First, that the stimulus funds should have been used to supplement existing funds?
Uh, the problem at the time was the same, or worse, than the problem is now - states were several hundred million or several billions short of existing funds. There were not existing funds to supplement.
Second, stimulus funds at the time prevented or reduced the cuts you are seeing today.
Third, it is the newly elected Republicans who are pledged to give no more money to help states with their fiscal problems.
Fourth, Texas schools may be a financial mess, I don't claim to know jack squat about that way up north here, but recent reading tells me that educationally, which is sort of the point of schools, Texas is doing quite well.
http://www.dailyhowler.com/dh032311.shtml"Must we explain the various reasons why SAT scores aren’t used for this purpose? Good! Instead, we can return to the “gold standard” data from the NAEP, in which we’re able to share some good news with Mrs. Bush: Texas students score above the national average on almost all relevant measures; on most relevant measures, Texas students score well above the national average. In reality, it would be hard to find a single measure where Texas students are at the bottom of the nation. Even in eighth-grade reading, black kids in Texas score 3.4 points above the national average for their peers. Hispanic kids beat the national average by 3.5 points.
In eighth-grade math, the news is better. Black kids in Texas outscore their national peers by 12 points. Hispanic kids in Texas outscore their peers by 11 points. White kids are up by eight.
Someone should give Mrs. Bush the good news: Texas kids, and Texas teachers, aren’t at the bottom of the heap! In fact, they aren’t even close to the bottom. Presumably, Ravitch understands this. Why did she play us this way?"
and
http://www.dailyhowler.com/dh032511.shtml"By a very rough rule of thumb, ten points on the NAEP scale is often said to represent roughly one academic year:
Black students, average score in fourth-grade reading, NAEP, 2009:
Wisconsin: 191.8
Georgia: 204.3
North Carolina: 203.7
South Carolina: 200.1
Texas: 212.8
Virginia: 210.0
White students, average score in fourth-grade reading, NAEP, 2009:
Wisconsin: 226.9
Georgia: 229.0
North Carolina: 230.0
South Carolina: 226.4
Texas: 232.1
Virginia: 233.8
We didn’t cherry-pick the subject. Wisconsin schools tend to underperform on the NAEP, in pretty much every measure. In particular, Texas schools pretty much outscore Wisconsin’s in every demographic, in all four subjects the NAEP tests—fourth grade and eighth grade reading and math. (Eighth-grade reading, Ravitch’s favorite? Black kids in Wisconsin, 237.6. Black kids in Texas, 248.9.)"