Chamber Education Panel

May 6—Area school superintendents addressed the Governmental Affairs Committee of the Huntsville — Walker County Chamber of Commerce last Wednesday.

Huntsville ISD Superintendent Scott Sheppard, New Waverly ISD Superintendent Darrell Hale, and ResponsiveEd Area Superintendent Robert Riggs addressed an audience of about 40, about the state of affairs of public education in Walker County.

The respective education leaders re-emphasized long-held regional truths: Walker County is a property poor county in the state, bonds can't pay salaries, and these realities disadvantage our districts in financial competitiveness with surrounding counties.

The three also largely agreed on what threatens the sustainability of public education in Huntsville and New Waverly: further delay on allotment increases from the Texas Legislature, and the adoption of an unaccountable voucher plan.

Riggs, who manages two Huntsville-based Charter Schools, highlighted the reality that public and public charter schools operate on a $6160 allotment per student. These funds are not given all at once, but meted out to districts based on a per diem for each student's daily attendance.Impacting schools in Walker County are the disproportionate number of exempt acres, due to federal, state and municipal ownership of large tracts of land in the prisons, university, National Forests, State Park, hospital and schools.

The present state allotment has not been adjusted since before the start of the Pandemic.

"Do you realize Conroe starts out teachers at $62,000?" asked Riggs.

He and the other superintendents spoke about how challenging it becomes to recruit and retain younger teachers, as economic pressure, like student indebtedness, is forcing recent college graduates to prioritize higher salaries.

"In New Waverly a starting elementary teacher will likely earn $42,000," said Hale.

Hale described the successes his district is finding with converting to a four-day school week. Hale suggests it gave teachers more flexibility, which was of importance to middle career teachers. He also suggested that the shift improved overall teacher recruitment, noting that New Waverly fully staffed the year earlier than usual.

"But when you don't pay what Conroe pays, and you don't pay what Cy-Fair pays, what you need is a community that is positive about its school system," said Sheppard.

He pointed to studies showing that companies and employees take seriously things like social media posts and blind interactions with local businesses when making up their minds about relocation.

Conversation next turned to vouchers.Hale, self-described conservative, conveyed neutrality on the proposition of private school vouchers, while expressing concerns over "disproportional systems," if public schools are not receiving equitable treatment, and private schools are not having the same level of accountability as their public counterparts.

"The question we have to answer is are we being responsible?" rhetorically asked Hale about the need for oversight for public funds.Riggs was direct in his critique of state leaders "playing ping pong with educators" by failing to increase public school funding over the last five years, although enrollments are on the rise, and, "Texas has the ninth largest GDP in the world," said Riggs.

"In Texas we spend $4000 less a year per pupil than the national average," said Sheppard. "We're rich, but we won't spend it on our kids."

"We're in the bottom ten states, when it comes to education funding, and that's nothing to be proud of," Sheppard said.Sheppard drew a particular contrast when he said, "vouchers are not conservative, because it's not conservative to give money away without accountability."

All three superintendents agreed that if vouchers succeed, the Legislature must relax school funding requirements, like the attendance allocation, out of basic fairness.

In the audience were former educators, elected officials, business leaders, and concerned citizens. Questions were pre-selected by the Chamber, and follow-ups were permitted one-on-one after the panel discussion.