At Least Texas Is Good In Football.

[letsgiveacheer]

My link

[UNTflyer]

Wow, who knew Texas sucked so bad?! It's the same story from the same liberal Texas Democrats every year. Texas blows. We're the worst in so so many areas....

But I can cherry-pick statistics too.

According to CNBC Texas ranks:

#1 in transportation and infrastructure

#1 in economy

#4 in technology and innovation

#7 in access to business capital

#8 in overall cost of living

#1 overall in top business states

#1 in the nation in child support enforcement

#1 in 2010 for economic growth

[drex]

I'd love to see the figures on 'population migration to other states.' I suspicion there are a hell of lot more coming into Texas than leaving.

[MCMLXXX]

I'd love to see the figures on 'population migration to other states.' I suspicion there are a hell of lot more coming into Texas than leaving.

That is why Texas is getting 4 new congressional seats. Florida gets 2 and a few other states get one.

[UNT90]

My link

Anything that lists teacher salary and benefits before student test grades is political BS. Let's throw even more money at education. Ya, that's the answer.

[cwb]

Wow, who knew Texas sucked so bad?! It's the same story from the same liberal Texas Democrats every year. Texas blows. We're the worst in so so many areas....

But I can cherry-pick statistics too.

According to CNBC Texas ranks:

#1 in transportation and infrastructure

#1 in economy

#4 in technology and innovation

#7 in access to business capital

#8 in overall cost of living

#1 overall in top business states

#1 in the nation in child support enforcement

#1 in 2010 for economic growth

And #1 in wars vs Mexico.

[UNTflyer]

Anything that lists teacher salary and benefits before student test grades is political BS. Let's throw even more money at education. Ya, that's the answer.

I have to say that education is the one area where we should be spending... it should be government's #1 expenditure.

HOWEVER, that funding should come with certain requirements ensuring we are the best in the world at educating our people. That also means we should allow parents to send their kids to private and/or religious schools with vouchers equivalent to the amount of annual per student expenditures.

Competition ensures everyone is doing their best.

[KRAM1]

I have to say that education is the one area where we should be spending... it should be government's #1 expenditure.

HOWEVER, that funding should come with certain requirements ensuring we are the best in the world at educating our people. That also means we should allow parents to send their kids to private and/or religious schools with vouchers equivalent to the amount of annual per student expenditures.

Competition ensures everyone is doing their best.

Absolutely, BUT we must make certain that the spending goes where it should...to the classroom and not for more administrative support of administrative towers. Texas ranks FIRST in the US in workers per 10,000 of population. For every 10,000 Texans our state-supported schools employ 273 people. That's ahead of even New Jersey with just 266 school workers per 10,000 people. We're #1...GREAT, isn't it? If that were teachers it might be great but what makes Texas #1 is all the folks in the public school workforce who do anything other than teach! Nearly 1/2 of the 661,000 public school workforce in Texas does something other than teach! With many teachers about to lose their jobs or have to take a salary cut isn't it interesting that the non-teaching payrolls seem to grow and grow...all being supported by your tax dollars and mine.

Interesting too that these same folks who make up such a big percentage of the public-school workforce could not see this coming. With the private sector losing...no hemorrhaging jobs the last several years and with countless private sector employees being either laid off, fired or having to take pay cuts, could not the educators see this coming and perhaps prepare a bit for the reality of lowering property values, lowering tax revenues???? We do have plenty of non-teachers...you would think someone, anyone would have said that the schools needed to prepare sooner than later for some very tough times. While private sector folks were waling the unemployment lines school districts were still hiring and spending like nothing was happening to the economy...and now school board cry and moan that they will have to lay off teachers and close schools. Yep, like where were you when this was all coming to a head...with your collective heads in the sand, that's where. I have a nephew who teaches in the Austin ISD and he has already been told to prepare for a pay cut. At least he has a job, but if there is any bloated ISD in Texas full of feel good just got to have special programs, it is Austin. I really feel for the teachers of Texas. They will take the brunt of the pain while the admins and boards do everything in their power to keep all the "feel good" programs and administrative staffs.

Too bad, but it's not like this wasn't known to be about to happen. Anyone with even the slightest sense of economics knew it was coming...I guess all those school administrators and board members just thought it would happen to everyone but them! Good luck with that...the oversight and planning has been all but criminal in the Texas Public schools. Our teachers do more and more with less and less while administrative and facilities budgets grow bigger and bigger. Now everyone wants to blame the big bad Texas government for the fact that they stuck their collective heads in the sand for the last 3-4 years. UGH!

[Green Mean]

Texas may not be perfect but I think just about anyone would rather be here than any other state right now. We're fortunate to be living in this state because other places are struggling bad.

[UNT90]

I have to say that education is the one area where we should be spending... it should be government's #1 expenditure.

HOWEVER, that funding should come with certain requirements ensuring we are the best in the world at educating our people. That also means we should allow parents to send their kids to private and/or religious schools with vouchers equivalent to the amount of annual per student expenditures.

Competition ensures everyone is doing their best.

Disagree. The more FEDERAL money and STATE interference, the worse our eduacation system has become.

[UNTflyer]

Disagree. The more FEDERAL money and STATE interference, the worse our eduacation system has become.

The federal government should not be in the business of education, as it is not a power granted in the Constitution.

But I do think it is the state's proper role to oversee statewide education standards and funding. The problem is, as Kram said, we have too many chiefs running our education system. I see no reason to have so many administrators. An entire ISD should be administered by a few dozen people managing various functions - HR, IT, finance and accounting, operations and logistics, and curriculum. A lot of those functions can even be handed over to the individual schools.

The other problem is that there is no incentive to save money when you're a government entity. There is no profit motive, and revenues will come even if you turn out a bunch of broken products. Introducing the privatization option will mean a better education for students and more bang for the buck for taxpayers.

[forevereagle]

And #1 in wars vs Mexico.

Undefeated. Hell yeah!

[Travis]

And #1 in wars vs Mexico.

This makes me understand the phrase, "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em".

[Quoner]

Disagree. The more FEDERAL money and STATE interference, the worse our eduacation system has become.

Illustrating a point with a self example? Genius.

[Censored by Laurie]

Wow, who knew Texas sucked so bad?! It's the same story from the same liberal Texas Democrats every year. Texas blows. We're the worst in so so many areas....

But I can cherry-pick statistics too.

According to CNBC Texas ranks:

#1 in transportation and infrastructure

#1 in economy

#4 in technology and innovation

#7 in access to business capital

#8 in overall cost of living

#1 overall in top business states

#1 in the nation in child support enforcement

#1 in 2010 for economic growth

So...its kinda like "yeah, I beat my wife and children, but I also donate a quarter of my check every month to charity...so its cool, right?"

[NT03]

We need casinos

[UNTLifer]

Shore up the freaking border with Oklahoma, I mean Mexico and a lot of these rankings will drop, although the Dems don't want to alienate the illegal aliens and lose their future votes!

[Coffee and TV]

We need casinos

Oh no no no. That would be far more sinful than just cutting funding to nursing homes and schoolchildren. Come on man, let's use our heads here.

[SCREAMING EAGLE-66]

Wow, who knew Texas sucked so bad?! It's the same story from the same liberal Texas Democrats every year. Texas blows. We're the worst in so so many areas....

But I can cherry-pick statistics too.

According to CNBC Texas ranks:

#1 in transportation and infrastructure

#1 in economy

#4 in technology and innovation

#7 in access to business capital

#8 in overall cost of living

#1 overall in top business states

#1 in the nation in child support enforcement

#1 in 2010 for economic growth

--All of the above is absolutely true.......

---Explain why we are such bad shape with the budget that we have a $25 billion budget problem and "firing" 1000's of teachers and cutting back education expenses.. It just makes no sense. The Texas economy is great and even oil prices are high which means a lot of money is pouring into the state treasury... It appears that teachers and education including students will be paying for the poor management in Austin... We are in the bottom four or maybe 50th even in state Taxes per capita... we should be proud of the list above but ashamed of what we are doing to education in Texas and to educators given the economy of Texas. This is not a liberal/conservative issue but do we care about education and kids??? Never has this happened before even when the economic times in Texas wasn't this good.

***** Please no casinos (Perry's answer) .... It is a "tax" on the stupid and poor and causes more problems and even leads more welfare which none of us want. Perry's answer in 2003 to a much smaller problem was to cut college funding and "allow" colleges to set their own tuition to make up for their cuts....... tuition has since tripled (another time education paid for their problems and foul-ups).

.

Edited March 7, 2011 by SCREAMING EAGLE-66

[yyz28]

---Explain why we are such bad shape with the budget that we have a $25 billion budget problem and "firing" 1000's of teachers and cutting back education expenses.. It just makes no sense. The Texas economy is great and even oil prices are high which means a lot of money is pouring into the state treasury... It appears that teachers and education including students will be paying for the poor management in Austin... We are in the bottom four or maybe 50th even in state Taxes per capita... we should be proud of the list above but ashamed of what we are doing to education in Texas and to educators given the economy of Texas. This is not a liberal/conservative issue but do we care about education and kids??? Never has this happened before even when the economic times in Texas wasn't this good.

When the teacher to administrator ratio is 1:1 and we're educating a large number of students who aren't contributing to the tax rolls in this state, and when bad districts can be bad with no fear of losing funding compared to the good districts, the status quo will remain. We need competition, and real reform in how ISD's are to be structured and how much money as a percent of their tax revenue may be used to fund administration efforts vs. teaching efforts. Even with these cuts we spend way more per student than most countries that are kicking our collective educational ass. It isn't how much we're spending, it's how we're using the resources we have.

**** Please no casinos (Perry's answer) .... It is a "tax" on the stupid and poor and causes more problems and even leads more welfare which none of us want. Perry's answer in 2003 to a much smaller problem was to cut college funding and "allow" colleges to set their own tuition to make up for their cuts....... tuition has since tripled (another time education paid for their problems and foul-ups).

...yet enrollment continues to rise state wide. Seems to me that the product (in this case a college education) was underpriced when subsidized by government when the free market is still demanding more, despite the price increase.

And casinos exist in close enough proximity where people with gambling problems in this state are already having issues. Why continue to let Oklahoma and Louisiana suck the money out of Texas into their coffers that their casinos allow them to?

[GrayEagle]

The state's budget problems could be vastly improved if the legislature had the intestional fortitude to overhaul state government.

Texas has 254 counties which is far more than needed. Those that minister to less than 5,000 residents, except in rare cases, should be consolidated with an adjoining county. This should reduce the number of salaried government employees in those counties and get the job done more efficiently.

Next, get rid of hundreds of ISDs by having each county responsible for the students in their county. The county tax assessor can then determine what resources are necessary to run the county education system and set rates accordingly.

Close the borders. I know that this is done at the federal level but keep pushing, even if it requires a lawsuit, to see that the U.S. government does its job. As long as we have the expense of educating and caring for the health and welfare of illegal immigrants we will always be burdened with far more expenses than the other states.

And yes, allow casinos. Gambling is not immoral unless it is done irresponsibly. At least a gambler is not a menace behind the wheel as are substance abusers. Eating is not immoral but gluttony is one of the seven deadly sins. I go to casinos occasionally I don't see any evidence of abnormal behavior by gamblers. I am a religious person but I find nothing in the Bible condemning gambling. Casinos could be a good source of additional revenue and furnished from the free will and accord of citizens.

As long as the federal government keeps mandating programs there will always be the necessity for belt-tightening. The federal government also needs some overhauling but that's another story.

[eulessismore]

The state's budget problems could be vastly improved if the legislature had the intestional fortitude to overhaul state government.

Texas has 254 counties which is far more than needed. Those that minister to less than 5,000 residents, except in rare cases, should be consolidated with an adjoining county. This should reduce the number of salaried government employees in those counties and get the job done more efficiently.

Next, get rid of hundreds of ISDs by having each county responsible for the students in their county. The county tax assessor can then determine what resources are necessary to run the county education system and set rates accordingly.

Close the borders. I know that this is done at the federal level but keep pushing, even if it requires a lawsuit, to see that the U.S. government does its job. As long as we have the expense of educating and caring for the health and welfare of illegal immigrants we will always be burdened with far more expenses than the other states.

And yes, allow casinos. Gambling is not immoral unless it is done irresponsibly. At least a gambler is not a menace behind the wheel as are substance abusers. Eating is not immoral but gluttony is one of the seven deadly sins. I go to casinos occasionally I don't see any evidence of abnormal behavior by gamblers. I am a religious person but I find nothing in the Bible condemning gambling. Casinos could be a good source of additional revenue and furnished from the free will and accord of citizens.

As long as the federal government keeps mandating programs there will always be the necessity for belt-tightening. The federal government also needs some overhauling but that's another story.

I really like the ideas in your second and third paragraph. However, that big "if" in the first paragraph highlights a problem that has never been overcome in the state legislature.