Another Texas Enron
Thanks to the Texas Public School’s “Teach to Cheat” and “Pretend to Pass” policies, we have another Texas scandal on Enron’s scale.
A May 18, 2005 editorial in the Austin American-Statesman revealed that a full 50% of the freshmen entering state colleges require remediation in math, reading, or writing.
In the words of The Statesman, this statistic is:
“A harsh condemnation of public education in Texas”
Texas Educrats can’t use their usual excuses. These are not underprivileged children. These are not inner-city children. These are all children. They got their ticket punched, received a Texas High School Diploma, and departed on a train to nowhere.
Again, as revealed by the Austin American Statesman:
Fifty Percent of Our Best Can’t Read, Write or Compute.
The techniques used to educate our children seemed to work wonders for a while. Unfortunately for Texas Educrats, once our children leave Texas Public Schools, they can no longer fudge, obfuscate, and lie.
Some of the innovative educational strategies that brought us to this sad state of affairs include:
Teach To Cheat
When Texas students can’t pass a test, Educrats simply show them how to cheat. No muss, no fuss, everyone gets a raise and goes home on time.
Pretend To Pass
If cheating at the school level isn’t enough to get test scores out of the dumper, Texas Educrats have other creative ways to pretend our children are learning. For example, Shirley Neeley’s Texas Education Agency immediately raised the number of Texas public schools achieving Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) as required by No Child Left Behind (NCLB) from about 50% to over 90%. Building on the Texas Public Schools “Teach To Cheat” strategy, she added her own twist. Thanks to Dr. Neeley, we also “Pretend To Pass”.
Then, it all came crashing down. Texas High School Graduates left the wild, wacky, unaccountable world of Texas Public Schools and walked into reality. They quickly learned that half of them were ill-prepared for the challenges ahead. It was a rude awakening. Denying students and their families competent Educators exacted a steep price from children who believed their future was bright.
The arrogance of Texas Educrats is producing some of America’s least capable graduates. Thanks to Texas Educrats, our best and our brightest aren’t. The pain, the suffering, and the lies weigh heavily on Texas families victimized by our public school system. Texas families have done their job. They’ve scrimped, saved, and sacrificed to send their children to college, only to learn their children are out of their depth. They bet on Texas Public Schools and lost.
Now their kids are mired in a remedial program that makes earning a college degree harder. This excerpt from “The Condition of Education 2004,” published by the National Center for Education Statistics, doesn’t bode well for these Texas families.
“Despite assistance offered through remediation, students enrolled in remediation are less likely to earn a degree or certificate.”
Wouldn’t it be nice to have been told the truth? If competent educators had served these ambitious students, they would have recognized their deficiencies and taken steps to improve. It was not to be. Either through indifference or inability, Texas Educrats damned these families to a difficult, precarious, and arduous path.
Objective results show that 50% of our best require remediation. From this, we can infer that at least 50% of Texas High Schools are in a state of despair, disrepair, and disrepute.
It doesn’t have to be this way.
Half of Texas Public Schools are doing a good job. Fifty percent of our college-bound children walked out of their Texas public high school and soared into the university of their choice. They’re making the grade, achieving their dreams, living large, and singing the praises of the quality Education they received at their Texas Public, private, or Parochial School.
We need to build on these successes in order to improve Texas education. That means all children must be able to choose the location and the competent educator who will provide them with a quality education. That means school choice.
Do not dismiss this. This IS worse than Enron. We’ll handle it the same way. We’ll fix Texas public schools the same way we fixed Enron. Look around: Enron and the entities that helped perpetuate its fraud are gone. Texans didn’t wait for the government to decide. We did it ourselves. Texans who refused to do business with Enron helped precipitate its demise. That’s exactly what needs to happen with failing Texas public schools.
Right now, that’s impossible.
The Texas Educrats inflicting this systemic failure on your children just keep going and going and going. They remain 
unmoved by your children’s plight. No matter what happens, they know they’ll continue to drink deeply from Austin’s massive mammary. They’re never forced to face the people they’ve hurt.
What’s the solution?
Empower parents with school choice so they may deliver their children to the 50% of Texas educators who know how to teach. Whether these caring educators work in a Public, private, or Parochial school doesn’t matter. What matters is our children and maximizing their potential.
Don’t Have Children?
You’re not off the hook. To protect your future and Texas’s future, join us. Failed Texas Educrats are costing you billions and driving Texas into the tank.
Make your voice heard for Texas children. Contact your State Senator, State Representative, Governor, Lt. Governor, and State School Board of Education Representative. Ask them to say YES to education, YES to achievement, YES to Texas Children, and YES to school choice.
To locate your Texas State Representative: Click here
