Consider this report from the San Antonio Express News about a district near me:

The Judson ISD board is considering cutting librarians, increasing class sizes, reducing uncertified teacher pay and raising taxes to cut costs.

“Elementary school is where literacy gaps start, elementary school is where achievement gaps start,” said Jo Powers, a fourth-grade teacher at Elolf Elementary School. “To remove what is a peer-reviewed, scientific-proven way to increase literacy and student achievement makes no sense.” 

via San Antonio Express News

This is just more chronic underfunding of public schools, even as Texas legislators distract with vouchers and purported school choice options.

The real intent is to force schools to cut people and education programs to achieve a non-existent standard of efficiency, leaving Texas children with rich parents little recourse for a quality education.

Strip schools down to bare metal, force everyone to say, “Public schools are a mess!” and demonize teachers and librarians, while failing to put consistent programs (lack of guaranteed Cost of Living Adjustments, higher contribution rates from teachers still working, TRS-CARE issues) in place to support retirement and medical programs. All while distracting and diverting funds with vouchers.

Texas, is this really the kind of education we want for ALL children? It must be. And cuts to federal free lunch programs…for all children with no matching program in the State. It’s despicable.

Other Perspectives

• Texas AFT President Zeph Capo stated, “Every layoff, every school closure, every student service cut – that’s Gov. Abbott’s handiwork” (source).
• The Texas State Teachers Association called Abbott “a disaster for education,” noting that he intentionally left public schools underfunded while pushing for private school vouchers (source)
• Texas ranks poorly nationwide in education metrics: 42nd in reading test scores, 30th in teacher pay, and 46th for public school system spending (source).
• “We have a state that is choosing to starve our public schools” Lynn Boswell (source)