The Dallas Morning News is reporting that the Texas State Teachers Association is suing the Texas Education Agency. Seems that the Education Agency awarded contracts to privately held groups–rather than to public school districts–to run dropout retention programs. There were 14 districts and 3 private companies that were awarded funds. 22 districts did not make the cut.

Dropout recovery programs are designed to bring dropouts back so that these students can get a high school diploma.

In its lawsuit, filed in state court in Austin, the teacher group said state education laws do not authorize the TEA to award public money to private, nonprofit organizations for educational programs that compete with public school programs serving students in kindergarten through the 12th grade.

So, let me see if I can understand this–The TEA says only public schools should be allowed to work with these kids who have already failed to get a diploma via the public schools. Doesn’t that seem a little bit backwards? Shouldn’t they embrace new ways to reach kids who have already shown they can’t or won’t meet graduation requirements?

Shouldn’t the needs of the kids be put ahead of the demands of the teachers’ unions? Why are they so afraid of competition?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 6th, 2008 at 9:04 pm and is filed under Public Education, children, education, politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.