House Bill 2: Votes for Gutting Education Standards and for Privatization Undermine Neighborhood Schools
March 9, 2005
TFN President Kathy Miller responded to votes by legislators today narrowly rejecting amendments to House Bill 2 that would have turned back efforts to gut quality education standards and to privatize hundreds of struggling public schools. House Bill 2 would overhaul the way the state pays for and runs its schools. The amendments by Rep. Carter Casteel, R-New Braunfels, and Rep. Garnet Coleman, D-Houston, failed by just two votes each.
“Many legislators essentially admitted today that the standards and accountability they’ve been touting all session don’t matter. The reality is that they are gutting the very standards like small class sizes, certified teachers and early reading intervention that made exemplary schools and their students successful in the first place.
After tossing aside these proven standards, legislators also voted to empower the state education commissioner to turn struggling schools over to failing companies like Edison Schools, Inc. These private, for-profit companies have failed students across the country while draining precious tax dollars from neighborhood schools to line the pockets of investors.
These reckless measures are not what Texas parents want for their kids. Our state’s senators should correct the mistakes made today by the House of Representatives when they take up this issue.”
