Thursday 12 May 2011

Texas, Teaching, and Too Crazy to Believe

Got an e-mail today from a teacher in my school whose home is in Texas.  Makes you go "Hmmmmm."  Fact is, I grew up there... believe me these kids know how to drive fast... what they don't know is how to ...pick one or several (read, write, do math)

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Texas Funds Formula One Race, May Fire Teachers

By Darrell Preston and Aaron Kuriloff - May 11, 2011 5:43 PM GMT+0100
·         Texas, which may balance its budget by firing thousands of teachers, plans to commit $25 million in state funds to Formula One auto racing each year for a decade.
Four years after motorsports’ most popular series left the U.S., Texas investors including Clear Channel Communications Inc. co-founder B.J. “Red” McCombs are building a 3.4-mile (5.5-kilometer) track to bring the event to Austin. Comptroller Susan Combs has agreed to pay $25 million for races through 2022, a subsidy questioned by critics and lawmakers as the state cuts costs to close an estimated $15 billion two-year deficit.
“I don’t understand why 25 people in Austin could not put up $1 million each if they thought this was a good opportunity instead of the state making a $25 million commitment,” said Senator Dan Patrick, a Houston Republican. “The developers should find the money through private sources.”
As many as 100,000 teachers in Texas may be fired because of spending cuts to cope with the state’s budget crisis, according to Moak Casey & Associates, an Austin-based education consultant. For $25 million a year, the state could pay more than 500 teachers an average salary of $48,000.
“I have to wonder why the state of Texas is all over funding for this racetrack and not the school-funding crisis,” said Ewa Siwak, 44, who teaches German in the Austin Independent School District and whose job at Bowie High School is being cut. “Tax dollars for education should be a higher priority.”

(it goes on to say how much money this will generate---billions—and it will be good for the economy…  couldn’t stand to read much more….)

1 comment:

Nona said...

Ahh yes ... that's my state's mentality. School jobs are being cut left and right with education and the arts taking the biggest hits. School administration and school sports seem to be holding their own ... go figure.

I'm not a Republican ... and I'm not a Democrat. I pretty much am an Anti-Incumbent because they have really gotten things messed up.