Texas Public Education --- again!

Governor Rick Perry Continues the Humiliation and Failure of Public Education


Funding is Available, but the Political Games Take Precedence and Always Have

by Peter Stern

There is state and federal financing available for public education, but Governor Rick Perry and Texas legislators divert the state dollars to other special interests and they refuse to accept millions from Washington as a campaign technique to gather votes by fighting Democrats in D.C. and here in Texas. Perry says that Washington will never take over control of Texas public education. This is nothing more than placebo politicking. Washington does NOT want to control public education in Texas.

For the past decade Texas Governor Rick Perry and legislators have made certain that public education is placed on the back-burner. However, doing so has placed an increased and ongoing burden on the taxpayers of each school district.

Ten years ago the state paid up to 80 percentage of the public school budget, while local government, mostly via property taxes made up the rest. The state is mandated by its own constitution to provide public education for Texas children. It is failing to do so, letting local government deal with it. Today, local taxpayers provide up to 80 percent of their property taxes for public education and up to 70 percent of the total public education budget that formerly was provided by the state.

Throughout the past decade Perry and other legislators feebly appointed a myriad of business, legislators and other "entitled" member of various committees on Public Education to develop a fix for the financing problem. All have failed to do what they were appointed to do.

Why?

Because those in charge, from Gov. Perry on down the line, don't really want to resolve the Public Education Financing issue. Instead, legislators push for more charter schools and quite a few legislators sit on the charter boards or seem to have special and possible "conflict of interests" regarding the success of public education.

Why?

Because they don't want the state to pay for Public Education if they can divert the financing onto local government. Perry and "his band of merry legislators" may then divert state financing to their alternate special interests. However, in doing so they are circumventing the Texas Constitution and are allowing the Public Education system to fall apart.

Perry continues to play his political games with Washington and Democrats there and here in Texas [Congressman Lloyd Doggett], but the truth is that Perry and legislators continue to fail Texas children, public education and hardworking and hardly-working Texas families.

Perry should NOT be permitted to do this. He must be held accountable by the voters and the way to hold Perry responsible is to vote him out this November by voting for Bill White. It's time to get rid of Rick Perry. Three terms is enough for ANY governor and he should be replaced.