No Formula for Learning: Perry's '65 percent rule' comes up short

Dallas Morning News | Editorials:

“For the last five months, Gov. Rick Perry has had three words when it comes to improving our schools: 65 percent rule. The governor's executive order that classroom expenses make up 65 percent of the total school spending sounds catchy if not reasonable – until you read the fine print. For starters, let's just all agree that there is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to improving schools. Texas is made up of more than 1,000 school districts, each with diverse student populations who have varying needs. Mr. Perry's initial 65 percent plan included, for example, the costs of field trips and salaries for football coaches, but left out resources vital to a productive learning environment, such as libraries, computer labs, counselors and teacher training.”

Ed Cognoski responds:

Governor Perry's plan is flawed. It's simplistic. It's overreaching. It should be scrapped.

What sounds good on paper in Austin often doesn't work in Amarillo or Corpus Christi or Mexia or Marfa. The same reasons why it's not a good idea for Washington to dictate educational standards to Texas apply to the state/local situation as well. Depending on the needs of the individual school district, often even the individual school, spending on counselors, librarians, and teacher training may be critical to success. Capping such spending at any artificial limit ties the hands of local school administrators, saying Austin knows better what the students in each school need than the teachers, administrators and school boards of that district do. It's simply doesn't work that way.

The example of football coaches' field trips being considered a legitimate classroom expense but not librarians' salaries is a good example of a part of this regulation that doesn't make sense anywhere. Texas may be a football state and Governor Perry may be an ex-cheerleader, but give local districts the authority to decide for themselves whether the next marginal dollar of property tax they raise in their community should be spent on a coach's field trip or another librarian.

The governor holds out the false hope that if only wasteful school districts redirected money to classrooms instead of administration, all would be well. But there are school districts that already comply with the '65 percent rule.' They are already at the state-mandated property tax cap. They are finding expenses rising faster than revenues. The governor's '65 percent rule' distracts the public's attention from the fact that the legislature refuses to put needed money into education. That may be the real purpose it serves.