Gov. Greg Abbott’s plan to cut property taxes will starve public schools while he sends state money to private schools.
Texas already ranks 47th in the nation in public school funding and pays teachers $10,000 less a year than the national average. No surprise then that Texas students trail the nation in reading and math scores, according to the Nation’s Report Card, a nonprofit that analyzes testing data.
The Legislature increased public school funding by $8 billion for the next two years, but it was the first increase in state funding since 2019 and doesn’t keep up with inflation. Lawmakers then promised to spend $1 billion in state tax revenue to send 100,000 kids to private schools.
Tying the hands of school boards will guarantee they will have to close more schools and cut more teachers, explained Clay Robison, spokesman for the Texas State Teachers Association.
“Abbott does not really care about public education; his focus now is on private schools, charter schools, and giving them all the tax dollars,” he told me. “More teachers are going to quit.”
You have to respect his dedication to that 1 star rating, as advertised.
Keep 'em stupid.
Although I feel like conservatism has already reached max stupidity.
In Florida, the MAGAs are all pledging to end property taxes, which of course will help the wealthy property owners the most. Without an income tax OR property tax, what is supposed to pay for things like schools?
My SO is a teacher here in Texas. She’s well aware of the budget hoarding Abbott has been at for years; districts are hurting and having to close schools to get by. State Congress also made cuts to homeowner taxes for schools.
It’s especially amusing when Abbott touts pay raises for teachers. Their health insurance premiums increase, to the dollar, for the amount of the ‘raise’.
I think the goal is to end secular education in the state. Fund the private/religious schools/charter schools (which in particular are a joke), and give the bogus vouchers for homeschooling. As others have said, they want an ignorant populace.
Hopefully when enough boomers die off we can turn things around.
Waiting for boomers to die won’t be as efficient as you think. Remember that both JD Vance and Stephen Miller are milliennials and you know how they are like.
Yeah, that was my hope with Covid. Don’t want shots? Ok, see ya.
What an underperforming virus.
This might be a controversial opinion, and I am almost certainly uninformed on the Texas public school system as a whole, but from what I’ve seen they are not hurting for funding. Their high schools and middle schools have sports equipment that would make your local school insanely jealous. Some of the stadiums those kids play in are crazy nice, and they often have their own announcer crew, complete with ways to broadcast the game to multiple platforms.
More of that money should be diverted to the teachers obviously, but overall I think they have plenty of money to go around, from what I’ve seen.
Like a quarter of the state constitutional amendments that passed this election reduce tax sources for schools for what it’s worth.
If you live in a rural town of 5000 slack jawed yokels, the state sends you a ton of money paid for by the taxes of blue cities in Texas. This is what they use to build multi-million dollar football stadiums while teachers in blue cities have to start GoFundMe’s for school supplies. All the while, the governor’s goal is to make sure that public school children are taught that Jesus walked hand in hand with dinosaurs.
Yeah, that’s fucked. So as usual, the money is there it’s just being spent on the wrong things for the wrong people.
I guess Texas is getting what they voted for
Texas has been GOP governed for nearly 30 years.
The “please tread all over me” state.
It’s four big cities and four hundred oil baronies squashed into one state.
The politics varies heavily country to country.
What did Texas do to Greg Abbott, for him to hate it this much?
Took his legs.
https://www.texastribune.org/2002/02/18/greg-abbott-as-plaintiff/
The Lorax knew what was up, but he didn’t succeed in his plans.
So does this asshole have kids? Because if so, it would be sooo surprising if they are accepted into said private schools and get all good grades. If he has kids they should be forced to attend the public schools, see what is what in reality.
Well, private/non-public-facing institutions aren’t bound by Titles 7 and 9. So, this means they can set up whites-only schools again.
These people haven’t gone away, and school integration wasn’t that long ago. Ruby Bridges and school integration happened within my mom’s lifetime.
And Ruby Bridges is still alive. She’s only 71 years old.
A couple weeks ago here in TX we voted on 17 state constitutional amendments. I want to say 12-13 of those were some form of tax cut for the wealthy. I voted against all of them but they all passed. And they passed big, like 60-70% to 40-30%.
The wording they used to describe the amendments was very much skewed to make them sound wonderful. No negatives, only positives. For instance, something like this may have had the wording “more money for schools”.
On its face it seems like a good idea - fewer taxes for me, more money for schools - what could go wrong? I assume most folks just looked at it said “ok” without much additional thought.
It’s very frustrating to basically have the large majority of voters approve this, giving the state government reassurance that they can do whatever they want, when it’s an obvious lie.
Nothing they do is to help the “regular” people of Texas. It’s all tax breaks for businesses and the super wealthy and Christian Nationalism disguised as “parental choice”.
It’s absolutely disgusting.
I posted about this a few weeks ago, it’s so frustrating seeing texas tax situation get more and more regressive.
Yeah I voted no for every single one. I think part of the problem is barely anybody showed up to vote.
Lol, see you at number 50 in education Texas, when all those private schools cut corners and pocket money instead of teaching students.
I dunno. It’s not like Mississippi and Missouri are doing anything right.
Thought I heard Mississippi was turning things around, partially by *gasp* failing kids that don’t meet standards and holding them back a year.
