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Capital Highlights
Nonmedical vaccine exemptions at record levels
Vaccine exemptions for nonmedical reasons hit record levels among Texas schoolchildren last year, the Chronicle reported, with 3.24% of Texas kindergarteners receiving an exemption “for reasons of conscience,” according to the Texas Department of State Health Services. That’s almost double the rate from 10 years ago.
The exemptions are part of the “post-pandemic momentum behind anti-vaccine messaging,” the story said. A number of bills were filed during the 2023 legislative session to restrict education regarding vaccines and access to vaccines. House Bill 44 was signed into law and took effect last September. It threatens to withhold Medicaid funding for physicians who refuse to offer vaccine exemptions for patients.
“I'm looking at the unintended consequences that lawmakers aren't necessarily thinking about because they want to get their win and move on,” said Rekha Lakshmanan, chief strategy officer at The Immunization Partnership. “But then, all of us Texans are left holding the bag.”
Computers now scoring STAAR essays
Written responses on the state’s performance exam will most likely be scored by a computer, The News reported. The Texas Education Agency rolled out a new model for evaluating student answers on the State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness (STARR) in December, saying three-quarters of written responses are graded by an “automated scoring engine.”
The automated scoring engine is “programmed by humans, overseen by humans, and is analyzed at the end by humans,” said Jose Rios, director of the student assessment division for TEA, told The News.
TEA officials said the new test format, which includes essays at every grade level, would require four to five times the number of human scorers and cost up to $20 million more. Under the new format, only one in four student essays will be scored by a human.
Gary Borders is a veteran award-winning Texas journalist. He published a number of community newspapers in Texas during a 30-year span, including in Longview, Fort Stockton, Nacogdoches, Lufkin and Cedar Park. Email: gborders@texaspress.com.