Rep. Jones praised for pro-education support
 

I would like to take this opportunity to thank our state representative, Delwin Jones, for behaving as a gentleman and a statesman. He has consistently voted during this session to help meet the needs of our community and its public schools.

For example, he clearly understands that Texas public school teachers rank 38th in the nation in salaries and cannot collect social security. This causes Texas to be unable to attract many good teachers to our state.

We produce 20,000 new teachers a year, but the need far exceeds that number. By providing across-the-board raises, he helps create a climate to address our teacher shortage.

Our teachers undergo a rigorous evaluation each year, and those who fail to meet expectations are non-renewed. It seems so foolish for any politician to use the rhetoric of 10 years ago and say that across-the-board raises reward bad teachers. Our Texas teachers are working hard and continue to see test scores go up.

We hope our representatives will now address the TAKS test in elementary and middle school to make it more reasonable. At the same time legislators are looking to replace TAKS at the high school level, they are considering six additional TAKS tests and a national norm-referenced test for students to take in elementary and middle school. After all, we want well-educated children, not just good test-takers.

Delwin Jones has given much to our community and we appreciate him!

CLINTON GILL/Lubbock