Marty Crawford, Ed.D., superintendent of the Tyler Independent School District, wants East Texans to know the costs of education are increasing while inflation has made the funding schools do have worth less. He says this is happening when many parents want the option to take public education money dedicated for their children away to pay for private schools. He spoke on behalf of a coalition of the region’s public schools at a May 1 event (to emphasize the date as a “Mayday” distress call) and shares more detail in this episode.
Mike Landess: For UT Tyler Radio, I’m Mike Landess. It was just about 100 years ago that the officer in charge of Croydon Airport in England was looking for one word for pilots to be able to use that would easily indicate distress or an emergency. The word he came up with was spelled M A Y D A Y. The term is still used today for that same purpose. But it was a little surprising to hear a grassroots coalition of East Texas school districts use that term recently to urge Texas lawmakers to provide more funding for public schools.
And for the second time in a month, the main speaker of that coalition was Tyler ISD Superintendent Dr. Marty Crawford. He’s our guest today. Welcome.
Marty Crawford: Mike, thanks for having me again.
Mike Landess: When we talked about four weeks ago, you expressed concern. You laid out your case. You talked with state legislators from East Texas. I gather it’s still not going well.
Marty Crawford: Well, Mayday was conducted on May 1. So pun intended, right. Mayday and certainly, we do have some concern about the the funding levels that the legislature is currently proposing. House Bill 100 is the vehicle. It looks like it’s the best vehicle for the school side of the budget. But we’re certainly a little short. We operate very fiscally prudently here. And in Tyler, Texas, we’re gonna be able to give a compensation increase again for the 10th straight year, but it’s just not nearly enough. Our funding levels are based upon 2014 or 2019 funding levels. And we all know what we’ve been through the last three or four years based off the pandemic, off of geopolitical issues, even domestic issues, that we’ve got going on with our economy. And so the 12 to 17% inflation is also being felt in school system, especially as it relates to attracting talent to put a great teacher in front of every kid that we’ve got.
Mike Landess: You were talking about the inflation, 17% in the past three years. That puts current school funding essentially at 2014 levels, even as the cost of operating schools has increased.
Marty Crawford: Yeah. And that’s not just being able to attract quality talent teachers to put in front of our kids. You’re talking about putting gas in your buses. The dollars to keep the lights on, the supplies that we have to buy to keep our buildings clean and well maintained, along with hiring custodians and hiring bus drivers, hiring teachers aides, it all goes into the gumbo. Very appropriate to say this in East Texas, and we’re really concerned about it because of inflationary stress that we’re all experiencing.
Mike Landess: Well, school districts across the state, not just in East Texas, have to be in the classic double bind. The funding has (not) increased while costs are going up. Pay issues have many teachers and staff leaving for better paying jobs.
Marty Crawford: That’s correct. That’s a tough, tough call for us. It’s a tough environment because everyone got their property appraisals here recently. And we all know what our school tax bills look like, but when those appraisals come out, we don’t see the increase at the school system. That’s a windfall for the state to pay for other items. Our school taxes are well regulated now. They’re capped. They can’t go up as much as our property appraisals go up, not that we would want to do that. We certainly are homeowners here and property owners here in Smith County and Tyler, Texas, as well. But we know we have a windfall of money this time around. This next biennial, it looks like we’re gonna have one next one as well. We’re asking the state legislators to consider more funding for schools as opposed to what they’ve already proposed.
Mike Landess: Well, it’s interesting you talk about the windfall. There’s a record $32.7 billion. It’s a state surplus. You’re not talking about coming up with new money. You’re talking about saying, “This money is there. Why can’t we have some of that?”
Marty Crawford: Yeah, we’ve been taxed for it. And certainly they’re probably gonna provide some homeowner tax relief for homeowners, and rightfully, we’re all for that as well. But we are asking the legislators to actually look at that windfall and see what we can do to patch that up. And then you talk about the voucher issue that we’ve talked about. It’s all gonna go toward education, and we’re really worried about the defunding of our public school system with that as well. So if that’s on top of what we’re already proposing here, where’s that money gonna come from, and why aren’t we doing that to make our K-12? Everybody calls ’em public schools. I call ’em constitutional schools. Because it’s in the Texas constitution to provide a general diffusion of knowledge to the general public.
So what are we gonna do to support these K-12 constitutional schools? We’re talking about taking money away from that pot as opposed to putting more money in.
Mike Landess: Well, the lieutenant governor and the house speaker are at odds as to how the voucher thing is gonna end up working. And in fact, the lieutenant governor said if I don’t get what I want, then I’ll push for a special session.
Marty Crawford: No doubt. Which you could go beyond that. It’s a very complicated situation and a very tough one for you to be in.
Mike Landess: Now, are you getting any more? Well, let me just say one quick thing. We should note that in the news conference, you had a representative from the city of Tyler and the Tyler Chamber of Commerce who said a strong public school system is crucial to the business community. That’s a lot of support for your point of view.
Marty Crawford: It really is. We have a special relationship with all the school settings here in Smith County, whether it be private or charter. Even the home schoolers. We all go to church with ’em. We go grocery shopping with ’em. They’re at the little league games together. We have something special here, and for us to to be disrupted by Austin instead of having that local control to do what we do so well here is something we’re really concerned about. It is great to have the support of the Chamber of Commerce and the City of Tyler. Because that’s made up of folks who send their kids to private schools, to charter schools, and even home school their students as well.
So this is working here, and we’re competing very well. In that public school setting, those constitutional schools here in Tyler, Texas, are competing very well and doing what they need to do. We’re at an 88 rate, 88 B-rated school system. We’re striving toward that A. We’re really close, and we’ve come a long way to where those who do choose to come to Tyler ISD are very proud of what we’re providing them.
Mike Landess: When we talked last, you had talked to Senator Bryan Hughes. You talked to Representative Matt Schaefer and others. Have they been able to address much since we talked last?
Marty Crawford: It’s pretty fluid down there in Austin, and they have a lot of things that they have to consider, and they keep their lines of of of communication open.
Mike Landess: So,what’s next? As the days left in the legislative session dwindle down, what can you do now?
Marty Crawford: Well, Representative Schaefer and Senator Hughes need to hear from their constituents. We’re a little different here behind the Pine Curtain. And we certainly aren’t experiencing a lot of the of the conflict that they’re seeing in the Austins and maybe the metropolitan areas of the world. And vote with your heart, vote with your conscience. Vote with your constituents is something we encourage our representatives to do. But what could those listening today do? Contact those individuals. They listen. They they count, and to get a phone call or an email from someone in East Texas as opposed to some from some AI bot or some phone bank or social media push from outside entities. They’re smart enough individuals to sift through that and to see through that. And they wanna hear from people from Tyler, Texas, from Tyler ISD, from East Texas.
Mike Landess: Our guest has been Tyler ISD Superintendent, Dr. Marty Crawford. To hear this interview again or to share it, go to KVUT.org. I’m Mike Landess for UT Tyler Radio.
(Transcripts are automatically generated and may contain phonetic spellings and other spelling and punctuation errors. Grammar errors contained in the original recording are not typically corrected.)
