Texas Responds to Economic Demand for More Education in the Job Market with Cuts in Spending to Critical Institutions

When the glaring fact that more, not less, education is critical for the turn around in the local and national economy, making cuts to the education budget  is showing how Texas government is leading the way bull headed and backwards toward the precipice of economic disaster. Not only is more education continually being required to get a job in a global market where constant growth and integration of technology is replacing unskilled labor, but with trend of exponential increase in Texas population, more schools and faculty are needed every year just to keep up with the growing numbers of students. The cry of there being "too much wasteful spending" is the out of touch with the reality that the society that upholds and supports those that would make such proclamations takes money and effort to maintain. Without adequate taxation to support a workable budget, the greater civil causes like equal opportunity in education will not have the support to be instituted to the public.

Education is the leading indicator of the qualify of life of an individual and as a society. The cuts being made in education are not what is going benefit Texas as a whole. Texans stand to suffer in the longterm by producing a majority of the workforce unfit to fill the jobs that will be needed in technology sectors as well as passively enforcing the growing disparity between the rich and the poor. You can only squeeze so much juice from a lemon before the results you get become less than worth the effort. As so, you can only make so many cuts in the education budget before what you have left over is just one mangled and unworkable mess. And according to statistics, the state of education in Texas was already mangled before the proposed budget cuts.

As Texas is part of the United States of America its inhabitants pay taxes into the federal government, and when that money comes back, as it is suppose to, in the form of grants and aid which are meant to improve and maintain the civil institutions like education for those tax payers, Texas Governor Rick Perry turns that money down. In his own words:

“I will not commit Texas taxpayers to unfunded federal obligations or to the adoption of unproven, cost-prohibitive national curriculum standards and tests,” Perry wrote. “Texas is on the right path toward improved education, and we would be foolish and irresponsible to place our children’s future in the hands of unelected bureaucrats and special interest groups thousands of miles away in Washington, virtually eliminating parents’ participation in their children’s education."

Governor Perry might want to consider that Texas taxpayers already committed to working with the federal government the moment they started paying their income taxes. It is unjustifiable that Rick Perry is essentially throwing away 700 million dollars of money already payed out by Texas workers and business owners while slashing an already crippled state budget. One might even speculate on the notion that they are being ripped off by this policy. Even so, this sort of unbalanced policy implementation of paying in and not being able to cash out is unsustainable. Eventually, something is going to have to give.

• Texas is #49 in verbal SAT scores in the nation (493) and #46 in average math SAT scores (502).
• Texas is #36 in the nation in high school graduation rates (68%).
• Texas is #33 in the nation in teacher salaries. Teacher salaries in Texas are not keeping pace with the national average. The gains realized from the last state-funded across-the-board pay raise authorized in 1999, which moved the ranking from 33 to as high as 26th in the nation, have disappeared over the last five years.
• Texas was the only state in the nation to cut average per pupil expenditures in fiscal year 2005, resulting in a ranking of #40 nationally; down from #25 in fiscal year 1999.
• Texas is #6 in the nation in student growth. The general student population in Texas public schools grew by 11.1% between school years 1999 and 2005, with the largest percent of growth seen among low income and minority children.
• Between school years 1999 and 2005, the number of central administrators employed by Texas public schools grew by 32.5%, overall staffing in public schools grew by 15.6%, while the number of teachers grew only 13.3%.

• From fiscal years 2002 to 2006, average tuition and fees at public universities increased 61.4%. Average tuition and fees at community colleges increased 51.3%.
• From fiscal years 2002 to 2007, the Texas state budget was cut in terms of real dollar, per-student funding for universities by 19.92%; for community colleges the per-student cut was 35.29%.
• California has nine nationally recognized research institutions; New York has seven; Pennsylvania has four; while Texas, the second most populous state in the nation, has only three.
• Out of Texas’ 145 public and private higher education institutions, only one private institution, Rice University, ranked among the nation’s top 50.
• The number of students attending Texas colleges and universities increased by 23.6% from Fall 1999 to Fall 2005 with the highest growth in community and technical colleges. 
  

The fact that our comparative state rankings are so low proves that Texas could use federal help in education. If the governor is concerned about parents giving up control of their education he should put that notion to the test of the Texas voters and let them decide whether 700 million dollars of federal grant money--we already paid for out of our income taxes--gets thrown away based on some deluded prideful notion that we should be able to have it our way or no way. Considering how poor Texas's record on education, maybe Perry should give the Harvard guy (Obama) a chance.