An old adage that rings true today for almost anything is “You get what you pay for.” This is so true when it comes to public education in the State of Texas. Texas has some of the highest scores in achievement, yet the lowest pay for teachers in the country. We educate children in our public schools with one of the lowest per capita student spending. However, if you listen to the nay-sayers out there all you will ever hear is how bad the system is, and how any raise in pay should be through incentives based on performance (nevermind the number of teachers who could qualify for food stamps and EIC currently teaching in public schools.) However, it is not teacher pay I wish to address today. That is selfish and self serving. Rather, I want to talk about educational funding for the system itself, and the fact that schools across the state need more funding in order to continue achieving better results. The Texas Education Agency has continually addressed this issue with the governor and the state legislature during this session. Unfortunately this is not what governor Rick Perry has in mind. He has already requests funds to be cut across the board in all state agencies to the point where the funding of education in the state would reach an unconstitutional low. And now his stunt with the Lottery this week.
This from an email sent by the Texas Federation of Teachers
“Gov. Rick Perry's proposal yesterday to sell off the state lottery to a private operator met with a cool reception at the state capitol, as lawmakers figured out the plan would cut funding for education.
Texans voted some years back to require that all proceeds from the lottery must go to public education. Right now public schools receive about $1.1 billion a year from the lottery (about 3 percent of the education budget).
Perry yesterday said schools still would receive money from a trust fund he would create with a portion of the proceeds of the lottery sale. (He wants to use the rest for other priorities.) But Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and others have pointed out that the substitute school revenue would not come close to equaling current lottery income. At best, it seems Perry's plan would leave the already-inadequate state education budget with a new $500 million hole to fill for the biennium; at worst, the shortfall caused by his plan to privatize the lottery could exceed $1 billion.”
This is your government in action. This is the stuff teachers put up with everyday from our elected leadership. The tax relief given to homeowners across the state will be at the expense of education. By the way, if you check, the “thousands” of dollars of tax relief, probably ended up around “60” dollars for the average Texan (so go fill up your truck’s gas tank on the governor). The funds used to offset this were surplus and temporary, and the spending plan designed only to provide funds for Texas schools for one (maybe two) years before it will no longer provide even minimum funding to schools. The state and federal government has yet to fully fund all the mandated programs, rules and administrative burdens they place on public schools. Meanwhile the Tax laws passed will prevent future tax increases, since an uninformed populace will not vote for tax increases for the public schools in their area on the scale necessary to provide adequate funding.
Folks…. You will get what you pay for. The State will get what it pays for out of Public Education.
