Texas Budget Fix: Cuts to Colleges and Universities

So, if publicly funded colleges and universities in Texas are going to take a huge hit when Republican legislators rectify the $25 billion state budget deficit by enacting massive cuts, rather than raising taxes, what is that going to look like exactly? Inquiring minds (aka, parents of college aged children) want to know.

The Chron takes a stab at it today:

• Cut financial aid (I'm thinking some of those programs that allow low income kids to go to college tuition free in Texas? Currently, the state requires universities to set aside 20% of tuition increases for financial aid (Senate Bill 1304) - will that requirement go away?)
• increase class size
• cut course sections (anyone remember the last big budget cut to state supported universities in the 80's? I was in grad school at UH and had a difficult time completely my degree program because courses I needed were offered so infrequently. The solution was to not take them, and to get credit for special research courses that were offered by professors - not as a part of a regular class.)
• layoff or furlough professors
• increase tuition
• community colleges will raise taxes (this is the solution that Republicans love the most - push the tax increases onto another taxing entity, thereby keeping their own promise of "no new taxes" - people (voters) really are too dumb to catch on to this)
• collaboration among institutions (as an example, an Aggie friend of mine told me last week that A&M and UT are sharing lobbyists - they have realized their future is linked. I imagine that is a cost savings, as well)

What are other states and countries doing to cut higher ed?

Scotland (from The Courier): voluntary reductions in force, fewer student admissions, less research (grant cuts)

Overall in the UK: monies for teaching and research were drastically cut, resulting in student protests over increased tuition

California: cut special programs like fine arts and deaf studies (San Diego), raise retirement age of university staff and cut retirement benefits, accept less students, cut course offerings, raise student fees, fewer labs (unable to afford the grad students to run them), find innovate ways to raise money and admit more foreign students (University of California system)

Brandeis: close university run museum and sell valuable art

LSU: triage and cut non-core teaching and research functions first (palatable, perhaps, but now they are having to move on to cutting core functions)

Anyone know of other specific cuts to higher ed the Lege is considering? Or, of specific cuts or tuition/fee increases universities will make in response?

As a parent of college aid kids, my biggest concerns are: will my high school junior be able to get into a Texas college and at what cost? Are we going to eat up all of our college savings on the college sophomore?

There are a hundred blog posts in the making on how this is all going to play out, including the huge expenses colleges lay out to remediate our poorly educated high school graduate population. Stay tuned.

What's on Your Reading List?

Education and leadership is the topic - what are you reading? I am digging into RTI (Response to Intervention), as well as leadership, in general. I subscribe to the Lead Your School blog (excellent, and I highly recommend it), and Sean Cain recommended these books today. Have you read any of these? I've read Good to Great, The Tipping Point, Classroom Instruction that Works and Who Moved My Cheese. I take issue with there being no female authors on this list . . . surely there are females who have written worthy books on instruction or leadership? If not, maybe I need to get busy writing . . ..

Tell me what you think of Cain's choices, and if you have other books on education or leadership that you would highly recommend, please share in the comments!

The First Five

1. Results Now, by Mike Schmoker. This book sets the tone. If on the whole you disagree with what Mike writes in this book, you are going to disagree with LYS (the Organization and probably the Nation).

2. Corp Business, by David H. Freedman. The book I made every new AP I hired read. I have yet to find a book that does a better job of laying out the actionable ABC’s of leading people in the field.

3. Good to Great, by Jim Collins. There are hedgehogs and foxes.Reject your fox instincts and embrace your inner hedgehog.

4. The Tipping Point, by Malcolm Gladwell. The primer on the power of the few. Those who question the power of the LYS Nation just don’t recognize the implication of a network of the best Mavens, Connectors and Salespeople in our field.

5. Classroom Instruction That Works, by Robert Marzano. The final word on the research that proves the effect of best practice.This book is so critical to our profession that if you haven’t read it yet, you don’t deserve a seat at the table when the discussion turns to instruction.

The Best of the Rest (6-10)

6. The Moral Imperative of School Leadership, by Michael Fullan.

You actually should read everything that Fullan writes, but if time is a factor, this is the one to start with. I do have one small problem with Fullan. He’s too smart. He understands the nuances that drive expert leadership and does a world class job of explaining this (perhaps better than anyone). Unfortunately, the smart/lazy manager type can use Fullan as justification for their repeatedly inane actions (or inaction).

7. How the Mighty Fall, by Jim Collins.

Yes, it is a business book, but Collins lays out the doom loop that district after district is currently stuck in. Fortunately, he tells us how to get out of the loop and even prevent it. Unfortunately, most senior leadership doesn’t care and isn’t listening.

8. Who Moved My Cheese, by Spencer Johnson, M.D.

The modern classic. I only appreciated it after I read it the second time. First, you have to have tried to manage significant organizational change and made a mess of it; than you are ready understand what Dr. Johnson is really teaching us.

9. The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, by John C. Maxwell.

Maxwell is a former pastor. He writes about church leadership. In many ways, church leadership is a better model for school leaders than business leadership. Violate the Irrefutable Laws at the peril of your organization and you career.

10. Slot number ten is filled by a number of books, that depending on my mood, interest, or need of the person I’m working with, that I might recommend. Some of those books include:

33 Strategies of War, by Robert Greene for strategic and tactical planning.

The Federalist Papers, by Hamilton, Madison and Jay. If you are trying to lead an organization of more than three people who have competing self-interests, you might find this worth reading.

It’s Called Work for a Reason, by Larry Wingate. Admittedly a pulp book. But sometimes we have to get over ourselves, cut thru the BS and admit that we had a job to do and how hard we tried doesn’t matter if we’re not successful. Just looking at the title ought to give you a little boost when the going gets tough.

His Excellency, by Joseph J. Ellis. Think you have leadership all figured out? If this study of George Washington doesn’t convince otherwise, you must be pretty darn good.

Budget Fix: Education

If the Texas budget deficit is around $25 billion, and education takes up 44% ($35 billion) of the state's expense budget, then clearly, there will be cuts to education. This will come at the time Texas schools are gearing up for the new STAAR testing program for grades 3-12, including twelve new end of course exams required for high school graduation.

The Dallas Morning News reports that Texas Comptroller Susan Combs has a plan to cut $558 million from the education budget by eliminating the 22 pupil class size limit in elementary schools. 12,000 teaching jobs would be lost. According to the Texas Education Agency's 2009 Snapshot, there are nearly 328,000 teachers in Texas, so 12,000 represents 3.7% of the total. My guess it that these job cuts would be met mostly by attrition. Parents won't be happy with the larger class size in elementary classrooms, but this change has been predictable since the Republican controlled Texas Legislature created the structural deficit in the budget in 2006.

The $558 million in savings wouldn't be nearly enough to contribute to fixing the budget deficit, so the education budget would have to be trimmed in other ways:

• larger high school classes
• less administrative support to schools
• student support programs cut (health, social and academic)
• athletics
• fine arts
• less testing 

More details will emerge soon, as the Lege gets back in session in January. I'll look at some of the other solutions in future blog posts. Maybe the severity of the cuts will finally get the attention of teachers and parents, and they will vote for pro-education candidates, rather than tax cut happy Republicans.

RIP, Carlos Guerra

What an absolute shock to read tonight on my Twitter feed (of all places) that my friend Carlos Guerra had died.

Carlos was a former columnist for the San Antonio Express News, and I new him online as a terrific writer and activist. We met in person in Corpus this summer at the Texas Democratic Convention. I recognized him right away in the press room and I played fan girl and introduced myself, then promptly invited him to go out to dinner with me and my friends. What a treat that evening was to get to visit with him . . . hear his tales . . .and get to know him. He gave me a "Do I look like an illegal" button? that I keep on my dresser and see everyday.

We kept up online and he recently sent me very sweet birthday wishes. I'll miss his intelligence, his writing, and his updates on the yummy meals he was making.

Dear, sweet, smart, generous Carlos . . . I miss you already.

Budget Fix: Kick Diabetics to the Street?

In a continuing effort to point out State Rep Jim Pitts' promise to "throw some people out on the street" (referring to poor, sick people) in order to fix the $25 billion Texas budget deficit that Republicans created, here's a suggestion: throw all diabetics out on the street. From the Texas Tribune:

The number of adult Texans with diabetes is expected to quadruple over the next three decades — a massive spike that demographers and health care experts attribute to the state’s aging population and out-of-control obesity epidemic.

[----]

The numbers, while staggering, are only part of the picture. Diabetes, the sixth-leading cause of death in Texas, currently costs the state more than $12.5 billion a year, according to theAmerican Diabetes Association. One in 10 health care dollars is attributable to the disease. 

Any TAKS taking 5th grader can tell you that $12.5 billion is half of $25 billion. I don't know if the ADA figure means it costs the state government that much, but you get the idea. By kicking this subpopulation to the street, you whack away at the budget deficit and at the same time, you leave poor, sick people with no money with which to purchase fast food, so they get well. It's a win-win! 


Previous Budget Fix post: Kill the Texas Ethics Commission.