I have to agree with Ms. Quinones when she questions whether or not these standardizing are at all helpful to students. Not only is this costing the state an arm and a leg, but it is, and has been for a long time, hurting the Texas k12 education and the student’s ability to pass. It seems like it is more a more expensive and less effective way to educate the students of Texas. Considering the fact that Texas is ranked in the bottom ten for k12 education I think it is time that we try something different that might also involve saving millions of dollars. We could possibly stop focusing on tests that analyze crammed test material and teach what is actually going to be needed in the higher education world. It’s a win-win situation.
Monday, April 18, 2011
Standardized Testing in Texas
In Ms. Quinones commentary on the article, "Standardized Testing in Texas Increases Ten Fold From 2009-2010,"she tells how much more money taxpayers will end up paying for standarded testing in Texas. Obviously, the higher the student population, the higher the education costs rise to meet the demand. This seems logical, but Ms. Quinones has to wonder whether the testing is used for the student's academic level or simply the school's level of teaching. There is an abundance of money spent on hiring more teachers to teach the material.Tutors, study guides, and other helpful testing materials are also necessary in preparing students to do well on the tests. It was calculated how much money will be spent on these tests in the Perry/Bush era and it came out to be about 93 million dollars.
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The Critique
In Ashley Woodruff's post, "Texas Spends Millions on College for Prison Inmates," the budgeting deficit for Texas is discussed. This post hits at the fact that prison inmates are not getting "student loans," that allows them to get an education and pay it pack once they are released. Now on to the statistics. According to the post, 22,000 prison inmates have pulled these "student loans," and only 6,630 inmates have actually paid them back. Only $4.5 million has been paid back, leaving $9.5 million going unpaid. Nevertheless, his totals around $15 million that is going to fund prison inmates.
According to Mrs. Woodruff, the total of $15 million should have been spent on funding the people who are not in prison. With the current talk and proposed cutting of education; Ashley would rather see the funds cut for prisoner education and have that money help with non-prisoner education.
In my opinion, I would have to agree with Ms. Woodruff and her belief on the correct cutting of funding. I do think that it is a good idea to give prisoner inmates a chance to better themselves, but in hard times I believe that money should be cut from prisoners first. Education is a key part of our growth of a nation and cutting education can be crippling. Texas already struggles with k-12 education, so cutting that much needed funding does not make sense. If Texas could come together and cut small, not critical, and ridiculous funded entities, the budget crisis might be adverted. Leaving our legislation to come up with a new plan will give way to where those cuts will be made.
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