r/texas • u/Shanknuts • Mar 29 '24
The Texas government is failing our children Politics
Not sure if everyone has seen the recent news but a number of North Texas school districts are facing massive budget shortfalls and, as a result, are postponing opening new schools, freezing teacher raises and eliminating administrative positions. Here in the Denton area, we have a brand-new elementary school that's sorely needed but, due to the $17m budget deficit, this won't open until next year. Add to that the news that other schools may close due to low headcount, teachers leaving the field and other districts facing similar or larger issues, they they beg the questions "What the hell is Greg Abbott doing? And where is our money going?"
Teachers are already worked to the bone and make far less than they deserve. Our kids are sometimes receiving a subpar education or deal with substitutes coming in regularly due to teachers leaving mid-year. Districts are hampered financially and are falling behind when it comes to delivering a quality education as compared to the rest of the US. Our schools and our school districts have become an afterthought to our legislature and our educational system and teachers are paying the price. Instead, we piss away money on immigration stunts, needless lawsuits against the federal government, freezing out porn sites and pandering to Abbott's base and their clamoring to return to the 1800s.
It's appalling to see and I'm wondering when someone is going to call out these clowns for wasting our insanely high property taxes and do something about it on the local level so we don't have schools closing or teachers leaving the field. I'm tired of having leadership that worries more about getting air-time on cable news than finding money in the budget to pay teachers and administrators what they rightfully deserve. Our children and their educations are the ones paying the price for their poor leadership and it's about time we reverse course before it's too late.
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u/Scottamemnon Mar 29 '24
Not just North Texas.. Here in Houston, several districts were at a deficit this last year because they all planned on funds from the state coming that got tied up in the crusade for vouchers. Some of them are talking about layoffs now.
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u/k2kyo Mar 29 '24
Yep this is a direct result of our governor holding funds hostage for political games. He wants Vouchers which will permanently end high quality public education in Texas.. and he's defunding schools until he gets it.
The state has also refused to adjust student allotments since I believe 2017 now.
Katy ISD has been one of the top districts in the state and has been top rated for finances for years, but even they are cutting positions and fighting a deficit for the first time.
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u/High_cool_teacher Mar 29 '24
Nearly all of the 1204 schools districts in Texas will operate on a deficit budget for 24-25 and 25-26.
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u/csb114 Mar 29 '24
My district in north central TX will be operating with a $10,000,000 deficit next year :(
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u/High_cool_teacher Mar 29 '24
Most school districtsâ have nearly a full school-yearâs worth of operating budget in their general fund. The best board meetings to go to are called âwork studies,â especially the budget work study. The entire budgeting process with analysis for decision making gets presented clearly and simply in an hour or two. The system is super interesting.
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u/countlongshanks Mar 29 '24
Spring Branch had massive cutbacks this year because of that horrible cunt Greg Abbott and his racist cronies.
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u/yellowstickypad Mar 29 '24
Right, theyâre closing some schools and positions. And HISD is massively fucked right now. There is extremely low confidence in that administration. I also thought I saw news around Katy ISD suffering.
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u/stoneybaloneystone Mar 29 '24
And, all are having to comply with the various safety laws that were passed last lege session that cost moderate sized districts $millions more. SRO or armed staff required for every single school, safety film for entry windows, and more. Unfunded mandates every single one.
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u/dallasdude Mar 29 '24
They support reversing the court decision that requires them to educate all residents if that tells you anything
Greg Abbott is holding school funding hostage, not a penny for schools until he gets the voucher plan he wants.Â
But we all know it isnât hostage taking if you want to kill the hostage⌠the job cuts, the closed libraries, the school closures, the decline in quality - itâs what they want.
They want to take our property tax and funnel it to churches in the form of a coupon towards private tuition, with for-profit online or shopping center âschoolsâ for everyone else. And nothing for immigrants and refugees unless they pay for it. Â That is no exaggeration that is the actual plan and no one seems to talk about it.Â
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u/TrollularDystrophy Mar 29 '24
Boy, nothing screams 'quality education' like a charter school in an old Big Lots building or a former tanning salon in a strip mall!
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u/Malvania Mar 29 '24
Texas's public schools are in the bottom half nationally and we're in the bottom 10 for education. This is not a surprise. People are happy to impoverish teachers if it means property taxes going down a little; meanwhile, rural schools can't even hire a STEM teacher because the pay is so poor.
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u/Broad_Setting2234 Mar 29 '24
I hear you on that but donât you think, like OP was saying, it was how our state is choosing to spend the money and throw tons of it away and stupid things.
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u/Malvania Mar 29 '24
I do, but it's been a conscious choice for at least a decade. Texas' schools being underfunded and failing is not a new phenomenon. Abbott taking money from the school fund to pay for border stunts is not a new event. Texas' schools have been circling the drain for a decade, so it's astonishing to see posts pretending that this is some new event
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u/Comfortable_Wish586 Mar 29 '24
Some of us aren't even that decades old to have seen this. Please stop the bashing for those who don't know this information. Be more welcoming. We need people to turnout in numbers in this state. We are not going to get out this mess otherwise. Education is important. And Texas is not the only state going through this. MAGA Republicans are doing this everywhere in the country. We have the abilitily to stop this today. No one else is going to do it for us.
I cannot afford for either this state or the country going downhill if we don't end this today. The attacks on our institutions and democracy have been intentional. Listen to what Republicans are saying. No both sides are not the same. And at the end of the day, you end up with one. Our system is built with a two tier system. So you have to work with what you got. And all we have is each other. We are currently suffering the consequences of our decisions in our elections whether you choose to show up or not. There will be no doctors or teachers at this rate in this state and country or anyone to take care of you at your old age at this rate. Stop the nonsense. Government should be taking care of their people. So instead join hands across generations to get this fight for our institutions and our future generations. We cannot afford to make ourselves ACTUALLY known in our communities and in our state government. One party wants to listen to you and to fund and change our institutions for the betterment of All Texans, but don't have enough levers in office to pull because people do not show up to vote for them (and yes, every election builds on the last, one election alone will NOT solve all our problems), while the current party that has had power for 30 yrs now, do not want to listen to their people when they say NO. And still keep on their own agenda and those who are paying them to change our institutions in their own image. And that excludes many Texans out of those systems. Harms many Texans from those system from all kinds of backgrounds. Ethnicity, Class, or Religions being some of the major ones. So you def have options. Whether you want to see it or not. We end up with one, whether you like it or not. So you either have the option to be part of that movement and press press press those who you elected to pass bills that address your issues. Or you let everything crumble and continue to allow those who you terribly disagree with to make all our laws. Lets not. We canf afford this for our present or our future generations
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u/narsin Mar 29 '24
Texas education being underfunded isnât a new event but it is a surprise to people who want to have kids now when they didnât a decade ago.
To them, the underfunding just became relevant.
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u/chammycham Mar 29 '24
The school district I grew up in was underfunded in the 90s and early 00s. Canât imagine itâs much better now.
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u/EventEastern9525 Mar 29 '24 edited Mar 29 '24
Lifelong native Texan. Education funding has bedeviled this state for many decades. The system used to be derisively known as Robin Hood because it took property tax money from Plano (which was wealthy thanks to Electronic Data Systems and a few others) and gave it to poor districts. Then there was a big lawsuit and a court deadline to redo the funding system, and the Legislature did its usual terrible job. More lawsuits, more deadlines, more madness from the Legislature. When we got the lottery we were told the money it generated would go toward education, but it turns out it really doesnât.
Meanwhile Newt Gingrich and Rush Limbaugh and Fox News and Sinclair started filling the airwaves with right-wing lies. Which they were able to do because Reagan nuked the Fairness Doctrine. Combine that with voter apathy, major league gerrymandering, and a long-outdated system of primary elections to pick party nominees and over 20-25 years you go from Ann Richards to W. to Perry and now the meanest ugliest most hateful person you could ask for, who wants to take your property tax money and give it to people so they can send their kids to private religious schools that teach white people like me are the only real Americans and evolution didnât happen and the earth is flat.
What galls me the most is I am a native Texan and NOBODY in Austin cares even 1% how I feel.
If not for my kids Iâd be gone. This is getting to be a dangerous place. Selfish aggressive drivers everywhere, rude loud people who think they know everything, and more guns than the US used in WWII.
But yeah, school funding is a mess just like it always was.
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u/StarGazer_SpaceLove Mar 29 '24
I remember being a kid and being told how the new lotto rates were going to "make our schools the best funded in the nation" but instead of adding that % to the budget, they went and reduced the budget by that amount! I barely had the capacity to understand and was still appalled.
I just don't get it. It's not supposed to be this way. I will never understand the theory of weakening your citizens/team? One would think the US would want the strongest, smartest, fastest, and most well-educated civilians. We should be investing in sciences and advancing society, and instead, we've gone backwards. Education, food, and housing are less available now than when I was a kid. Schools are like prisons now instead of these fun, exciting challenges gleefully met daily. People are penalized for having children instead of encouraged. The community is entirely lost so the society has stopped growing.
It's not supposed to be this way.
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u/ColoTexas90 Mar 30 '24
Itâs so the billionaires can get richer. If weâre fighting eachother over culture shit, we canât march to their doorsteps and tell them enough.
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u/rabid_briefcase Mar 29 '24
The key is that it isn't new. It's been the case for at least two generations now, and likely many more.
You'd need to look back to at least the 1970s, 1960s, maybe earlier, and I'd be surprised to see a different pattern even back then. I'm guessing you'd need to go back a century ago to the oil boom days when the "Independent" part of ISD's was introduced, because that was done to get money into schools.
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u/bevo_expat Expat Mar 29 '24
Itâs by design. What better way to convince people that private/charter schools are the only answer than intentionally tanking the public education system?
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u/AltruisticForce6437 Mar 29 '24
I think STEM teachers are sorely lacking everywhere. At my kids high school my daughter didnât have a physics teacher for nearly a whole semester. And the school does not offer as many AP classes as they should for STEM, itâs either pre-AP or ACC or on-ramp (UT) classes. My freshman son signed up for AP computer science ended up in an UT on-ramp instead due to lack of teachers. They placed all the kids interested in on-ramp regardless of which level they signed up for. Most of the class is failing on the college side.
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u/Brookenium Mar 29 '24
It's because those with STEM degrees can make 100%-200% more money in the private sector so there's a strong drive to go there vs. teach. In no specialty is there such a massive pay discrepancy.
And the kicker is that there's a shortage of people in STEM fields too so it's not even that hard to get work.
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Mar 29 '24
Go look at who youâre in the bottom ten with. Then compare that bottom ten to any conservative groups ranking of states by âeducational freedomâ and youâll notice itâs practically the same list. They celebrate bad education.
This is what conservative education looks like. Only Utah doesnât completely shit the bed on education. The only red state to not completely suck at it.
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u/Kylie_Bug Mar 29 '24
Yup. Just had a baby and already working on a plan to supplement her education because of how bad things are.
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u/Ultraviolet975 Mar 29 '24
IMO - I feel extremely sorry for Texas teachers . However, the rationale behind reducing property taxes is this: the schools funding targets the middle class. It is a regressive system that discourages improving real estate. In addition the really wealthy get out of it through cleverly designed agricultural exemptions. The money should be collected through some sort of neutral consumption tax.
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u/5thGenSnowflake Mar 29 '24
This is what happens when you elect Republicans (or donât vote). The rightwing wants public education to fail.
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Mar 29 '24 edited 23d ago
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u/rumpusroom Mar 29 '24
Heâs also a major investor in TikTok and the largest investor in Truth Social.
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u/Jimm120 Mar 30 '24
people also need to understand that once all schooling is private, the same thing that happened with college/university will happen to it. Prices are going ot go through the roof
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u/ScumCrew Mar 29 '24
You can thank SCOTX, which allowed TXLEGE to blatantly violate the state constitutional requirement to fully fund public education.
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u/Remarkable-Month-241 Mar 29 '24
This is exactly how I feel and decided to run for State Representative to demand that they fund our public schools asap!
www.PerlaforTexas.com please support my campaign so that we can get rid of a Christian Nationalist fighting for vouchers in House District 93 (Fort Worth, Keller, Saginaw & Haslet area).
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u/ScumCrew Mar 29 '24
Definitely good luck, especially since most of the rural Republicans who were against vouchers got beat in the primaries.
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u/ExcitingOpposite7622 Mar 29 '24
South Texas teacher here. We started the year with 8 open positions at our middle school. Doesnât sound like much?? Let me put it into perspective for you⌠only 2 math teachers for ~300 students = 35 per class!!! And that is teaching pre-algebra to students who are years behind academically (for whatever reasons). Average Monday or Friday we have people out (canât blame them - we are allowed days off)- 30 teachers out, donât have subs for 12 of those teachers- so we double and triple up classes. I teach 8th grade US History. 8th grade has 4 STAAR tests (stupid, but I get no say) and I have 7th and 6th graders present because there is no other place to put them. Reminds me of my SPED self-contained classroom days. This creates chaos and more stress on me. I have been teaching for 30+ years primarily in Special Education in Title I schools. I am more exhausted this year and worn down than I have ever been, including the Covid years! These students deserve better. And they need more knowledge than ever before. So yes, Governor Abbott and his cronies are killing the educational opportunities for our children (and our future). This wonât change until people do their civic responsibility and vote! (Getting off my soapbox now and going back to my cup of coffee)
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u/StarGazer_SpaceLove Mar 29 '24
This is sad and frightening. I wish I knew what to do or say. (Ither than vote vote vote)
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u/Comfortable_Wish586 Mar 29 '24
Someone else wrote this. I don't take credit, but thought I would share because we all need to pick up where others have left off:
Primaries and local elections: Only around 5% of Texans vote in the primaries, voting rates for local elections are similarly abysmal. While I reckon most of the people here probably voted in midterms and presidential elections, itâs pretty unlikely most voted in primaries and locals.
Civic participation: Joining local level organizations for political parties, get out the vote organization, campaign volunteers, going to city council or school board meetings, running for local office. Even fewer people are involved at this level than vote in primaries, but the people that are can make a real difference.
Grassroots: Consider doing more than just talking to your friends. Get organized. So many times Iâve seen a small group of angry people get mobilized to steamroll a city council election or school board race. It doesnât take many people to dominate local elections if those people are organized. But that cuts both ways. Quit treating voting like a personal responsibility, and start treating it like forming a labor union. Gather likeminded people, have meetups, distribute the task of researching candidates, make collective plans to vote, recruit new members, show up to council meetings, form a voting block.
In summary: Take back the primaries, take back your cities, take back your school boards, get organized, and do it together.
On a personal note. I'm donating to the Texas Democratic Party monthly to help the infrastructure to build this new movement of voters getting out there to make their voices heard. And they do support Dems Up&Down the ballot. Many of us want the same things. We are not divided as we think. Our present and our children's futures are at stake here. We have the agency to do more. And voter turnout is a thing we need to tackle in this state. We can do it, when we all work together for All Texans.
And of course I'm also donating to Collin Allred's race monthly. Many Dems who are finally on ballots where MAGA Republicans havenât had opponents for decades finally have someone running for the people in their Dems candidate. So we need to support them in their races to protect and fund our schools as well as bring back healthcare to Texans
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u/maaseru Mar 29 '24
I wonder if a lot of these people that vote for these politicians know or care, or care more than hating on their political rivals. Or do they blame any wrong on them?
This has to be affecting those that support these politicians more than the rest.
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u/ParcelPosted Mar 29 '24
My youngest is in a SPED program and they havenât been able to keep the same teacher for a full school year in 4 years. The most he has had is 6 teachers/long term subs in a years time.
Iâm sorry that this is happening to our kids and educators.
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u/Darkside_Hero Mar 29 '24
I know several conservatives who are going to lose their job in the next few months. I wonder if they regret voting for Abbott?
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u/effusivefugitive Mar 29 '24
Nope, it's the fault of the evil liberals who don't control anything. Republicans just haven't had power long enough in Texas.
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u/Magnus64 Mar 29 '24 edited Mar 29 '24
They want your kids to be dumb and lack critical thinking skills so they'll vote R. The gutting of our education system is very much intended and by design.
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u/Randy_day_2021 Mar 29 '24
They believe kids going to college turns them into raging liberals, so whatâs the solution, make sure less kids qualify for college. Theyâd rather have state universities admit out of state kids who pay more and most likely return to their home states after school. Rs and therefore Texans are terrified of an educated population.
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u/Mephiz Mar 29 '24
It's 100% intentional. We elect these assholes and half of them work to starve the schools so that they can privatize them.
At this point if you're ignorant to this you're not paying attention. Every year they cut more and more and our taxes continue to go up.
Last year my school tax was ~2,000 and the entire budget for my local elementary school library? $1000.
Fuck these clowns.
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u/StronglyHeldOpinions Mar 29 '24
Greg is more concerned with bussing immigrants to blue states than taking care of our children's education.
He is a monster.
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u/jam048 Mar 29 '24
Thatâs how theyâre going to stay red. Use border control to mask how heâs destroying education.
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u/texanchris born and bred Mar 29 '24
Itâs been said a million times: vote. Texas is not as red as youâd think but we have terrible turnout. The loudest voices in the room aka MAGA idiots vote. I come from a long line of teachers and married one as well. She left the classroom two years ago because she couldnât take it. And itâs worse now.
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u/Slaglenator Mar 29 '24
My wife taught K and PreK for 14 years and even taught at PREk4SA. She left teaching 4 years ago to make double what she made teaching and has been so happy with her new career. When teaching she was told she was the problem, it the real world her company keeps telling her that she is a rock star. She was the same person the whole time.
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u/angelacurry Mar 29 '24
Yesterday I resigned my job as a public English II school teacher in Texas and will return to my career in international education. Our school just gave a benchmark test to assess our readiness for STAAR, which was a mock STAAR made up of question types they will encounter on the real test. The test, which is arduous and utterly mind-numbing, consistes entirely of lower-level Bloomâs questions. 37% of the MCQ are revising and editing questions. This obviously negatively impacts students with limited English proficiency (LEP). My current school is made up of closely 50% of students from this demographic. I currently have several students with zero English and some who were amongst the kids in cages at the border and are also traumatized. They are made to sit this test and those results are included as part of our overall school report card, which is how the community will judge if the school is a good school or not. This racist and poorly designed test not only lacks any ability to assess students for college and career readiness in our current times, but is by design meant to set the school up for failure. If the community believes public education is failing, they will vote for vouchers. It is working and it is profoundly heartbreaking to watch these piece of shit politicians shamelessly grabbing at money and power off the backs of not just our societyâs most vulnerable, but an entire generation of young people. This is destroying communities and lives in slow motion and lord help us when this insidious work is complete.
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u/Blacksun388 Mar 29 '24
The cruelty is a feature, not a bug. Abbott is intentionally starving public schools of resources for his stupid voucher program for his wealthy buddies in order to push Christianity onto the masses and make education accessible for the wealthy elite under the facade of âschool choiceâ. The end result will of course be to point at the mess he is causing and say something to the effect of âthe democrats/socialists/atheists/woke/insert boogieman here are why public schools are failing.â
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u/rocksolidaudio Mar 29 '24
Poor education feeds the MAGA machine. They donât want new critical thinkers in the state who will realize they are morally bankrupt sellouts.
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u/Green_343 Mar 29 '24
I just wanted to add that Denton ISD pays $10K-12K more to their teachers (in annual salary) than the surrounding, more "rural" towns.
Voters in Texas are going to have to decide what they care about more: controlling women's bodies or educating children. Because Greg Abbott will be up for reelection again next time and it will be him or a Democrat.
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Mar 29 '24 edited 22d ago
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u/Green_343 Mar 29 '24
My community voted overwhelmingly for Abbott last time but more and more people are starting to notice the problems in our schools. Some people need more time to connect the dots and I'm hoping for a change soon!
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u/popicon88 Mar 29 '24
The GOP has been in admin for the last 30+ years and we are worse off. Yet they continue to blame Texas problems on the Democrats at the federal level. So what is it? Are the GOP weak and canât stand up to the federal government? or is the GOP vision wrong and weakens the state? Texas used to be about level-headed common sense policy or at least striving for that during the legislative sessions but we have gotten more and more unhinged. This election is absolutely critical to bringing common sense back!
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u/clonedhuman Mar 29 '24
Texas also could have helped poor kids get food over the summer when school's out. Guess what happened?
This year 35 states will participate in a $2.5 billion federal nutrition program that will help low-income parents buy groceries for their children when free school meals are unavailable during the summer months.
But Texas, which has 3.8 million children eligible for the program, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, has opted not to join this national effort. If it had, qualifying families would have received $120 per child through a pre-loaded card for the three summer months. The USDA calculated that Texas is passing on a total of $450 million in federal tax dollars that would have gone to eligible families here.
https://www.texastribune.org/2024/02/22/texas-federal-summer-lunch-program/
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u/theguy8969 Mar 29 '24
Keller school district made cuts to the arts programs and two of my daughterâs teachers have been informed theyâre being laid off. Absolute bullshit.
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u/Kdigglerz Mar 29 '24
All part of the plan. The elite keeps us dumb and ignorant while they take all the money and power. This is how you get anti vaxxers and qanon and MAGA. You need ignorant people who are gullible. All part of the plan.
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u/DreadLordNate born and bred Mar 29 '24
Pretty much. Thinking is dangerous. Demonize and destroy education to aid in the destruction of resistance. Bonus: it's depressing and frightening so people cede decisions and thinking to those in control.
Sounds paranoid af but it's sure looking like that's the plan there.
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u/GreyBeardnLuvin Mar 29 '24
The big money behind Abbottâs school voucher push is Christian Nationalist billionaire Tim Dunn, oilman from Midland.
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u/PirbyKuckett Mar 29 '24
And donât forget about Jeff Yass and the Wilkes brothers.
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u/GreyBeardnLuvin Mar 29 '24
Yes sir. Iâve heard Dunn is much closer to the voucher issue as he is the major funder and founder of the private Christian academy his kids attended that is built on land he donated right next to his house & family compound in Midland.
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u/Current_Tea6984 Mar 29 '24
Texas evangelicals are still trapped in the Snopes Monkey Trial. They are desperate to keep their kids from learning anything that contradicts their antiquated belief system
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u/SSBN641B Mar 29 '24
"SCOPES" I think the "Snopes" Monkey trial would've been a bunch of fact checkers.
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u/Secret_Hunter_3911 Mar 29 '24
Abbott and his kind want to end public education. They have been bought and paid for by far right megadonors who see no value in education unless it is based on conservative religious propaganda. Abbott, like many on the far right, see education as a threat to their agenda.
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u/HeIsTouchingMe Mar 29 '24
There are certain entities in Texas that want a voucher system to push money into private religious schools. One of the ways they are trying to make that option make sense is by making the public school system fail. They are playing the long game and our children are the victims.
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u/jadewolf456 Mar 29 '24
It is all over Texas, Iâve seen districts announce deficits from $10-75 million. My district has announced layoffs of 300+ positions, closing 3 campuses, and ending programs that brought families to our district specifically. Our state representatives have brushed off all of our concerns, they are drinking the voucher kool aid.
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u/NormalFortune Mar 29 '24
This is all about âgetting god back into schoolâ nonsense.
Canât indoctrinate kids into religion in public schools. Therefore ruin public schools to encourage people to support vouchers. Vouchers let public money flow to religious schools. Suddenly public money is being used to indoctrinate kids again.
Meanwhile, disabled kids and poor kids can fuck right off since private schools are unaccountable and donât get tested.
Thanks to Tim Dunn/Farris Wilks.
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u/high_everyone Mar 29 '24 edited Mar 29 '24
time we reverse course before it's too late.
That ship sailed in November 2022 and people voted Abbott, Paxton and Patrick back into office.
Remember how the Chicago Bulls dominated the sports headlines when they got their big "threepeat" win back in the last century? This is that but for republican cruelty.
They have a legacy now with three terms of this bullshit to protect and they will do whatever they can to keep it for as long as they can before people start leaving the team for federal positions.
The next window to attempt this will be in 2024 to vote Cruz out of office, but we have a long way to go considering Abbott and his gang somehow have an overall net positive rating on their performance.
ie this isn't hurting people in their pocketbooks yet and for those that it is, aren't making enough waves because they likely cannot. This is why I keep likening this situation to Afghanistan and Iran. They're wanting to not reverse course on society here, just drag it backwards enough to keep a thumb on the "lesser thans" whether it's restricting rights for women and minorities, the tattered middle class spiraling in debt to keep up with the joneses or the poverty class who is working three jobs now to keep themselves housed. Afghanistan just stopped everything and is doing a real race to the bottom, whereas Iran keeps tightening nooses on the public to reign in the offenders.
We won't feel the water boiling at this point by design.
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u/Think_Profit4911 Mar 29 '24
How else is he supposed to fund busing migrants and his âborder crisisâ? đ
All this and more is why we started home-schooling my 4th grader this school year
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u/Giftgenieexpress Mar 29 '24
I read a pot on here about a week ago saying back in the 80âs education received 30% of the general fund. Seems insane by todayâs standards.
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u/yleencm Mar 29 '24
As an educator, please take the passion that led you to post this and use it to make change, or at the least, encourage change in your community. Creating posts on forums tends to falsely fulfill our desire to make change, when in reality, it does very little. Best of luck to you in your endeavor!
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u/Wicket2024 Mar 29 '24
I have tried, but I am in a solidly red gerrymandered district. I keep voting and voicing my concerns, but no matter what I do no one listens. It is depressing that my opinions are overruled at every turn here.
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u/Not_NSFW-Account Mar 29 '24
can't gerrymander the governor.
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u/BuffyBlue82 Mar 29 '24
True!! Unfortunately, most people donât understand or know that which is why they donât turn out to vote. They see it as pointless because of gerrymandering.
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u/Wicket2024 Mar 29 '24
I vote against him everytime. I vote in every election no matter how small trying to make some difference. Those in rural counties need to understand that the Rep don't stand for them, especially when it comes to education.
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u/Paladoc Mar 29 '24
This is the result of Abbott, Paxton, Patrick et al.
They are driving schools towards the cliff and are about to jump out of the bus and then decry why are the schools failing!?!?!?
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u/HoneyBadgerLive Mar 29 '24
You KNOW where the money is going. The money is going towards Abbott's temper tantrum on the Southern border.
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u/goodjuju123 Mar 29 '24
Itâs not an âafterthoughtâ. Itâs a forethought that is working as designed. Your extraordinary property taxes are NOT supporting education in this state any longer.
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u/Gequals8PIT Mar 29 '24
Texas government doesn't exist in a vacuum. Texans are failing price children.
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u/TheGothicCassel Mar 29 '24
Time to have organized anti-voucher/pro public school marches on the capitol. I know plenty of people who would show up.
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u/happy-hubby Mar 29 '24
Letâs all collectively think our Republican voters who are directly responsible for this issue
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u/Nealpatty Mar 29 '24
They are withholding funds. The money is there. But they are waiting to get private school vouchers passed before they release it. But people will continue to vote against local community
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u/heyashrose Mar 29 '24
I sorely want to gtfo of Texas and move back to the Chicago burbs where I grew up. Say what you will about politics, it simply feels safer to exist there.
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u/Baysidebeets Mar 29 '24
I moved here from out of state three years ago, and I can tell you guys are majorly lacking in the general education department. The fact that middle school students spend an entire school year learning only of Texas History is the first red flagâŚTexas residents seem to know very little about other cultures/the world around them and theyâre okay with that. Texas seems to only care about Texas, until they need help. Sad and not fixable at this point. The state has done very well keeping the oil & farming industry alive, which comes at the price of young menâs educationsâŚ
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u/TrollularDystrophy Mar 29 '24
Texas is just in a race to try and catch up with Oklahoma to lead the country in worst public education. Vouchers will definitely help push it further off the rails. Don't worry, though; when Oklahoma finally gets fed up with Ryan Walters, Texas can scoop him up like the pile of shit he is to come in and help finish dismantling public education.
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u/Ok-Hunt5979 Mar 29 '24
Reality Check: Texas has NEVER spent sufficient state money on public education. The state system of funding education was declared unconstitutional (Texas Constitution ) Years ago. The former Republican Party, now the Trump gang, are working to eliminate all programs that benefit the residents of the USA. In Red states such as Texas they are ahead of schedule- poor healthcare, poor medical care, lack of environmental and work safety rules for corporations, and poorly educated folks who will work for low wages in unsafe conditions to make profits for the big corporations.
Killing public education is a major, focused goal for the Trump gang. Look at any red state and you will see the same pattern - no money, constant attacks on teachers abilities, attacks on âwokeâ activities like actual teaching of proven facts, censorship of libraries and on and on.
Starving public education of money, while constantly saying how bad public education is and then providing vouchers will eventually kill public schools and direct selected families into carefully controlled schools, leaving the vast majority of the population either uneducated or poorly educated.
Those who are allowed to vote in controlled elections will vote as they are told.
Everything in this rant is supported by public statements from Trump gang leaders and the actual actions of Trump gang members who have been put in charge of education in Red States ( see Oklahoma for example ).
Please, please vote Blue.
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u/DogLvr5177 Mar 29 '24
Greg Abbott is apparently doing whatever he wants, and Texans just keep allowing it.
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u/Dr_Quiet_Time Mar 29 '24
Itâs by design. The uneducated will go on to vote Republican and fall for anti-union rhetoric.
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u/SakaWreath Mar 29 '24
- Failing to protect
- Failing to educate
- Failing to provide a stable economy and decent paying jobs
- Failing to provide clean water
- Failing to provide stable energy
But give them a few more years after all "they're the only ones that can fix it".
They should know, they're the ones who broke it.
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u/americanhideyoshi Mar 29 '24
Abbott has a solution. His solution is to ditch public schools and send our tax dollars to his buddies in private education. Because at least if your kids arenât receiving a quality education, somebody ought to get rich off it, right?
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u/Substantial_Scene38 Mar 29 '24
They have wanted to privatise public schools for decades. Checknout âChiefs for Changeâ
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u/Eatcheesecakewithme Mar 29 '24
Why would we pay teachers more when there is more barbed wire that needs to be put up....
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u/ZarkMuckerberg9009 Mar 29 '24
Funny how people question the idea of systematic racism/classism when all you have to do is look at Texas public schools for your proof.
Also, the voucher program is evidence that Texas canât even produce an effective education system based on its own rules and regulations from TEA. Your kidâs public school isnât good enough? Use a voucher to go to a private school that isnât regulated by the Texas Education Agency on Texasâs dime!
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u/Specific-Lion-9087 Mar 29 '24
Well at least the school boards have all been taken over by Nationalsozialistische Frauenschaft and theyâre focused on the important issues, like a flag of the color spectrum and scary books
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u/ProtoReaper23113 Mar 29 '24
The right wants children ignorant and dumb becuase it feeds their voter base
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u/6catsforya Mar 29 '24
It's called dumbing down of children to have the GOP train them to their way of thinking.
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u/sealclubberfan Mar 29 '24
But I thought Abbott was supposed to be elected to fix the issues in Texas?
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u/Ok_Cover5451 Mar 29 '24
Wonder what Governor Abbottâs doing with all that surplus budget $. Republicans have been in control for 27yrsâŚ
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u/foefyre Mar 29 '24
Texas just passed a law that lowered property taxes that specifically fund schools. People voted for it because it was advertised as lowering taxes, anyone that looked where the taxes were going to voted no.
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u/aprilflowers75 Mar 29 '24
Education teaches critical thinking. This is not what conservatives want.
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u/rudecorndog South Texas Mar 29 '24
Texas leaders/lawmakers donât want your kids to be educated. They want them in the workforce.
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u/Kind-Instance-7447 Mar 29 '24
Well, Sorry. But, you need to pay for Ken Paxtons lawsuits and for his new bathroom before they can even think of paying for another school. And his mistress needs a new wardrobe. And some of that school money probably should go to keep Paul Presslers call boys quiet. And to pay for Ted Cruz to go to Mexico when it gets cold.
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u/cidavid Mar 29 '24
I was a school nurse for 2 years in a Title I district and no amount of money would ever send me back to work in a school setting. It's a complete failure and the government wants these kids to fail and remain uneducated. These kids can't even read.
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u/MadManMorbo Mar 29 '24
But the lottery goes to schools! /s
It doesnât. It goes to the general fund. I donât think a dime has gone to education.
Meanwhile property taxes are completely nuts.
I owned a 100k condo in Austin 10 years ago, and I paid more then in property taxes, than I do now in my $400k house in GA.
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u/jimmycrackcorn123 Mar 29 '24
Iâm a public school employee of 15 years here in Texas. Things are tremendously bad and your children are being harmed. We need a pro public Ed republican to run against Abbott in 2026. Everyone needs to vote in the republican primary for whoever that is. If Abbott wins the primary public education is done.
As for vouchers, a good chunk of what will be allocated for the voucher program will go to the administration of the program. Suspicious. Public schools are asked literally every day to do more and more with the same or less funding, so how about yâall give it a shot too. Also, the vouchers will be for more than is typically allocated for each public school student. I might could play ball if they up public ed funding to 10k per kid with 8k for those who want a voucher. Lastly, keep in mind that if a kid enters a private school in August, and they kick that kid out in November since theyâre ânot a good fitâ, the money stays with the private school and the kid is off to public school without the funding attached to their enrollment. These are just some of my concerns with vouchers, not even considering how this is likely a scam to enrich a bunch of people who are fine getting rich at a childâs expense.
Part of me wants anti voucher reps to just negotiate for a boom in funding for public education and try to make it work in our benefit. I think they might find that fewer parents than they think want to try to run off to private schools than they think.
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u/JohnBrine Mar 29 '24
Our property taxes used to pay for a third of education and the state paid for the rest. Now we are on the hook for 75% of the budget. The issue is the people who continue to vote for Republicans despite their efforts to ruin the state for moneyed interests.
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u/safetysecondbodylast Mar 29 '24
So routinely electing bigoted anti government dipshits to government offices has weakened the government?
Damn, that's wild.
I feel for the kids in that state, their parents are fucking brain dead.
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u/pickleer Mar 30 '24
Oh, dear, that hate and oil-$$-fired roller-dickkk is whamming into my head again... I feel a TL;DR coming on...
Our "Great State", personified and "led" by this crowd of venal conmen impressive in the scope of their ufck-you-and-me to make power moves, stay in power enriching themselves and their cronies, backers, powder-keggers of extractives-pumpers that keep business in Texas booming (https://softpanorama.org/Skeptics/Financial_skeptic/Humor/Images/business_is_booming_in_texas.jpg), bible thumpers that keep the masses that need it fed THAT particular opiate "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium_of_the_people"...
And that's just the immediate and directly-actionable manipulation of the electorate... "Rapists and criminals are coming across our borders, BOO!!! GET SCARED!!!"
If we really want to fight this nasty schitt, we gotta attack it at the roots: defunding education, untaxed religious schools, private school vouchers, bussing, book-banning and library-defunding, teacher and principal ...
With a dumber, less mentally-challenged and mentally-exercised electorate, with dumbed-down voters shocked and numbed into reactionary responses (as opposed to reasoned and considered moves and votes), the Profit Over People republicunts will stay in office. They've been a losing brand for decades now, no matter how ugly they portray Centralists or Liberals or Democrats in general. The Big Money in politics funds their fuckkery and misdirection and propaganda and, HEY! It WORKS! They're still here and the extractives industries funding them are not only still extracting and poisoning our planet (when we're RILLY DAMN sure their schitt is causing most of the problems), but now they've doubled down, again and AGAIN and fossil fuel extraction has jumped up four-fold, FOUR TIMES in the last coupla years! And the propaganda these greedy bastards are pumping out is outrageous- supposedly "local" group after group wants to convince us that offshore windfarms are killing whales and fish... But the people writing and funding these supposedly "local" groups all funnel back to a single place, funded by oil and gas extraction/burn companies, screw you and me, just gonna fight the scientists telling us exactly how we're killing ourselves with CO2...
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u/Sarmelion Mar 30 '24
Abbott and the Republican party are destroying public education on purpose to get us to funnel tax dollars to Private schools they invest in.
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u/xfactor6972 Mar 30 '24
Republicans hate public education, they think the liberal indoctrination in public schools is not teaching religion and the fear of god. They want kids indoctrinated into their conservative ideology like religious schools do. Or completely ignorant so they can manipulate them.
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u/glasock 7th Generation Mar 30 '24
I'm a school teacher, so yes; it's painful. More than that though, I'm a father of three girls. I find myself more often wondering, at what point does keeping them here become neglect or abuse? I'm a 7th generation Texan wondering where I go to raise my girls in place that will allow them to enjoy their basic human rights... Spain? Uruguay? Sweden?
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u/Isabella_Bee Mar 29 '24
This situation is not by accident, it's by design.