach you came to this country seeking a better immigration story — one that says: Every these children every day. We worry about life, it doesn’t matter where you came from child has a place in our public schools, our whether they — and their parents and or how you got here. Our nation must still classrooms and our hearts. families — will be here tomorrow. And be a nation that welcomes immigrants. Our national story is spun on the whether they will find the resources and Those who arrived at our shores 100 years tales of Ellis Island, the melting pot and support they need to build a better future ago at Ellis Island, or two weeks ago in El the Horatio Alger myth. However, there in America. Paso, Texas, are all part of the fabric that is one immigration story told without AFT launched “Reclaiming the makes this nation strong. much nostalgia — one that is not only Promise of the American DREAM,” an You can find the full version of this wrong but dangerous. That is the story initiative that brings educators, parents column—which was published on National of the millions of hard-working, aspiring and students together to work on the Coming Out Day, November 12—at Americans who are an economic backbone implementation of the Deferred Action www.bit.ly/ricker_immigration. of this country, yet are vulnerable to abuse and exploitation because of their undocumented status. It is the story of the DREAMers — who, by no fault of their own, are in this country undocumented. When we lift up one immigration story and not the other, we send the message that some immigrants are more welcome than others. Children watch us, and they learn from us. If we communicate to them — through our words or actions — that one immigration story is good while another is bad, they will believe us. Take the recent horrific attack in a Maria Dominguez—an Education Austin member and bilingual teacher at Rodriguez Coon Rapids, Minnesota, restaurant. A Elementary in Austin ISD—speaks at a recent clinic sponsored by the union to educate woman, who immigrated to the United and assist parents and students with Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals and Deferred States from Kenya, was eating dinner with Action for Parents of Americans. Education Austin has taken a leading role in the her family when she was brutally assaulted community on immigration issues and also sponsored a workshop to assist applicants for U.S. citizenship. Rodriguez grew up as an undocumented immigrant. by another diner for speaking Swahili.

WINTER 2016 Texas Teacher 11 Locals in Action Corpus Christi AFT wins majority of posts in consultation election

Corpus Christi AFT won nine of 12 seats in December to serve on an elected consultation committee for Corpus Christi ISD. Some Texas school districts use a system that allows an election by school employees for of one organization to represent them in negotiations with district official over pay and workplace issues. Corpus Christi ISD’s system allows for direct representation of specific categories of employees on the committee. Corpus Christi AFT did extensive outreach to help elect nine of its members to the committee and continue its majority Building Bridges presence in the process. Texas AFT leaders meet with Mexican teacher union leadership from the Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación (SNTE) at Houston support personnel union weighs in the “Building Bridges, Not Walls” summit in Houston on November 1 to discuss collaboration between the two organizations on educational on school bus seat belts and labor issues.

Efforts by the Houston Educational Support Personnel AFT and its Mexican counterpart SNTE also forged an agreement that (HESP) union—which represents bus drivers and other support allows members from both unions to access each other’s member ben- personnel in Houston ISD—have led the district to agree to efits for entertainment and travel. AFT members can visit sntebeneficios. purchase only school buses with three-point harness seat belts. org.mx and register online to access discounts for Mexican travel and entertainment. The union had pushed for the district to shift to the more secure seat belts after a September 15 school bus crash that killed Pictured from top left are Greg Barrera (La Joya AFT president), Juan Diaz de la Torre (SNTE president), Louis Malfaro (Texas AFT president); and from bottom left, Nancy Vera (Corpus Christi AFT president), Randi Weingarten (AFT president), Montserrat Garibay (Education Austin vice president), Zeph Capo (Houston Federation of Teachers president) and Ray McMurrey (Texas AFT secretary-treasurer).

Administration (NHTSA) provided new guidance for school districts recommending the use of three-point seat belts, and shortly after Houston ISD officials announced that they would be requiring them on all new bus purchases. Current state law does require districts to establish a policy mandating the use of seat belts on school buses that are equipped HESP President Wretha Thomas speaks to reporters at a news confer- with them (Texas Education Code Section 34.013). The same ence urging the use of three-point seat belt harnesses on school buses statute authorizes school districts to establish discipline policies to in Houston ISD. enforce seat belt use. two students and injured two others and the driver. The accident But not all school buses are required to have seat belts. Under reportedly occurred when another vehicle veered into a Houston another statute (Texas Transportation Code Section 547.701, ISD school bus on an elevated roadway and caused it to plunge Subsections (e ) and (f)), school buses purchased since September through a guardrail to the ground below. The bus was equipped 2010 are required to have three-point seat belts only if the state with lap belts, but it is still not known whether the students who provides the funding for them. died were using them. In 2009, the Texas Legislature dedicated $10 million for HESP held a press conference after the accident calling for grants to districts to purchase school buses with seat belts. the three-point harness seat belts and for the district to do a However, the Houston Chronicle reported that only $417,000 had better job of ensuring students used seat belts properly, and union gone to that purpose. Budget cuts in 2011 shrank the funding leaders later met with district officials to press the issue. to $2.1 million, and further transfers of money left the fund In November, the National Highway Traffic Safety depleted.

12 Texas AFT www.texasaft.org The Chronicle reported that it would cost Houston ISD $19 million to equip its entire fleet of 1,100 buses with three-point seat belts and that only 90 buses have three-point belts now, with some 420 equipped with lap belts. NHTSA officials noted that they would be seeking input from state officials across the nation on how to better fund seat belt acquisition and whether federal regulations should be changed to mandate them on school buses.

El Paso union spurs Community Schools program El Paso AFT is making headway with El Paso ISD on implementing a Community Schools program, which will provide a variety of social services—such as food, housing and Building for the Future employment assistance for families—in addition to academic La Joya AFT members celebrated a ribbon-cutting in December for their new support. union hall. The local built the building to provide offices and meeting space for its members and the education community. El Paso ISD made the announcement in January that it will work with the United Way and other government and nonprofit agencies to provide the services at three schools—Hart Elementary, Guillen Middle School, and Bowie High School. El Paso AFT President Ross Moore said the union had seen the success of Community Schools in Austin ISD and across the country and decided it was the best way to address all the challenges students face. “This is based on the idea that if a student’s cold, scared, hungry, has an unstable home environment, doesn’t know where they’re going to be spending the night, they can’t learn,” Moore said. Moore and district administrators visited Austin ISD schools to study Community Schools and met with the key nonprofit that helped implement the model there, Austin Voices for Education other districts statewide, with Texas AFT locals in the vanguard. and Youth. Legislation to promote the Community Schools model passed “This is the kind of thing El Paso needs,” Moore said. “This is the Texas House and had strong support in the state Senate in the the kind of thing that can turn around some of our schools that 2015 regular session. Passage of the federal legislation and the have the high turnover rates of students, have the high mobility burgeoning Community Schools initiatives at the local level will rates, that have the English language issues.” lend renewed energy to efforts in the legislature next session. El Paso ISD spokesperson Melissa Martinez told the local TV You can follow all the news on Community Schools at www. station, KFOX 14, that a partnership with United Way and other texasaft.org/communityschools. agencies will bring their services directly to the students and their Scholarship opportunity for high school families. “Really it’s just an opportunity for us to bring it into one students in Texas AFL-CIO households centralized location,” she said. “The principals have all been very excited about it.” Are you a member of a Texas AFT local union that’s affiliated One of the many positive features of the new federal law on with a Central Labor Council? (Check with your local Texas AFT elementary and secondary education, the Every Student Succeeds union if you are unsure.) If so, your high school senior is eligible Act, is its inclusion of the Community Schools program in to apply for a $1,000 college scholarship through the Texas AFL- Title IV under the heading of “Community Support for School CIO. Success.” The measure’s principal author, Rep. Steny Hoyer In recent years the program has been able to pay (D-Maryland), noted the legislation will encourage the expansion approximately 30 scholarships each year. Central Labor Councils of the full-service Community Schools model for the delivery of evaluate applicants based on academic records, extracurricular wraparound services for low-income families. activities, financial need, and the results of a written test on basic Momentum for community schools is strong in Texas and labor issues (background materials provided). If you know of a across the nation. Successful implementation of this model at high school senior in a union family in Texas, please encourage campuses in Austin ISD, strongly supported by our Education him or her to apply at www.texasaflcio.org. Postmark deadline for Austin affiliate, has been the catalyst for initiation of efforts in applications is Monday, February 1, 2016.

WINTER 2016 Texas Teacher 13 Texas AFT NON-PROFIT ORG. 3000 South IH 35, Suite 175 U.S. POSTAGE Austin, Texas 78704 PAID AUSTIN, TEXAS PERMIT NO. 2917

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