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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!