Invest in Texas’ Future
When Ross Perot embarked on his crusade to fix the Texas education system in the 1980s, he said the state’s schools excelled in only three areas: drill team, band and football. To fix this, he helped craft and lobby for a sprawling education reform package that boosted state aid to poor districts, funded prekindergarten, increased teachers’ salaries, required high school students to pass a statewide standardized test in order to graduate and prohibited failing students from participating in extracurricular activities. The package was a bold and controversial move that invested significant resources in Texas’ future while demanding significant returns. Mark White, who oversaw the reforms as state governor, contended that the “oil and gas of Texas’ future will be the well-educated mind.” Today’s situation is wholly different. Governor Rick Perry recently called state funding for public education “phenomenal,” despite the fact that Texas ranks at the bottom of the pile nationally on state education aid. That same state aid fell 25 percent over the past decade, after accounting for inflation and a 2006 revenue swap. That year, the legislature cut local property taxes and compensated districts for the $7 billion in lost revenue they faced because of the cuts. Although this increased the state’s funding share, it only replaced local dollars and was not an increase in education funding. Aid also dropped drastically last session, when...
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