As many of you already know, the State of Texas has somehow lost $25 billion. Wouldn't it be nice to have that kind of money to lose? And of course, they will build the bridge over the deficit on the backs of the poor and our children. Why tax an oil company when you can stick it to the kids?
How funny that the same people that decry running federal deficits because of their impact on the children turn around and defy the constitution of Texas by allowing education funding to dip below mandated levels, thereby screwing over the same children they claim to protect.
This is beyond hypocrisy. It's what urban dictionary aficionados would refer to as bungholery. It's posturing. It's arrogant, needless, shortsighted, and dangerous.
So they want 13% cuts in a state that already falls $6 billion short of the funding it needs to properly educate it's children. How can we allow this? As a Democrat, you cannot allow your children's future to be stripped to cover a deficit the Republicans built. As a Republican, you cannot allow the constitution of the State of Texas to be defecated upon. School funding is protected by the very document that gave life to this state. The document that protects us, empowers us, and defines us. Both sides of the aisle should be up in arms. If they are not, then they are not doing their job - they are not serving you, their constituent.
Yes, there are reforms that are badly needed to school funding. Yes, there are cuts that could be made, need to be made. But these cuts must be made as a result of vision and strategic planning, not blind desperation.
Those of you who think this will not impact your life are sadly mistaken. If this passes, what's next? Next year the deficit will be even larger, this has already been stated as fact. Where do the cuts come then? Do private schools start paying taxes? Do magnet schools get shuttered? Do football programs get the axe? Do teacher/student ratios change? Do we start hiring teachers based on price instead of quality? Do we lose great educators and administrators?
If this measure passes, the question becomes "when", not "if".
America leads the world in creativity, and that's about all we have left. I don't mean that as an insult, just a reality check. American minds created the iInternet. Google. Facebook. Twitter. And the iPhone. To cut funding from Art programs, and other special programs, is to cut our future off at the knees. We are moving into a future where creativity will be a prerequisite to maintaining the most basic of survival needs. Competition for virtually everything else is already slipping beyond our means. We cannot compete in the labor market without sacrificing quality of life. We cannot compete in the service sector like we used to. Financially, we were brought to our knees and have had trouble standing again. But we're still the best, because no one thinks like we think. And we honed these skills in our public schools.
We cannot allow school funding to be cut. To do so is to allow our lawmakers to rob the future to pay for the past. This is the simplest thing you will ever be asked to do for your children and your state: Make a call. There are no speeches to write, no arguments to have, no punditry or pontification. It's simple: "Vote to cut school funding, and in the next election I will vote against you. Vote to preserve it now and forever, and you will have my support in the fall." That's it. That really is all you have to do. Leave a message with the secretary, the voice mail box, or the volunteer answering the phones.
Go here: http://www.fyi.legis.state.tx.us/
Find your rep. Make the call. Force change.
Then go here to join the cause and spread the word: http://www.causes.com/causes/576960
Thanks for reading. If you disagree, then return your high school diploma, which will in turn nullify your college diploma. Then go tell your HR rep you lied on your resume, and enjoy life in the gutter.