Save Texas Schools Calls for March on Capitol

Save Texas Schools, a coalition of Texan parents, students, educators, business leaders, community groups and others, is calling for a march on the state Capitol in Austin to address their concerns over the Lone Star State’s funding of public education. The alliance’s anxiety is over the projected $27 billion hole in Texas’ budget and how that shortfall will affect elementary, secondary and even collegiate institutions.

The group claims that a 2005 reduction to property taxes made by the state legislature has left Texas’ public education in peril. The cut, which decreased property taxes by one-third, was supposed to be offset by increases in business and cigarette taxes, but the gap in revenue has not been bridged. Additionally, declining property value and the national economic downturn have further shrunk state coffers. There are fears that the closure of schools due to the lack of funding will lead to a greater decline in the value of neighboring property, perpetuating a vicious downward spiral of shrinking tax revenue, school closures and falling local home prices, ad infinitum. Save Texas Schools describes this deficit as “structural” because even an upturn in the economy will not close the revenue gap, but merely cause it to contract.

As if the deficit itself was not cause for concern enough, the crisis is compounded by a predicted increase in enrollment and the dire financial status of current students. Texas is already home to the nation’s second-largest elementary and secondary school enrollment, but the state’s comptroller estimates that 900,000 additional elementary and secondary school students will enter the public school system between 2010 and 2040. Considering that 55.5 percent of all current Texas students are identified as economically disadvantaged and that the state currently ranks in 37th place for school funding amongst other states in the union and Washington D.C., there is a real fear that the looming crisis may truly jeaprodize the state’s students.

In typical circumstances, a short-term tax increase would alleviate some of Texas’ ills by bridging the deficit, but many of the state’s elected officials have sworn against such a measure. In response to these politicians’ obstinacy, Save Texas Schools is calling for those concerned with the state’s public education to the Capitol in Austin on March 12, 2011. The group proposes this show of support to convince their representatives to rescue the school system with money from a $9.3 billion “Rainy Day” fund and a Permanent School Fund, and through applying for $830 million in federal aid for teachers. Save Texas Schools hopes that this demonstration of concerned citizens can show state legislators that such destructive cuts to public education are unacceptable and will not be taken sitting down.

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