This week, we're helping a teacher in Houston ISD, which is currently under attack by Texas Republicans because HISD teachers in high-poverty areas can’t work miracles despite being underfunded and forced to teach to flawed standardized tests for decades now. As always, Republicans have refused to take responsibility for their failed policies—they’ve controlled the Texas legislature and all statewide offices for decades now—and are trying to shift the blame to others.
From the Houston Chronicle Op-Ed linked in tweet above (my emphasis):
[T]he root of education issues is almost always poverty — and tests won’t fix that. Unfortunately, our school system is now entirely based on passing the test. This methodology has placed a stranglehold on our classrooms that prevents teachers from meeting the needs of their students and keeps kids from learning.
That’s why the prospect of a TEA takeover is so worrisome. The agency perpetuates a narrative of failing schools based on testing, and then promotes privatization policies as the solution. The threat is clear: Accept a charter or risk hostile strong-arming by bureaucrats. State government is holding a gun to the head of the public and demanding we surrender our students.
Of course, our efforts here cannot solve this issue, but we can help provide resources for this science teacher and his students. We hope that readers who support quality public school education will help by sharing or supporting our featured projects.
Update: The main project described below has already been completed, so I’m adding a new long-term project with a triple match: let’s help to provide a digital microscope to a never-before-funded elementary school class in San Juan, Texas.
The Inoculation Project is an ongoing, volunteer effort to crowdfund science and math projects for red-state public schools in low-income neighborhoods. As always, our conduit is DonorsChoose.org, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit corporation that facilitates tax-deductible donations to specific, vetted projects in public schools.
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