Why Me .... Why Now ....??

Many people here at school are very surprised by my decision to quit at the end of this year. And when I tell them why .... they all say ... "But that legislation hasn't passed yet!" or "That is just a rumor. It won't ever happen."

Well I am here to tell you that as long as Kent Grusendorf is in charge of the education committee in the Texas House .... my job, and education in general, will be threatened. And I am tired of being threatened.

And .... heck .... when he does finally go away .... there is always another politician who thinks he or she knows how to fix education waiting to replace him.

Besides .... many of those "threats" do actually become law .... usually attached to some bill that we need .... slid in under the cover of something beneficial. Slid in under the cover of night ....

Here are some of the things being bounced around in legislation ....

• I don't want school to start after Labor Day and run until the middle of June.
• I don't want EOC testing along with TAKS testing. They need to make up their mind. One or the other .... NOT BOTH!! EOC (End of Course) would be better, in my opinion .... however that is a topic for a whole other post in itself.
• Merit Pay based on test results .... see my earlier posts on this topic.
• If a school district becomes "Outstanding" it won't have to follow the state mandates about class size, teacher contracts, duty-free lunches, teacher planning periods, etc. In other words .... they would take away the few privileges that teachers have .... and that is their "reward" to us for creating an "outstanding" school.
• No Child Left Behind .... what a joke.
• Vouchers .... worthy of its own post.

More later .... gotta go home now ....