Tuesday, February 11, 2025
Good Tuesday Morning. Who is operating the clock? How are we almost halfway through February?
Get in touch: greg@gregcox.law
"We're not advised at this point." Mike Morath, Commissioner of the Texas Education Agency, testified at the Senate Finance Committee hearing yesterday. He was in the hot seat for about three hours and his testimony covered a range of issues. Teacher pay, federal funding, abolishment of the TEA. And Education Savings Accounts? Well, Morath understandably did not really want to touch that. It's a policy decision for the Legislature, he demurred. But when pressed for his thoughts on the impact of the measure on the Average Daily Attendance metrics – how districts determine some of their funding – he said it's difficult to predict outcomes, but that districts are used estimating changes in attendance each year.
On teacher pay ... Sen. Brandon Creighton (R–SD 4), the author of the Senate's school choice legislation, noted the inverse correlation between decreasing NAEP scores and increasing number of uncertified teachers. "Is it your opinion that we need to work with urgency on that correlation?" Creighton asked. "Yeah, I mean, today, the state effectively spends no money, from a state perspective, preparing teachers," Morath responded. "I think we are setting people up who have passion and who have a mission, we are setting them up for failure because teaching is not something you just decide to do and start," he said.
