Dear Commons Community,
The New York Times has an article today describing public education in Texas and how schools are coping with massive budget reductions. Here is a sample:
- the Hutto Independent School District stopped providing bus service to students who live within two miles of their schools;
- the Keller Independent School District started charging parents for bus service ranging from $185 to $355 per student per year;
- Northside in San Antonio eliminated 973 positions and made classes larger in a $61.4 million budget reduction.
Several lawmakers in the Republican-controlled Legislature have played down the impact of the $5.4 billion in cuts on schools statewide. In an interview in February with The Dallas Morning News, Gov. Rick Perry said he saw no need for a special legislative session to restore some of the education funding that was eliminated last year and said the schools were receiving an adequate amount of money.
We should be grateful that Mr. Perry’s modest skills were on display during the televised Republican presidential candidate debates earlier this year thereby ending his candidacy quickly and limiting his harm to public education. We sympathize with the children, their parents and educators of the Lone Star State.
Tony
