Posted on 03/31/2002 3:52:36 AM PST by rw4site
AUSTIN -- The 15 members of the State Board of Education guide classroom policy, but not a single one has a child in public school.
The four members who have school-age children either send them to private school or teach them at home. The rest of the board has grown children, most of whom attended public schools.
Board members David Bradley, R-Beaumont, and Richard Watson, R-Gorman, have home-schooled children. Chase Untermeyer, R-Houston, and Richard Neill, R-Fort Worth, send their children to private schools.
Those four members are among the most conservative on the board. Partisan and philosophical bickering over textbooks, curriculum and management of the $19 billion Permanent School Fund have kept the panel in controversy.
Several board members whose children attended public schools said they wonder about the motivations of board members whose children are privately educated.
"I can't understand why you'd want to dictate what happens if you don't have any kids in there," said Rosie Sorrells, D-Dallas, a retired teacher and administrator.
Cynthia Thornton, R-Round Top, also a retired teacher, agreed. "I wonder why they are on the board," she said.
Mary Helen Berlanga, D-Corpus Christi, said the public should know whether the people making decisions about education really believe in the public school system.
"I don't think some of the people who are elected really have their heart in public education," said Berlanga, a lawyer.
Dan Montgomery, R-Fredericksburg, said some of the board members "seem to be somewhat anti-public school." Montgomery is a retired teacher and coach.
Gov. Rick Perry said in a recent education speech that he and his wife, Anita, "show ultimate faith in the job our educators do by sending our two children to a Texas public school."
Lt. Gov. Bill Ratliff addressed the issue this month in a campaign appearance for a state board candidate in Corsicana.
"People who don't send their kids to public schools don't need to be on the State Board of Education," Ratliff said, according to a March 3 article in the Corsicana Sun. "We need people who are involved, who have a stake in the process."
Bradley, an insurance and real estate executive, said the issue about schooling is "strictly politics."
"The reason I got involved in state educational policy is because I'm a taxpayer and a businessperson," said Bradley, whose opponents have made his children's home schooling a campaign issue.
Bradley said he and his wife decided to teach their two children at home 10 years ago after moving to Beaumont. He said the school that his first-grader would have attended had a barbed-wire fence around it and a long history of problems.
"As a parent, I decided I had the right to direct the education of my child," Bradley said.
Neill said his three children attend Lake Country Christian School in Fort Worth. He said he lost faith in public schools when his oldest daughter was having trouble reading.
Neill, a dentist, said he ran for the board eight years ago to promote phonics over whole language instruction.
"I'm not going to abandon the public school system, but at the same time, I don't want my daughter to be a guinea pig for some failed reading experiment," Neill said.
The educational status of board members' children has been an issue in several races this year. All 15 seats on the board are up for election because of redistricting.
Watson, a pharmacist and pastor, has five children.
His older children attended public schools for 11 years, but his younger children have been home-schooled for the past 16 years.
Watson said the debate over where board members' children attend school is a "nonissue."
"What I think's important is what do you want to do to improve teacher quality, to have accurate textbooks and a rigorous assessment system. Whether your child is in a private school or a public school has nothing to do with all of that," Watson said.
Untermeyer represents District 6, which includes western Harris County. He said his wife attended private school and wanted that setting for their daughter.
Untermeyer was appointed to the board in 1999 by then-Gov. George W. Bush.
Untermeyer ran unopposed in 2000 and is not seeking re-election this year.
Untermeyer said the fact that no board members have children in public schools "speaks more to the obscurity of the State Board of Education and confusion as to what it does."
"It probably would be a much more fervent issue in local board of education races where people might know each other better," he said.
In Houston, all nine school board members either sent or send their children to public schools.
Terri Leo won the Republican primary March 12 to replace Untermeyer; no Democrat filed for the seat. Although her children attend private schools, she said she will draw on her experience teaching in public schools.
Neill and Watson are not seeking re-election. Bradley won the Republican primary and will face Democrat Richard Hargrove in November.
The issue also was raised in the District 8 Republican primary race between Grace Shore and Linda Bauer. Bauer beat Shore for the district that abuts Harris County on the east and north; no Democrat is seeking the seat.
Shore, a businesswoman and former teacher who is board chairwoman, questioned why someone who home-schooled her children would want to be on the board.
Bauer taught her younger son at home for eight years until he began college. Her older son attended public and private schools.
Bauer, a writer and former teacher, said she needed to be flexible because the family moved a great deal as a result of her husband's military job.
Several board members whose children attended public schools expressed support for the members who use alternatives.
"I don't think it makes any difference in how they serve on the board," said Don McLeroy, R-Bryan, a dentist.
Geraldine Miller, R-Dallas, a real estate broker and reading specialist for children with dyslexia, said, "I don't think there's any validity or any reason to be critical of anybody for sending their children to private school or home school.
"They are there because they care about education. They are not there to destroy something."
How about we do it Right?
Get state and feral gummints out of education.
PERIOD!
Let the market make the rules.
"I can't understand why you'd want to dictate what happens if you don't have any kids in there," said Rosie Sorrells, D-Dallas, a retired teacher and administrator.But you don't become a teacher and admininstrator without "want[ing] to dictate what happens"--irrespective of whether or not you "have any kids in there" . . .
A high percentage of teachers' children attend private school . . . what's the big deal about school board members having kids who aren't in the government school?
Exactly. If you don't want homeschoolers to have authority to "dictate" what happens with gubmint school money, then don't make them pay taxes to fund it. Pure, plain and simple.
Frankly, it's quite amusing that gubmit school teachers are suspicious of homeschoolers having some authority over gubmint schools, but believe it's quite normal for them to have authority over the hsers. It's a fascinating perspective. And, quite telling of exactly what the gubmint schools are all about.
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