Senator Rodney Ellis of District 13 of Texas weighed in on the budget cuts that Texas faces and the consequences of cutting education. Since the unions in Texas don't have the power that those in most other states do, cutting teachers' benefits and salaries shouldn't be as big of a problem for the Texas Legislature and Governor Perry. Or will it?
$27 billion budget deficit. Thus far, the budget solution to this crisis has been
proposed cuts to services and programs vital to Texas families. Today I want to
focus on the reckless cuts to public and higher education which betray our school
kids and mortgage their future.
A decade ago we were talking about putting a computer in every classroom and wiring
all schools; today we're talking about closing schools and tearing the wiring out
of the walls. For a generation, we pushed kids to take AP courses to better prepare
for college; now we're doing away with them. We used to have a teacher shortage;
now school districts are offering teachers $10,000 to quit; 10 years ago, every
eligible student received a TEXAS Grant; under this budget, less than 30 percent
will.
This is a blueprint for building the Texas of the 19th Century, not the 21st.
These deep cuts represent a giant leap backward for Texas and will damage our ability
to compete in the decades ahead. If this budget -- or anything like it -- passes,
public education in Texas as we know it will be irreparably harmed. The progress
we have made over the decades -- and the progress we still need to achieve -- will
end and we will spend the rest of this decade climbing out of the hole we have dug
ourselves.
Public Education Budget Cuts: An Overview
If education is the key to the future, Texas is set to change the locks and barricade
the door. The proposed budget slashes nearly $10 billion from public schools, fires
potentially 100,000 public school teachers, threatens to shut down hundreds of public
schools, eliminates Pre-K and Advanced Placement courses. The budget crisis has
also led to calls to roll back a landmark education reform --class size limits
-- which has been instrumental to Texas' educational improvement.
Here are how these destructive public education cuts could impact Texas families:
* Spending on public education is cut by $9.8 billion. This is could lead to the
reduction of nearly 100,000 teachers' jobs statewide, a severe problem in an already
struggling economy;
* Layoffs at the Texas Education Agency are already underway and the agency has
already cut $153 million from its current budget;
* HISD alone faces up to $350 million in cuts to our kids; over 3,800 teachers could
lose their jobs;
* HISD also may have to consider closing schools in our community;
* Fort Bend ISD faces nearly $74 million in cuts and a potential loss of at least
1,000 teachers;
* Alief ISD, which serves an 80 percent economically disadvantaged student population,
could see a $47 million cut, which could cost 900 jobs;
* Pre-K and Early Childhood School Ready programs are eliminated;
* Advanced Placement college readiness courses are eliminated.
Rolling Back Landmark Reforms
Part of Texas' educational success is attributable to reforms passed in 1984, including
a statewide requirement to reduce kindergarten through fourth gradeclass sizes to
no more than 22 students per teacher. Unfortunately, because of the budget crisis,
there is now a concerted effort in Austin to weaken the 22-1 cap with a 22 student
class size average. While that sounds like a minor change, it would actually gut
the landmark K-4th grade reform which has served as a foundation for Texas' educational
improvement. It would also inevitably lead to teacher layoffs, crammed classrooms
and, eventually, poorer student performance.
The simple truth is that the 22-1 ratio has been on the books for a quarter-century
because it works. In fact, despite the rhetoric of those trying to jettison this
cornerstone of Texas' school reform, study after study has proven that smaller
class sizes lead to better results. The reason is simple: smaller classes give teachers
more one-on-one time with students and allows them to create more customized instruction
and assignments to meet individual students' needs. A 2009 study in the American
Journal of Education concluded that smaller classes in early grades have significant
positive effects through grade 8 and help to close the achievement gap between low-
and high-achieving students. The more kids in a class, the more difficult it becomes
for teachers to know their students and recognize problems and special needs early.
The impact of replacing the 22-1 limit with a 22 class size average would be immediate
and touch every family with a child in elementary school. Many kindergarten through
fourth grade classes would grow significantly, as some classes, particularly those
with special needs students, are notably smaller than 22. In other words, one class
could have 6 school kids, while another could be jammed to the gills with 38 students,
yet the school would meet the requirements of the "reform". Is that what we really
want for our children?
Eliminating 22-1 would likely force almost 12,000 teachers to lose their jobs. With
Texas' unemployment rate already over 8 percent, the loss of such a dramatic number
of jobs would be felt in communities throughout the state. And we shouldn't kid
ourselves that only the so-called "bad teachers" would be the ones given pink slips.
Changing 22-1 is about budget savings first and foremost, so the incentive will
be to layoff the more experienced, higher paid educators.
If these destructive cuts are enacted, schools would either be closed or the state
would force the counties to raise property taxes to close the gap. According to
one estimate, local property taxes would have to be raised by more than 30 percent
to close the shortfall. But counties can't even do that to try to save our schools;
property tax rate caps mean our communities can do nothing other than cut teachers,
slash programs and close schools.
In his state of the state speech, Governor Perry bragged that "the state's share
of education spending increased from $11 billion per year, to $20 billion in '09.
That's an 82 percent increase. " That is true, but does not tell the real story.
The bulk of that increased spending was done to keep up with enrollment growth
and court mandates on equitable spending. What he did not say is that the percentage
of education funding provided by the state is only 37 percent of the total pie,
which is about where we've been stuck for most of the last decade. He also neglected
to mention that a portion of that '09 funding came via the one-time federal stimulus
package.
Even with that increase, Texas still ranks 38th in expenditures per student, 37th
in the percentage of public education spending coming from state revenue, and 44th
in state and local expenditures per pupil.
Closing the Door to College
Even as the importance of a college education grows, the cost of going to college
continues to rise, and the number of students being served increases, the proposed
2012-13 budget enacts deep cuts to higher education and, particularly, to student
financial aid.
The proposed budget would have a significant impact on Houston-area colleges and
universities if these cuts are imposed.
* Under the House plan, overall state funding for higher education is cut by 12.7
percent and four community colleges will be closed.
* The University of Houston faces an $18 million funding cut, and UH Downtown a
$4 million cut;
* Texas Southern University faces a $4.2 million cut and nearly 400 students would
lose their TEXAS Grant.
* Houston Community College faces a $935,419 cut.
These risky cuts also do nothing to slow the skyrocketing costs of tuition thanks
to the tuition deregulation law passed in 2003. Many of us warned that taking the
responsibility of setting tuition out of the legislature's hands would lead to soaring
costs, and that is exactly what has happened. Overall, tuition at state universities
has increased by 86 percent, and has more than doubled at the University of Texas
at Austin. I remain convinced that abdicating our responsibility over tuition was
a terrible mistake and that it is time to end tuition deregulation in Texas and
adequately fund higher education.
TEXAS Grants & Financial Aid
To ensure Texas produces enough college graduates for the 21st century economy,
I passed legislation creating the TEXAS Grant program. Modeled on Georgia's HOPE
Scholarship, TEXAS Grants pay for tuition and fees at a Texas college or university
for qualified students. Since 1999, over 310,000 young Texans have received 653,000
TEXAS Grants totaling over $2 billion to help them pay for college.
Unfortunately, the proposed budget slates TEXAS Grants for near extinction.
* The proposed cuts would effectively price many Texas families out of sending their
children to college, cutting financial aid while almost doubling the cost of college
at the same time.
* Under both the House and Senate budgets, the number of students receiving a TEXAS
Grant college aid would be slashed, from 86,830 students this year to only 27,135
students in FY 2013, a 69 percent reduction;
* Overall TEXAS Grant funding would be reduced by 41 percent, from $624 to $361
million;
* TEOG, which provides grants to students in need attending public two-year colleges,
will be slashed by 74 percent, from $24 million to $6.8 million;
We are the 2nd-largest state and the one of the fastest growing, yetTexas provides
$500 million less in direct state grants to students than California and New York,
$230 million less than Florida, $160 million less than Pennsylvania and $105 million
less than Illinois. Even in the best of times, when it comes to investing in our
college students Texas was a penny pincher; now that times are rough, we are about
to take a giant leap backward.
Where Texas Ranks
The sheer impact of these cuts is particularly damaging when you take into account
just how terrible a job we have done as a state ensuring the long-term education
of our children. Even without these reckless cuts and in "the best of times", Texas
ranked at the bottom in investing in our families. In tough times, we are cutting
to the bone the already meager services we provide our citizens.
Texas currently ranks:
* Public School Enrollment 2nd
* Average Teacher Salary as a Percentage of Average Annual Pay 34th
* Current Expenditures per Student 38th
* State & Local Expenditures per Pupil in Public Schools 44th
* Percent of Elementary/Secondary School Funding from State 37th
* Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) Scores 45th
* Percent of Population 25 and Older with a High School Diploma 44th
* High School Graduation Rate 43rd
* Percent of Population Graduated from High School 49th
* Percent of Adults with at Least aBachelor's Degrees 27th
* Percentage of Higher Education Enrollment 9th
* Per Capita State Spending on State Arts Agencies 43rd
I will continue to send you updates from the 82nd Legislative Session.
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