Texas Education Agency Axes Jobs

The bloodletting has effectively shut down the Educational Technology Division, which sets guidelines for technology in student learning and runs school library initiatives such as the Texas Library Connection (TLC), a database of electronic resources and statewide school library collections.

"It's absolutely devastating," says Anita Givens, senior director of the division and one of four remaining employees in the department. "This department has built all of our statewide technology efforts from the ground up, and now all of these services are in jeopardy or have been eliminated."

Rumors about the layoffs had been brewing for weeks, following a decision by the state legislature in late June to slash 25 percent of the agency's budget to help close a $10 billion shortfall. As a result, 94 agency employees were let go in late July and another 129 were informed they would lose their jobs by August 31. At press time, there was no one in the educational technology division to answer phones or to address issues concerning media specialists. Lankford had no plans to retire, but like 50 others, opted for a one-time buyout of 25 percent of her annual salary or otherwise lose her job. "There's nobody at the state level who can answer a question about weeding, collection development, book reviews, or anything about libraries," Lankford says.

The agency was also left without anyone to "provide statewide leadership" on information literacy, technology applications, and professional development for educators, Givens says. T-STAR, a television studio and satellite network that connected schools and offered instructional information to media specialists, teachers, and administrators, has been permanently eliminated, adds agency spokeswoman Debbie Ratcliffe. For now, the remaining staff in the division will focus on continuing to approve technology plans for e-rate applications and No Child Left Behind grants, as well as maintaining videoconferencing operations. "We're calling it triage—we're focusing on those programs that will affect the opening of schools," says Givens.

Although the TLC Union Catalog, a database of collections from more than 5,000 school libraries, will remain in place, the agency will stop funding TLC's electronic databases from the Gale Group and Encyclopaedia Britannica, forcing individual schools without funds for these essential research tools to forgo them. Until a reorganization of the agency takes place in September, it's unclear what programs will be transferred or remain in the department, Ratcliffe says. Some employees have been invited to reapply for about half as many openings after restructuring is complete.

It isn't over yet: Ratcliffe says more cuts are expected. The last big layoffs took place in 1995, when the agency—which sets standards for all K–12 schools statewide—was forced to slash its staff by 22 percent. "This tells us that not only are librarians unimportant, but education is way down on the list, too," Lankford says.