Stan Lambert*

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Survey Responses

RESPONSES TO THE 2024 ATPE CANDIDATE SURVEY:

1. If elected, what are your top priorities for public education?

Top priorities include fully funding public education in the state, increasing teacher pay, and keeping public funds in public schools.

2. Voucher programs take many forms (tax credits, scholarships, education savings accounts, etc.) and are either universal or aimed at specific subpopulations (special education students, low-income students, students attending schools with poor A-F accountability ratings, etc.). Would you vote to create a voucher program of any type to pay for students to attend non-public K-12 schools, such as private or home schools?

No

3. In 2023, the Texas Legislature passed House Bill (HB) 3 requiring a number of new school safety measures. However, many believe the Legislature did not adequately increase funding to cover the cost of the mandates in HB 3 or other locally adopted school safety measures. How would you work to make schools safer and ensure such initiatives are properly funded?

I would work to ensure that we are not passing down unfunded mandates onto our schools, and that when the state passes school safety measures, the full cost of those programs are covered by the state. We should be investing a considerable amount of of resources into schools, and that includes school safety.

4. Despite a record-breaking surplus of $38 billion during the 2023 legislative session, school funding formulas were not increased to keep pace with inflation since they were last adjusted in 2019. Do you believe Texas public schools should receive additional funding? If so, how should the state pay for it?

It is imperative that Texas public schools receive additional funding. This should be done by an increase to the basic allotment, as well as enrollment-based funding (similar to the engrossed version of HB100)

5. Texas has faced growing teacher shortages in recent years, with many schools hiring uncertified teachers to fill the gaps. How would you work to ensure Texas public schools have an adequate number of trained and certified teachers?

First, we have to increase teacher pay and properly compensate teacher for their work and improve working conditions in order to improve teacher retention. We must also improve teacher development through high quality mentorship programs and building a network of support.

6. Inadequate compensation hampers the recruitment and retention of high-quality educators. Do you support a state-funded across-the-board pay raise for all Texas educators?

Yes, absolutely.

7. The high cost of health insurance available to educators is a significant factor decreasing their take-home pay. How would you address the challenge of rising health care costs facing Texas educators and ensure access to affordable health care?

By increasing the state contribution toward TRS-ActiveCare.

8. What do you feel is the proper role of standardized testing in the Texas public education system? For instance, should student test scores be used as a metric in determining teacher pay, school accountability ratings, evaluating teachers, measuring student progress, etc.?

Testing should inform instruction, measure individual progress, and serve as one of multiple measures reflecting a student’s entire educational experience. Overemphasizing standardized tests does a disservice to both students and schools, and does not take into account all that makes a school successful.

9. In your opinion, what is the proper balance between accommodating an individual parent’s or student’s wishes and the taxpaying community’s interest in directing and maintaining an optimal educational environment for the student population as a whole?

The proper balance should include a collaboration between parents and teachers, and focusing on common goals in the child's education. This includes consistent communication and sharing insights to enhance learning. What we need to avoid is one party steam-rolling the other.

10. Do you believe the Teacher Retirement System (TRS) should be maintained as a traditional defined-benefit pension plan for all future, current, and retired educators, or do you support converting TRS to a defined-contribution structure that is more like a 401(k) plan, in which future benefits are not guaranteed?

A defined benefit allows teachers to more accurately plan for their retirement, and that reliability is extremely valuable. Teachers should be able to count on what they have been promised.

11. State law allows educators and other public employees to voluntarily choose to join professional associations such as ATPE and have membership dues deducted from their paychecks at no cost to taxpayers. Do you support or oppose letting all public employees continue to exercise this right?

Support
 

Did not respond to the 2022, 2020 or 2018 ATPE Candidate Survey.

Below are the candidate's responses to the 2016 ATPE Candidate Survey:

1. Is there a need to increase funding in order to meet the needs of our growing student population and ensure that students have access to high-quality teachers? If so, how would you recommend securing more revenue for public education?

Yes, I have served on the Abilene ISD Board of Trustees for 10 years, 7 of those years as President. Our district has been severely impacted by the education cuts that were enacted 5-6 years ago; the state has reinstated about 80% of the funds they cut out, so we have not recovered 100% of the funding we were receiving. Since then, inflation has continued to divert dollars from the classroom into paying for operational expenses like utilities, gasoline, employee insurance, etc. etc. We NEED more funding!

 

2. On what types of programs or specific areas of need would you prioritize the spending of state funds for public education?

Bi-lingual education for students who have language barriers. Career and workforce programs designed to provide students with skills necessary to enter the workforce upon graduation. Teacher salaries........

 

3. Would you vote to create a voucher, tax credit, grant, scholarship program, or any other type of incentive that would help cover the cost for students to attend non-public schools in grades K-12? Why or why not?

Never! Tax dollars should not be diverted to other schools or programs. Public Ed needs 100% of the taxpayer funds to provide Texas students with the tools and resources required to graduate and enter the workforce, continue their education at a 2-yr. or 4 yr. college program, or join the military.

 

4. Would you vote to maintain a hard cap on the number of students per class, or should school administrators be given more flexibility to increase class sizes? (Currently, the law imposes a cap of 22:1 in grades K-4 but allows schools to obtain a waiver, a step a number of them routinely take.)

I would vote to remain "flexible" in how local school districts attempt to meet the 22:1 "goal" in primary grade levels. So much depends on the demographics and needs of each community. These decisions should be left up to the local professionals who work daily with our students and teachers to provide the very best outcomes with limited resources at their disposal.

 

5. What do you feel is the proper role of standardized testing in Texas's public education system? For instance, should tests be used for school accountability purposes, for evaluating teachers, for measuring the progress of students, etc.?

To some degree, yes. But "high stakes" testing should NOT be the end to the means! We need to back off from the preponderance of testing that is taking critical time away from the professional classroom teachers to "TEACH"!

 

6. Local decisions on teacher pay and whether to continue a teacher's employment are often based on evaluations. To what extent, if any, should a teacher's evaluation be based on his students' scores on state standardized tests? If you believe student test scores should factor into a teacher's evaluation, how would you recommend evaluating teachers in grades or subjects for which there are no state standardized tests?

Scores should be one of the factors used in performance evaluations. Administrators should have adequate time and resources available to perform more than once a year visits to each of the classrooms on their campus. Evaluations should be looked at as a "holistic" approach, with more emphasis on student engagement, classroom management, efficiency in delivery of instruction, etc. Scores are important to "know" how much progress is being achieved, but they should never become the deciding factor in determining overall teacher effectiveness, and ultimately, employment in the system.

 

7. Do you believe that the state should maintain a floor for classroom teacher salaries that includes annual increases based on experience over the first 20 years of a teacher's career?

Not sure. Will need to give this some more thought and attention. The "ladder" system is archaic, so there probably does need to be some type of "reform" brought into the discussion of salaries and teacher compensation. Just because someone has been a teacher for 20 years doesn't necessarily mean they are "effective" and doing the job needed for their students' growth expectations.

 

8. If a public school in your district failed to meet state accountability standards, what course of action would you recommend? Are there circumstances in which you would support allowing a private entity to take over the management of that school (for instance, by converting it to a charter school, placing it under a special statewide district for low-performing schools, replacing the elected school board, or hiring an outside entity to operate the school)?

I think the 5 year approach to determining if outside interests should become involved is probably a pretty good amount of time for remediation and improvement to occur. But I am not a believer in "categorizing" a school in the first or second year of failing to meet accountability standards as "poor or low performing". I think schools and school districts can turn around and improve significantly enough to regain status as a "met standard" type of campus or district. However, there should be a stringent "improvement plan" that addresses the specific needs and areas where improvement is most needed, and if that plan does not meet a certain level of expectation and understanding by those 'outside' of the normal system (without bias), then the clock begins to tick!