's .5 cents on education

[Guest guest]

Everyone has a voice. Whether it's through fax, e-mail, phone call, letter,

in person, --- you need to use it.

If the schools are doing such a crappy job - then TEA should have so many

complaint letters that someone notices! Same with our Legislatures,

Congressmen, President, etc.

=====================

Yes , you are so right!! Just one caveat for everyone to know is

that TEA received less than 100 complaint letters in school year 2002-2003.

Written complaints are the only ones that count--Don't call the complaint

line for anything other than information about the complaint process.

That's why there are only 4 people to investigate complaints for the whole

state. Also, If you're dissatisfied, you need a copy of " From Emotions to

Advocay " by pete wright (check the wright's law website) AND you MUST go to

the Meyerson conference Nov. 11-12 in Dallas.

That said, I watched in dismay as TEA gave a gently slap on the wrist to

HISD's horrible dropout underreporting transgressions earlier this year.

One third of the high schools were determined to be underreporting, but only

one principal lost their job, no school lost their funding. After one year

of monitoring, TEA returned HISD to their rating of academic excellence and

allowed them to self monitor. I would cc any complaint letter to your state

rep and senator and to the office of civil rights at the Dept. of Education.

Also keep in mind that TEA is up for Sunset review this legislative session.

If the legislature is flooded with comments that the TEA isn't monitoring

the way they were supposed to, there may be change. There are also rumors

that is going to try to dismantle the Educational Service Centers.

If the district is really proving to be a pain--anyone on the committee

acting very negative or insulting or otherwise unprofessional, I would

invite a representative of your state rep and senator to the ARD meeting

with you. You as the parent have the right to invite anyone to the meeting.

Personally, I am opting to homeschool my son because he is doing really well

and I cannot risk untrained school personnel screwing up thousands of

dollars of therapy. I've been burned by too many teachers not having any

experience with children with autism and not knowing how to work with my son

when he's testing the rules and the firmness of the teacher. I'm in HISD

and find it to be very difficult to deal with such a large district--(the

phrase " mountain of ineptitude " comes to mind). Those in smaller districts

may have more luck, but from the majority of the people who have posted on

this list, it doesn't sound like it. I wonder if that's because we have a

lot of people who just complain or that there is no one

who has their child in a school situation that they are satisfied with.

I have come to believe that nothing will really change until we get the

student teacher ratios under control--and that's something that EVERYONE can

fight for together. We have got to legislative smaller student teacher

ratio for all levels or no gen ed teachers will want our kids in their

class.

Wondering who exactly the school is working for.

[Guest guest]

One of the 100 complaints was mine and nothing was done or has been done by

the district to improve things for my child it only made matters worse.

Unfortunately this is the case in most situations and we are forced to do

what we have to do for our children's safety and sef esteem.