Republicans Take $8 Billion Away From Texas School Children

Last night, the Republicans in the Texas House of Representatives passed House Bill 1, shorting Texas school children $8 billion compared to current funding of public education. This is the first time since the School Foundation Program was started in 1949 that money was cut. Appropriations chair Jim Pitts (R- Waxahachie) told a startling untruth at the conclusion of the vote:

"It lives within the available revenue that we have to work with," Pitts said, adding, "This 

budget is the result of the worst recession that anyone in this room has ever experienced."

Not true. Well, it does work with the available revenue, but the revenue deficit is not mostly due to the recession. It's due to the structural deficit Jim Pitts and his fellow Republicans put in place in 2006, and Pitts knows that. Texas will face a $10 billion deficit again and again every year until the Legislature addresses the lack of revenue their "slash taxes" agenda created. Republicans have been in the majority for eight years in Texas government, and the blame for this scorched earth budget lies squarely on them. 

Read this list of 50 things the Republican budget cuts. If you don't like it, call your state representative (find  his or her contact info here.) Otherwise, learn to do with less. A whole lot less of what we are used to government providing in Texas.