Rick Perry Versus the School Children of Texas

[white cloud]

The conservatives of the Texas legislature are about to try again to fool the state's taxpayers into funding private schools with a voucher program. The Republican argument, which falls apart under scrutiny, has been that no child should be condemned to attend a failing public school. No conservative wants to talk about why the public school system might be troubled, however, nor do they contemplate the even greater long-term damages to be wrought by school choice.

All of this present and future harm belongs at the feet of shortsighted conservative politicians. As Governor Rick Perry was preparing to run for the GOP presidential nomination, he pushed the legislature to approve a $5.4 billion budget cut in Texas education. His transparent goal was political, and simply to build upon a no tax reputation, which, unsurprisingly, came at the expense of school children. The consequences of such a funding reduction were easily predicted. According to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, Perry's money slashing occurred just as an additional 84,000 new students were entering Texas' public school system. School districts around the state were forced to reduce their operational expenses and had to fire 11,487 teachers and eliminate 15,000 staff positions.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jim-moore/rick-perry-education_b_2421776.html

[TexasTowelie]

1. It should be Rick Perry vs. the People of Texas.

He doesn't discriminate on the basis of age as to who he will screw over next.

[DhhD]

2. In the 2012 GOP Presidential Debate, Perry said that he would close the US Dept. of Education.

He was stumbling to remember the other closures, then referred to the forgotten as, an oops. To me, the GOP could care less about public education and the common good of the children in this state. It seems to be all about business and tax abatement for a few.

[AverageJoe90]

3. What's really ironic about this, though.....

Is that "No Child Left Behind", a conservative program endorsed by Dubya himself, no less, ended up holding back kids who were having trouble and I betcha the worst-affected kids were probably those stuck in the crappiest of the public schools in this, and other states. But of course, as you rightly pointed out, some conservatives, including virtually all of those who aren't moderates, are indeed unwilling to talk about the real causes of the long-term decline in schooling quality.

(I don't quite understand the problem with school choice, though, TBH. I can understand that it CAN be abused by some, but the option itself isn't really a bad thing, IMO).