Equity Center Radio

Equity Center Radio |September 24, 2010 |
We are off the air today but will be back next week at our regularly scheduled time. Read more about next week’s show below

To find out more about the Equity Center and the important work that it performs for the school children of Texas and its member school districts, please click on www.equitycenter.org

Equity Center Radio |September 17, 2010 | The President of the Equity Center’s Board of Directors, Dr. Louis Stoerner, Explains to Wayne Pierce, the Equity Center’s Executive Director, and Today’s Host of Equity Center Radio, the Unique Significance of the Equity Center and the Esteem that it has Obtained Among Educators in the State of Texas During his Longtime EC Membership.

You can email your questions about school finance and equity for answer on the air to ECRadio@EquityCenter.org.

Dr. Louis Stoerner, the Superintendent at Alief Independent School District (AISD), and the current President of the Equity Center’s Board of Directors, gives his perspective on the unique service the Equity Center (EC) provides to the school districts within the State of Texas. Dr. Stoerner deems the EC to be among the most important organizations serving school districts, not only in its promoting fair and equitable school funding before the legislature, but in its capacity as a resource for school administrators and others interested in improving the system of funding that currently exists in this State.

Stoerner has been Superintendent in AISD, a large, 46,000-student, but property poor, school district, with a high tax rate, since 2001. This past June, he announced his retirement as Superintendent and will be leaving the District next month. He has worked in one capacity or another for Alief for over 22 years.

Louis Stoerner

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Equity Center Radio |September 10, 2010 | The Executive Director of the Texas Rural Education Association, Don Rogers, Explains to Wayne Pierce, the Equity Center’s Executive Director and Today’s Host of Equity Center Radio, the Unique Problems Facing Texas’s Rural Schools.

You can email your questions about school finance and equity for answer on the air to ECRadio@EquityCenter.org.

The Texas Rural Education Association (TREA), was founded in 1991 to provide legislative representation at both the state and national level and to assist rural schools in meeting the distinctive needs facing rural schools in attempting to educate the students in their care.

Rural schools have diminished in numbers over the years and legislation has come to ignore the needs of those schools and their students. TREA’s Executive Director, Don Rogers, describes to Wayne Pierce, the Executive Director of the Equity Center and today’s program host, about the overwhelming needs facing his members. He explains that Title 1, the main score of federal funding to assist school districts with the education of disadvantaged students, is, now, unfairly distributed so that the low-poverty large, urban districts obtain more federal dollars than the high-poverty smaller school districts.

Don also describes the concern of small, rural districts with the way in which text book supplements are distributed. Most textbook publishers provide FREE supplementary instructional materials to school districts that order a minimum of 20 texts. Since many of TREA’s members’ schools have classes far below 20 pupils in size, they have had to purchase unnecessary texts or pay for the supplements, a financial burden that larger districts do not have to endure.

Don Rogers

Today’s guest has been a career educator since graduating from Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, with a B.S. in Education, in 1959. He obtained a M.S. in School Administration in 1965, from Texas A&M-Kingsville, and, in 1981, received his Ed.D. from Western Colorado University. He served as Superintendent at Eanes ISD from 1974 until 1991. Thereafter, he served as Executive Director of the Texas Association of Community Schools (1991-2002), as a consultant on public education, for Strategic Partnerships, Inc. (2002-2007), and as a legislative consultant on public education from 2002-2008. In 2006 he became the Executive Director of TREA, where he is currently employed.

You can subscribe to our weekly show by pressing the RSS button here or hear the broadcast by pushing this Play Button.

Equity Center Radio |September 3, 2010 | Todd Williams, Kaufman Independent School District’s Superintendent, Discusses the District’s Upcoming Tax Ratification Election (TRE) with Wayne Pierce, the Equity Center’s Executive Director.

You can email your questions about school finance and equity for answer on the air to ECRadio@EquityCenter.org.

Kaufman Independent School District (KISD), a school district 32 miles east of downtown Dallas, will be holding a Tax Ratification Election (TRE) on Saturday, September 25, 2010, asking its constituency to approve a tax increase for maintenance and operations (M&O) of .13 cents. State law requires a TRE anytime a school district raises its tax rate above $1.04. Last year, KISD lost a TRE by 9 votes and now feels it is crucial for the success of its academics to pass the proposed tax increase. KISD’s superintendent, Todd Williams describes to the Wayne Pierce, the Executive Director of the Equity Center and today program host, about the overwhelming need for passage of the TRE.

Todd Williams

Todd explains how supporters of the increase are promoting the passage of the TRE and what it means to his district. The TRE, he notes, will generate funds for the daily operations of the district and provide for increased funding for technology for students, additional staff, salaries, and benefits to address the continued growth in student population. Actually, according to Todd, the money will help this Texas Education Agency’s (TEA) “Recognized” school district maintain its status, with two TEA “Exemplary” campuses and three “Recognized” ones.

The district has published an informational brochure about the upcoming TRE and it can be found at TRE Informational Flyer. In addition, the Comptroller of Public Accounts has issued guidance about TRE’s in its publication, A Guide for Setting School District Tax Rates.

Today’s guest has been a career educator for 24 years, as a teacher, coach, Assistant Principal, Principal & Superintendent. He served as Superintendent at Martin’s Mill for five years prior to joining Kaufman ISD as its Superintendent four years ago. He is currently working on obtaining his Ed.D. degree from Tarleton State University and excepts to graduate in May, 2011.

You can subscribe to our weekly show by pressing the RSS button here or hear the broadcast by pushing this Play Button.

To find out more about the Equity Center and the important work that it performs for the school children of Texas and its member school districts, please click on www.equitycenter.org.
 

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