Elementary and secondary schools Early 1800s north area started to have public schools It was more accepted up there because it was industrial and didn t need kids to work in north like they had to in the south Post civil war south began to accept public schools They accept because the north on us forced it and that the reason we lost the war is because we weren t educated enough 1915 compulsory attendance law school is mandatory 1918 constitutional amendment that provided for free textbooks 1949 gilmer aikin law established the TEA Texas education agency TEA made to help bridge a gap between Texas gov and the public schools Today the TEA is in charge of about 30 of all state expenditures 1984 statewide accountability standards for students and teachers were established No pass no play no pass no teach implemented in this time Affected 4 7 million students and 300 000 teachers Education policy in Texas o 1 Substantial local controls and a state local joint partnership o 2 Emphasis on in professional administration that are supervised by common people o 3 Independence from the general structure of Gov State board of education between state leg and TEA There are 15 members on the board They are elected and serve 4 year staggered terms They established the general and guidelines for the TEA The local control in schools would be school districts and school boards 1030 districts in Texas We have more districts than any other states Voters will elect a school board usually 7 9 people for either 3 or 4 year terms The school boards will set the tax rate for the school district They will determine the policies and guidelines within TEA regulations We are most concerned with state board of education because they have power State board of education Curriculum decisions affected by conservative and liberal beliefs Some changes were they wanted to down play slavery in the civil war in curriculum Our curriculum wanted to highlight good points of General McCarthy which started the red scare They wanted to discuss separation of church in state and say it wasn t in the constitutions Textbooks are countrywide and we don t have state textbooks specially made They don t do state textbooks so that they won t be biased Culture wars standardized exams cause culture wars because people from other cultures may not understand the questions like a different culture will Standardized exams stars and previously taks Problem with these tests are they are easy and teachers are teaching just for the test and not teaching to get students to learn Faculties and students the state board lays out the requirements for hiring teachers but it is left up to local school districts to actually do the hiring process Expenditures per student are about the same because of the Robin Hood initiative Funding school finance reform funding from federal state and local gov Federal gives grants States have dedicated funds for it Locally they use taxes to get money All tax bases are not equal in Texas and schools aren t equally funded We adjust for the unequal aspect through Robin Hood initiative but didn t work out as planned Schools could do fundraisers which if they are in rich district they get more Dan Patrick is head of senate education committee He has given the idea of using vouchers If your child is performing in a bad school you can move them to a private school and the state will give vouchers for the amount it would cost to go to a bad school and put the money towards a private school Learn best schools and learn worst schools off of table 13 1 in power point Higher education 90 are enrolled in public universities Coordinated by the Texas higher education coordinating board the board appoints the board of regents The board of regents outlines the role of each public college and university College still does what they want to do though and don t always follow outline Politics of high education Financial issues leave in debt Faculty issues to have good faculty you have to pay them If you don t have money though you can t do this Diversity we attempt to diversify their campus Quality only have two schools in Texas that rank in top 50 in nation for public schools A M and UT Health and human services Second most costly expenditure in the state Broad category 60 of funding come as grants in aid from the federal gov 16 billion dollar budget and employ 9300 people We only put in 24 billion out of state money for 25 million people Deals with county hospitals and free clinics Health programs Socialized medicine Texas spends more than 1 5 of states budget on Medicaid programs More than 90 on Medicaid are the elderly disabled and young children We have one lowest insurance rate in nation Health care State is health care provider county clinic or hospital State is the payer but not provider to the employees of texas It pays for all or portion of employees insurance State is regulator and buyer of private insurance Medicare Medicaid chip children health insurance program eligible if family makes less than 200 of poverty level so if family of 4 making less than 38 000 you can participate About 90 who have insurance have it through their employer and the other 5 percent have it through private companies Only about 21 of children covered under insurance in texas Insurance reform know as ACA affordable care act aka Obama care if it works as planned it will have impact on texas because we have lots uninsured people TANF is temporary assistant to needy families aids children who can t afford basic needs of child Eligible for a total 5 years in your lifetime Can t get it for more than two years at a time In 2010 2011 max payment was 260 dollars for a month with TANF Unemployment insurance tax placed on employees administer by Texas work force commission Eligible limited to those laid off to no fault of your own Welfare We don t pay much in welfare Belief that any poor person may be eligible for welfare To participate though you have to be a citizen Illegal immigrants can get benefits though for their children if child was born here Public assistance programs alleviate rather than cure Resentment occurs we work hard to pay for people who don t work Difficult to determine cheating Highway programs Texas DOT department of transportation provides funding for primary and secondary roads Supervised by a five member commission Appointed by the governor with consent of senate Six year overlapping terms Politics of transportation Limited funding