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You have laudible inlaws. If all parents demanded of their children a reasonable performance, Dallas ISD (or Lancaster ISD) would not have problems with low performance. The reality of the matter is that a high percentage of parents do not value education because they themselves have little education and don't seem to have a vision of their children doing better in life than they have---no apparent desire to raise that place in the packing order. From my perspective, not just schools but a LOT of things have been dumbed down so that everyone will feel good. We don't want anyone to be stressed or feel bad. The net result is failure. There is no disgrace today for not knowing basic math, history or English grammar. It's OK to be stupid. It isn't the schools' responsibility to change the culture. The change needs to come from the parents. The schools have to try to swim upstream and do what might be the impossible.

Texas Dan Mosby wrote:

OldCannon wrote:

SewTexas wrote: I'm not sure why people think Perry is all powerful, in Texas our gov is not that powerful, it's all Leg. that's simply the what it was set up.

Ignorant folks think the governor is "King of The State," whereas in Texas, we stuck it to the Republican reconstructionists and Lincoln's appointed governors by rewriting our constitution to place most of the power in the Lt. Gov's hands.

Not that Yankees, east or west coast, understand Texas history or government

They don't understand their OWN state history, let alone that of another state OR the nation.

Yes, most of the official transactional power belongs to the Lt. Gov, but what the Governor gets to do is appoint folks to all those cool state commissions and agencies. He gets to appoint anyone he wants, and they all seem to be Gov Goodhair yes people. If anyone seems argumentative they are immediately canned and replaced by another yes guy. I don't really blame him. If I was governor I'd probably try the same tactic, but now after all these years of having nothing but boot lickers running state agencies we have a governor surrounded by long term appointees who are used to big salaries who will do most anything to keep their jobs. To put it another way, a bunch of folks who work in Austin have sold their souls for the sake a title and a paycheck. It's actually not a bad idea to have someone there who does not toe the line, if just to keep everyone else honest by requiring them to think about how things get done.

baldeagle wrote: There are a number of private schools doing a much better job of teaching students for less money than what we pay for the failure we call public education.

You betcha. Those schools who are privately operated also get to cherry pick who their students are going to be. Have a learning handicap? Nope, not coming here. Require special teacher to deal with blindness or deafness? Nope, not coming here. Mother was a crack head and your eyes are crossed? Nope, not coming here.

Don't compare what a prep school in Highland Park or The Woodlands does with a child's education to what happens in Ysleta or Wilmer. The expectation is that the local district using state funds will raise every pupil to a minimum standard of competence, and in many cases, it isn't going to be cheap, and it isn't just the salaries that run into bucks. Special ed equipment can be insanely expensive and sometimes you have to send the stuff home with the kid and hope they bring it back. Sometimes they don't.

Set one of those private schools across the street from a low performing school, give them the same funding, require them to enroll the same student base in the neighborhood and you will have another low performing school. Some teachers aren't worth shooting and usually get out early. Those that care and love their kids, do all they can but you can't always make up for years of academic and emotional neglect and mental incapacity brought on by the mothers' gestational indiscretions.