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.
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