Well as the gap keeps getting bigger and bigger and now to 25 billion into the hole we start worrying about how we're going to have to make up for this. It is unfortunate that on the top of this list is budget cuts on education.
Texas has had major budget crises in the past but not as bad as this. Back in the late 1980's, 1991, and 2003. Never in the past major crises have we cut state funding of public schools. All these politicians talk about how important education is and how that is one of the major focuses and well once again its the major focus but in a bad way. I am certain that there are many other places where they can cut from to make up for this gap. In my point of view education and law enforcement jobs should be the very last places where we should do any kind of down sizing. We should really think of starting from the top.
There are plenty of places on the top of the totem pole where we can start cutting. I know I've stated in the past about the governors mansion and how it deserves to be taken care of and it does cost a lot to maintain but I am sure there is places that they can save money on and find lower bids. Im not too certain where and how much we can cut from but what I'm trying to get across here is that education should be the very last place to do any kind of down sizing.
Getting More Dumber!
ReplyDeleteWhile reading my classmates blogs, I came across a blog written by Mr. Trevino called , "Who's Paying for the 25 Billion ?". The blog is referring to the huge budget debt the state is facing and the likely methods the majority republican state government will use to close the gap. I must say that I agree with Mr. Trevino and would like to add some additional reasoning as to why these are not good methods. He first discusses the fact that education seems to be the first place the government is looking to make budget cuts.Let's take a look at how Texas stacks up to the rest of the states when it comes to education. These stats come directly from the state comptrollers web site..
#14 Percentage of 4th-graders scoring at or above proficient in math in school year 2005 (40 percent)
#20 Percentage of 8th-graders scoring at or above proficient in math in school year 2005 (31 percent)
#35 Number of schools identified as needing improvement based on adequate yearly progress, school year 2004 (199)
#35 Percentage of 8th-graders scoring at or above proficient in reading in school year 2005 (26 percent)
#35 Percentage of 4th-graders scoring at or above proficient in reading in school year 2005 (29 percent)
#36 High school graduation rates in school year 2002 (68 percent)
#46 Average math SAT scores in school year 2005 (502)
#49 Average verbal SAT scores in school year 2005 (493)
It seems like cutting education budget would be like pourring salt into an already wounded system. It does make sense though. Keeping the education level low creates uneducated laborers, which benefits corporations. The main concern of Republicans.
Mr. Trevino then points out the next place to make cuts will likely be law enforcement. Texas currently ranks 37th in # of homicides per 100,000 people. This means that you are less likely to be murdered in 36 other states. Texas also ranks #44 in crimes per capita and #39 in number of violent crimes per capita. Seems to me this is another bad place to look for budget cuts.
According to U.S. census figures. in March of 2009 alone the state of Texas paid government employees a salary of $1,225,533,903. With those sort of numbers it is hard for me to imagine that better places to make budget cuts do not exist. The people of Texas will , however, continue to vote these people into office. Somebody, please give me an educated reason why! Please tell me soon because at this rate the "educated Texan" will soon be extinct.
My fellow colleague Rick Trevino wrote an interesting blog “Who’s paying for the $25 billion”? This blog refers to the $25 billion dollar budget gap crisis the state of Texas is facing. If I’m not mistaken, didn't the Wall Street Journal report that only reason why Texas managed to balance its budget last time is because the state legislature pressured Perry to accept funds from the federal stimulus, despite the fact that Perry was and continues to be a vocal opponent of it?
ReplyDeleteThen again, it should be no wonder that Texas has budget troubles considering the fact that Perry (according to the Associated Press) spent nearly $600K over the past couple of years to rent a luxurious home at the taxpayers' expense while the official governor's mansion was being repaired following a fire. On regards to the repairs of the governor’s mansion I agree with Rick Trevino that they could have got lower bids. He could have went into more detail on the issue and perhaps provided a link to his source. But Overall I agree with Rick Trevino, it is unfortunate that cutting the top of this list is budget cuts on education. He is absolutely right that there are many other places where they can cut from to make up from this gap.