Here in Texas many teachers are worried they are going to loose their jobs and parent's are worried that their kids will not receive a quality education because of a 7 billion dollar budget shortfall. Texas Education Commissioner Robert Scott asked for 28 billion dollars for education. The state is giving him a base budget of 21 billion dollars. The 7 billion dollar difference has school districts across the state of Texas proposing cuts that are scaring both teachers and parents alike. They are proposing to cut several programs that affect kids, they are proposing to eliminate teachers' jobs, they plan make classes bigger, they talk about cutting everything yet you never hear them talk about eliminating administrative or their own positions. How many administrators does a school really need? You have the whole assistant to the assistant who specializes in assisting those who assist thing going on here. Could eliminating high paying positions that have no interaction with children help hard working teachers continue teaching? Of coarse it would. Teachers and children are the two most important things in our education system. We should protect them and analyze non essential over paid positions. Any administrator reading this probably doesn't like the idea but it's something we have to take a look at. Our children's education depends on it. I'm not the only one who thinks this way. In fact there is a website dedicated to this issue. Click on this link http://www.protecttheclassroom.com/ to see what the group Texans For Fiscal Responsibility wants done about this issue.
Rainy Day Fund In The News
The media outlets have been reporting that the Texas legislature would dip into the rainy day fund and use $2.3 billion to help fund education. What they have failed to report is that the State Board Of Education had given $4 billion to help meet the budget shortfall. So lets do some quick math here. Any math teachers please feel free to jump in and help. We started with 21 billion dollars as a base. SBOE gave 4 billion dollars and the state legislature gave another $2.3 billion from the rainy day fund. If my terrible math skills serve me right, we should be at $27.3 billion dollars leaving us with only a 700 million dollar shortfall. That's for the whole state of Texas. Am I correct? So why are the media outlets still reporting a 7 billion dollar short fall? Maybe because those are the numbers they are still being given. Something is not right here. It looks to me that we are being taken for a ride. I have been told that this information was given to the local media outlets yet they have not done anything with it. I'm sure both teachers and parents would love to know what is going on with this issue.
Never heard about the $4 billion from the sboe but the rainy day fund money wasn't just for schools it was so we can pay the bills for the rest of the year in every aspect of government.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.texastribune.org/texas-taxes/rainy-day-fund/appropriations-approves-use-of-rainy-day-fund/
You are right sir. $4.3 billion was taken from the rainy day fund. $2.3 billion of that was for education.
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