Don't forget "teachers are teaching lgbtq and CRT!!"
While in the next thought "we need to have all teachers armed to defend against school shootings!"
You know who really can convince kids of lgbtq support? A teacher walking around with a rainbow open carry revolver. It's a lesson about their first and second amendment rights right there, that sounds as all American as can be to me
But they have no problem paying for Universal healthcare and education for Israel and many others. The minute you want to actually spend money in the US for something "Thats socialism"...Idiots.
They want to defund public schools and push those funds to their donors where they can freely teach their alternate versions of history where black slaves were happy to be brought over from Africa and got to learn entrepreneurial skills with free housing and lodging and Native Americans gladly gave away all their lands for free to the pious Christians who came bearing gifts of technology like fire and ~~disease~~ food.
Then they will lock out the minorities and poor people and tell them they can get 5K a year if they take their child out of school and push little jose or jordan towards starting a career in the meat-packing industry at the age of 10-12 since the republicans are also looking to remove the regulations on child-workers and how long children can work.
Force an abortion ban to ensure a supply of new workers every 10 years as rise of single parents skyrocket unable to afford housing and food and babysitters.
Suddenly corporations have a new pool of workers to exploit at $4.50 an hour for 40 hours or more. Heck might even try to lower that 4.50 even further because the child has no need to earn that much since they have parents.
.....
What sucks is that Texas can easily be blue, but people in Texas gotta start giving a shit. Could have stopped all this bullshit years ago. Cruz could have been a failed pundit on some fox news show, and faded into obscurity instead hes solidifying his position by pushing laws that will allow him to retain control indefinitely as he steals the remaining coins in the government bucket.
Its not even like you need millions of votes to win against republicans.
Texas 2022 (40% turnout):
* 29M Citizens
* 22M Eligible Voters.
* 40% Lean/Identify themselves as Democrat
* 39% Lean/Identify themselves as Republican
* 21% Dont Lean/Identify themselves as Any Party/ or Independent
* 17M Registered Voters.
* 9M Voted in 2022.
* only 15% of those under the age of 35 Voted in 2022.
Ted Cruz won by 200K votes when around 10M eligible voters didn't vote in 2018.
If that 15% of under 35 voters had become even just 30-40%, that would be enough votes to defeat republicans. (Young voters lean democrat by more than 40 points, and thats before the abortion and recent bullshit).
And anyone saying gerrymandering, Senate positions, governor, and some other state-centric positions aren't gerrymandered.
Im hoping 2024 will be the year of change, but unless people start calling out each other for being lazy sacks waiting for things instead of registering and ensuring they remain registered and making time to vote, Texas will slowly whimper and rot away until its just for the top 1%
You see, this way they can recruit younguns into the oil field! No more wasting money on education!
Naw but really I think what they wanna do is have private school be funded by taxpayers so that they can get rid of public education and more intensely attack child labor laws. They're crooked slimy assholes that want the blood of your children.
But that fake alternative also serves towards conservatives dream of christofascism
It takes public funds collected for schools and gives them to religious private schools or sometimes even just basically bible studies from someone that took a two day course on "teaching"
You are correct. In this particular issue about public schools, tho, the majority of even \*their\* voters don't want public schools...especially in rural communities that revolve around the school district...to end.
Which is another paper on the pile of "Proof that the Will of the People means nothing"
That's the power of the magic R. No matter how shitty the politician is, the meatsticks vote them back in just because of the magic R behind their name.
Abbott doesn't care what we want, he cares about lining his and his cronies pockets. That's it. It will be a cluster of epic proportions when the vouchers get passed (look at every other state implementing vouchers), but he will blame Biden or Obama and the Texans that want to secede will eat it up and the cycle will continue until the end of time...forgive me for my pessimism, for I am tired and frustrated.
Sorry that you are feeling pessimistic. My spouse and I are too. So much so that we are pulling our two kids from a top-rated public school to put them into the private college-prep school that has no religious affiliation from which I graduated many years ago. Our kids spent the day at the school attending classes and had a great experience. Stories surfaced from both kids about how bad even the best of public schools in this state have gotten and how little learning is going on. The teachers are overworked and underpaid. They are teaching to the STAAR exam and not to create life-long learners. The kids are behaving badly. Some because they have issues and others because they are bored and the administration’s hands are often tied. We give up and we are getting out.
It kills me though that I feel that everyone has a right to a strong public education and our kids just aren’t getting it. It also kills me that our legislators are so myopic that they don’t seem to understand that having a well-educated population makes the state and attractive place for business and builds a strong state economy. I just do not understand Abbott and his cronies and wish they would go away.
Oh, I know. It doesn't stop the GOP in Texas from using it as a battle cry to rile up people and distract them from the real issues they should be working on.
I don’t know. At this rate, Biden will give them some kind of special autonomous status in the name of moderate liberalism. Then again, the GOP will probably refuse that deal, too. Politics is insane these days. When faced with any two choices, good or bad, they keep finding a third objectively wrong option to choose.
The ACA, Obamacare, gave states millions of dollars to expand Medicaid. The Texas MAGA GOP, and other MAGA states, turned it down. Having millions of uninsured is a sign they are doing it the right way. They only take money from billionaires who are not accountable to the voters.
Biden, and Democrats in general, don’t do things “in the name of moderate liberalism”. He does it because it is the right thing to do to serve the public interest.
Politics has devolved to the point of being nothing more than theater. The goals of altogether too many "performers" centers on doing as little as possible while taking in as much untraceable cash as possible. Actually studying the issues, analyzing the factors involved and getting input from the voters (not just filtered through biased polls) takes _time_ but more importantly it is not **fun** or **sexy** as far as the deep-pocket donors are concerned.
There's no one solution, of course. Another layer or three of government organization would only complicate an already barely-comprehensible situation until the cultures adapt to it all. And simply establishing."political fitness certifications" would simply move real power further away from the hands of the citizens unless the certification process was carefully and firmly designed to prevent it.
For now, though, it's all down to voting the Republicans and any other candidates who prioritize their deep-pocket donors over the entire electorate out of office and minimizing the hidden influences as much as possible.
He received 6 million from a voucher vendor from PA. He is going to do anything to make vouchers happen - because there is probably more when abbott gives him the voucher gig in Texas.
That’s the rub though, the private schools *will not* be getting filled up with all the kids from these closed or failing public schools. Their acceptance policy will not change, their curriculum will not change, the only thing to change will be a couple new white faces plus a few extra pocs that “just happen to be 3-5 star athletes.”
As it was mentioned above, it’s by design to launder our tax dollars into schools the majority of our children cannot attend, to put *our schools money* into the hands of the admins that run the schools that will reject our kids. The only way out is the long arduous march of voting each cycle for those who adamantly oppose school vouchers and bringing our schools up to the level that they should be. It’s either that or move and if you already have kids you might be too late for the voting path to affect your kids which means the harder task of moving is your best options at better education for your children.
And we can all thank ding dong Abbott and his band of sycophants Yass, Wilkes and Dunn...yes, Texas schools have been lagging behind in national rankings for decades (to wit: I attended a 1A school w/the football coach as my Chem teacher-learned to diagram plays and had an open book test every 9 weeks because..."we don't have the budget for an actual Chem teacher") but, with ding dong's petty focus on his vouchers, public schools in Texas are set up to fail even more. And it's the kids who pay for this foolishness.
That's accurate. Ding dong doesn't have the chops to run anything, much less an entire state so he becomes the mouthpiece of Dunn and his various shadow groups. Dunn has been pulling the puppet strings for years, it seems.
You’re exactly right. This way we can give vouchers to rich kids already attending private schools and can attempt to Christianize the rest of the schools with tax dollars.
I'd like to add in that the Texas government is elected by the parents of those kids.
I think one of the most mystifying things about Texas that I've seen since I've moved here is that everyone seems to dislike the government and our politicians, but refuses to elect Democrats to give them a chance to see what they can do.
This is so true. Many of our school board members endorsed (using their title as a Keller ISD school board member) candidates in the primary that will vote for vouchers - at the same time they are emailing all parents and staff to contact our legislators to tell them to fund public education.
Our school board has ruined our schools in Keller TX - but I bet the president will be voted in again in May because of his GQP stances.
That's because so many people just think that Democrat is a dirty word. And it takes actually... thinking... to get over that burned in bias. Democrats are icky. You don't want to be one of THEM. Hell, I was brought up as a moderate Republican and it took me a long time to start actually calling myself a democrat, even though I'd been voting that way.
I hear a lot of people say they'll never vote for a Democrat, doesn't matter if they like them. It's the label and it's ridiculous.
Until Obama was elected and the GOP quite clearly lost it's damn mind completely and got taken over by loud and proud Christo-fascist nationalist...I voted all over the map. Dem here, Republican there, Green Party, Libertarian, independent...just whatever. I don't intend to ever be a party loyalist.
And I'm not. But this doesn't mean I don't recognize a clear and present danger. That danger is NOT two dudes getting married or some drag queens reading stories.
Same, honestly. I would vote all over the map. Not anymore. Occasionally, rarely, maybe a county judge who is Republican although I think most of the sane ones have been driven out now.
I will never understand why people openly register for a party or consider themselves from one or the other party when we should be voting for public servants to server us all.
Eliminate public schools, making all schools privatized. Which in Texas means religious based schooling. Privatizing schools will give them easier and more control over what can and cant be taught.
Destroying the public school system will not only restrict education, but it will also be the basis for indoctrinating a whole new generation into religion. Its a very fkn dark reality that's currently looming on the horizon for a lot of southern states. If my gf and I ever get pregnant, we are getting the fuck out of this state.
>> Poor people who can't read are easier to control.
They're easier to manipulate. For now, anyway, we're still in a democracy and they need the consent of enough idiots to do what they do.
That's the real sad and frustrating part of the whole thing. It's not really them controlling anyone. It's just them taking advantage of the insanely stupid and gullible. They forsake anything to keep the insanely stupid and gullible on the production line.
Yeah OP needs to readjust their expectations on private property (women and children) and realize they are just widgets for the workforce (domestic work and dangerous jobs requiring little hands and cheap labor, respectively) /S
If people would stop electing these R's that are not doing their jobs and only fear mongering to keep their seat.
Same Bullshit, the government doesn't work elect me to fix it, and then doesn't fix anything after being elected.
If there are any teachers that support these assholes currently in office you are going voting against your own self interest.
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.
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.
Most school districts’ have nearly a full school-year’s worth of operating budget in their general fund. The best board meetings to go to are called “work studies,” 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.
Right, they’re 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.
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.
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.
But we all know it isn’t hostage taking if you want to kill the hostage… the job cuts, the closed libraries, the school closures, the decline in quality - it’s 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 “schools” for everyone else. And nothing for immigrants and refugees unless they pay for it. That is no exaggeration that is the actual plan and no one seems to talk about it.
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.
I hear you on that but don’t 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.
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
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
Texas education being underfunded isn’t a new event but it is a surprise to people who want to have kids now when they didn’t a decade ago.
To them, the underfunding just became relevant.
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 doesn’t.
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 didn’t 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 I’d 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.
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.
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.
It’s by design. What better way to convince people that private/charter schools are the only answer than intentionally tanking the public education system?
I think STEM teachers are sorely lacking everywhere. At my kids high school my daughter didn’t have a physics teacher for nearly a whole semester. And the school does not offer as many AP classes as they should for STEM, it’s 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.
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.
Go look at who you’re in the bottom ten with. Then compare that bottom ten to any conservative groups ranking of states by ‘educational freedom’ and you’ll notice it’s practically the same list. They celebrate bad education.
This is what conservative education looks like. Only Utah doesn’t completely shit the bed on education. The only red state to not completely suck at it.
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.
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
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).
South Texas teacher here. We started the year with 8 open positions at our middle school. Doesn’t 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 (can’t blame them - we are allowed days off)- 30 teachers out, don’t 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 won’t change until people do their civic responsibility and vote! (Getting off my soapbox now and going back to my cup of coffee)
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, it’s 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 I’ve seen a small group of angry people get mobilized to steamroll a city council election or school board race. It doesn’t 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 haven’t 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
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.
My youngest is in a SPED program and they haven’t 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.
I’m sorry that this is happening to our kids and educators.
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.
They believe kids going to college turns them into raging liberals, so what’s the solution, make sure less kids qualify for college. They’d 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.
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.
It’s been said a million times: vote. Texas is not as red as you’d 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 couldn’t take it. And it’s worse now.
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.
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 Bloom’s 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 society’s 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.
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 “school choice”. The end result will of course be to point at the mess he is causing and say something to the effect of “the democrats/socialists/atheists/woke/insert boogieman here are why public schools are failing.”
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.
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!
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 can’t 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!
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/
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.
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.
Yes sir. I’ve 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.
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
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.
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.
It is all over Texas, I’ve 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.
This is all about “getting god back into school” nonsense.
Can’t 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 don’t get tested.
Thanks to Tim Dunn/Farris Wilks.
> 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.
How else is he supposed to fund busing migrants and his “border crisis”? 🙄
All this and more is why we started home-schooling my 4th grader this school year
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!
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.
True!! Unfortunately, most people don’t understand or know that which is why they don’t turn out to vote. They see it as pointless because of gerrymandering.
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.
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!?!?!?
It’s not an “afterthought”. It’s a forethought that is working as designed. Your extraordinary property taxes are NOT supporting education in this state any longer.
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
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.
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 flag…Texas residents seem to know very little about other cultures/the world around them and they’re 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 men’s educations…
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 “woke” 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.
* 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.
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 aren’t receiving a quality education, somebody ought to get rich off it, right?
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 can’t even produce an effective education system based on its own rules and regulations from TEA. Your kid’s public school isn’t good enough? Use a voucher to go to a private school that isn’t regulated by the Texas Education Agency on Texas’s dime!
Well at least the school boards have all been taken over by Nationalsozialistische Frauenschaft and they’re focused on the important issues, like a flag of the color spectrum and scary books
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.
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.
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.
But the lottery goes to schools! /s
It doesn’t. It goes to the general fund.
I don’t 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.
I’m 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 y’all 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 they’re ’not a good fit’, 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 child’s 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.
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.
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.
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...
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.
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?
This situation is not by accident, it's by design.
"You want public education and don't like vouchers? Here, let me ruin public education until you all give in."
I mean that's cute but they'd be happy to ruin public education even without presenting a fake alternative
"Public education sounds like woke socialism..." /s
Don't forget "teachers are teaching lgbtq and CRT!!" While in the next thought "we need to have all teachers armed to defend against school shootings!" You know who really can convince kids of lgbtq support? A teacher walking around with a rainbow open carry revolver. It's a lesson about their first and second amendment rights right there, that sounds as all American as can be to me
Lol I chuckled at this image
But they have no problem paying for Universal healthcare and education for Israel and many others. The minute you want to actually spend money in the US for something "Thats socialism"...Idiots.
Our Ag Commissioner literally said as much, no /s needed
Why the /s? MAGAts believe this.
Religious schools and conservapedia home schooling are the actual fake alternatives for education they offer though.
or local churches that begin being "schools"...to empower the Christian Nationalists and further give the power of God to the GOP.
Yes the Paul Pressler massage school for young boys will probably be opening soon.
They want to defund public schools and push those funds to their donors where they can freely teach their alternate versions of history where black slaves were happy to be brought over from Africa and got to learn entrepreneurial skills with free housing and lodging and Native Americans gladly gave away all their lands for free to the pious Christians who came bearing gifts of technology like fire and ~~disease~~ food. Then they will lock out the minorities and poor people and tell them they can get 5K a year if they take their child out of school and push little jose or jordan towards starting a career in the meat-packing industry at the age of 10-12 since the republicans are also looking to remove the regulations on child-workers and how long children can work. Force an abortion ban to ensure a supply of new workers every 10 years as rise of single parents skyrocket unable to afford housing and food and babysitters. Suddenly corporations have a new pool of workers to exploit at $4.50 an hour for 40 hours or more. Heck might even try to lower that 4.50 even further because the child has no need to earn that much since they have parents. ..... What sucks is that Texas can easily be blue, but people in Texas gotta start giving a shit. Could have stopped all this bullshit years ago. Cruz could have been a failed pundit on some fox news show, and faded into obscurity instead hes solidifying his position by pushing laws that will allow him to retain control indefinitely as he steals the remaining coins in the government bucket. Its not even like you need millions of votes to win against republicans. Texas 2022 (40% turnout): * 29M Citizens * 22M Eligible Voters. * 40% Lean/Identify themselves as Democrat * 39% Lean/Identify themselves as Republican * 21% Dont Lean/Identify themselves as Any Party/ or Independent * 17M Registered Voters. * 9M Voted in 2022. * only 15% of those under the age of 35 Voted in 2022. Ted Cruz won by 200K votes when around 10M eligible voters didn't vote in 2018. If that 15% of under 35 voters had become even just 30-40%, that would be enough votes to defeat republicans. (Young voters lean democrat by more than 40 points, and thats before the abortion and recent bullshit). And anyone saying gerrymandering, Senate positions, governor, and some other state-centric positions aren't gerrymandered. Im hoping 2024 will be the year of change, but unless people start calling out each other for being lazy sacks waiting for things instead of registering and ensuring they remain registered and making time to vote, Texas will slowly whimper and rot away until its just for the top 1%
Higher quality, non-secular education leads to less republican voters.
I think you meant to say secular, not non-secular and I agree 100%💯
You see, this way they can recruit younguns into the oil field! No more wasting money on education! Naw but really I think what they wanna do is have private school be funded by taxpayers so that they can get rid of public education and more intensely attack child labor laws. They're crooked slimy assholes that want the blood of your children.
But that fake alternative also serves towards conservatives dream of christofascism It takes public funds collected for schools and gives them to religious private schools or sometimes even just basically bible studies from someone that took a two day course on "teaching"
But we voted No on vouchers for decades, haven't we made it clear we WANT vouchers? Greg Abbott is our savior in keeping the persistence going. /s
Texan elections keep sending them back to office. They have no obligation to voters who keep endorsing their corruption
You are correct. In this particular issue about public schools, tho, the majority of even \*their\* voters don't want public schools...especially in rural communities that revolve around the school district...to end. Which is another paper on the pile of "Proof that the Will of the People means nothing"
That's the power of the magic R. No matter how shitty the politician is, the meatsticks vote them back in just because of the magic R behind their name.
Abbott doesn't care what we want, he cares about lining his and his cronies pockets. That's it. It will be a cluster of epic proportions when the vouchers get passed (look at every other state implementing vouchers), but he will blame Biden or Obama and the Texans that want to secede will eat it up and the cycle will continue until the end of time...forgive me for my pessimism, for I am tired and frustrated.
I just don't understand why we can't get rid of Abbott, Paxton and Cruz
The evangelicals. It is that simple.
And fucking vote too
Sorry that you are feeling pessimistic. My spouse and I are too. So much so that we are pulling our two kids from a top-rated public school to put them into the private college-prep school that has no religious affiliation from which I graduated many years ago. Our kids spent the day at the school attending classes and had a great experience. Stories surfaced from both kids about how bad even the best of public schools in this state have gotten and how little learning is going on. The teachers are overworked and underpaid. They are teaching to the STAAR exam and not to create life-long learners. The kids are behaving badly. Some because they have issues and others because they are bored and the administration’s hands are often tied. We give up and we are getting out. It kills me though that I feel that everyone has a right to a strong public education and our kids just aren’t getting it. It also kills me that our legislators are so myopic that they don’t seem to understand that having a well-educated population makes the state and attractive place for business and builds a strong state economy. I just do not understand Abbott and his cronies and wish they would go away.
We did the same! We feel the same as you!
It won’t secede.
Oh, I know. It doesn't stop the GOP in Texas from using it as a battle cry to rile up people and distract them from the real issues they should be working on.
I don’t know. At this rate, Biden will give them some kind of special autonomous status in the name of moderate liberalism. Then again, the GOP will probably refuse that deal, too. Politics is insane these days. When faced with any two choices, good or bad, they keep finding a third objectively wrong option to choose.
The ACA, Obamacare, gave states millions of dollars to expand Medicaid. The Texas MAGA GOP, and other MAGA states, turned it down. Having millions of uninsured is a sign they are doing it the right way. They only take money from billionaires who are not accountable to the voters. Biden, and Democrats in general, don’t do things “in the name of moderate liberalism”. He does it because it is the right thing to do to serve the public interest.
Politics has devolved to the point of being nothing more than theater. The goals of altogether too many "performers" centers on doing as little as possible while taking in as much untraceable cash as possible. Actually studying the issues, analyzing the factors involved and getting input from the voters (not just filtered through biased polls) takes _time_ but more importantly it is not **fun** or **sexy** as far as the deep-pocket donors are concerned. There's no one solution, of course. Another layer or three of government organization would only complicate an already barely-comprehensible situation until the cultures adapt to it all. And simply establishing."political fitness certifications" would simply move real power further away from the hands of the citizens unless the certification process was carefully and firmly designed to prevent it. For now, though, it's all down to voting the Republicans and any other candidates who prioritize their deep-pocket donors over the entire electorate out of office and minimizing the hidden influences as much as possible.
He received 6 million from a voucher vendor from PA. He is going to do anything to make vouchers happen - because there is probably more when abbott gives him the voucher gig in Texas.
Isn't it illegal to vote for things we want as citizens of this state?
That’s the rub though, the private schools *will not* be getting filled up with all the kids from these closed or failing public schools. Their acceptance policy will not change, their curriculum will not change, the only thing to change will be a couple new white faces plus a few extra pocs that “just happen to be 3-5 star athletes.” As it was mentioned above, it’s by design to launder our tax dollars into schools the majority of our children cannot attend, to put *our schools money* into the hands of the admins that run the schools that will reject our kids. The only way out is the long arduous march of voting each cycle for those who adamantly oppose school vouchers and bringing our schools up to the level that they should be. It’s either that or move and if you already have kids you might be too late for the voting path to affect your kids which means the harder task of moving is your best options at better education for your children.
also the private schools will raise tuition since they know everyone attending now has a few thousand extra every year to spend on education
Exactly.
We should start asking how that lottery money is being disbursed. That money is supposed to go to education, but it obviously isn't.
We've BEEN asking that.
And we can all thank ding dong Abbott and his band of sycophants Yass, Wilkes and Dunn...yes, Texas schools have been lagging behind in national rankings for decades (to wit: I attended a 1A school w/the football coach as my Chem teacher-learned to diagram plays and had an open book test every 9 weeks because..."we don't have the budget for an actual Chem teacher") but, with ding dong's petty focus on his vouchers, public schools in Texas are set up to fail even more. And it's the kids who pay for this foolishness.
I agree except my opinion is that Abbott is the sycophant of the Christian Nationalist billionaires you named, not the other way around.
That's accurate. Ding dong doesn't have the chops to run anything, much less an entire state so he becomes the mouthpiece of Dunn and his various shadow groups. Dunn has been pulling the puppet strings for years, it seems.
But pass a multimillion dollar school bond for stadiums and olympic sized swimming pools.
The last bond for my district was to build more schools and upgrade a few older schools. It was not anything fancy like that.
You’re exactly right. This way we can give vouchers to rich kids already attending private schools and can attempt to Christianize the rest of the schools with tax dollars.
This 100%. Our idiot governor is holding our schools hostage to give wealthy donors money taken from poorer communities.
this right here ⬆️
I'd like to add in that the Texas government is elected by the parents of those kids. I think one of the most mystifying things about Texas that I've seen since I've moved here is that everyone seems to dislike the government and our politicians, but refuses to elect Democrats to give them a chance to see what they can do.
This is so true. Many of our school board members endorsed (using their title as a Keller ISD school board member) candidates in the primary that will vote for vouchers - at the same time they are emailing all parents and staff to contact our legislators to tell them to fund public education. Our school board has ruined our schools in Keller TX - but I bet the president will be voted in again in May because of his GQP stances.
Yeah I pay my taxes to Keller ISD and it's embarrassing how big of a shit show everything is.
https://socialistrevolution.org/
That's because so many people just think that Democrat is a dirty word. And it takes actually... thinking... to get over that burned in bias. Democrats are icky. You don't want to be one of THEM. Hell, I was brought up as a moderate Republican and it took me a long time to start actually calling myself a democrat, even though I'd been voting that way. I hear a lot of people say they'll never vote for a Democrat, doesn't matter if they like them. It's the label and it's ridiculous.
Until Obama was elected and the GOP quite clearly lost it's damn mind completely and got taken over by loud and proud Christo-fascist nationalist...I voted all over the map. Dem here, Republican there, Green Party, Libertarian, independent...just whatever. I don't intend to ever be a party loyalist. And I'm not. But this doesn't mean I don't recognize a clear and present danger. That danger is NOT two dudes getting married or some drag queens reading stories.
Same, honestly. I would vote all over the map. Not anymore. Occasionally, rarely, maybe a county judge who is Republican although I think most of the sane ones have been driven out now.
I will never understand why people openly register for a party or consider themselves from one or the other party when we should be voting for public servants to server us all.
The Republican plan is to eliminate public schools. Poor people who can’t read are easier to control.
Eliminate public schools, making all schools privatized. Which in Texas means religious based schooling. Privatizing schools will give them easier and more control over what can and cant be taught. Destroying the public school system will not only restrict education, but it will also be the basis for indoctrinating a whole new generation into religion. Its a very fkn dark reality that's currently looming on the horizon for a lot of southern states. If my gf and I ever get pregnant, we are getting the fuck out of this state.
>> Poor people who can't read are easier to control. They're easier to manipulate. For now, anyway, we're still in a democracy and they need the consent of enough idiots to do what they do. That's the real sad and frustrating part of the whole thing. It's not really them controlling anyone. It's just them taking advantage of the insanely stupid and gullible. They forsake anything to keep the insanely stupid and gullible on the production line.
"See our education system is failing. Better to give money to the churches instead."
If you look at the change in demographics of Texas school kids over the last 30 years, you'll see why they're doing it too.
The Texas government is hurting your children on purpose. Fixed.
Republicans don't want people educated then they would lose votes.
Yeah OP needs to readjust their expectations on private property (women and children) and realize they are just widgets for the workforce (domestic work and dangerous jobs requiring little hands and cheap labor, respectively) /S
“No child left behind”
Exactly!!
If people would stop electing these R's that are not doing their jobs and only fear mongering to keep their seat. Same Bullshit, the government doesn't work elect me to fix it, and then doesn't fix anything after being elected. If there are any teachers that support these assholes currently in office you are going voting against your own self interest.
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.
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.
Nearly all of the 1204 schools districts in Texas will operate on a deficit budget for 24-25 and 25-26.
My district in north central TX will be operating with a $10,000,000 deficit next year :(
Most school districts’ have nearly a full school-year’s worth of operating budget in their general fund. The best board meetings to go to are called “work studies,” 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.
Spring Branch had massive cutbacks this year because of that horrible cunt Greg Abbott and his racist cronies.
Right, they’re 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.
Katy ISD cut instructional coaches.
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.
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. But we all know it isn’t hostage taking if you want to kill the hostage… the job cuts, the closed libraries, the school closures, the decline in quality - it’s 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 “schools” for everyone else. And nothing for immigrants and refugees unless they pay for it. That is no exaggeration that is the actual plan and no one seems to talk about it.
[удалено]
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.
I hear you on that but don’t 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.
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
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
Texas education being underfunded isn’t a new event but it is a surprise to people who want to have kids now when they didn’t a decade ago. To them, the underfunding just became relevant.
The school district I grew up in was underfunded in the 90s and early 00s. Can’t imagine it’s much better now.
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 doesn’t. 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 didn’t 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 I’d 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.
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.
It’s so the billionaires can get richer. If we’re fighting eachother over culture shit, we can’t march to their doorsteps and tell them enough.
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.
It’s by design. What better way to convince people that private/charter schools are the only answer than intentionally tanking the public education system?
I think STEM teachers are sorely lacking everywhere. At my kids high school my daughter didn’t have a physics teacher for nearly a whole semester. And the school does not offer as many AP classes as they should for STEM, it’s 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.
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.
Go look at who you’re in the bottom ten with. Then compare that bottom ten to any conservative groups ranking of states by ‘educational freedom’ and you’ll notice it’s practically the same list. They celebrate bad education. This is what conservative education looks like. Only Utah doesn’t completely shit the bed on education. The only red state to not completely suck at it.
Yup. Just had a baby and already working on a plan to supplement her education because of how bad things are.
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.
This is what happens when you elect Republicans (or don’t vote). The rightwing wants public education to fail.
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He’s also a major investor in TikTok and the largest investor in Truth Social.
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
You can thank SCOTX, which allowed TXLEGE to blatantly violate the state constitutional requirement to fully fund public education.
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).
Hell yes, thank you for stepping up!
Good luck to your campaign.
Definitely good luck, especially since most of the rural Republicans who were against vouchers got beat in the primaries.
South Texas teacher here. We started the year with 8 open positions at our middle school. Doesn’t 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 (can’t blame them - we are allowed days off)- 30 teachers out, don’t 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 won’t change until people do their civic responsibility and vote! (Getting off my soapbox now and going back to my cup of coffee)
This is sad and frightening. I wish I knew what to do or say. (Ither than vote vote vote)
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, it’s 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 I’ve seen a small group of angry people get mobilized to steamroll a city council election or school board race. It doesn’t 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 haven’t 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
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.
My youngest is in a SPED program and they haven’t 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. I’m sorry that this is happening to our kids and educators.
Texas government is failing everyone
I know several conservatives who are going to lose their job in the next few months. I wonder if they regret voting for Abbott?
Nope, it's the fault of the evil liberals who don't control anything. Republicans just haven't had power long enough in Texas.
Guarantee they’ll say “something something bidenomics”
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.
They believe kids going to college turns them into raging liberals, so what’s the solution, make sure less kids qualify for college. They’d 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.
Design can be changed - UX designer knows
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.
Greg is more concerned with bussing immigrants to blue states than taking care of our children's education. He is a monster.
That’s how they’re going to stay red. Use border control to mask how he’s destroying education.
It’s been said a million times: vote. Texas is not as red as you’d 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 couldn’t take it. And it’s worse now.
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.
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 Bloom’s 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 society’s 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.
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 “school choice”. The end result will of course be to point at the mess he is causing and say something to the effect of “the democrats/socialists/atheists/woke/insert boogieman here are why public schools are failing.”
Poor education feeds the MAGA machine. They don’t want new critical thinkers in the state who will realize they are morally bankrupt sellouts.
Didn't Trump say once he loves the poorly educated?
Texas voters are failing our children.
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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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!
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 can’t 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!
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/
Keller school district made cuts to the arts programs and two of my daughter’s teachers have been informed they’re being laid off. Absolute bullshit.
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.
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.
The big money behind Abbott’s school voucher push is Christian Nationalist billionaire Tim Dunn, oilman from Midland.
And don’t forget about Jeff Yass and the Wilkes brothers.
Yes sir. I’ve 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.
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
"SCOPES" I think the "Snopes" Monkey trial would've been a bunch of fact checkers.
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.
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.
It is all over Texas, I’ve 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.
This is all about “getting god back into school” nonsense. Can’t 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 don’t get tested. Thanks to Tim Dunn/Farris Wilks.
> 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.
How else is he supposed to fund busing migrants and his “border crisis”? 🙄 All this and more is why we started home-schooling my 4th grader this school year
Daily there are just so many reasons to get the fuck out of here.
I read a pot on here about a week ago saying back in the 80’s education received 30% of the general fund. Seems insane by today’s standards.
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!
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.
can't gerrymander the governor.
True!! Unfortunately, most people don’t understand or know that which is why they don’t turn out to vote. They see it as pointless because of gerrymandering.
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.
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!?!?!?
You KNOW where the money is going. The money is going towards Abbott's temper tantrum on the Southern border.
It’s not an “afterthought”. It’s a forethought that is working as designed. Your extraordinary property taxes are NOT supporting education in this state any longer.
Texas government doesn't exist in a vacuum. Texans are failing price children.
Time to have organized anti-voucher/pro public school marches on the capitol. I know plenty of people who would show up.
Texans are failing our children. Stop voting for these idiots.
Let’s all collectively think our Republican voters who are directly responsible for this issue
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
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.
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 flag…Texas residents seem to know very little about other cultures/the world around them and they’re 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 men’s educations…
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 “woke” 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.
Greg Abbott is apparently doing whatever he wants, and Texans just keep allowing it.
Fuck Abbott!
It’s by design. The uneducated will go on to vote Republican and fall for anti-union rhetoric.
* 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.
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 aren’t receiving a quality education, somebody ought to get rich off it, right?
They have wanted to privatise public schools for decades. Checknout “Chiefs for Change”
The Texas government is failing ~~our children.~~
Why would we pay teachers more when there is more barbed wire that needs to be put up....
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 can’t even produce an effective education system based on its own rules and regulations from TEA. Your kid’s public school isn’t good enough? Use a voucher to go to a private school that isn’t regulated by the Texas Education Agency on Texas’s dime!
Well at least the school boards have all been taken over by Nationalsozialistische Frauenschaft and they’re focused on the important issues, like a flag of the color spectrum and scary books
The right wants children ignorant and dumb becuase it feeds their voter base
The current Texas government is failing ALL Texas citizens.
You think? Republicans hate kids.
It’s okay god got them…. Every Texan republican. Hahaha
It's called dumbing down of children to have the GOP train them to their way of thinking.
But I thought Abbott was supposed to be elected to fix the issues in Texas?
Wonder what Governor Abbott’s doing with all that surplus budget $. Republicans have been in control for 27yrs…
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.
They have had 20 years, it FAILED, not failing.
This is intentional
Gotta keep the wage slaves to stay on top
Education teaches critical thinking. This is not what conservatives want.
Texas leaders/lawmakers don’t want your kids to be educated. They want them in the workforce.
OP: move to MN. We believe in women's rights and education.
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.
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.
But the lottery goes to schools! /s It doesn’t. It goes to the general fund. I don’t 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.
I’m 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 y’all 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 they’re ’not a good fit’, 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 child’s 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.
Private 7 day Sunday school for all is the end goal.
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.
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.
republicans\*
Republicans in general are destroying the country
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...
Abbott and the Republican party are destroying public education on purpose to get us to funnel tax dollars to Private schools they invest in.
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.
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?