Washington Editor Julie A. Miller contributed to this story.
Addressing a joint session of the Texas legislature, which is meeting to revamp the state鈥檚 school-finance formula, Mr. Cavazos asked lawmakers to consider a statewide choice plan.
鈥淎cademic choice, coupled with school-based management, is the cornerstone of efforts to restructure school systems,鈥� he said.
Mr. Cavazos appeared to question the value of additional funding in improving education. 鈥淢oney is clearly not the answer to the education deficit,鈥� he said.
Many lawmakers disagreed, and some expressed their disagreement in unusually personal terms.
鈥淚t shocked me to hear a Hispanic, a Texan, come back and say more funding is not the answer,鈥� said State Senator Carlos Truan, chairman of the Senate Hispanic Caucus, adding that he was 鈥渆mbarrassed鈥� by the Secretary鈥檚 remarks.
Hispanics Walk Out
Three Hispanic legislators walked out of the House chamber during Mr. Cavazos鈥� speech, according to several of those present. And Mr. Truan confronted the Secretary on the speaker鈥檚 podium immediately after his address, and again in a post-speech press conference.
鈥淚 told him he was espousing the Republican philosophy--promoting public education but not providing the money for it,鈥� said Mr. Truan.
Carl A. Parker, chairman of the Senate education committee, said Mr. Cavazos鈥� stance contradicted the one he took when he would come before the legislature as president of Texas Tech University during the 1980鈥檚.
鈥淲hen he was president of Texas Tech,鈥� said Mr. Parker, 鈥渉e never came up here volunteering to take less money or to substitute efficiency for funding.鈥�
But Republicans generally welcomed Mr. Cavazos鈥� remarks.
鈥淭he Governor thought it was an excellent speech,鈥� said Rossanna Salazar, a spokesman for Gov. William P. Clements Jr. 鈥淗e agrees with Dr. Cavazos that the problems in our public-education system in Texas won鈥檛 be resolved by merely spending more.鈥�
And Representative Kent Grusendorf, a Republican member of the House education committee, said he thought Mr. Cavazos 鈥渕ade some good points.鈥�
鈥淗e was just talking about the efficient operation of schools,鈥� Mr. Grusendorf added.
Statistical Questions
But another Republican, Senator Cyndi Krier, questioned some of the statistics Mr. Cavazos cited in his speech.
The Secretary said that aggregate national spending on education has increased by 27 percent, after inflation, since 1981. But 鈥渋t didn鈥檛 appear he was factoring in inflation in those figures,鈥� said Ms. Krier, who serves on the Senate education committee.
She also questioned the Secretary鈥檚 assertion that 鈥渁lmost 60 percent of the dollars spent on education go to administration and not to the classroom.鈥�
鈥淲here did he get that figure?鈥� she asked, arguing that Texas spent more than 40 percent of its education dollars directly in the classroom.
But lawmakers reserved some of their harshest criticism for Mr. Cavazos鈥檚 citation of a study claiming that blacks and Hispanics do worse the longer they stay in school.
Released by the National Center for Policy Analysis, a Dallas-based research group, the study found that 70 percent of black and Hispanic students passed certain achievement tests in the 1st grade, but more than 50 percent failed in the 9th.
鈥淵ou were looking at two different groups of students,鈥� said Ms. Krier. The study used test figures for both groups from the same year, she said, 鈥渟o I don鈥檛 see how you can compare them.鈥�
鈥淐avazos is one of us,鈥� added Senator Hector Uribe, a member of the Senate鈥檚 education committee and Hispanic Caucus. 鈥淗e鈥檚 a Texan, an educator, and the first Hispanic to hold Cabinet rank in the history of the United States. I鈥檇 hoped he would stand up for the poor school districts of the state. I鈥檓 surprised that he couldn鈥檛 see through this study that seeks to undermine educational opportunity for minority Americans.鈥�
Cavazos鈥� Response
In a Washington interview after the speech, Mr. Cavazos expressed resentment at the personal nature of such criticism.
鈥淚 wonder if they would have been as mad if the Secretary of Education that had given the speech were not Hispanic,鈥� he said. He will continue to 鈥渢ell the truth鈥� about the benefits of school choice and the overemphasis on money, he vowed.
Mr. Cavazos also rejected the notion that he was there to promulgate Republican philosophy.
鈥淚 wasn鈥檛 there to defend Clements,鈥� he said referring to the Republican governor. 鈥淚 was there to propose ideas for giving every child in Texas a good education.鈥�
Washington Editor Julie A. Miller contributed to this story.
