 Okay, not that you guys need it. You don't need it, but it's for them if we could because the crowd is so disparate Why don't we all sort of get together here? So it's just like school where people are sitting in the back I guess Josh you're okay because you're writing something, but if folks could make it easier to do it And I appreciate you guys coming. I feel like a stand-up who has like their multiple waters waiting for them to do their thing All right, so for those of you I haven't met my name is Diego Bernal I'm the state representative for Texas House District 123 over here is a map of that district and the pushpins are all the schools But just to give you an idea of the size of the district just south of the airport and the colonnade All the way through the center city all of downtown this area and this line right here is highway 90 So right on the other side of that would be Burbank So because San Antonio people love to ask where people went to high school And we use those schools to identify the part of town we're from the northernmost high school is Churchill And the southernmost high schools are Lanier Brackenridge and Fox Tech So Let's talk about what this is and why we did and how we did it. Let me get that out of the way. I Am a public ed nerd. I litigated school finance before I was on city council But I'm gonna tell you a quick story that you're gonna hear a lot of in the future Which is my experience with AP English. This is what got me thinking about this issue I went to Jefferson High School. I turned 40 in October. So I'm class of 95 in 1994 I was in I think it was GT English and My teacher Anita Arnold came to the class and said who would like to take the AP English exam We all raised our hands She said great You've got to come to school an hour early So we can start studying for this thing and of course that thinned out the crowd and Then by the time we took the exam there were five of us taking it and three of us passed and then fast forward a few months in my first week at the University of Michigan Meeting all of my classmates and the people that I shared the hall with and my roommates. I met a young man who was from New Jersey and he explained to me that His entire senior year all he took were AP courses. So at Jefferson we didn't even offer AP English Right, but we had a very motivated and trepid teacher who got us to take the exam and then you've got someone From this other school in New Jersey where every single course he took his senior year was an AP exam And so my thought was one he's a very nice guy. He was a great guy But he wasn't smarter than the guys and women that I went to school with at Jefferson He wasn't smarter than them, but I thought and realized how are my classmates? And I even supposed to compete with him where it doesn't really matter how smart we are how motivated we are what our work ethic is He just had more opportunity than we did and so that really clarified to me that there's there is a discrepancy in in the offerings of public schools then when I came back home after that I really really saw it so I Wanted to do public ed That's why I litigated to go finance. That's why actually left city council to come to the legislature And I realized bless you. I realized when I was on the house floor that everybody Republican and Democrat Both sides they say they care about public ed. It's their number one issue go to their website look at their campaign mailers They all say it and so I thought if we all see it the same way if it's something we all want Why is it that we can't seem to get anything done? And I realized that maybe it's because we don't really know what we're talking about One most legislators think that they're experts in public ed because they went to school for a long time themself, right? the second thing It's more a commentary on traditional leadership and that is that tree tops tend to spend time talking to tree tops So once you're elected all of a sudden you're meeting the owners of things your people who run things you're meeting the CEOs You're meeting other elected people and so the problem is what I learned was these folks do care about public ed They do but they're talking to superintendents, which is fine They're talking to the other elected folks the school board members, which is fine But those people are in a tough spot because their job is to sort of sell Those districts. Here's how great we are. Here's the number of kids. We're sending the Ivy League schools Here's how our chess team is doing in UIL Right that they have a hard time saying and the bottom is falling out and we're in crisis mode and we need to Raise the red flag. They're not good at doing that. And so I figured if I really wanted to understand What's happening on the ground if I wanted to understand what we could do to make someone's life better in the classroom I had to go and talk to the people who did it every day for a living make sense. I Recognize at a certain point how little I knew so This is our district. We have campuses. We have attendant zones for four Four school districts Alamo Heights Northside northeast and SCISD, but we have campuses from three of those the yellow is north side The red is northeast and the blue is SCISD I would say sure we have a tiny tiny smattering from north side about a third of northeast and about a half To two-thirds from SCISD. That's what you'll see there 55 schools in general And I made sure and visit them all and I need to talk to you about what that was like the first couple tours because people didn't know what I was doing I show up and there's the mariachis and The ballet folklorical and they've got coffee and juice for me and balloons At a certain point I had to say to them. I appreciate that Thank you very much, but that's not why I'm here. I'm not here to tour the school I'm not here to go into classrooms and have career day. There's a slide of me reading the kids That's from a different visit. It's just cute But I'm not here for that. I'm here to sit down with you and talk to you about What your life is like and what I can do to make it better? So those those conversations were about an hour and a half to two hours long and the first 20 or 30 minutes were This is safe space. I'm not gonna reveal our conversation at all No matter what I'll never identify you by name. I won't identify you by campus And I won't identify you and identify you by district. I needed them to be forthcoming that took about a half hour to get them to open up and I didn't have a series of questions that I asked it wasn't research-based. I didn't go in with a checklist I start off with very open-ended questions like imagine that You're in the Texas house and I represent every legislator And I have the ability to make whatever changes need to happen based on your On your comments. What do I need to know? Right, and then the next question might be something like what are we getting right? What are we getting wrong? How can we get out of the way? What do you need? And then that's where the conversation came from. I Wish I could go back and maybe do the first five or six again because I feel bad for them now But after a while I started to figure out you start to see patterns and themes and here's the reason why we're not identifying anybody All of a sudden you represent all school districts, right? The reason why We're keeping it anonymous is this This is the urban core of San Antonio, and this is my district. There are another forgetting about the Senate completely. There are another 149 house districts in the state If I can find themes that are common between campuses and districts which are super diverse in my own district It is likely that there are some common themes between house districts so if The principal at Lanier and the principal at Churchill are saying the same thing chances are the same some of the same things in Harlingen in Preston Hollow in Odessa. Does that make sense? And and I'm not gonna get partisan much but a little bit Just to give you the math Democrat in Texas. There are 50 of us right now. They're about 50 of us in a house That's 150 which means that if I want to do anything I've got to find 26 Republican friends To go along with me, right? So part of this exercise also is to tease all the politics out of it to say I don't want I'm not having a blue conversation or a red conversation I'm just looking for common themes so that after I find them You can take it to your part of Texas and ask folks if it's true for them as well And whatever they say is common whatever they say is is The same let that be sort of the starting point for us to do some work together So some of this is big picture, but a lot of it is very practical and pragmatic cool. All right This is long I'm gonna try to rifle through it But we're gonna do two things the first thing if you have any question anytime just raise your hand and ask Right, just do it. The second thing is if you've seen the report you'll see that there's sort of a statement of the issue and then there's an anonymous quote from an educator that Drives the point home and what we've done if we've passed out quotes to you guys So as the quotes come up and read it and that will sort of add a human element to what we're talking about. Are we good? Okay so One of the things that we learned one of the overarching things that we learned is that teachers want more Instructional time and that does not mean taking a class period that's let's say an hour long and adding 20 minutes What they mean is You're asking them to do so much Other things aside from teach that when they're left after dealing with all those things There's not as much instruction going on the most important thing to them the the golden nugget right the silver bullet Is instructional time and to be clear none of them said it that way They said they would say the school or the district is asking me to do this and then this year We're in this program So now I have to do this and this and yes They give me a planning period but that planning period is getting eaten up by x y and z If you if you pull back and you distill what they're saying they're saying streamline my life So that I have more time to spend actually Working with students and that that's going into what we'll talk about it That's going to take two forms one is an administrative form and one has to do with social services So there's a quote who's got quote one you do all right. I'm gonna give you the mic I bet you think I need more money You think I need more technology Trust me and I've had for every student will be great. That's not what I need You know what I need I need time Need more time spend on actual instruction and I'll show you a school that's been turned around You know what I would do I have a my office take as much as possible on the teachers paperwork Anything So that that educator said look it was a principal He said I will have my office assume as much responsibility for paperwork as I possibly can So that I leave my instructors with more time to teach and then he said I'm not even sure it's all legal I'm not even sure I can do that, but I'm going to do that because that's what works He had previously turned around other campuses and that worked So let's go to the next what often happens What often happens is that if a school doesn't perform well the district and the state swoop in and add all kinds of interventions and other programs and In their effort to be helpful. They often add more requirements more data collection more Data input when you guys got to put it in sorry, but you've got more to do that's still not Instruction who's got to you guys the Texas legislature? Give us so much time to do but don't tell us how or when you want fire drills for school buses good idea Now tell me how to do it and when when what am I going to have to cut? We always have to ask ourselves these questions These days if I can get my teachers to spend three and a half hours on instruction a day. It's a win Thanks, and here's the other side members at one side of it was going to be administrative paperwork Which is a real thing and then the other side is social services Here is here is the standard that we've asked Texas students to meet every Texas student They're not all starting in the same place. They're just not But that doesn't mean they're less talented doesn't mean they're left less gifted doesn't mean they're less motivated it just means that their lives are different and so if you're a teacher, let's say that we're all class and you're the teacher and In this instance, you haven't had breakfast You don't have a winter coat your utilities just got turned off one of your brothers and sisters just got locked up You've got someone away in Afghanistan all this is coming into the classroom and you're Asked not only to deal with it and manage it, but you're also being required by us to have these students meet a certain standard so What we're saying is support staff social workers counselors Trauma counselors and so forth those things communities and schools those things pay off and once you deal with the student as a human being You're left with a student who is ready to learn in the classroom and a teacher who has the time to do it Who's got quote three? You do all right if you give me money. I'm not going to spend it on stuff I'm going to spend it on people Just generally one of the things that we'd like to do is to identify Funding streams that are allocated for things that aren't personnel and see if we can loosen the screws so that educators can spend it on personnel because Every single person said I love all this stuff If you let me if you let me hire another teacher or recruit a better teacher or bring in a social worker or two trauma counselors That's a better use of the money. All right. That's what speaks for itself right I Want to be clear ask yourself how if you were a legislator you would define legally a good teacher or the best teacher That's hard, right? What does that even sound like? Next one, please But this sort of sheds light on it one thing that we discovered is that in schools especially in a working class poor minority areas And schools that have had not performed well on the standardized exams when you go to those schools You find a very very high concentration of new teachers And so you would think instinctively that the places with the most need should get the best help and In turn what we find is that the place with the most need have a very high concentration of inexperience Nothing's wrong with these folks. They're good people. They're Good teachers really more. They're going to be great teachers but Just to use a sports analogy for a second if you go to the NBA and You look at the win-loss column Oftentimes the teams with the lowest winning percentage also tend to have the youngest age the average age of their player It just doesn't make any sense in other words Sure, there's gonna be an all-star who's a first-year, but you're not playing the odds If you're playing the odds you're finding ways to bring the best help to the schools with the most need and instead We're bringing folks who just don't have a lot of issues. Nothing's wrong with that But at a certain point you're not playing the odds. It's not smart quote for who's got it. All right If we're talking about young teachers teach for America hit or miss First or second-year alternative certification teachers hit or miss First or second-year education program graduates hit or miss But if I'm in a title one or economically disadvantaged school, don't force me to take all three How is it fair to the kids if we compound inexperience with more inexperience? There should be a limit and just to be clear about this that statement is agnostic to teach for America Alternative certification first years and first-year traditional education program grads. It's just saying don't load me up, right? So I need to explain this one and In part of this process for me again, you guys ask questions. I can do this all day. You're getting the short version today I'll admit to you guys where I was wrong about something in an embarrassing way I thought when I heard stories about teachers leaving schools like SAISD So let's say go to Northside They were leaving because they didn't want to deal with these poor kids these minority kids They didn't want to deal with these older buildings They just wanted to go somewhere where it's cushier and nicer and the kids were sort of more prepared and the parents were involved It was more of a autopilot situation And that is completely false Remember that whole thing about time and administration What we heard more and more is that teachers who defected from some of these districts to other districts did so Because they were being asked to do so much more than just teach and look teachers don't become teachers for the money They don't it's a calling. It's an identity. They're missionaries and so They want to teach they want to be teachers. They don't want to be glorified administrators who happen to teach some of the time Right and in all fairness. They didn't they didn't enter the profession to be social workers either Right their instructors and so what's happening is they're spending less time Teaching and more time doing other things if they leave some just can go to others It's really an often more often because they want to teach because they are teachers So I'm admitting to you guys that I had a preconceived notion that was destroyed After the 20th visit. Let me just explain what this means quickly. We'll move on Professional development means it has to mean something it has to count You have to be a better educator after the fact and that's to be presented and offered in a way Where it's not asking you to choose between your family life the little free time you've got and being a teacher It has to be done make it count do it the right way fund it Make sure you're compensated for your time and keep going right Yeah, so we got three the question was did I get recommendations how to solve this sort of inexperience problem and we got three with varying levels of Sort of a mandate from the state one is that That any school that is an IR school an improvement required school that there's all there's a certain limit of First and second year's teachers that they can have and after that you can't give it you can't add any more That's one the other is that we only hire teachers That whose Education program has had them in a classroom for an entire year before they're with another teacher Before they're giving classrooms of their own right and another another would be one where the The inexperienced teachers even if they are hired on are only hired on as co-teachers As opposed to getting a classroom on their own let's talk about culture for a second Some districts have a habit or in the past had a habit of moving principles around all the time right and so Imagine how you feel when an elected a person is only in office for a few years They jump ship to go to another district right so if you're the new principal somewhere And these are your teachers and you come in with a new plan to change everything We're gonna instituted a new culture here a new culture of excellence and aspiration and the veteran teachers like yeah, dude Sure, I've been here for ten years The last few principles have been here for two where the constant you're the revolving door Let's see how this goes They're waiting them out Or they just don't they're not allowed to connect with them emotionally because they don't believe they're gonna stay so the longer that you have Real permanent leadership that can stay and work with people and create a culture of excellence together It's more likely to happen in other words. It's more buy-in. All right. This one is actually pretty cool So there are dual language campuses and dual language is very specific that there are dual language campuses All over the city all over the district if you go to one of those campuses And you talk to people who work there They're like they're converts They believe that it is the most It is the most effective way not only to educate students But also to bring all students up and that for whatever reason and I'm not an expert for whatever reason those Situations have academic benefits beyond just language Right, so the quote will explain it. Who's got quote five? Okay If everyone is helping each other the English gets better the Spanish gets better even the math gets better I really believe these kids will see and interact with the world differently They'll probably save us all Right, so I'm talking to I'm talking to principals and teachers about language and all of a sudden they're telling me How everybody's algebra scores are going up? There's a secret sauce in this particular model that everyone agrees with And so it was a universal theme. So it made it in here. And this is this is a basic. Who's got quote six? Okay, this is a this is a basic school finance thing in other words If we're saying educate these kids get them to the standard and they've got Certain requirements that they need academically give them the resources to get there. I mean that was a That was everywhere. I mean Melda O'Bleather retired sanitary independent school teacher quote six These students are capable. They can do the work. It's just their English That's the challenge in every other way. They're on top of their game Just as gifted and it feels like we're punishing them We're failing them really It's a good question and I don't have The best answer for you. I don't have the magic answer, but I will tell you that There's two things that I think are happening here One is that as quiet as it's kept education happens to be the top if not one of the top three Issues for most people It really is and yet at the same time. There's a resignation That we can't do anything about it Right and so no one's really talking about it. No one's really trying to talk about it I mean that and I'll look you guys and I'm partisan. I'm not Well, let's talk about the election for a minute. Let's just assume that there have been three major candidates, right? Trump Clinton Bernie Who's talked about this issue of the three of them? Not really Bernie Bernie Bernie and talking about education But like and I'm gonna hit on Bernie I'm just saying that Bernie's Bernie's discussion of education starts with people who've already finished college debt, right So my point is that there's there's a resignation and look by the way, that's leaps and bounds what the other two are doing So right I'm just saying that I'm just saying that people have sort of given up on the issue generally We're happy to fight small battles, but what's interesting is that that's where the disconnect between politics and people are Is because when you talk to people That's what they care about when I was running for city council street sidewalks graffiti stray dogs Hi, I'm Diego. How are you nice to meet you? I'm running to be your city councilman. What's your biggest issue education? I got it all the time and I had to say it's not really our purview But that they didn't they didn't care about that you asked the question. That was their answer Right and just just to be clear The city council district is about 70% of the Texas house district There's just a resignation So I think that if we start demanding it and also in this country education is also I don't mean to lecture you guys, but Education is also one of those things where the inequality is the most obvious It is the most you'll notice. There's no stats here because we know that you can see it with the naked eye, right? My Jefferson AP story alone Sort of clarifies that this is what they said What the educator said was look if you want to give me a certified teacher grade are they better than the other teachers? I'm not so sure but when it comes to language and it comes to special education those Certifications seem to matter most in other words if I'm trying to predict If I'm trying to predict who's gonna have the most success you can't know for sure But what they said and I'm just reporting what they said what they said was in those two instances you have a higher likelihood of success and so Yes No, you're right, and I was I was clumsy about that, but the special populations of students were Well, that's that's sort of what we mean is is you know ELL English language learners special ed kids We have a whole we have a whole section here about homeless kids, which I didn't know about so we do mean to subdivide them that way Yeah, you're right. Okay, so as More and more let's call them general ed teachers find themselves with special ed students and other students in their classrooms They're telling me I love having them. They're great kids But I don't feel prepared to have them in the classroom. I don't feel like I got good training Someone didn't sit down with me and tell me here's a trigger. Here's a warning sign. Here's how to deal with it Here's the kind of professional development that you need. Here's who on campus you should call in case you have an issue They're not getting it. And so you've got this really unfortunate situation of well-intentioned teachers Who are not prepared? It's not they don't care. It's not that they don't they're not trying. It's just that we haven't given them what they need All right. Okay, so another Sort of moment of Diego didn't know what he's talking about at the beginning of this In my mind a homeless student was a student who's sort of living in a van under a bridge Let's remember that San Antonio is essentially it's a very sort of working-class poor city We are the most economically segregated city in the entire country at least major city if My mom and I get evicted But we're staying with my aunt. We're homeless If we're in a house that doesn't have running water or electricity What's the difference? right the way that the federal government defines homelessness is Is much more I think accurate than what we have in our mind and yet at a district And state level we're not allocating the resources necessary to help educate and bring up this very special population and by the way You may be thinking like I did that this population is One percent two percent three percent of the student population were wrong There's I mean they're scratching the double digits in that definition and so and so I Just didn't know this But as we talked to the educators. They said you've got to help us with this You've got to help us with these students because they're challenging. They need lots of help But just like every other student. They're just as bright just as smart ready to go But we're not we're not really serving them properly So we included that because it was important and it was universal. Yes You're right and part of this exercise for me is to do that is to do that for them So the comment was I hear you the comment was because they're they're trying to capture it the comment was that Just I'll give the clip from its version the comment was that Even when we try to count these students, we're not doing it the right way We don't have the right folks doing the count and then that count doesn't make its way to legislators So we know that there's something that we need to fix and do something with So Legislative is not having a clue is a theme that we should all just assume is universal throughout the issues, right? I Think it's important to start. I will say I want to be clear about this. I am not saying that districts are not trying That's not what I'm saying when you meet the people at each district who are responsible for dealing with and interacting and Servicing these kids. These are saints. They are superheroes But then when you have the question the conversation with them about how much support they get That's where And how many how much resources they get that's where it really becomes clear. Oh Do you want to sure okay, thanks all right testing again, that's from another visit, which is good It's just a good picture. I think that's pretty obvious right My own philosophy is that testing should be a diagnostic We should do it during the year to figure out where someone is and then use That information to guide the rest of the year, so we're filling in gaps and getting the class to the same place You know, I talked to the Education Commissioner and I said to him what professional takes an exam cold Everybody studies for exam everybody crams for an exam That's just what exams are if you create a situation where the exam is so high stakes and everything is resting on it Whether the kid promotes what kind of teacher you are what kind of principal you are what kind of campus you have It's a pressure cooker and it doesn't make any sense Who is seven? This one speaks for itself. How do you expect to get teachers the superstars You want us to bring in or even the young ones we know we'll get to come to the toughest schools When they know that the risk of being labeled a bad or unsuccessful teacher is so much higher Okay Think about it You're a teacher You want to do good work? You want to go to a school that you know really needs you and could use you at the same time because of the challenges that that school You know the turnarounds don't happen in one year. It takes time and effort but if you know that though you're gonna struggle or have struggles with those students and Then you'll be saddled with their scores and that might affect your career trajectory or longevity That that effort becomes radioactive you stay away because in your effort to help people you're hurting yourself We make it hard for them and so we have to find a way to loosen those screws so that we can have the best folks Come in and just do their best and not worry about Their career trajectory right just let them be teachers. All right Who's got quoting what are they grading? How much do you want about the grades line up with how much money the schools get? Why a through F? We're using the language children use They may not know the exact meaning of needs improvement, but they all know what an F is You want them to walk around thinking that they and their friends earned the school enough way to go Thanks, so if this isn't clear the legislature passed the bill last session that would start to rate campuses with letter grades just Putting my social worker head on for a second. We are using the language of kids of students They may not know they may know that needs improvement needs improvement, but they don't know where that is on the scale Every student after kindergarten knows what an F is what F means or a D or a C or an A So then when you saddle them When you brand them with that letter grade who knows what it does to them psychologically Who knows it does them emotionally who knows what it does to the way they look at their own classmates their own teachers on their own campus So as I went to the schools, I heard this a lot. All right Who's got quote nine? I don't see why a student has to fail the exam three times before we can decide if they move on It leaves them defeated because they're in a much better place when they started the school year But somehow that's not enough Building the exam over and over drives home their feelings of being different or just not as smart as the other students So there is confusion Among districts about what to do with special ed testing There's a moment where someone can demonstrate a year or two years worth of growth Right over the course of one academic year and yet the district can still require them to test over and over again And only after they've exhausted the three examine like the three administrations of the examination will the district call the It's a group of the ARD group together to decide whether that student promotes So all we're all we're saying here is that for special ed kids and other students that we should be focused more on their growth Then whether or not they pass this exam That's what we're focusing on if you start if I'm a fifth grader and I started the year reading at a second grade level And at the end of the year, I'm at a fourth grade level Whether or not I pass the star is Arbitrary and we need to make sure that districts are aware If they can have a conversation about what to do with that child and we also need to make sure that the laws and the policies reflect that freedom All right cool. All right Remember we were talking about time On this side we're talking about paperwork and a minute administrative stuff. This is the other half, right? We've got quotes in Call it whatever you want socio-economically disadvantaged Free and reduced lunch title one at risk These students are poor. They don't come with the same advantages middle-class students come with But they do come with different problems more challenges and more work They're just as smart just as bright, but you have to get through all these life issues before you can get to the learning If you don't do that Help them with life. If you don't see that then you can't expect them to meet the same standards as everyone else Treat the child as a human and what you're left with and What the teacher is left with is a student who is ready to learn and you heard me say that earlier. Thank you You heard me say that earlier That's what this is about the the campuses that have doubled down on social services Have found that the economic the economic the academic gains That are made are noticeable substantial and certainly worth it And so we're saying as it relates to time because you just want more instruction time that this serves two purposes You're serving the kid and you're giving teachers more time To teach I don't know what I'd do without her the family specialist I can't imagine it don't want to honestly. I need to more will you please make that happen? Some some schools and districts are very good about this some are sort of slowly learning their lesson But for the campuses that have them they swear by them. Let's go to the next one to get those in the gap Okay, that's pretty easy. They should all work together So if you have all these things happening at the same campus that needs to be locked in talking to each other Communicating I'll give you a good example. There's one campus where they have on campus suspension So if a kid get kicked out of school, they start in school so During that week that they're kicked out They're getting the same work at the same time as their classmates in the class They're supposed to be in so when they finally get back in the school back in the class that I miss to be right It's coordinated. Let's go to the other one, but going back to your quote Let's talk about the difference between a position that's not professionalized That is hourly where they can't have with their big getting paid hourly Or Sorry, I'm listening. They're not allowed to work before after school They're not eligible for overtime and they're at if they do move around. It's flex time They have to put in for it versus someone whose salary. It's professionalized But they can work before and after school they can do home visits they can work at night And and they have the resources they need To really interact with the students parents and the community and the way I describe it is in The schools that don't have a professionalized position you go somewhere and you'll find You'll find someone who is doing a great job and they're acting as a social worker and then that same position at another campus they're Cutting out snowflakes for the Christmas program because it's not standardized. Oh Let's go back. Okay. The best example. This is John Reagan High School in Austin They were about to Get their doors shut by TEA the principal said hey, give me a minute Give me just give me a couple years to try something new and if it if it works great And if it doesn't shut me down and what she did what she brought in all of these social services to the school and Just to give you an example John Reagan High School looks most like Bracken Ridge High School black and brown High immigrant population English language learner population Right working class in fact Brack now has a nicer school of newer school Then John Reagan because of the bond did I mean all of a sudden is it is it Harvard? No, but They went from the fifth percentile to the 30th percentile Their graduation rates are way around 95% and above by one measure. They'd one dropout last year So it works the challenge though is that they didn't do that with state money State money city money Foundations it took a lot But they did it All right pre-k is not a luxury anymore. It's a necessity if we want our kids to make it I mean, it's pretty straightforward. It's pre-k matter. Yes, if you're getting if you're getting a student who's been in school For a year they know what it's like to be in a school setting They understand lessons they understand routines They understand when it's time to to be in class to go to recess to have lunch And then you mix that with kids who are leaving home for the very first time And this is and I'm not even talking about the academics right not talking about Letters and words Numbers and math you have to make pre-k a universal offering if you want Things to improve. Yes There are very very few people. I mean most people who don't send their kids Yeah, sure Sure, and that I mean that happens in a variety situations that happens When kids you know are in one school and go to another that happens when kids are homeschooled and go to Public or private school and that happens whether someone's going from a charter to a public school or sometimes to a public to a charter I mean it it It's different, but what's here is here because it was said You know about at least 46 times. So that that's why it's there. Yes Sure Sure Yes Yeah, okay, so the the question was why is why is pre-k? income-based I think that Because Government has not just made the decision to make pre-k Universal for everybody. There's all these different programs and grants That sort of determine who gets in and who doesn't some folks can afford to send their kids to a private pre-k The ones that are offered with government money often have income requirements Our point though is that when those kids who have those different those different experiences get to kindergarten The differences are so great that at one it's unmanageable But two the kindergarten teacher does not want to create a sort of bifurcated or dual classroom For the pre-k kids and then I'm pre-k kids. They kind of need each other To bring each other up to par and keep going But what they're saying is the differences are so vast the canyon between the two is so great that Pre-k and the and the academic benefits are so great that universal pre-k is really the way to go So the way one was this talk to kindergarten kindergarten teacher. Hi. I'm Diego. Thanks for saying down with me tell me just pre-k matter Yes, it does off. They went right Okay 13 I got a grant to buy new computers So in the library, you'll see a nice cart full of 78 brand new Chromebooks Problem is we can't really turn them on Chromebooks Chromebooks only work if they're connected to the internet the wiring here can barely handle what we have now Add 78 Chromebooks and it's completely tapped out can't handle all the devices on it once so they just sit there off the point of this quote is To sort of demonstrate another blind spot that I had I thought that when it came to technology in public schools It was always a hardware issue Right. Do you have enough iPads? What kind of computer do you have? What is it running? Are we still running Windows XP, right? I was completely blind to this phenomenon where sometimes not always sometimes they actually have The hardware they have the technology, but they don't have the infrastructure They don't have the build the Wi-Fi wiring to have them all on at once and by the way I want to be clear some of you may be thinking as we read these that all these quotes are from here They're not Okay, this one in particular is from somewhere here They had 78 Chromebooks for those of you who don't know what a Chromebook is It's like a small starter laptop that only works if it's connected to the internet. Otherwise, it is a dead device They got 78 new ones. They're beautiful. The school is very small We've gone a very very long way that could have had two classrooms at a time using them But there's no way they can turn them all on at once and so they are just beautiful lovely paperweights It was the infrastructure in the building itself that determined whether or not they could use the technology and so That that was shocking to me, but it's also something that I had not thought about. Yes, ma'am Sure, the the comment was we could have given the school a grant with strings attached and they could have used it for that or something more useful I mean one of the things that that is certainly true is that we learned that the hierarchy in the school district is very complex We also learned that most people are terrified of their superiors and that was one of the reasons why it was hard for them to talk with us It took a long time, but Oh, is there another question? Okay, but you're you're right I think that that one of the challenges is how much discretion do you give to a principal for a campus? And how much is sort of maintained by their superiors and then are their superiors paying attention? Close enough, and I'm including school board members in this to what's happening at each campus Yes, I'll get to that at the end, but the the short answer is two things one is I've teased all the politics out of this So if my Republican colleague in Odessa goes and talks to his educators and they say yeah, this is true for us, too Educators know desa and the educators in San Antonio seem the same thing It starts to become a mandate because there's no there's nothing in it. The other thing is that yes It costs money, but what we're also trying to do is to say we're not saying throw money at the problem It's a great phrase of use all the time throw money at the problem. You can't throw money at the problem. Okay, well I've given you some very Discreet pragmatic ways to spend money, right? So instead of you feeling like you're just giving money you're throwing money to this black abyss You can actually use it in a very strategic ways in ways that educators have told you will make a difference But the third thing I guess is that I'm not sure that we're using all the money We have in the most strategic way, and I'll get to that I'm not saying that that's instead of But let's remember We got a Supreme Court decision that said the way that we fund school finance is okay And then this week we found out that Texas is working with a billion dollars less There's not gonna be a lot of excitement to spend more on anything. So I'm looking at I'm trying to be Nonpartisan I'm trying to say if you want to spend more money and we should spend it in these ways And even if you're not gonna spend more money, let's figure out how to make sure the money We do have is spent in a way that makes the most sense or makes the biggest difference And we'll get to that. I think that's pretty straightforward Right people need to know what they're doing You don't want someone figuring out what an iPad is or touchscreen for the first time in their life when they're 10 or 11 Keep going please All right This is funny because this slide so spend money on materials that teachers need and use and Then we we follow that up with a photograph of a bunch of kids learning how to DJ on digital turntables So ignore the picture. It's just there for comedic effect But this goes to part of what we were talking about and that's textbooks. I Didn't know this You know, I turned 40 this year When I was growing up textbook was the roadmap. It was the blueprint for the school year. That's not the case anymore Right. It is one of many tools that educators use many of them may not touch a textbook for months on end Some use them a lot. I heard math people math teachers use them all the time. Okay, math. You're good But other folks may not use their textbook that much at all and yet We're spending millions and millions and millions of dollars on textbooks. And so the for example the The educational materials allotment There's a number of things you can spend that money on But personnel like social workers or the teacher isn't one of them. So what does it look like? We're working ourselves through I'm not ready to say we're going to do it But what does it look like if we loosen the screws on that law and allow them to use some of that money on Personnel does that solve the inequalities not even close But there's a does it give them some of the ability to spend money in a way that would actually make a difference Does it move the needle it could and I want to make sure I'm not saying trade moving the needle and Do that instead of fighting for school finance. I'm saying it's both you have to do both at the same time Right while I'm trying to solve the school finance school equity issue at the same time in the meantime I'm trying to do things that make a difference in the classroom. Yes Everything you can think of they do so they're using the internet. They're creating their own materials They're borrowing materials from other teachers who have done it before and created their own materials So there's there's sort of a crowd sourcing Lesson plans and lesson materials and then there are also some things that are like textbooks, but they're not they're called Consumables so they're they're workbooks that the kids can take home and write on and then tear off and turn in but they're a lot cheaper Then the big bound textbooks. Yes So because I'm not doing my job very well her question was if they're not using textbooks, what are they doing? And that's why I gave the answer about they're using everything that's out there your comment was the teaks That's what we are asking students to know Sometimes if there's a a subject and there are teaks meaning the students have to know these seven or eight things By the end of the year. It's not seven native course, but many The corresponding textbook only gets to half of that That you actually have to supplement the textbook in order to get the kids to meet the state requirements Anyway, so even though we're spending state dollars on a resource the resource doesn't even get the students to where the state is requiring In the first place. Thank you for that. Okay. Who's got quote 14? Field trips make the world smaller and make more sense if we all go somewhere We have a common experience. I can draw on all year that makes sense to everybody We're almost done you guys a little bit didn't know this I Guess field trips really matter. I didn't know I That field trips for me were a chance to knock off and not be in class and meet girls. That's what they were for me But one teacher said if I could just get a Field trip in to create a common experience between my students that we can draw on all year That would make a big difference and I said, okay, you know, you're a nice sort of liberal hippie educator and Then just for fun. I asked that question Over and over and over and over and over again, and it was a resounding. Yes, they absolutely matter They mean a great deal. They help students contextualize their life. They create common experiences. They build community Some of the students Haven't gone more than a mile and a half outside of their of the radius of their school anyway so It matters the other thing is the other part of this is a philosophy that I heard quite a bit You know art and extracurriculars after schools are often the first to get cut But there is a philosophy that I heard over and over again that For a lot of students you need to give them one extra attachment or connection to school Aside from class and if you do that there's a higher likelihood that they will get through and thrive and Doesn't it could be art? It could be chess club. It could be football. It could be banned It could be campus cleanup You give them one extra thing to do one extra connection and it helps get them through There was one principle who said we would lay out the entire student body and make sure we knew What that extra thing was if there's a student who didn't have an extra thing when we went to them and said Here's nine things you want to do you might want to do which one works for you and they their goal is always to make sure There was an extra connection No, but they swear by it and the folks who do it swear that it works And I sort of found it to be a sort of beautiful We have really intuitive thing that unless you go and talk to these people at their schools You would never know that right. All right Okay, we're at the end This is the part I included it because it was universal and Mind-blowing and frustrating there are lots of hungry students In our city We have one of the best Finest most robust food bank operations on the entire planet and that is a bad thing Because that is supply meeting demand That's a takeaway from the leadership there But I went to a school and and when I walked in I knew the principal we were old friends And so it made it easier for us to talk and have a real conversation And she explained to me that while on this side of the graph This is from the school This this is a picture of what they prepared for me on this side are all these academic issues But on this side over here Food insecurity is the fancy word for hunger and you'll see next to that is 100 plus the campus itself is barely over 700 kids They identified a hundred kids not that we're hungry But a hundred kids that were so hungry that they had to put food in their backpack from Friday to Monday It's a program. They had at that campus So then after I was blown away by that I'd go to all the other schools and ask the question And I learned something even more disturbing and that is that the depth of that program is solely dependent upon How much the people at that school either care or are keyed into the problem? So at one school they've identified a hundred You go to another school that looks like that school or maybe is an area that's even more challenged and they've identified 10 Then you go to another school where you think the problem doesn't exist And it absolutely does and they've identified 80 and then you realize that You're doing a snack pack for kids. You're doing it with the food bank. You're doing it with Walmart You're doing with H.E.B. And there's no uniformity whatsoever at all It's It was and is infuriating to me So we have to acknowledge that there is a hunger problem in our city, I Can't speak to other jurisdictions But we actually have a proposal to work on this. Let's go to the next one. Who's got quote 15? Not easy to read. I'm sorry. I have a knot in my throat. I can get through it I didn't always know what to do With the hungry students who came to see me Later in the day because we're not allowed to give them cafeteria food after the lunch period There was one young man Who came to see me more than a few times a week? So with him I took I Took to us walking back and forth between the main Campus and one of the portables in the back. There was a pecan tree there So we'd walk back and forth And stop so he could pick And eat a few until he felt better So the one time where I struggled to keep it together on these visits was when The counselor told me that story very very very clear with you guys That story is not from down here It's it's from up here Right so The USDA has a supper program Where they can offer meals after school? One of the things that is not a legislative thing But a community thing is that we can advocate that as many schools Engaging that program as possible It doesn't cost them anything if your school that doesn't do it and then you decide to do it You're in the black because all the resources are there to pay for That's one thing we go to the next slide, please So so we act the end of this section is me telling you exactly what our legislation That would do that how it works But before that I'm gonna rail on the adults who've allowed this to exist for a very long time and who should No, no, no, I got it. Who's got 16? There's a little girl about seven who walks herself four blocks to school every Monday She comes early and waits right outside the door waiting for it to open so she can run into the cafeteria And get breakfast We know she doesn't get much food or good food on the weekends. We can tell thanks And just going back going back to that time is the most important thing that an educator has Imagine what it's like when you've got students coming to class on Monday who haven't had what that's like for you What it's like for the the other kids when it's like for that kid Let's go to the next one All right to your question to your question, which is super intuitive It is Unconscionable it is a tragedy and It is a failure of leadership that we have not solved this problem yet or tried to I had a district tell me that One reason why they don't stockpile food to give to their hungry kids is because they have a rodent problem District why a lot of violent person? But I wanted to find somebody Here's our solution to this and remember Young in terms of legislative years Democrat Right, what what can we do to solve this? Here's our first solution We have a bill that has three prongs It starts with an acknowledgement of the Good Samaritan Act Which is a federal law that allows nonprofits to come to schools and collect leftover food The way it works now in a lot especially in Texas that a nonprofit can come to your school collect the food And then they take it back to wherever they're at Let's say it's the food bank to take it back to the food bank, and then they redistribute it But it doesn't make sense if this is all a school and this side of the room is all hungry kids Who are getting the Friday to Monday? backpack stuffing program whoever it is and This is the cafeteria that while we're doing this We're throwing away hundreds if not thousands of pounds of food Every week right so our bill Works like this good Samaritan Act prong one of three prongs prong one is You allow a district employee a teacher a Counselor custodian to be a designee of a nonprofit, and they don't have to be food based nonprofits by the way so there's a moment where they can put on their food bank or Boy Scout whatever it might be right Green Lantern fan club They can put on their nonprofit hat. That's prong one prong two is that the school You can use the school to house keep and store the food It's what's called a permissive bill, which means we're not making them doing it We're giving them permission to do we're clearing the path for them to do it So we're not telling them which food they have to keep One school can spend five hundred thousand dollars and get coolers to keep every single thing of course It all has to comply with federal state and local health codes But another school doesn't have that capacity can say look we're just gonna start with the bottled water and apples and oranges fine Do something So prong two is that you can use the school to storehouse and keep the food and The third part the third prong is you can also use the school as a staging area to redistribute that food It does not have to leave campus It can stay on campus and go back into the hands of the kids who need it Is it designed to take the place or or eliminate the programs? No But it could or it could supplement them or it could grow the number of kids you're giving food to or if we're being honest Some of these programs some of these backpack stuffing programs if you look at the food that's in those packs. It's a diabetes starter kit So I agree that Some food is better than no food, but you're then hurting them in another way There's one that's it's chocolate milk and gummy bears and Slim Jim Pop-tart. I'm not making this up. It's on the internet, you know, so Throw an apple in there with our law and do something, but that's that is our own Legislative answer Look, there are some bills We think we can carry like this one because they're slam dunks and there are other bills to address these issues that we know and hope Our Republican colleagues will pick up and run with because if we do it on our own doesn't have the same shot Yes There can be contracts her question was her comment was her understanding was that there was a the contract between the school and the supplier That prevents them from redistributing the food and there's also a sort of federal There's a federal element having to do with the way that the federal government Recognizes what a meal is but There's nothing that prevents if I if I give you a tray and it's got let's say lasagna an Apple and orange a slice of bread some milk you only eat The lasagna and the milk there's nothing that prevents the school Well, there's nothing I should prevent the school now that it prevents the school from taking that leftover food and engaging in the Good Samaritan Act to allow a Food bank to collect it because they're not losing out on any money They're not it's not interfering with this sort of the meal counting right because the meal was served after the meal served Right Don't ask don't tell But but our point is that that leftover meal It could travel 25 miles to the south to someone else or could go 25 feet to a kid At the same school who could use it. Yes, and these children are coming to our after-school program and are getting fed and Are using our computers and are able to engage with all That they do not have at home We're there until six o'clock in the afternoon. It's a free program That food that he's talking about also gets to these kids Food bank donates to us We give out food all the time But there's more to that than just the food These children are coming in asking for a mentor. They're asking for help. They're asking for Psychological help. They're asking for just about anything they need and they're not afraid to ask. Trust me I Handled one department that I focused in on earlier that you mentioned maximizing the opportunities which was a header for most of your stuff. Am I right? Maximizing the opportunities is exactly what you all need to do every school district. I Didn't know this. I'm from Corpus Christi. So I'm an implant 117 schools are just in the north's side independent school district 117 Like you I visit all of them. I Handle interpretation translation services There's more than just a bilingual culture in San Antonio. It's a hotbed for languages We found out early on that The teachers the school districts needed to help with these children Not only to explain to them what they were going to learn or what they were needing to learn but to explain to their parents Who do not speak English of what they needed whether it was a vaccine whether it was paperwork with whatever We are now in about every school district including Judson shirts so below Elmo Heights and Above and beyond every school district that you represent here We are in every school with a contract with the school district Helping out each child that can speak a different language that does not speak English very well We do have ESL classes English as a second language and they're free Imagine that There are other charities, please don't look at this. It's just Catholic charities There are other charities out there that have Simulate similar programs and they are willing to help If you find a charity within your school district that would like to help all you have to do is ask We go knocking on every door and because we represent one particular charity. Sometimes we're accepted. Sometimes we're not There's a lot of different charities out there that are willing to help willing to jump in We have a foster grandparent program. We stipend the foster grandparent program. We pay them To go to your classes and help you out. They're not they're retired teachers They're not even teachers some in some cases, but they're just there to help out In case you need them, please use your resources Great I'm gonna use your comments to sort of highlight a frustration. I have do you guys know how many school districts are in the city? Just a city. That's right 15 16 right and then You've got all the campuses in each district creating contractual relationships with a Popory a smattering of nonprofits For a variety of different things At a certain point There has to be some level of standardization of services Maybe not of who provides the service, but that the services are there this sort of one-off model almost guarantees that The students who are at the schools and in district the least resources get the least help There has to be something standardized here. So I think I hit These three I think we talked about it, right? Get the report into the hands of other legislators have them talk to their own educators Because nothing in here is my opinion There's nothing here where you're getting the only thing that that you'll get for me is the Supreme Court ruling was absurd I think it's the only thing that we say Otherwise, it's just a collection of stuff that people said so if you don't like it if you disagree with it Don't talk to me. I'm not the one Go argue with those educators about their everyday experience Good luck with that Right, so that's why when I was talking about politics and being non-partisan It's it these educators don't care that I'm a Democrat and they don't care if someone's Republican Hey, they all they care about are these students and how well these students can do and they all believe that they have Or innately the ability to thrive and succeed and so That's what I'm asking is that you take the politics out of it Because honestly like you were saying it's gotten us nowhere right so So get into the hands of other educators and then you know, let's let's sort of see what happens I recognize where I am on the food chain politically But the office and I've got great people working alongside me those folk we treat every issue like it's got a shot we sort of run it until It can't yes I'm just saying that there is some research out there And there can probably be more research done in the state of Texas about the connection the link between inadequacy of food and performance and the standards are so high and the pressures are so high in the state of Texas But we're still underperforming and so naturally you would hope that logic would lead everybody to understand, you know that Connection and then the other thing too is that I do I do see and I've been privileged to work with a lot of these grassroots Organizations that do help provide a lot of after-school programs and incentives For the students and the families and the schools But the policy still is inadequate and it's not we're not even scratching the surface of the needs from what you've shown us today No, she's right if My only goal of my sole goal as a legislator was to continue to beat the drum on school finance and That's all I did. That is a worthy thing to do that is a worthwhile use of my time and it has to be done But I actually have more capacity than that. I can do that and this I try in the meantime try to find ways One to improve classrooms in a strategic way But also we can use this to guide our school finance conversations because what most of the legislators here when we talk about school finance is Just more money. We're not talking about how that money is going to be used We're not talking about what that money is going to buy. We're not talking about the way that money translates into More resources and better performance For our students it can be both I'm perfectly comfortable with using this as a roadmap to shepherd a conversation on school finance But it's tough. Yes, so the question was What can communities do to provide more services to get more service to improve the schools? I'll give you my own opinion It's not in here so report time is over The equal time starts One is that Public education is absolutely the responsibility of every level of government This idea that oh, I'm a city council person So I can't talk about it or I'm a county commissioner I can't talk about it or I'm a congress person And so all I can do is talk about moving mountains of money around but I can't get to the campus level is false right that absolves us of responsibility and Maybe one of the reasons why we can't get any movement is because even if even the people who are well-meaning Are kicking the can I visited every school as a city councilman for different reason, right? I said hey, I'm a city councilman. I want to help Love to move through PTA members Maybe there's a way that we can help out with Programming or or connecting you with nonprofits. It was it was different But I recognized that it's important. I think you saw our last mayor who you do the same thing But my point is that I believe that public education is a responsibility of every level of government And if they all work together on it, then there's all these opportunities to bring the community in To help out one of the great remember I was talking about the professionalized salaried Kind of social worker type employee Their job is not academic. They don't do tutoring Right, they don't do after-school Academic mentorship they're there to help with with Someone not having clothes someone not having food dealing with utilities and in doing so They are working in tandem with the school and the principal and the teachers and the parents to create a team Around the kids and I will tell you at these schools where they have very very good folks who do that You also find a very very active and demanding PTA Right and trust me You think you see the angry neighborhood association waste you go to PTA a PTA meeting Neighborhood association says we want more sidewalks. Okay you get 60 parents saying we need more sidewalks, right or What are we gonna do about this leftover food or? We have one family specialist. We need more or how is it right that we don't have a school nurse when those folks organize? It's it's powerful, but those those wraparound services bleed out of the school and into the community So I think that there's a there's a benefit like a social political benefit I mean lowercase P political a political benefit to having those folks because they bleed out of the school and into the community Yes, ma'am. I want to thank you for what you've done Because I've been barking. I feel like I've been barking at the wrong tree for many years like I've been I've gone to Austin I've gone to the school board the principal's like our bilingual students have different even different needs and I'm wondering if you I'm the one that put can you put this in Spanish please? Can you put this in Spanish on your Facebook? And I'm here to also offer you my two languages Because I really think parents need to be involved and some parents do get put off if It doesn't say Spanish will be spoken and I have three kids back there And if you can provide childcare for some, you know, I don't know how far How you know, I don't know what your vision is, but I hope it's like a long-term vision and if that's that's the case Then you need to think of parents bilingual parents or monolingual parents and parents with children Thank you. Thank you. I will tell you that you're right We're sort of learning as we go and in all honesty and folks who know me can say this my wife is here She can tell you I'm kind of a blunt instrument So I sort of have an idea of what I want to do and I go after it and then people are saying hey You sort of forgot this or you should include that or have you considered x y and z and so as we move forward We will Let me get him and I'll get you so I appreciate that so what he said was we should add that every San Antonio and every resident should walk into their neighborhood school and see what's going on and ask questions You'll notice that I Think there's a longer Sort of school board conversation that we can have at a different time. There's a longer school board conversation to have I think that I'm I'm I it was a privilege to walk into these schools and visit with people I Did hear a lot that I was the first one to do that in a long time at any level And that's sort of shocking to me, but that sort of goes to a previous point. I made which is Education tends to be one of the top three things that people really really care about and there's also a resignation That we can't do anything about it and even at a minimum We're not even holding the people who make the promises to us Accountable for giving it their best shot Right and that bothers me There was another hand up with just to answer your question That's why we're here. I mean we volunteered our services. We have a language scenario, we will have over 140 languages that we can reach out to and we try to help out as much as we can we're Advocates for education bottom line. So we want to make sure everybody knows Facebook and then we had translators here just in case Yeah, sorry Sorry Yes Antonio handles a lot of those issues they handle the basic needs for the child They handle the social emotional needs that which gives teachers more time and we're a solution that falls outside the school finance funding formula We're actually a legislative line item in TEA's budget yet in the LAR that TEA just published They're recommending a 15% cut to programs like specifically to communities in schools Which provides those crucial wraparound services for our students? So I'm saying there is maybe not the whole solution But part of the solution that we can impact it without changing the school finance formula and we need to talk with our TEA commissioner and our Speaker Strauss and Lieutenant Governor Patrick because those are the individuals that can influence the budget and get the resources Back into the budget to help our teachers do the very tough job that they have to do great I've kept you guys here a long time Some of us hadn't had their tacos yet Are there any other? Questions I happy to take them. I'll hang out for a little bit afterwards But look you guys I have learned through this that education is something that people care about But it's very hard to get people together to talk about it And I think part of that is because there's a resignation that we can't change anything I'd like to I'd like to change that narrative. Yes stating Everything needs to be thrown away right after breakfast Um administration disciplinary action will be taken if we walk in a Walkthrough and we see food out. How do you deal with that with the Good Samaritan? It's a good question And I don't know and I don't want you to say right now what school or district you're from But I will say that very often District policy Does not line up and is more restrictive than what the law actually allows a Lot of folks are so petrified of upsetting their superiors Or the lawyers who are just looking at the world as a world of liability That they err on the side of caution And they're so cautious That they start to do things That only don't make sense But that sort of fly in the face of human decency and I suspect that's what you're dealing with more than a law Okay, you guys Yes I've heard that there's a strong daycare lobby That it really is opposed to public financing of pre-k and and those kind of things so We talk about some school administrators. My general question is How do we identify the opposition? Because that's kept very quiet So so I'll admit to you that I've never come across the the dark forces of the daycare lobby just yet But I have encountered the textbook lobby Um, which is like the one Like capital p political body that all the educators were aware of the textbook lobby They knew about them And knew that a lot of the reason they believe a lot of reason what we have So many textbooks and spent so much money on them that we're not using is because of the lobby Um And then and then the other the other very strong lobby in public ed Tends to be the ones that coincide with policy perspectives that elected folks like Dan Patrick have so the charter school lobby is very strong The public the private school lobby is very strong the home school lobby is very strong and the The public school lobby looks a lot like like public school employees. They're sort of like this rag tag group of folks, but they're they're good um, but I don't it's To me it's not Who are the other players? It's it's really where do they get the information that what they're Because what they're saying is what we believe we believe this will work more than this works Right, and so they'll say things like you can't throw money at the problem We always hear that right and I always respond to them with when have we ever tried to do that? Tell me the moment where we actually funded education the way that we think that we should and we saw how it went We've never done it. It's never happened So, um, I believe there's more at work. I will say this if there is a dollar to be made Right whether some of the charter schools some of the textbooks folks some of the public schools Right some some of the reasons why they are the way they are with food is because they're money attached to food Right, and if you make sure you throw all the food away, then you get reimbursed for that entire meal So whatever there's a buck to be made You'll find Powerful strong forces. Yes, you got a handsome look there guy I would watch that show and think man if only a superintendent or school board would would kind of go undercover into the schools and um You know the reason that it's important. I think what you did and I hope I don't know if you're Trying to twist the arms of your fellow legislators to get them to do the same thing, but uh It's I often run into the macro micro issue. So when I'm talking to somebody about well, this is what I see as a teacher A lot of times They tended to dismiss that and it's not just legislators sometimes it's superintendents as well as well You don't really get the macro picture You're more at the micro level and I think what you're trying to do here is talk about how they fit together and um That that you can't really do the mic the macro without understanding the micro Thank you. You said that better than I ever could you're hired. Um, he's right right You want to talk about school finance? I want to talk about things that we can do the class to make it better Maybe this can guide our conversations about this and take the politics out of it. I think that's exactly right Other questions before we wrap up Okay, you guys we appreciate it very much Um, if there are any groups that you're a part of that want this presentation privately, we're happy to do it Um, we've we've gotten some requests from pta's I actually gave it to an entire group of teachers from a particular campus that wanted it because they knew I had visited their campus I'm happy to do that But more than anything this is a work in progress We learn things all the time and as we learn things we may have to change and adjust what's in here because it be So we hit that critical moment where it's so ubiquitous that it makes its way in so Don't be surprised if there's a version two or version three later on But I really appreciate you guys coming out on a saturday. It means a great deal to me And um, let's just sort of keep the conversation going. All right. Thank you very much