Crunching the Numbers

(Published in the Stephenville (Texas) Empire-Tribune October 4, 2011)

I am a math teacher. Math is an important subject and I enjoy teaching it, but I probably have the heart and soul of an English teacher. I love to read and write. I read everything I can get my hands on, and my idea of a fun evening is curling up with a warm laptop to write an essay. But maybe it’s my love of readin’ and writin’ that’s been interfering with my ‘rithmetic. Lately, I’ve had trouble making certain numbers add up.

Take the number 15 for example; it’s a nice number. The Texas economy is the 15^th largest economy in the world. That means that if our secesh governor had his way, Texas would briefly be the 15^th wealthiest nation in the world. (I say “briefly” because our economy would quickly collapse from the loss of all those federal dollars.) Despite our high unemployment (8.4%) and budget deficits ($27 billion), Texas is still a great state with vast wealth and resources.

Now take the number 50; it’s not so nice. I can’t reconcile the number 15 with the number 50.Texas ranks 50^th in the United States in spending per student on education. Fiftieth? How can our great state, with all its resources, be dead last in providing education for its children? It doesn’t add up.

Here are some other examples of the number 50.Texas ranks 50^th in the nation in spending per person on all services (education, healthcare, infrastructure, etc.). And we are 50^th in the number of people under age 25 who have high school diplomas.

A few other noteworthy numbers include 47, our ranking on student SAT scores. Texas is 4^th in the nation in teen pregnancy rates. We are number one in the percentage of jobs that pay minimum wage. And, most disturbing of all, we are number one in the growth rate of children in poverty.

Speaking of poverty, did you know that nearly one out of every four Texas children is living below the poverty line? Did you also know that one out of every ten children in Texas is living in extreme poverty? (The World Bank defines extreme poverty as living on $1.25 or less per day.) Given our growth rate in poverty, our children won’t have to worry about corporations exporting jobs to third world countries. We are creating one right here in Texas.

There is no cure-all for all of our problems, but education comes close. I can’t think of a better way out of poverty than a good education. With all of our wealth and resources, Texas can, and should be number one in education.
At least we can rejoice that we are number one in football.

P.S. My math students needn’t be concerned. I still find relaxation in working through a nice Calculus problem.

P.P.S. Please visit the Save Texas Schools website (www.savetxschools.org) and sign the pledge to support Texas schools.

Save Texas Schools

“The most effective step a person can take toward a better life is getting a great education.”  - Rick Perry

This past weekend (September 23-24), I attended a conference in Fort Worth put on by the Save Texas Schools coalition. Save Texas Schools (STS) is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to constantly reminding our state’s elected officials about the importance of maintaining funding for Texas public education. The group is composed strictly of volunteers. There is no membership application and there are no dues. The only requirement for membership is concern for the future of Texas schools.

Allen Weeks, the founder of STS, strives to insure that the group remains non-partisan.  His well-taken point is that education is not about Republicans and Democrats or liberals and conservatives, it’s about children. As if to accentuate the non-partisan nature of STS, the keynote speaker at the conference was former Republican Lt. Governor Bill Ratliff.

Governor Ratliff, as a Republican, has long been a champion of public education. His address was both energizing and sobering. While he praised the work of the volunteer groups like STS, he bluntly stated that nothing is going to save Texas public education until “the mommas get angry.” He referenced Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) and how it was formed by a group of angry mothers fed up with the carnage caused by drunk driving. As a result of their work, we now have some of the toughest drunk driving laws ever.

Public education needs a group like MADD. When the “Momma Grizzlies” get fed up with their children sitting in overcrowded classes listening to overworked teachers then we’ll see action. When the “Momma Grizzlies” have to dip into their pocketbooks to pay for their children to ride the bus, or to participate in extra-curricular activities, then there will be hell to pay.

Unfortunately, I am afraid this may come too late. While schools have already seen the effects of budget cuts, the real cuts don’t kick in until next year. Next year will be a bloodbath. Thousands of teachers will be laid off. Classrooms will be twice as crowded and extra-curricular activities will be cut. But by that time, our state legislature will already be on the road to re-election to do the same thing again.

For now there are groups like Save Texas Schools. I am a member of the state advisory committee for STS. If you want to learn more about the organization you can contact me at william.k.norris@gmail.com, or you can go directly to the STS website at www.savetxschools.org. While visiting the website please sign the petition to support Texas schools. We want 60,000 signatures by December.