Chairman McLeroy to Texas Hispanics: “Drop dead!”

[Harold Schiffman]

 Chairman McLeroy to Texas Hispanics: "Drop dead!"

With evidence mounting that the politically-motivated rewrite of
English standards in Texas schools would harm the education of
Spanish-speaking students, the Chairman of the Texas Education Agency
told state legislators, English language experts and educators that he
will not allow time to analyze the proposed changes to see if they are
appropriate, let alone time for changes to the standards. In short,
McLeroy told Texas Hispanics to "drop dead."Board chairman Don McLeroy
insisted that major changes to the proposed updates are no longer
possible. Advocates say the standards need opinions from experts who
have researched Hispanic children and understand their learning
styles. "There is no way that ignoring such a sizable chunk of this
population from consideration of education policy will do anything but
harm the opportunity of a generation," Herrero said.

McLeroy said there had been plenty of time for experts to weigh in
earlier on new curriculum standards. He said he was shocked by
accusations that he and others board members are trying to shortchange
Hispanic students. "There's no malice at all, none, zip, nada. There's
just no time to get another expert in," McLeroy said. "None of us
would do anything to hurt any group of children or any (individual)
child. What we want is for them to be successful in the English
language because it's so important."In the latest of a string of
politically charged bulldozings, McLeroy is pushing standards
substituted at the last minute for standards Texas educators had
worked on for three years. McLeroy hired a political consulting group
to rewrite the standards and substituted the rewrite in a meeting
earlier this year (you'll see my bias when you read the story in the
Ft. Worth Star-Telegram). Educators, parents, legislators and
community leaders criticized the action for disregarding the
educational needs of Texas students.


"It's just ignorance on their part," said Mary Helen Berlanga, a
26-year board member from Corpus Christi. The board is set to take a
preliminary vote March 27 on the new English language arts and
readings standards, which will influence new textbooks for the 2009-10
school year. A four-member board subcommittee signaled its intent
Wednesday to stick with that schedule after state Rep. Abel Herrero,
D-Robstown, pleaded to let Latino experts review the standards first.
McLeroy is flexing never-tried-before political muscles in a series of
changes at TEA. Last year he led the SBOE to arbitrarily reject a math
book by a major publisher, daring legal action, hoping he could
finally win a case establishing that the board can reject books on
political grounds. Biology books are due for a review in the near
future, and science and biology standards will be rewritten before
that process.

Moving against Hispanic students on the English standards, if
successful, would tend to demonstrate that Texas educato needs to
dance to the red book writings of Chairman McLeroy. While 47% of Texas
public school students are Hispanic, Hispanic voters have generally
packed less clout. McLeroy appears to be counting on Obama and Clinton
Democrats to demonstrate apathy again near the general election. If
election numbers from the March primary hold up, McLeroy will remain
chairman of the SBOE, but the legislature will be likely to shift
against many of the actions he's pushed since assuming the chair, and
may turn antagonistically Democratic.

The stakes are higher for Texas students.

Critics of the process asked the subcommittee to allow an expert in
Hispanic culture and language to assess the proposed new standards
before a preliminary vote next week by the full education board.

The four-member subcommittee that worked on the curriculum did not
include anyone of Hispanic descent, or anyone from South or West
Texas, and critics said the committee did not seek advice from anyone
with expertise in Hispanic language or culture.

Statewide, 47 percent of the more than 4.6 million public school
students are Hispanic. Eighty-nine percent of El Paso County's 173,000
students are Hispanic.

According to the Texas Education Agency, about 16 percent of students
statewide and about 28 percent of students in El Paso County in 2006
had limited English proficiency.

Resources:

Betsy Oney in the online Pegasus, "Whose interests do these elected
officials represent anyway?"
Houston Chronicle story, "State panel rejects Latino call for input on
curriculum"
KVEO-TV, "Board of Education Looks To Change Curriculum"
Brownsville, Texas, Monitor, "State board education member urges
public to rally for classroom …"
El Paso Times, "Legislators say education panel lacks Hispanic"
Draft TEKS ELAR (March 19, 2008) (in .pdf format)
This entry was posted on March 20, 2008 at 8:35 pm and is filed under
Books, Education, Education assessment, Education quality, Evolution,
Literature, Politics, Public education, State school boards, Texas,
Textbook Selection, War on Education. Tagged: Education, English,
McLeroy, Politics, SBOE, State testing, TEKS, Texas. You can follow
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