February 2019
Leslie & Scott Milder
Co-Founders
Friends of Texas 
Public Schools
Est. 2004
CORPORATE PARTNERS
Schneider Electric logo
 





 





Founded in 2016 by Margaret Kilgo, Standards First, Inc. seeks to place importance on the national and Texas state standards in Reading, Writing, Mathematics, and Science. Click to learn more about offered workshops and resources to help improve student education and change the make-up of current standardized testing!

DK Haney Roofing is a certified TIPS and TXMAS vendor dedicated to helping schools get roofing projects done. Schools have been our specialty for 23 years, so we can help you navigate insurance claims and board approvals. Our state-of-the-art roof management portal provides instant access to all your roofs and reports. Call 866-379-4846. 
ADVERTISE WITH FRIENDS 

With more than a million hits annually on our website and nearly 70,000 e-news subscribers, we are pleased to offer advertising and sponsorship opportunities available to organizations wishing to reach school leaders across Texas who support Friends of Texas Public Schools. 

For information on getting your organization's message out to Friends of Texas Public Schools followers and readers, please email Jennifer Storm.  

OUR MISSION
To facilitate respectful conversations about Texas public schools through honest communication, productive dialogue, and relentless encouragement.
Texas 8th Graders Consistently Beat National Average on NAEP Math & Science Assessments

Since 2000, Texas public school students have consistently scored above the national average on the 8th grade NAEP Math assessment. Since 2009, Texas 8th graders have scored above their national peers in NAEP Science assessment.



Dear Friends,
 
The vision of Friends of Texas Public Schools states:
That Texas public school educators will be ambassadors for their profession. Texans will believe that being an educator is noble, will revere and respect their public schools, and will recognize their role and become engaged in quality public education.
 
It's easy to see that "great things are happening in Texas public schools!" Through social media outlets and the print media, successes are being shared all over the state of Texas. Please continue to share positive stories from your local school districts and tag Friends on Twitter (@FOTPStx) and Facebook (@FOTPS).
 
Teaching is a most noble profession which requires love and dedication to be successful. Our state is full of people who love what they do and the children they teach. PLEASE take the time to tell the men and women who work with our children "Thank You!"


Thank you,

Blake W. Cooper
Executive Director
Friends of Texas Public Schools

Why It's Cool to Choose a Texas Public School

Perhaps the best-kept secret about Texas public schools is the extensive choices available to today's students. Take a closer look at your local school district's course catalog. You'll be surprised by all of the options:
  • Classes in geocaching, primatology, and documentary filmmaking are just a few courses available in the enrichment program of O. Henry Middle School in Austin ISD.
     
  • Career and technical education programs range from agriculture to architecture in Fort Worth ISD.
     
  • Robotics design, civil engineering, advanced biotechnology, and aerospace engineering are just a sample of specialized programs in specific Leander ISD high schools.
     
  • Many districts offer magnet schools, which focus on specific areas of study. You can find magnet schools in Texas specializing in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM); health careers; performing arts; international law and humanities; and communications, to name a few. 
     
  • High schools are offering dual credit, and some districts have early-college high schools where students can have two years of college credit when they finish high school.
CORPORATE PARTNER SPOTLIGHT
 
VLK Architects is the eighth largest educational architecture firm in the U.S., providing Texas public school districts with an extensive knowledge of school design. Through our processes of VLK | CURATION and VLK | LAUNCH , we are helping districts redefine the educational architecture design process by facilitating a collaborative process that engages communities, students, parents, and staff to deliver buildings that exceed expectations and enhance teaching and learning. 

Recently, VLK celebrated the grand opening of the K-8 program at the Allen ISD STEAM Center, a facility like no other in Texas. "The manner in which VLK facilitated VLK | CURATION and VLK | LAUNCH was instrumental, resulting in an innovative and functional design for the building, serving both the needs of the high school students attending the campus daily and the scheduled site visits of the younger students," said Jennifer Wilhelm, Allen ISD Assistant Superintendent of Learner Services.  Learn more about VLK Architects  here .
 
New Resource: Just Fund It TX

 
As an emerging non-partisan grassroots group of parents and students, Just Fund It TX aims to educate Texans about how far behind we are in supporting our students, and how much it would take to really bring us up to even the national average in per-student spending. (Hint- it's a lot! 2.1.8 billion dollars a year just to get Texas to the national average). It is important that legislators hear from their constituents about how important public education is to them and that we need big bold solutions and a long-term plan. The future of our kids, our state, and our country is in the hands of the Texas legislature! 
 
Just Fund It TX has prepared a website, powerpoint, materials for presentation at meetings, a house party kit, and love letters for people to send to their legislators explaining why they love their schools, why being 43rd in per-student spending isn't ok, and why the legislature needs to pony up and really fund public education. You will also find a  student-written petition  urging legislators to fund their public schools. It is all available here on the Just Fund It TX  website :  http://justfundittx.org/ . 
 
The goal of Just Fund It TX is to bring parent, student, and community voices into the mix to support what educators have been saying for years.

Thank you to our Affiliate Partners!

Belfor - Cornerstone - Government Capital - Pfluger Architects -  Powell & Leon - Right at School -  Symmetry  Turf - Texas Association of School Business Officals (TASBO)  - Texas Association of School Personnel Administrators (TASPA) - Texas School Public Relations Association (TSPRA) - TransCend4
FRIENDS NETWORK ENROLLMENT IS AVAILABLE ONLINE
Great things are happening in our Texas public schools! We want to share that story with Texans across the state, and we need your help to continue our work.
 
All public school districts in Texas are invited to enroll in our Friends of Texas Public Schools Network for the 2018-19 school year. If you were a member of the network last year we want to welcome you back. If you haven't been a member of our network before, we hope you will consider joining us this year.