14 Aug 2002
Transcript of Moses' Comments About Edison Schools Wednesday During Board oF Trustees Committee Meeting
DALLAS—The following is a transcript of Superintendent Mike Moses' closing comments during the Dallas Independent School District's Board of Trustee's Committee of the Whole meeting discussion about Edison Schools, Inc. Wednesday night in Dallas.
Mike Moses: "Trustees, this obviously is an issue that has been very important to this school district and very important to you. Upon entering the district in January in 2001, it was apparent that this had been a program with which there had been disagreement about its implementation. Obviously you can tell that there is a great spirit among many of the teachers and the parents. I would also say that the program has probably created, one might call it some healthy competition, and that this district has been on a mission for the past two years to improve performance and I appreciate Dr. Chubb's acknowledgment of the district's efforts in that area. I think that we're going to come forward with a recommendation to you very shortly with regard to the Edison program.
"There is much to consider here. There is much to consider from the standpoint certainly of our parents and teachers but beyond that, when we move beyond everything, it's still about performance. There are those who suggested to me last year that we should get rid of Edison, there were some who said we should keep it. I said, 'let's go and look at performance. Let's keep it a second year. Let's go. Let's look at performance.' As Dr. Chubb said there are some different methodologies that one can consider, but I think that Dr. Webster has endeavored in good faith to look at same students, same groups of students to measure performance. Would we have liked to have seen better performance? The answer is obviously, yes. The district I think entered into the contract to try to see if performance could be improved. Having said that, the issue goes even deeper though than performance.
"The issue goes to this district's ability to pay. We're a district with no property value growth. A district with little likelihood of new state funding. We're a district with a $1.50 tax cap, which we're at a dollar-forty-seven. We're a district with increasing health insurance obligations for our teachers. We're a district that has, if we want to, advanced employee salaries next year, probably an obligation of nearly $30 million and to put that into perspective, a three-cent increase on our tax rate only raises $15 million.
"So, performance is a piece of this certainly and we can all agree that there has been some progress both on Edison's part and on our part, but we also must face the realities of our budget and face the financial realities of the future. While we have put together a budget I think that will successfully allow us to navigate next year, what goes on beyond that certainly must be considered. So having said all of that, I know that there is additional information that you would like. We'll certainly strive to get that. And very shortly also make a recommendation to the board regarding the staff and the administration's feelings and my particular feelings about continuation of the program," Moses said.