Education cuts carry big costs

January 19, 2012

Imagine your future depends on a team of doctors. They are committed to your success, but the number of doctors shrinks as more and more patients come through the door. Not only that, but the nurses they rely on, the technicians who keep the equipment running smoothly, and specialists who treat rare conditions are now usually absent, splitting their time between multiple hospitals.

Since the Legislature chose to slash education funding, this is the kind of situation our state's children now face. To build a strong economy and create jobs, we must educate our children effectively, but schools have been forced to stuff more kids into classrooms. This year nearly 7,000 elementary school classrooms across Texas busted the state's standard 22-student class size limit. In middle and high school, where there is no mandated cap, some students now find that they are crowded into classrooms with 40 other children competing for the teacher's attention. The increase in both the state's academic expectations and the proportion of students from disadvantaged families compounds the challenge.

I asked Tricia Najera, a kindergarten teacher at Blattman Elementary in Northside ISD, what this looks like in her classroom. “When you have 23 kids on the carpet for a lesson you try to meet the needs of the kids the best you can,” she said. “But every child wants to ask a question and tell you something, or needs a shoe tied, or was poking another student. I'm not able to give them as much attention as they'd like.”

For every additional student, she has to spend more time performing assessments, managing the classroom, communicating with parents, and preparing report cards. The result, besides exhaustion, is less time teaching or preparing lesson plans. A bigger class also means it's harder to simultaneously challenge the advanced kids, help the struggling kids, and teach everyone in between. Since special education positions were cut, it's even tougher.

In other professions you may receive help right away when your computer won't cooperate, but Blattman teachers have no such luck after the school was forced to cut back the tech support specialist's schedule. Now that the library assistant is gone, Najera also has to pitch in more in the library, too.

Najera concluded our conversation in a matter-of-fact tone, “Teachers' morale is down. We feel like the Legislature let us down. The kids are our future.”

She's right that our state's leadership failed to put children first this year, but I remain hopeful about the future. Like Najera, dedicated teachers are staying late every evening and working on the weekends to get the job done. Volunteers across San Antonio are signing up to be second-grade reading tutors and middle-school mentors. Conservative legislators say it's time for an honest conversation with the public about how we are going to pay for our state's growing needs. Parents are organizing through events like the Save Texas Schools conference in San Antonio on Feb. 3-4. If teachers, parents, volunteers, and students can find a way to get us through the next two years, and voters elect legislators committed to public education, then we can create an educated workforce and build a strong economy in Texas.

Rep. Mike Villarreal is a San Antonio Democrat.