Transcript regarding MathChoice Petitions before the PISD School Board on June 15, 1999

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Thomas W. Stack: I want to say greetings from San Antonio, came up yesterday, so ahh, brought a little rain with me, I think, as well. But,. I want to say hello to you and also want to say and recognize the parents that are here tonight, and let you know that I am Tom Stack. I am an attorney with the Texas Justice Foundation. We’re a non-profit public interest litigation foundation. We represent folks in cases dealing with parental rights, property rights and limited government and we are here at the request of a number of parents in this district to come and assist them and literally hundreds of other parents whose parental rights they believe have been violated and willfully ignored by the district. I would like to ask at this time if the parents of MathChoice and those who have come on this curriculum issue would please stand and let the board know you are here tonight. I applaud you for being active and concerned citizens and parents and thank you very much for coming. The Texas legislature has stated twice very clearly in the Education code, that parents are partners, in fact it says that parents are full partners with public schools in the education of the parents’ child. That is clear Texas law. The U.S. Congress has also stated in federal statute that parents have the primary responsibility for the education of their children and the states, localities and private institutions, and that would include public schools, have the primary responsibility for supporting that public role, I’m sorry, that parental role. The Texas Education Code also clearly mandates, that is the laws of Texas, that parents shall be encouraged to actively participate in the creation and implementation of educational programs for their children. From what the Texas Justice Foundation has seen and what

"(P)arents in this district ... have not been encouraged to actively participate but rather, and instead, they have been actively discouraged from participating in the creation and implementation of educational programs in this district. This is a clear violation of parental rights and the laws of this state and of this nation and such willful and intentional violations of parental rights must stop and also must not be allowed to take place in this district."

parents in this district are feeling is that they have not been encouraged to actively participate but rather, and instead, they have been actively discouraged from participating in the creation and implementation of educational programs in this district. To do so is a clear violation of parental rights and the laws of this state and of this nation and such willful and intentional violations of parental rights must stop and also must not be allowed to take place in this district. The Texas Justice Foundation is here in Plano to assist these parents in demanding and fighting for the recognition and honoring of their parental rights. We’re also here to investigate, and we are doing so, other additional possible violations of parental and civil rights. I have here for the Board’s consideration and review, this is one copy, one copy of over 500 signatures of parents of over 500 students, middle school students in this school district. And, I’ll hand this to Miss Taylor. That is, like I said, the signatures of concerned and active parents that are concerned about the education of their children and of their parental rights in this district. Chapter 26 of the Education Code is the parental rights section of the Education Code. 26.003 of the code specifically provides the right of parents to demand their rights under that code for the addition of a specific academic class and these parents have done so. They have signed these petitions and are requesting the addition of a specific academic class, a traditional math course using a traditional math curriculum that’s in keeping with the required curriculum. These over 500 parents make this request with the expectation that it’s not going to be unreasonably denied by this district as they believe it has been up to this point. Chapter 26 of the Texas Education code, particularly 26.003, Section 83A clearly states that parents have the right to request with the expectation that the request will not be unreasonably denied, the addition of a specific academic class in the course of study of that parents’ child, in keeping with the required curriculum, if sufficient interest is shown in the addition of that class to make it economically practical. I am sure you are probably fully aware of that section. I believe that with these over 500 signatures that sufficient interest has been shown to this board. Your planned Connected Math Program curriculum that you guys are discussing here tonight are substantially different from the traditional math curriculum and therefore Section 26.003 does apply. I have a copy of a letter from Commissioner Mike Moses and a letter from State Representative Hochberg that clearly supports the applicability of 26.003 to the present request. According to Commissioner Moses’ letter, if you have a request of over 22 or more parents that want a course quote that offers material that is substantially different, including more difficult, and I believe the Connected Math Program claims to be more difficult, from that which is otherwise offered, you must provide that specifically requested additional class to those parents that ask for it. In this case, you have before you a spreadsheet. I am going to hand this out also Miss Taylor, if you could pass that out.

John Muns: You have 20 seconds.

Tom Stack: Thank you very much. That spreadsheet is showing you what these signatures are and it is a spreadsheet reporting the over 500 parents, and over 500 students, that have revealed that they want traditional math course. And in the interest of time, I would just refer you to the list and you can see that there are 44 students in Armstrong 6th grade, 31 students in Armstrong 7th grade, 33 Armstrong 8th grade, 23 Frankford 6th grade, and again for the interest of time you’ll see that there are a number of classes in just about every single middle school in your district of at least 22 students that have requested a change of course and the addition of a traditional academic course. And I know I’m running short on time, if I could, with the board’s.....

John Muns: You’re out.

Tom Stack: If I could, may I have 2 additional minutes to finish up my thoughts?

John Muns: Sorry.

Tom Stack: All right. Thank you very much.

John Muns: Mr. Parker.

Allan Parker (President of the Texas Justice Foundation): We believe the time to make excuses for the refusal to recognize and honor parental rights in the district should be over. The district should offer both courses at this time. There’s been adequate interest demonstrated by your parents in both courses and we believe the law is clear. We’re not asking you to drop the Connected Math, we’re asking you to offer it to the parents that have demonstated it. It is certainly economically feasible in the schools where you’re going to have more than one 6th grade math class, to offer one of both kinds for balance and depending on the requirements and requests from parents you have. I ask members of the board to move and second that this item be placed on the agenda for a special board meeting, your next board meeting, as an action item. I understand you may only have it for discussion tonight. That will give you time to discuss it, maybe consult with the parents in your school district. All the names have been provided to you. You should act in accordance with 26.003 and grant every middle school parent that has requested it the option of traditional math in lieu of Connected Math. We also ask you, to remind you to instruct your staff not to retaliate against any of the parents who’ve signed the petition or requested this. As you know, that would be a violation of law and I don’t think that you would intend to do that but

"We believe the time to make excuses for the refusal to recognize and honor parental rights in the district should be over."

sometimes down at the lower levels people get upset at people who try to do what they think is best for their children. So, I would ask that you just inform your staff of that. We would like to work with the board in implementing these parent’s rights. These came into law in 1995. It didn’t used to be that way, that parents had equal partnership. It was just come to school, we’re the professionals, do what we tell you to do. And the legislature said that we want to change that. We want to make parents full partners in education. These are the most concerned, dedicated active kind of parents that you could possibly want. They’ve looked at the curriculum, they’re concerned about their children’s education, they don’t want a fad coming through like whole language reading instruction did, which left the nation, or a generation of reading illiterates which has resulted in our social promotion policies at our schools. They want what they know works and they want to be involved in their children’s education. You’ve heard from some parents in the past, these are 521 student’s families, a lot of new parents here, not necessarily the same people albeit you need to talk to these people. And whether you agree or not, you may not want to offer the course, but you have to do so because you can’t unreasonably deny it. The parents also said they would pay for instruction, if there’s an extra book required, so the parents are willing to bear that extra burden and expense try to make sure there’s no economic burden to the school district. I’d be happy to answer any questions if you have any.

We also want to make it clear that we are presenting all the signatures to you at this time because we wanted to show that this is a pretty widespread feeling in your community among middle school parents. However, the classes that are less than 22, we are not waving their rights for those parents to continue to get other parents who want that course so that those would get up to 22. We would recognize that if there’s only 2 people that want the course that’s not enough to make it economically practical. But if it fills up a whole class, then it is not any more expensive to the school district to offer what the parents want as opposed to what the district wants. And so, that is what we are asking tonight. It’s a simple request for flexibility in education. There are a lot of reform movements out there that say school district’s should be responsive to the concerns of parents and we ask you to take this under consideration. We’d like, it takes two members of the Board to put it on the agenda so even if you just want to discuss it further, possibly take action, two members of the Board ought to put it on the Agenda for the next time. I’d be happy to answer any questions if you have any.

(Ralph Stow asks some questions of teacher Margaret Cregg, one of the writers of the Curriculum guides, regarding the curriculum.)

School Board Member Alan Bird: I guess I have a couple of comments (unintelligable) and probably sometimes I shouldn’t. I’m a little concerned when an attorney stands in front of us to tell us that the law says certain things and then they use a letter that clearly has no relationship to what we’re talking about. The letter from the Texas Education Agency talks about adding honors courses and honors courses are a part of the curriculum. I don’t see that we’re being asked to add a course. The course that we’re teaching is 6th grade math and they’re not requesting that we teach 5th grade math or 4th grade math to their students. They’re requesting that we teach a 6th grade math course. That is the course that’s in the book. It’s not an honors course. We offer honors courses and if somebody comes in with a request for an honors course we have lots of honors courses. What we’re clearly talking about is instructional methodology, we’re not talking about a course. And if somebody doesn’t like the way that a teacher instructs something in a classroom, I think it is the responsibility of that parent to go over it with the teacher. What we have done, and the course requires what the TEKS are. Obviously the textbook that we’ve adopted is an acceptable textbook. The State of Texas has allowed us to accept that. So the concern is, are we teaching the Essential Elements in that course. And, I’ve spent a lot of time, I took stuff from Mr. Soh, there was lots of things about what the complaints were about the Essential Elements not being taught and I’ve gone through the Curriculum Guides and looked at whether or not those Essential Elements are addressed. And the Essential Elements are the course, we don’t have other courses, and we can’t ask somebody to teach a course that teaches this a little differently, we can’t have every section be a different teaching style. Nor can we have every teacher to teach it in the exact same way. I think we have a letter that states that Section 26 doesn’t apply to this situation from the Texas Education Agency. And I hope that your group has shared that letter with you so you’ll be aware of that letter. So again, I’m concerned that we make sure that we do a good job of educating the kids. I’ve spent a lot of time looking at this and if somebody wants to tell me that we’re not covering the Essential Elements then I’ll be concerned. I guess there’s been a lot of effort to try and do the very best we can to cover those Essential elements that the course is in place, and if you’ll tell me specifically what course that you’re requesting, not what instructional methodology that you’re requesting I would be happy to come back to the board and make a request for a course. If we have enough students who want an honors course or something that’s in the catalog that we’re not offering, but I think this contention that we’re not offering a course and ignoring the fact that this deals with something totally different is very disconcerting to me and I hope that the media....I just want to say that because I don’t want the media to leave saying that Commissioner Moses and some Senator said that we weren’t offering a course when what he was talking about was honors courses.

Allan Parker (stands up in audience): Mr. President....

Alan Bird motions for Mr. Parker to sit down.

John Muns: No. Please....

Allan Parker: ....would you care for a response?

John Muns: No thank you. Please sit down.

John Muns: I have no doubt that you’ll continue to want to bring this issue up. As far as I’m concerned we are going to move ahead to move along. And we’ve asked for the curriculum guides to review it and at this point we’re moving forward. We will not have this item on the agenda again. Moving on. Sure, let’s take a 5 minute break.