Gov. Greg Abbott’s plan to cut property taxes will starve public schools while he sends state money to private schools.
Texas already ranks 47th in the nation in public school funding and pays teachers $10,000 less a year than the national average. No surprise then that Texas students trail the nation in reading and math scores, according to the Nation’s Report Card, a nonprofit that analyzes testing data.
The Legislature increased public school funding by $8 billion for the next two years, but it was the first increase in state funding since 2019 and doesn’t keep up with inflation. Lawmakers then promised to spend $1 billion in state tax revenue to send 100,000 kids to private schools.
Tying the hands of school boards will guarantee they will have to close more schools and cut more teachers, explained Clay Robison, spokesman for the Texas State Teachers Association.
“Abbott does not really care about public education; his focus now is on private schools, charter schools, and giving them all the tax dollars,” he told me. “More teachers are going to quit.”
Texans are going to get even dumber, if that were possible.
That’s their goal. Dumb people are easy to manipulate and brainwash.
A couple weeks ago here in TX we voted on 17 state constitutional amendments. I want to say 12-13 of those were some form of tax cut for the wealthy. I voted against all of them but they all passed. And they passed big, like 60-70% to 40-30%.
The wording they used to describe the amendments was very much skewed to make them sound wonderful. No negatives, only positives. For instance, something like this may have had the wording “more money for schools”.
On its face it seems like a good idea - fewer taxes for me, more money for schools - what could go wrong? I assume most folks just looked at it said “ok” without much additional thought.
It’s very frustrating to basically have the large majority of voters approve this, giving the state government reassurance that they can do whatever they want, when it’s an obvious lie.
Nothing they do is to help the “regular” people of Texas. It’s all tax breaks for businesses and the super wealthy and Christian Nationalism disguised as “parental choice”.
It’s absolutely disgusting.
Yeah I voted no for every single one. I think part of the problem is barely anybody showed up to vote.
I posted about this a few weeks ago, it’s so frustrating seeing texas tax situation get more and more regressive.
Lol, see you at number 50 in education Texas, when all those private schools cut corners and pocket money instead of teaching students.
I dunno. It’s not like Mississippi and Missouri are doing anything right.
Thought I heard Mississippi was turning things around, partially by *gasp* failing kids that don’t meet standards and holding them back a year.
That isn’t reflected in the statistics yet and won’t be for another 5-8 years. Texas is probably 49th in terms of K-5 now.
Yeah, I mean I really don’t know what’s going on in the south with schools, they are all pretty near the bottom. There has to be some explanation and I kinda refuse to believe it’s a public school problem. As with everything, there’s probably far too many middle-management administrators and things like that which could be eliminated.
Republicans cut everything and keep the money, the deep red south
So what’s the deal they’re not satisfied with the skim and they want more? FFS. Though I suppose this has more to do with teaching a bunch of religious bs in the classroom.
What’s wrong with those voters? No matter how conservative you may be, How do you see your state among the worst education systems and decide they need less money?
I believe they are convinced the education system is already over funded, and we are not getting our money’s worth. The problem is, that money is not making it’s way to the student’s education, it seems, and no one wants to give up the grift.
dumb, poor, desperate people are easy to manipulate, it’s a simple as that
Poverty. When you lack secure housing/food/safety, you can’t focus as easily at school.
It’s really a goddamn shame what’s still going on there and many many large cities across the US. Every child should have a quality education available to them in this country of obscene wealth.
Nah, the private schools are for the rich kids to actually learn things so they have a lifelong advantage over the public school kids.
By learning things I suppose you mean make connections because that’s the real power in a place like that.
What did Texas do to Greg Abbott, for him to hate it this much?
Oh, that’s easy to explain. They dared to give people “not like Greg Abbott” a leg up.
“A leg up”
“Greg Abbott”
Ironic
Took his legs.
https://www.texastribune.org/2002/02/18/greg-abbott-as-plaintiff/
The Lorax knew what was up, but he didn’t succeed in his plans.
You have to respect his dedication to that 1 star rating, as advertised.
They can’t count anyway so they’ll likely never find out that’s a bad thing.
I guess Texas is getting what they voted for
My SO is a teacher here in Texas. She’s well aware of the budget hoarding Abbott has been at for years; districts are hurting and having to close schools to get by. State Congress also made cuts to homeowner taxes for schools.
It’s especially amusing when Abbott touts pay raises for teachers. Their health insurance premiums increase, to the dollar, for the amount of the ‘raise’.
I think the goal is to end secular education in the state. Fund the private/religious schools/charter schools (which in particular are a joke), and give the bogus vouchers for homeschooling. As others have said, they want an ignorant populace.
Hopefully when enough boomers die off we can turn things around.
Step 1. Promise to Cut taxes
Step 2. Not mention those tax cuts are going to hit local public school
Step 3. Realize within a year or 2 that the cuts are not sustainable
Step 4. Force a levy for “emergency school funding”
Well, I was one of the last ones in within my department. Guess I’ll be second on the chopping block.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see LEE High School soon change back to its original (Robert E.) Lee. A name that was chosen the same year that modern civil rights were amended into the Constitution.
Keep 'em stupid.
Although I feel like conservatism has already reached max stupidity.
Let the blade fall.
This might be a controversial opinion, and I am almost certainly uninformed on the Texas public school system as a whole, but from what I’ve seen they are not hurting for funding. Their high schools and middle schools have sports equipment that would make your local school insanely jealous. Some of the stadiums those kids play in are crazy nice, and they often have their own announcer crew, complete with ways to broadcast the game to multiple platforms.
More of that money should be diverted to the teachers obviously, but overall I think they have plenty of money to go around, from what I’ve seen.
If you live in a rural town of 5000 slack jawed yokels, the state sends you a ton of money paid for by the taxes of blue cities in Texas. This is what they use to build multi-million dollar football stadiums while teachers in blue cities have to start GoFundMe’s for school supplies. All the while, the governor’s goal is to make sure that public school children are taught that Jesus walked hand in hand with dinosaurs.
Yeah, that’s fucked. So as usual, the money is there it’s just being spent on the wrong things for the wrong people.
Like a quarter of the state constitutional amendments that passed this election reduce tax sources for schools for what it’s worth.
