“It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people’s minds.”

- Samuel Adams

“Nothing is less productive than to make more efficient what should not be done at all.”

- Peter Drucker

In this strange time between elections and the start of the legislative session, let’s take time to give thanks for blame. Blame is a crucial part of advocacy. We all know there are huge problems with public education in Texas. It becomes apparent much more quickly when you are dealing with special education.

We all complain. We all are furious about the news stories of waste, theft, misuse of funds, shady deals that appear in Texas newspapers on an almost daily basis. We are united in our desire for change.

Until we know who to blame, we are dreamers and talkers. With a target and a plan, we become advocates.

That said, knowing who to blame is quite tricky, especially if you are a parent of a special needs child trying to navigate the very confusing TEA website in 5-minute blocks of time.

——————-

Here’s an example of something that recently confused me. While looking into NELI, this organization that is having drunken disco parties in the name of autism and other special needs, I learned a little about the folks in charge, specifically Cynthia S. Buechler. http://www.nelilaw.net/page.php?page=guestspeakers

Ms. Buechler worked for the TEA before becoming the director of the National Educators Law Institute – the folks who disco and drink in the name of autism. The folks who exist on our tax dollars. The folks who bar parents from attending the big party we fund.

Where do you start with a mess like this? There’s plenty of gravy, but it’s not going to the hungry school kids.

Seriously, do you request a Texas Education Agency investigation? Cuz… the TEA don’t play that

Here’s another area that is confusing for me. There is a coding system called PEIMS that determines funding for schools. That means that one code will get a school more money than another code. For example, if a child drops out, there is a code for that. If a child is withdrawn to move to another school within the district, there is a code for that. If a child is withdrawn to move outside of the district, there is a code for that. If the child is withdrawn and does not move outside the district… how is that coded?

If I want to look at my neighborhood school and see how many children were withdrawn and for what purposes… well that would be a nearly impossible task. If there were a website that allowed me to look up my school district, then to look up specific schools within the district, and if there I could see that 40% of the kids withdrawn from that school moved elsewhere and 60% of the kids withdrawn did not move elsewhere, I suppose I would then know that people are pulling their kids out of that public school for some other reason.

I love statistics like this, and I would imagine everyone else does, too. This would give great data on which schools are satisfactory to the tax payers of that area. We would have more information on how many families in each area are choosing private or home schools over what the public schools have to offer. I love this idea.

Here’s an explanation of PEIMS from the Public Education Integrity Task Force: http://www.window.state.tx.us/tspr/peitf/chapt1.htm

If I understand everything I am reading correctly, the school administrator of a PEIMS code must sign an affidavit, the principal oversees the coding and signs the affidavit, the superintendent verifies that the school information is correct, and the TEA is supposed to verify that information from the superintendent is accurate. If any one component of PEIMS is missing, those funds will not go to the district. If anything is incorrect, the TEA Commissioner, Robert Scott, is supposed to kick it to the District Attorney and/or Attorney General.

I found these names on the PEIMS section of the TEA’s website:

Criss Cloudt
Associate Commissioner, Accountability and Data Quality

Karen Dvorak
Director, Accountability Research

Marsha Headley
Director, PEIMS Division

Susann Weiner
PEIMS Division

Bryce Templeton
PEIMS Division

Darlene Spencer
PEIMS Division

Pam Rouse
PEIMS Division

Are these the people verifying the accuracy of reported information? If not, what do they spend all of their time doing, and who is ensuring that the codes, which determine the funds, are correct?

Deloitte & Touche audited Dallas ISD and suggested on pages 12 and 23 here that the district stop using fake budget codes.

Who would you focus on for Blamegiving? There are so many folks involved who could pass the blame just like they pass the gravy.

Ultimately, the buck stops with the TEA and the TEA’s apparent inability or refusal to oversee PEIMS. We need an enforcement mechanism on reporting, not just voluntary audits on the part of the TEA.

——————-

I have another question. Funding is tied to attendance. It looks like the per-pupil-spending is passed out based on time spent in school. So for any time not spent in school, the school does not receive those funds.

Where do those funds go? Who gets them? It gets more complicated with special education students, because there is more money involved from a variety of sources. What happens with that money if there are attendance gaps?

——————-

Happy Thanksgiving.

I am thankful our family has made it this far.

I am thankful that my son is back in public school.

I am thankful for everyone I know with brains, moxy and integrity.