Dallas ISD's board of trustees is joining a growing list of Texas school boards to sign a resolution protesting the call for school vouchers in the Texas Legislature and the rollout of A-F campus ratings by the Texas Education Agency.The district's trustees passed a resolution by a 7-2 vote to sign a document "that joins in collective efforts with other area Region 10 School Boards to have our voices heard" in opposition to those concepts, as well as asking the state for an increase in the basic allotment for each student.The vote drew a hearty debate among the board. Some saw A-F ratings — of which a preliminary version was released by the TEA earlier this month — as a steppingstone for "siphoning money from the public school system," as board president Dan Micciche put it.Trustees Dustin Marshall and Edwin Flores both voted against the resolution, wanting to work with the state on accountability measures, and not disavow the system until a final version is released."It troubles me that so many in the education community are so quick to reject a system that's incomplete," Marshall said. "I believe in accountability, and that means in all levels of an organization. And I believe in transparency. And right now, our rating system in the state of Texas isn't transparent to most voters and parents, and it certainly doesn't promote accountability."Trustee Miguel Solis pointed out that the resolution was consistent with the spirit of a DISD-specific legislative agenda that the board passed in 2016, and that Thursday's vote was "another opportunity for us to tell our legislators what we think, and give them some sense of direction.""We have a general indication of where this is going to go," Solis said. "We do have a preliminary set of results, and I've heard a lot of my colleagues say, 'We're not comfortable with what those results say, not because we are afraid of accountability but because they don't accurately reflect what we are doing in our schools.' "Dallas ISD Superintendent Michael Hinojosa made his voice heard before the vote, strongly encouraging signing a document that, by his count, had been signed by 474 school boards across Texas. Continue reading...
DISD Board Signs Resolution Protesting School Vouchers, A-F Campus Ratings
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