Gov. Greg Abbott’s plan to cut property taxes will starve public schools while he sends state money to private schools.
Texas already ranks 47th in the nation in public school funding and pays teachers $10,000 less a year than the national average. No surprise then that Texas students trail the nation in reading and math scores, according to the Nation’s Report Card, a nonprofit that analyzes testing data.
The Legislature increased public school funding by $8 billion for the next two years, but it was the first increase in state funding since 2019 and doesn’t keep up with inflation. Lawmakers then promised to spend $1 billion in state tax revenue to send 100,000 kids to private schools.
Tying the hands of school boards will guarantee they will have to close more schools and cut more teachers, explained Clay Robison, spokesman for the Texas State Teachers Association.
“Abbott does not really care about public education; his focus now is on private schools, charter schools, and giving them all the tax dollars,” he told me. “More teachers are going to quit.”
Well, private/non-public-facing institutions aren’t bound by Titles 7 and 9. So, this means they can set up whites-only schools again.
These people haven’t gone away, and school integration wasn’t that long ago. Ruby Bridges and school integration happened within my mom’s lifetime.
THIS is the point, right here. White Flight has turned into outright Need to Segregate. Now they have a way to do that, without calling it segregation. 60 years of progress down the drain.
Hate is a powerful narcotic.
And Ruby Bridges is still alive. She’s only 71 years old.
Shit, putting things in perspective is always tough… Can you give me a more specific name for the title 7 and 9 thing? Not from US but want to search and learn more about it.
Title 7 of the Civil Rights Act, and Title 9 of the Civil Rights Act.
Title IX prohibits sex-based discrimination in education programs and activities that receive federal financial assistance.
Title VII prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin. Race in education is burried in the public accommodations stuff, if I remember correctly.
*Edit: Fixed the links
**Edit 2: actually, no. Racial segregation was found unconstitutional in of itself in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483 (1954). So, with a friendly SCOTUS, mixed with the change over to private schools, they’re probably still thinking they could undo integration.
Not that you need more edits, but: racial *segregation was found unconstitutional.
Fixed. Woops. That’ll teach me to stay up late and post while I’m tired.