Promises about Education on Abbott-O-Meter

The final decision to allow guns to be carried on campuses should be left to individual institutions.

"Using your money to lobby for more of your money is a conflict of interest. It needs to stop. School districts should directly represent the needs of their schools at the Legislature and not waste taxpayer resources on lobbyists."

"Texas must become No. 1 in the nation for educating our children." We asked Abbott aides how he intended to gauge the state's status as No. 1 and didn't immediately hear back.

"Teachers and parents know far better how to educate our children than do a bunch of bureaucrats in Austin or Washington, D.C."

"And my plan will stop forcing teachers to teach to so many standardized tests."

"Many states have implemented an A through F rating system for individual campuses with great success." Each campus website should show the school's A through F rating and other indicators of success.

Parents currently cannot seek state intervention until schools have performed inadequately for five years. This should change to two years.

Schools eligible to be placed in "achievement districts" would consist of the bottom 15 elementary or charter school campuses with an F rating from the state for two straight years.

More Teach for America positions should be supported by the state. Increase funding by $3 million from the existing $12 million every two years

"And as governor, I will drive a stake through the heart of CSCOPE and will never allow common core in Texas." CSCOPE, developed by state-funded Education Service Centers, offered school districts curriculum tools, including classroom lesson plans, aligned with revised state academic standards. Critics said the material included inappropriate directives.

“Expanding the population of students served by existing state-funded programs without addressing the quality of existing prekindergarten instruction or how it is being delivered would be an act of negligence and waste.”

Districts would choose methods of assessing prekindergarten students at the start and finish of each school year from a list of approaches developed by the state.

"With a $2 million appropriation, teams of expert teacher mentors could be deployed to poor-performing schools to coach educators by teaching alongside them in the classroom."

Provide $15 million a year to help teachers master tenets of careful, consistent and systematic reading instruction.

Launching literacy achievement academies would renew, and build on, a program initiated in the 1990s at the urging of then-Gov. George W. Bush.

"The" math achievement "academies would consist of four to five days of collaborative, research-based professional development training for math teachers across the state."

"To improve campus leadership, the state should offer financial support that enables public school principals and others in leadership positions to receive optional advanced leadership training."

Requiring schools to declare each school's enrollment compared to its capacity will better inform parents and taxpayers.

Appropriate $100 million every two years for technology grants to schools rated D or F by state.

Public school students should be allowed to take any Virtual School Network course even if it's offered in person at their school. Also, the state cap of three VSN courses per student should be repealed.