Report Cards for the Kiddos
August 2nd, 2007 at 2:45 pm
God bless the poor souls who try to quantify whether the Texas Legislature is friendly to poor kids. A Houston nonprofit recently compiled a legislative scorecard on children’s issues, and it seems the task proved too ugly to complete.
Children at Risk is a nonprofit devoted to improving the lives of kids in Houston and around the state through “research, education and influencing public policy.” In addition to encouraging the federal government to expand SCHIP, the center just released its legislative report card that grades each member of the high-profile Houston delegation based on how they voted for children’s issues. (The center’s full 80th Session wrap-up is here.)
Overall, Children at Risk gave the entire Legislature a grade of C+.
We were encouraged by the legislature’s prioritizations of certain children’s issues such as: CHIP reform, increased funding for early childhood education and dropout prevention programs, and reform of the Texas Youth Commission. However, these victories for children were coupled with a number of defeats. The 80th Legislative Session failed to pass legislation on the following important issues: clear and transparent methodology to calculate high school graduation rates, parity for mental health services, reform of alternative education programs, and environmental reform to improve Texas’ air quality.
The grading criteria was based on their tracking of several categories of legislation: education, physical and mental health, human trafficking, child welfare, juvenile justice, and the environment.
Overall, the Houston delegation got a B. Grading individual legislators apparently proved problematic, especially if you’re uncomfortable saying some lawmakers voted against kids. Grades for each Houston lawmaker are here (along with the grading methodology), and if you skim that list, it sure seems like Houston knocked it out of the park this session — A’s and B’s all down the line. Except for all those curious I’s.
Turns out, rather than grade the House Republicans who didn’t support bills Children at Risk thought were important, the organization gave them a gentleman’s Incomplete — the same grade as the legitimately absent Sen. Mario Gallegos. Every I is explained by a form letter: “CHILDREN AT RISK does not believe that anyone would intentionally ignore the needs of our children. Although Rep.Talton did not vote favorably on all the bills we prioritized, most notably the CHIP reform bill, we are confident that by working more closely with him in the future we can encourage Talton to become a strong advocate for children.”
Not sure what the point of handing out a report card is if you don’t distinguish between a C and an F, but for what it’s worth here’s a list of the I’s (excluding Gallegos): Reps. Bill Callegari, Beverly Woolley, Charlie Howard, Patricia Harless, Joe Crabb, Gary Elkins, and Robert Talton.
Receiving A’s: Sen. John Whitmire, Reps. Garnet Coleman, John Davis, Scott Hochberg, Rick Noriega, Sylvester Turner, and Borris Miles.
August 2nd, 2007 at 4:37 pm
Not wishing to be catagorized as a hater of children but I would think a better report card would center on how the legislators carried out their Constitutional duties, not how well they take from Texans and hand out to special groups.
August 4th, 2007 at 2:49 pm
The purpose of a report card from an advocacy group is to let their member know how their representatives are doing representing their concerns. Giving all incompletes for people who do not support the things they feel is needed is not tact, it is spinelessness.
Moshe, if they were a group promoting good government or the Texas Constitution then they should grade on that. They should be properly grading on how well elected representatives help children and families which is their role.
August 6th, 2007 at 8:35 am
[…] the Houston-based group Children at Risk released their 80th Legislative Session report card on important issues for poor kids, we wanted to round-up any other scorecards for individual […]
January 18th, 2008 at 6:25 pm
You report: “The 80th Legislative Session failed to pass legislation on the following important issues: clear and transparent methodology to calculate high school graduation rates” I am amazed that we cannot join the other 39 governors to use the 9th grade cohort graduation rate as the measurement. However Dallas ISD has had an average 42.2% 9th grade cohort graduation rate for over a decade and such a legislative change would eliminate the ability to hide that. To see such evidence just google three words, Dallas, student and enrollment and go to the first hit. It is a spreadsheet that will provide the most transparent methodology possible, enrollment by grade and diplomas given out going back for a decade. Why can’t every school be required to post such a spreadsheet on their web site? It certainly makes dropout issues visible!