Texas Has The Lowest School Standards In The Nation

Educationnext 2015 grades for state education standards

Texas ranks dead last comparing STAAR and NAEP passing rates.

Florida and Wisconsin not included.

SOURCE: Educationnext.org

This map is from the Dallas Morning News, and it shows what has happened to education standards in the state of Texas since they refused to adopt the "common core" education standards proposed by the federal government. It was during the Perry administration that the common core standards were introduced, and states were offered extra education money to adopt them. Texas refused, passing up hundreds of millions of dollars in doing so. 

The argument Texas Republicans used at the time (and still use) was that the common core standards were tantamount to the federal government taking control of Texas schools from the state and local school boards.

That was stupid, of course. All adopting common core would have done is to make sure Texas school have as high standards as all other states. The State Board of Education would still choose all textbooks for the state's schools, and could even set higher education standards than the common core standards (but not lower). And local school boards would still control all other aspects of the state's schools. Nothing but higher standards would have changed, and the federal government would NOT have taken control of the state's schools.

So, why didn't Texas adopt the stricter common core standards (and get the extra funding)? It was politics -- pure and simple. Texas is controlled by Republicans. All statewide offices are held by Republicans, and the legislature (both houses) have huge Republican majorities -- and they weren't about to do anything suggested by a Democratic president. Rejecting common core was nothing but a crass political move to appeal to their own ignorant political base.

The map shows what this has done to education in Texas. The state now has the lowest education standards of any of the 50 states. Note that only one state (Texas) is in purple on the map -- which means it is the only one that did not score at least a C- in standards. Texas got an embarrassing D+. 

When they rejected common core, the Republicans said they would see the state adopt standards just as high as other states. They lied. They have let those standards slip into last place -- and that hurts the students in Texas schools the most. It is time they stopped playing politics with this issue, and either accept the common core standards (or adopt higher standards). Texas students deserve no less.

NOTE -- The map was made from information in a new report by EducationNext, and if you want to see how your state is doing standards-wise, you can go to their website.