First, TURN ON THE CLOSED CAPTIONS! I had to speak really (really) fast to make all my points in the 3 minutes allotted. This is my testimony to TEA staff members Dr. Justin Porter, Dr. Ed O'Neil and a third person whom I don't know, regarding TEA's federal application for IDEA Part B funds.
Transcript:
My name is Jana McKelvey and I am here to speak on behalf of myself and my family.
I am the mother of three public school children, 2 of which have disabilities and receive special education supports & services.
I am one of a few who started a state-wide organization to help reform special education after the TEA’s illegal 8.5% cap was exposed. Because my organization - along with Dr. Laurie Kash, former TEA SPED Director and Andrea Ball with the Austin American Stateman - exposed your illegal procurement of a no-bid, multi-million dollar contract with a start-up company in order to get the highly-confidential IEPs of our most vulnerable students without parental consent or notification, I’ve had a seat at the TEA special education table.
I’ve watched and listened as Justin Porter and former Deputy Commissioner Penny Schwinn PROMISED to rebuild the fractured relationships with parents, provide transparency, and seek meaningful input from stakeholders.
And yet here I stand before you today, once again testifying about Commissioner Mike Morath and TEA’s failure to put the needs of students with disabilities ahead of their relentless pursuit to kill traditional public schools.
TEA’s application for part B IDEA federal funds states (again I might add) that it cannot provide guarantees of FAPE or Child Find.
Yet, YOU somehow find the means to pay SPEDx, Cambiar, Tembo and God knows who else for the absurd concept of design thinking and illegal data mining.
YOU have the money to pay for hostile takeovers of school districts, the dismantling of democratically-elected school boards, and the creation of portfolio districts after starving said districts of necessary support for years.
YOU seem to have endless funds for grants encouraging districts to open so-called “innovative” schools, which I like to call for-profit charters.
YOU have buckets of cash to hire dozens of new TEA employees to monitor the special education compliance of school districts, yet provide chump change to those LEAs to actually educate the students with disabilities. (And the irony of this particular one is YOU couldn’t even make assurances to the feds, in the application, to appropriately monitor schools for compliance).
YOU have cost our children $33 million dollars of educational funding, and, potentially, a combined $70+ million dollars, when YOU broke federal law in the 2011-‘12 and 2016-‘17 school years by failing to maintain special education spending.
I could keep going, but I am limited to 3 minutes.
As for the portion of the application that has zeroed out funds for things like transition and mental health and preschool, have no fear my friends. I feel confident the commissioner has called on his wealthy buddies to participate in social impact bonds and pay for success schemes in order to make money off the backs of our children. These schemes have a history of being susceptible to Cambell’s Law, where, simply stated, measuring data outcomes subjects that data to corruption pressures and distortion. Perhaps if the Agency chose financial and decision-making transparency, stakeholders would have more trust.
In closing, IDEA funds should go where it’s needed most: to the schools for the purpose of EDUCATING special education students. Period.
Additionally, anyone in the Agency who has participated in the mishandling of IDEA funds, should no longer have any association with the programming and expenditures of any future IDEA grant awards.
I’m looking at you Commissioner.
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