This diary is part of a 24-hour blograiser for our Texas State Board of Education Candidates, Judy Jennings and Rebecca Bell-Metereau.
Before I worked full-time on campaigns, I taught undergraduates at the University of Texas as part of my PhD studies. I had attended an excellent public school system in New Jersey, one that worked hard to prepare me for college and career options. So to be confronted with many students that were talented enough on a local level to enroll in their state’s flagship public instutition, students that were mostly in the top 5% or 10% of their graduating class, yet were utterly unprepared to handle the most basic academic pursuits was shocking. Students who were so unprepared by their high schools that the task of bringing them up to speed—enabling them to achieve their full intellectual potential—seemed at best a herculean effort that a Teaching Assistant with a full course load and 60 students a semester could hardly take on.
During the three years that I taught and observed this, I noticed that it cut across racial, regional, and socio-economic lines. The fact is, the public schools in Texas simply were not preparing enough of my students for college, where they could maximize their education and really allow their talents and interests to flourish.
I don’t blame the teachers, who do the best they can with limited resources and a Republican-majority Legislature that emphasizes teaching to high-stakes testing over a qualitative education. I don’t blame the parents, many of whom are struggling to make ends meet and are actually fully dependent on public schools to give their kids an education. Above all, I don’t blame the students. I feel immense empathy for students who want so hard to succeed, yet have been given so few tools with which to do it.
Texas students they’re given politicized textbooks that call evolution into question. Their schools are forbidden to spend state money on sex education books that contain the word "condom." Why? That’s how the State Board of Education wants it. They weaken science standards even as professors lament that Texas kids are woefully unprepared to major in biology or engineering. They push to remove Cesar Chavez and Thurgood Marshall from the history books in a state that is already majority minority residents. They take out Thomas Jefferson, then put him back, as long as we don’t talk about the Enlightenment, and instead teach Calvinism.
It’s my experiences in excellent public schools and teaching the output of our Texas education system that has made me such a strong supporter of our Democratic State Board of Education candidates. Judy Jennings and Rebecca Bell-Metereau are committed to letting teachers and experts set the curriculum, and taking politics out of the classroom. They’re really great candidates, and Texans would be well-served to have them making rational decisions about education that benefit our school children.
You’ve already heard from Rebecca Bell-Metereau earlier today, and will hear more from Judy Jennings tomorrow. In the meantime, I encourage you to donate if you can, and tell anyone you know in Central Texas to please cast a vote for sanity on the State Board of Education, and vote for Judy or Rebecca.
One final note: I may not be from Texas, but it burns me up just the same to hear folks tarring all Texans with the same broad brush of ignorance represented by the likes of the current State Board of Education. We’re working really hard to turn things around, so I’m hoping our progressive friends and allies can stand with us in this fight to make sure that all Texas kids get the quality education they deserve.