Texas Education

To be quite honest, I grew up with the illusion that Texas had the best schools in the country. Having attended schools in the Leander School District, I was always impressed with the facilities, and felt that if I earned an "A" then the school must be excellent. It wasn't until I watched my first presidential debate that I saw the holes exposed in the Texas Education System. Although a great deal of claims and accusations presented in a presidential debate are false, it prompted me to do my own research on the matter.

Unless you have been living under a rock for the past year, then you have definitely become familiar with the massive amount of education budget cuts that took place in Texas. Recently a survey was conducted and the results released by The American Federation of Teachers. This survey was a web poll and consisted of about 95% teachers, and 5% parents and regular citizens. Much to my dismay, over 90% of respondents indicated that layoffs occurred in their Texas school district, with the majority of layoffs being teachers and teaching assistants. As you probably inferred, these cuts were not made because the population of students drastically decreased. Unfortunately these budget cuts affected pre-k and special education programs as well as greatly increasing class size statewide.

I feel that education is the very LAST thing that should suffer when budget cuts are needed. It is discouraging enough that not everyone can afford the higher education they deserve, but now the public education system is suffering. With Texas education already behind the rest of the nation, how can it possibly improve when all the resources are being taken away? Although I feel all the blame shouldn't be placed on Governor Perry, it will be, and as Americans head to the polls next year I feel this will be a issue of importance and consideration to many. Simply put, the Texas education system needs a drastic makeover.