I look forward to working hard for the school children of Harris County. My focus will be to expand the Head Start program and eliminate the waiting lists that now deprive children of their possibility of success.
President-Elect Obama has a dynamic plan to improve public education and we will continue to use this web site to keep you informed of these new initiatives as they begin in Harris County. Please invite those interested in public education to join our e-mail list.
If you'll open today's paper, you'll see that the Houston Chronicle has endorsed me for the Harris County Department of Education.
The endorsement:
"Recently retired from two decades at Lanier Middle School, Henley was a revered teacher of history and debate. His power and originality as a debate coach led the Lanier debate team to win national championships five times between 2003 and 2007.
Henley shows the same dedication in his proposals for at-large Position 7. He pledges to expand programs and reduce waiting lists for early childhood education, scour the budget to ensure all county education tax dollars are well-used and insists on accountability from administrators, educators and families to stanch the county's devastating 40 percent dropout rate."
Stan Stanart
Partisan politics, religious and cultural agendas have no place in public education. So why would candidates opposed to public education seek to control local and state school boards of education? For the past several years, religious conservatives have been running for and have been elected to school boards in Texas and across the United States. Recruited by a coalition of conservative groups such as The Christian Coalition and Focus On the Family, candidates are trained to downplay their agenda while seeking office. Please read the reasons Mr. Stanart gives for his candidacy to a select radio audience of listeners in January of this year. (Stanart in His Own Words)
Stan Stanart tells why he seeks to serve on the Harris County Department of Education (HCDE) Board of Trustees. (www.thewhatsupradioprogram.com - January 29, 2008. See Archives: guest, Stan Stanart for recorded interview).
Terry Lowery, Radio Host: As a citizen, why seek a position that doesn't pay anything...no one knows what you are doing, why seek it?
Stan Stanart: For a number of years, I have been chairman of the Northwest Harris County Christian Coalition...I served three terms as President of the Cherry Hill Republicans...I am the Executive Director of CLOUT (Citizens for Lowering our Unfair Taxes). I have political connections that can put visibility to the Board. You know, do we even need to do away with the whole thing? Something I am highly entertaining at this time. I will use this position to bring conservative voices to every ISD school board in the county. I will help the conservative voice be loud and strong, we can have our conservative values pushed into these positions of leadership.
What was not mentioned among Stanart's reasons for running for HCDE Board of Trustees:
What are these "conservative values” that Stanart plans to push into these positions of leadership?
I would love to debate these issues with Mr. Stanart, but he is unwilling to share his agenda with the voters of Harris County. My opening line in a debate would be “My Christian faith teaches me that we must ensure that every child have the educational opportunity to reach his/her God given potential."
I have invited Stan Stanart to debate the future of The Harris County Department of Education as candidates for the Trustee of the Harris County Department of Education At-Large Position 7.
Many voters may be unaware of the campaign for At-Large Position 7, as this is a presidential election year that brings many distractions.
This past March Stan defeated the long serving President of the Harris County Department of Education Trustees in the Republican primary.
Traditionally, trustees have been non-partisan citizen volunteers who support public education.
In a radio interview prior to the Republican primary, Stanart stated that he was "highly entertaining doing away with the board".* When asked by the conservative radio interviewer why he sought the office of trustee, Stanart gave a list of reasons, including being a Christian, a Republican activist, and leader of CLOUT (Citizens for Lowering Our Taxes). In his response, Stanart never mentioned education, schools, or children.
I hope that you would agree with me that the elimination of the Harris County Department of Education is an issue that should be publicly discussed and debated prior to Election Day. Hopefully he will accept the invitation to debate the future of the Harris County Department of Education.
A series of three debates held across Harris County will provide voters with the opportunity to make an informed decision when they cast their ballot in the next few weeks.
I have stated that I am flexible on dates and venues and will work with Stan to schedule these debates during the month of October.
* (www.thewhatsupradioprogram.com - January 29, 2008. See Archives: guest, Stan Stanart for recorded interview).
I just attended the regular monthly board meeting of the HCDE. There are two items of interest. First was the discussion of the Head Start Program which is operated by HCDE and is funded by the federal government. The program serves about 1,180 children in a part of the county that includes portions of the congressional districts of Ted Poe, Gene Green, & Al Green. It seems that the federal requirement for head start teachers has been raised from an associate degree ( 2 yrs of college) to a bachelor degree. Great idea, of course, unless you realize that the current pay for Head Start teachers is around $26,000 a year. The new requirement of 4 years of college rather than 2 is not accompanied by an increase in salary. School districts in Harris County are scrambling for teachers and are paying a starting salary of $46,000-50,000. Unable to compete for teachers, HCDE is faced with eliminating Head Start or continuing a program that will fail to meet mimimum standards. Remember that success in early childhood education is the leading indicator of whether a student completes high school. No wonder we are facing 40 - 50% drop out rates in Texas's major cities. Solution? Raise qualifications AND salaries of Head Start teachers. Investing in early childhood education is just common sense. It is an investment that will produce contributing citizens and taxpayers and eliminate the shame and cost of being ranked #1 in the world in the incarceration of our citizens. The second item of interest was the hiring of an attorney to remove trustee Michael Wolfe from the board. We will discuss this item soon! I would like to hear your thoughts!
The Republican nominees Stan Stanart (my opponent) and Mike Riddle (Debbie Kerner's opponent) have indicated that they may favor the elimination of the agency. Is The HCDE an unnecessary duplicate government agency that wastes tax payer money? The election will revolve around this question. As a 20 year veteran teacher & debate coach, I do not want to see one educational dollar wasted. Administrative costs must be kept to a mimimum and the greatest per cent of each dollar visible in the classroom. So, in the coming weeks, I will continue to explore the mission and the budget of The HCDE and present my finding to you through this website. There is however one thing of which I am already certain. There has been a concerted state wide campaign opposing public education in Texas in the past few years. I am a strong supporter of public schools because 90% of Texas children are enrolled in them! I do not support the status quo in public education which currently sees between 4 & 5 of every 10 students in Texas major cities fail to graduate from high school. I would like to hear your opinions, questions and suggestions about this campaign in particular and public education in general. You are most welcome to join this conversation!
