Failed bill on education in Texas - Term Paper Example

?Failed bill on education in Texas Failed bill on education in Texas Texas is a highly populated in the US. It is ranked second populous and the second largest of the fifty States in North America. The mission of Texas Education Agency is to provide leadership, resources and guidance to help schools meet educational needs of all the students. The Texas education bills passed in the recently were on the expected economic constraints. The recent global economic shortfalls too have affected governance and political engagements in policymaking and legislation. A bill to cut expenses on education in Texas faced rejection from the teachers since it would reduce their salaries and they would be laid off without compensation. In addition, the appropriation bill had a shortfall in students allocation per head this affected the number of entries of new students and the it was seen as if it would compromise on output by teachers (Collegedegrees.com, 2011). Apart from that the political differences also affected the bills since different positions were taken not to give more money to the financially derailed schools and hoping for organizations to chip in and sponsor some programs. Whilst most legislators were interested in maintaining their strength in the house, the bills were falling back. Legislation is all polices and the game of politics is never a clan game but various personal interests are vested upon at the expense of the commoners, hence, you find that implementations of bills don’t meet the threshold so as to bring actual enactment required since the politicians played their cards close to their chests. The bill that failed to pass in Texas was that which could allow concealed weapons on campuses. Proponents of the bill argued that responsible armed students can make campuses safer than before and assist in preventing shootings like the one witnessed in Virginia Tech in 2007. It had a lot of support from the public, the governor, eighty eight co- sponsors, two thirds of the senate and one hundred and fifty members from the house of representatives, the public were sure it will become a law but the bill faced several procedural roadblocks and could not reach the governor’s desk and be passed. In addition, those who proposed the bill argued that this bill was based on matters of self-defense in cases where harmless students are attacked. On the other hand, opponents of the bill argued that if guns were allowed on campus, it could lead to increased violence (Austin, 2011). The school voucher bill was viewed as one that will take away money from the public schools and that this would work contrary to their favor as much as the bill gave parents a choice and liberty for their children to enjoy private schools at the expense of taxpayer’s money. The charter bill also did favor the military and treat children of the rich families as very special. Citizens must be treated equally without favor or prejudice. In addition, level of abilities must be known and those of less ability should be given better terms while enjoying their liberty of choice. Some bills would give parents unwarranted powers, for example, to close down a low performing school. This was viewed as a self-gun shot in the leg since parents would peck their fingers and over demand. Parents cannot be trusted with some powers, given to them, this would bring undue unrest and hatred amongst the students and teachers as scenarios of students accusing the teachers would be witnessed. This bill was ill motivated and was not guaranteed to succeed for the sake of teacher-parent relationship and coexistence between the teachers and students (Austin, 2011). One of the failed bills was to favor charter schools in which they would be allowed to participate in extracurricular activities at traditional schools. The approach to win it was tactful but it failed since it was acquired that this would be more work for the public schools as those in charter schools made their choice at the expense of co curricular activities. The limited athletic chances in the public teams would be up for grabs and this was unfair and would add working load to the schools considering their constrained budgets. Another aspect that might have led to some bills not sailing through was the introduction of the bills. Whereby mostly were introduced by republicans led by Senator Rodgers who was their leader in 2011. Despite this, the legislators were busy arm twisting and struggling for power at the expense of luring others to pass the bills. More so, the house leaders were rallying against Governor Nathan Deal’s plot to stop HOPE program from giving money to any student from Georgia who scored a B in average. Yet this move was not supported at the senate level though it sailed through in the house with enormous support from both ends. The new curriculum also faced criticism because many of the suggestions made by the teachers and other professionals were thwarted by the lower house. This was highly criticized by Governor Rick Perry who was for a new version of the new curriculum bill. He claimed the bill ought to have addressed issues on education standards, which the board did not consider(Funkhouser, 2008). Another set back to the education bills in Texas was the increase of tuition fees, this was argued as a risk to increase expenses to the parents and leading to more students dropping out. However, the statistics given to the house were not accurate which further raised dusts, as they were not acceptable within the significance levels and gave wrong impressions. The bill on technology, science, mathematics and engineering also faced challenge from the democrats due to the expenses involved in technological advancement (Tolo, 2009). However, other stakeholders supported the bill and implementation is what counts despite the fact that it hinted on sharing costs so as many groups would be able to participate. In deeper check, the bill did not tackle well the mathematics and science partnership program that was there before. In the end, of the STEM projects failed to get funding, hence, the bill implementation is questionable to date. There was lack of special sessions for the education bills since they could not be hurriedly passed as they needed tracking and continued analysis so that changes that affected the system would be noted. At the end of a regular session, everything is tabled as the legislators go for recess. An amendment from Senator Florence Shapiro, which required the Texas education agency to look at the appropriate age of joining school to increase success rate, had equal challenge as well (Kiley, 2011). This meant the ball was in the district commissioners’ court to enroll the children despite the cost per head not considering allocations yet the rate of absorption must be proportional to the financial allocation One major setback to the Texas bills is the differences between the house bills and the senate bills on the same subject or element like education with each county having different interest and point of view while the house having a states view. This is further seen amongst the administrators and the teachers. They too have different stands and this is one major setback as they are the implementation level. In addition, teachers do not want changes that directly attack or mock their profession such as the bill on schools cost cut, which would reduce their salaries and allow unpaid send off. This would make teachers leave their field for other better paying professions. In conclusion, many education bills have failed to pass in Texas due to conflicting views among legislators. Such bill includes; the bill that could allow students on campus to conceal weapons, sex education bill to bar children from accessing information on sex among others. Perhaps in future more rational reasoning by legislators from Texas will overcome the hype propagated by concealed carry lobby. The fact that there was shooting in Virginia Tech does not mean that there is violence on Campuses. Cutting in budget has affected sensitive bills such as the school voucher bill to sail through and things may turn out ugly as it can result to poor academics, poor instruction and over-crowding. References Austin. (2011).Texas poised to pass bill allowing guns on campus. Retrieved March 19, 2012 From http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2011-02-20-texas-guns_N.htm Collegedegrees.com. Bill passes to allow guns on Texas Campuses. Retrieved March 19, 2012 from http://www.collegedegrees.com/blog/2011/05/13/bill-passes-to-allow-concealed- handguns-on-texas-campuses/ Kiley, K. (2011). Dodging the Bullet. Retrieved March 19, 2012 from http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2011/06/01/texas_legislature_fails_to_pass_law_all owing_concealed_weapons_on_campus Funkhouser, C. (2008). Education in Texas: Policies, Practices, and Perspectives. New York: Kindle Books. Tolo, K. (2009). The Civic Education of American Youth: From State Policies to School District Practices. Texas: University of Texas. Read More