By Marla Crockett, KERA Reporter
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kera/local-kera-489736.mp3
Texas schools under pressure to be more financially accountable
Dallas, TX –
Marla Crockett, KERA 90.1 Reporter: Money was very much on the minds of education administrators in Dallas last month at the Texas Association of School Boards convention. To a person, they said the problem is the state's funding of public schools, not how schools spend the money. Ken Thompson is President of the board in Pflugerville in Central Texas:
Kenneth Thompson, President of the Pflugerville School Board: Collectively, they have let us down. We're the guys on the front lines, and I think there should be more accountability.
Crockett: When asked about their own accountability, convention-goers repeatedly stated two themes: The public trusts them with their money. And very few people ever show up at public meetings to learn about their district's budget. But, according to John Rouse, the superintendent of Comfort ISD in the Hill Country, questions do come up:
John Comfort, Superintendent of Comfort ISD: Taxpayers want to know that money is going for instruction instead of extra curricular activities or administrative salaries and administrative costs.
Crockett: Lawmakers wanted a similar assurance last session. So included in the House's failed bill to overhaul school finance was a section on financial accountability, which called on districts to clarify their budget reporting. Arlington Republican Kent Grusendorf chaired the House Education Committee:
Kent Grusendorf, Arlington State Representative: I think there's a lot of bundling of expenditures. We see the big number, but we don't see the details.
Crockett: Especially, he says, with the largest category in any district's budget personnel.
Grusendorf: If you bundle all professional employees in one category, you don't really know what teachers are making. You have to break out a subcategory of teachers. If you look at that and every element of the financial equation, you can see how that money's actually being spent.
Crockett: Grusendorf and others complain that it's hard to get a true picture of spending at the campus level in many districts. Shirley Neeley, the State Commissioner of Education, doesn't totally agree. On the whole, she believes districts are accountable. While serving as superintendent of Galena Park, Neeley says she loved nothing more than showing taxpayers where their money was going:
Shirley Neeley, State Education Commissioner: You can break it down, you can show how much is going for fuel, for buses, salaries, all the supplies, the athletic program, fine arts. Every program in public schools has a function and a code, that's how we break it out.
Crockett: Neeley heads the Texas Education Agency, which requires a lot of financial data from districts and their individual schools that goes up on the TEA's web site. But Neeley acknowledges the legislature's dissatisfaction with academic results, so she's heading up 2 task forces to help carry out Governor Perry's recent executive order that within 4 years, 65% of all district spending should go to the classroom. She confirms that non-classroom, administrative costs have crept up:
Neeley: Some of that is parallel with the growth in enrollment. This state enrolls 85-thousand to a hundred thousand new children, new students every year. But as growth comes in, you may add more administrators, but you're also adding more custodians, more maintenance, more security, more teachers, more nurses. I think it's all within a scale.
Crockett: The state doesn't have a required administrator to student ratio; that's left up to individual districts. But Tim Tauer, managing partner of Benchmark Educational Resource Group near Houston, isn't too concerned about growing administrative costs:
Tim Tauer, Managing Partner of Benchmark Educational Resource Group: You could roll that back to where it was and still only affect instruction by 1 per cent.
Crockett: Tauer's company consults with Texas school districts on how to get the most bang for the buck and improve academic performance, including higher test scores and graduation rates. He starts with a district's demographics, since that impacts their success the most.
Tauer: So using statistical analysis we factor out those effects and level the playing field so districts that don't enjoy favorable demographics can compare themselves against the more affluent districts and evaluate how effectively they're performing.
Crockett: Relating school spending to results is a relatively new discipline, and Tauer says he could only do this work in Texas, which has amassed more financial data on districts than any other state. Using software to analyze the 200 largest districts, he's found some in Texas that spend more and achieve less than expected and others that spend less and achieve more. The latter group gets on his best practices list, and in North Texas it includes McKinney, Allen, Hurst-Euless Bedford, and Richardson:
Students reciting the Pledge of Allegiance
Crockett: There are 35-thousand students in the Richardson district, which has seen a dramatic demographic shift.
Tony Harkleroad, Assistant Superintendent for Finance and Support Services, RISD: We're over 40% economically disadvantaged and have about 20-25% limited English proficiency.
Patty Kieker, Deputy Superintendent for Resources and Instruction, RISD: Over 90 languages and dialects are spoken in the district. What it's meant to us is that we've got to find different strategies to reach diverse learners.
Crockett: Tony Harkleroad, Assistant Superintendent for Finance, and Patty Kieker, Deputy Superintendent for Instruction in Richardson, say the district has had to weather these changes while cutting central staff and paying out millions 45 million this year to poorer districts under the Robin Hood school finance system. Richardson spends $5200 per pupil, with more than 63% of the money going into the classroom. Its graduation rate is eight points higher than the state average, and the district's overall rating from the TEA is Acceptable. While more efficiency and better performance are still goals, Kieker says what's helped Richardson do well is strong research:
Kieker: We look at our data to determine where the kids are doing well and what staff development we need to offer. For example, this year we knew we needed to change our elementary reading program.
Crockett: That switch cost the district millions of dollars, Harkleroad says.
Harkelroad: But academics has to drive the boat. It has to be the priority. There are those who say you just want more money with no strings, but I'd disagree with that.
Crockett: Harkleroad and Kieker also praise Richardson's board and community for their strong educational values and support. They've insisted on keeping smaller neighborhood schools, even though they're more expensive to operate, and extra curricular activities, which many districts have felt compelled to cut. Patty Kieker:
Kieker: Fine arts are important to our community, athletics are important. Just opportunities for kids to find their niche and develop experiences they'll benefit from and enjoy in later life.
Crockett: Tim Tauer says research confirms that extra-curricular dollars are well-spent. He's also convinced that when districts like Richardson do more on less, the big difference is leadership:
Tauer: Most organizations that fail usually do so not because they set their goals too high and miss but because they set them too low and achieve. Districts tend to confuse efficiency with effectiveness. They become more concerned about doing a job right than whether it's even the right job.
Crockett: Tauer says many administrators' decisions about school spending are based more on intuition than cold facts, but given the climate in Austin, districts will face continued pressure to link money with outcomes. Educators acknowledge the trend, but add a word of warning that every district is different and that one size shouldn't fit all. For KERA 90.1 I'm Marla Crockett.
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