Mark Loewe, Ph. D. Physics, low cost textbooks, progressive vouchers, school choice

Mark Loewe is grateful to have received the votes of over 20,000 Texans in the 2 November 2010 General Election as the Libertarian candidate for Member, State Board of Education, District 5.

Congress can easily avoid and eliminate federal debt on which interest accumulates -- whether or not Congress passes balanced budgets! Congress gave away $454,393,280,417.03 of interest on our federal debt during fiscal year 2011 (which ended 30 September 2011). This give-away, of roughly $1,466 per year for every man, woman, and child, does immense harm to Americans, our children, and our grandchildren. Voters should not re-elect members of Congress who do nothing to avoid and to eliminate federal debt on which interest accumulates.

Texas pays excessively high prices for mathematics and science textbooks, multiple times higher than prices paid for mathematics and science textbooks in Japan, Korea, and other places where children are allowed to permanently keep their textbooks. Texas can easily acquire textbooks at costs that are low enough to allow children to permanently keep their textbooks. The State Board of Education (SBOE) should acquire low cost textbooks for children to keep permanently. The Texas Legislature should pass a bill similar to House Bill 2959 (81^st Legislature), authored by Representative Garnet Coleman (D-Houston), to acquire low cost mathematics and science textbooks for children to keep permanently. Mark Loewe wrote House Bill 2959.

Progressive vouchers (progressive school choice) would attract billions of additional private dollars per year into Texas' K-12 education system and are structured to maximize the public education funds available for any child. The Texas Legislature should pass a bill to implement progressive vouchers statewide or to enable school districts to implement progressive vouchers. Mark Loewe devised progressive vouchers.

Incorrect scores were issued to more than 500,000 students on Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) released Mathematics and Science tests. The Texas Education Agency (TEA) issued false statements about several questions on which scoring mistakes were made. (See, for example, Question 11.) Some TEA false statements were due to incompetence or dishonesty. The New York Times and Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported on some TAKS questions about which the TEA issued false statements. The TEA, SBOE, Governor, and Legislature have failed to correct any of the mistakes. Texas continues to propagate the mistakes and false statements without correction.

Mark Loewe discovered several of the TAKS scoring mistakes and testified before the SBOE on the TEA's failure to correct the mistakes. Christine Castillo Comer, former TEA Director of Science, informed Mark that "as a direct result of your testimony, [TEA] hired four science Ph. D.s, a physicist, a chemist, a biologist, and an earth scientist," to improve the quality of questions on statewide tests.

Questions used to determine student scores on Spring 2005, Spring 2007, and Spring 2008 TAKS tests have not been released to the public. This prevents public review of the questions and answers for appropriateness and correctness and denies opportunities for children, teachers, and others to learn from the tests. The Texas Legislature should pass a bill that provides for questions and answers used to determine student scores on statewide tests to be released to the public promptly after each test.