Tony Tinderholt*

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Survey Responses

Did not respond to the 2024, 2022, 2020, 2018, or 2016 ATPE Candidate Survey.
 

Below are the candidate's responses to the 2014 ATPE Candidate Survey:

1. Is there a need to increase funding to meet the needs of our student population? If so, how would you recommend securing more revenue for public education?

Currently, the people of Texas and Tarrant County are taxed at a rate that is higher than most would agree is too much. I am not totally convinced that spending more money on education is the solution to making it more successful. First and foremost, I feel that efficient and transparent spending is most important. Education is very important and expensive; however, we cannot continue to add additional taxes to the individual tax payer before we first try to properly and effectively use the funding we currently have in place. Note, however; that I am disappointed with the large number of unfunded mandates that we expect school districts to fund on their own. I am not yet sure of a solution for these mandates but will push for more local control of education dollars at the district level which will assist the districts in funding these until the TX House can provide a solution.

 

2. Regardless of the level of funding, do you believe that Texas public education dollars are being spent in an appropriate manner, or should the funds be reallocated and spent in different ways?

I support more local control of public education funding. Successful districts should have the authority to determine where their respective money goes. They already have far too many unfunded mandates that need to be funded, this allows them to determine what their district wants to prioritize.

 

3. Would you vote to spend public tax dollars on a voucher, tax credit or scholarship that allows students to attend non-public schools in grades K–12? Why or why not?

It is important to study all aspects of potential success for every program available. If it can be proven that such a program would be best for the education system, tax payers, educators and students, then I believe that these types of programs should be considered. Conversely, if they cannot be validated as successful in other parts of our Nation, then I would agree that this is not a viable solution. We owe the quality outcomes of these answers to our tax payers, educators and the students in which we are providing an education.

 

4. 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 would you vote to convert TRS to a defined contribution plan that is more like a 401(k), in which future benefits are not guaranteed? Why?

Current teachers and retired teachers depend upon their retirement, specifically, my very recently retired mother-in-law who taught in Arlington ISD for decades. Just as she and I depend upon our retirements (mine is military), I feel that it's important to ensure that teachers retirements are secure and protected!

 

5. Local decisions on whether to continue a teacher's employment and how much to pay each teacher 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?

I feel that the independent school districts should have more local control, not only with funding, but also with the way in which they evaluate individual teachers. I trust that the elected school board members and the district superintendents are fully capable of making these decisions based upon what their Teachers want and need. It's important for the School Boards to include the teachers in this decision making process.

 

6. 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 many of them routinely take.)

Again, I refer to more local control within a successful district. After talking with Dr. Cavazos and several of his board members, it's not fiscally responsible to mandate classroom sizes in most instances. The district, the principals and teachers know what they can and cannot handle. Note that this does not mean that I support huge classroom sizes. What this does mean is that a district should be able to determine whether or not they want to add an additional teacher if a class size hits 23 or 24. This can easily be determined at their level dependent upon the quality of the teacher, school and program. A one size fits all solution is not efficient nor always effective.

 

7. If a public school in your district failed to meet state accountability standards for two or more consecutive years, would you support allowing a private entity to take over the management of that school, essentially converting it to a charter school?

I am open to doing what it takes to ensure that our students (children in our community) receive a proper and quality education. The students and our community not only deserve it, but this is also Constitutionally mandated by the State of Texas. Again, I do not feel that there is a one size fits all solution across our diverse state in this instance. This type of program must be properly studied in an honest, open manner with all sides of a potential solution given prior to making a decision. The bottom line is that we do what is right for the tax payers, the educators and the students.

 

8. Do you believe charter schools in Texas have been largely successful? Should their presence be expanded? Why or why not?

In some cases, charter schools have been successful and in other cases, not so successful. It is important to make quality decisions when it comes to Charter Schools, and the success for some and the lack of success for others is why I cannot fully support such a generalized statement. Tax payers, educators and students deserve the best solution for a given district. Not every district is the same.