It has been so disappointing to watch our elected and appointed officials in TX disparage public ed as part of a narrative to push vouchers. As a conservative I feel completely abandoned by republican state leaders. If that weren’t bad enough, elected R’s are not only neglecting conservatives in public ed but they speak down to us with disdain. This morning our local elected State Board of Education member @willhickman asked Commissioner Morath @MikeMorath about @SBISD budget troubles. I thank Will Hickman for advocating for us. Morath dismisses our budget crisis as mismanagement of “one-time” federal funds meant to address learning loss due to COVID. In the clip Morath says that unlike most other districts in TX we didn’t understand those were one-time funds. We DID and personally reviewed that with him in Austin. He is lying to distract away from the funding issue we face. It’s lazy and dishonest. SBISD has already eliminated over $20M in ESSER related supports including 123 positions. We did that LAST SPRING. We spent 65% of those federal $s in the classroom and our improvement in scores since COVID show the money was used effectively. We now have another $35M to eliminate from our budget which is largely due to inflation and no additional funding. I explained this to Morath in Austin earlier this year and he acknowledged it was a real challenge.

Why do urban area teachers (districts w 20,000+ students) only get a $2,000 bonus while smaller/rural districts (< 20,000 students) get $6,000? Maybe part of the deal to get voucher support? 🤷🏻‍♂️ @SBISD @DanPatrick