Here We Go Again!
Opinion Editorial
By Pat Hardy, State Board of Education,
August 9, 2005
Never mind the pressing school finance issues that our schools face. The Legislature is poised to
make school finance problems worse if they pass House Bill 62, which was filed Monday and
passed out of committee with no hearing, for floor consideration on Tuesday, August 9.
It’s now clear that House Education Chairman Kent Grusendorf’s only priority in school finance
“reform” is to dedicate hundreds of millions of new dollars to laptops (despite poor evidence from
the existing Technology Immersion Pilot Program) and to let superintendents spend textbook funds
on hardware (which is a recipe for disaster as the state will no longer guarantee that every student
will have the instructional materials they need). This is just like his House Bill 4 that failed to pass in
the regular session.
“Dollars for Dell” and “Appropriations for Apple” is a bad idea because the existing Technology
Immersion Pilot Program has not produced favorable results. According to the Texas Education
Agency, the TAKS scores for the middle-school students who were immersed in laptops and began
participating in the project in 2004 showed little-to-no appreciable improvement in their 2005 TAKS
scores: 57 percent of the schools scored worse in writing this year than in the past, 19 percent
scored worse in English, and 38 percent scored worse in Social Studies. Should we reward poor
performance with hundreds of millions of dollars more?
Allowing districts to spend content money for hardware also leaves the state vulnerable to a lawsuit
if there is inequity in the quality of learning based on the quality of learning materials. California
had a system that under funded learning materials, to the detriment of student learning, with
inequity between schools, and it resulted in a lawsuit. Texas is currently facing one lawsuit on its
school finance system. Do we want to set ourselves up for another lawsuit?
Technology in education is progressing nicely, but it cannot be successful if the state forces districts
to buy specific items such as “wireless mobile computing devices” (laptops). Technology should be
phased in at the pace of the user. School districts need the infrastructure in place and the budget
for technical support. The insurance premiums for loss and theft alone are a budget item that
districts cannot afford and that are not addressed in this bill. The bill does not address how the
material will be printed so students can turn in assignments. Are districts ready to underwrite giant
rooms with printers and paper? What about the cost of protecting students from predators on the
Internet? Finally, who is going to provide the content? The computer is merely a tool, we have to
provide content that fulfills Texas curriculum standards, program materials with proper licensing are
VERY expensive, and who will be reviewing the material? The proposed bill sidesteps the overview
process. These are major issues in other places that have tried to implement laptops, and major
omissions in the bill. Why is this bill being rushed through without consideration of important issues?
Currently teachers on selection committees choose the instructional materials their students will use
in the coming year. That dynamic (person closest to the student chooses what their students need
to succeed) will dramatically change if administrators decide that an entire campus or grade level
will convert to laptops. This bill also decapitates Texas’ time-honored, constitutionally protected
textbook adoption process that is arguably the best in the nation and that allows public input into
the curriculum of Texas school children. Neutering the state adoption process weakens our
children’s curriculum and opens districts up to snake oil salesmen and sweetheart technology deals.
Shockingly, there are no protections in the bill against gifts, favors, and services provided by
technology vendors. To see why these protections are needed, read the recent various news
stories regarding the close relationship between an administrator and technology vendor. Why are
there no protections against potential corruption in this bill and no input by teachers and parents?
Before the Legislature considers this bill, it should take a look at Cobb County, Georgia. The
school board there last week threw out a $69 million laptop deal with Apple. Opponents of the plan,
including many parents and teachers, had questioned whether it was proven and worth the cost.
The district had scaled back the program from $69 million to $25 million, and then a judge last
month halted the program because the school system did not tell voters a special sales tax would
be used to pay for it. Investigations are ongoing, based on witness testimony that a school system
employee hinted before final bids were in that leaders wanted Apple Computer as their supplier.
I’m not blaming vendors like Apple, Dell, and Leap Frog for being entrepreneurial and exploring all
possible markets. But I do blame our legislators who need to listen to the teachers, districts and
parents before taking such a radical step at the behest of these vendors. Educators are moving
forward with many new exciting uses for technology in schools ... at their own pace, without the type
of technology they must use being spelled out for them in law.
Rushing the transition to technology and throwing out the state’s guarantee of quality learning
materials for our children is not a way to solve the school finance case or improve our children’s
learning.
Pat Hardy is a Republican from Fort Worth, Texas and represents District 11 on the Texas State
Board of Education. Hardy is a 35 year public school educator with thirty years in the classroom and
five as a supervisor. Among other accolades, Hardy received the 2005 Social Studies Supervisor of
the Year for the State of Texas. Contact numbers 817-732-1786/817-598-2968