Texas on the brink

If we have an alternative single answer I would say "Rick Perry" who is no doubt proud of the low spending and low levels of government service and completely indifferent to the educational achievement so long as students have been exposed to "creation science."
 
It is a bit of a chicken or the egg argument but we did have illegals before we had Rick Perry although he's done very little to stop the tide. Crockett, why do you say Rick Perry is indifferent toward education. After all, he favors college for illegals at in state rates.
 
Rex, dead on the money.

Wow, how about this disconnect:
Public school enrollment - 2nd highest in the nation
High School Graduation Rate - 43rd
Since we have the 2nd highest population of under age 18 it would stand to reason our enrollment would be so high, but the graduation rate is pathetic.

Also noticed an important omission. Per capita spending is used throughout this document. Under healthcare, there is a per capita spending on medicare, and a healthcare expenditure per capita. However no spending per capita in education noted except for specifically "state art agencies". Curious.

Saddest stat I found:
• In the 2008-2009 school year, Texas 8th graders who were proficient in reading fell 3 percent below the national level with reading levels of 27% proficiency.
 
Perry is awful but he is nowhere near as culpable as illegals, which provide benefits to Texas as well. Texas has some of the wealthiest and brightest people on the planet. We also have multitudes of the other extreme. No politician can change that easily without changing the dynamics that make Texas great.
 
An engaged, capable leader, would be out front publicly calling for improvements in state government, using the bully pulpit of the governor's office for something besides shaking down people wanting state business/state appointments for campaign contributions. Unfortunately we have the governor who puts the goober in gubernatorial.
 
In all fairness, the LSG is run by some of the most blatantly partisan Democrats in Texas politics, and their agenda is tax increases and spending a lot more money.

Nevertheless, as others have said, Texas has a very wide range of wealth and poverty. Those in the cities and suburbs live very well. Those in the Valley and the poorer rural areas live in squalor. Sad, but the government isn't going to change that by spending money.
 
Basically, they want to turn Texas into California. Increase the size of government largess, bankrupt the state, and increase the standard of living of those they claim to champion by nada.

Most of those stats are bogus due to the low cost of living in the state. the rest of it is because a large proportion of the state is illegal immigrants that have a grammar school education, at best, and English is not their native tongue.

I say that knowing that those immigrants should be welcome here and are more American in spirit than 60% of the people that are already here
 
Geesh Crock
what is going on??
i agree with you 3 times in past week.
tongue.gif


This is such a simple but brilliant statement
Why do we always go to money spent?
 
Don't get too excited Horn6721. I guess I am a Republican since I vote in your primary. But I honestly have faith in government to solve some problems and I want passionately for the state to spend more money on mental health. The saddest stories I read are about murders committed by people who would have been safely getting better in state mental institutions in any state but Texas. There isn't a cheap way around it. On public and higher education there are ways to make dollars go further, but we'd need people who care and listen to educators to ever make that happen. On the jobs front, I want the state to do a lot more aptitude testing/counseling/training to efficiently use training dollars to get people in professions they are suited for and that pay well.
 
I think Texas gets the union situation right but not because the numbers are low. Texas gets it right because it is private employees that CHOOSE to be in a union. Nobody is forced into a union to work in a particular field. Higher number under the circumstances that I outlined would not bother me in the slightest.
 
You can't fault the state for the failure of the Dallas ISD.

What is the dropout rate of DISD vs. say Plano ISD?

What is the difference, it has nothing to do with the state. The stats you quote are distorted because the largest ISD's are run like the Federal government.

When you have two ISD's right next to each other and one is the worst and the other is one of the best, it comes down to a locally run issue, even more local then state. I blame the DISD, HISD, AISD, SAISD and EPISD for the issues in Texas.

Explain how Plano can be so much head and shoulders above Dallas and this is the states fault?
 
Just because PISD and DISD are "right next to each other" means nothing. Does Eanes ISD outperform Austin ISD because it is better managed or because it draws from an affluent base of parents that demands excellence from their children? Because they are right next to each other, should I expect the same results from both districts?

While DISD is very poorly managed, it's pretty naive to think that a district that includes south Dallas will get the same results as a Plano type district.
 
Also, drop out rates are worthless. Seriously, what is DISD supposed to do? Beg the kids to come back to school? It says a lot more about parents than districts.
 
Some myths debunked: facts here.

Of all the states, Texas is among the very least deserving of being declared "on the brink" in a negative way.

That being said, public education is broken (see 90% of Chicago teachers voting to strike this week), and the lack of school choice in America is just plain criminal.
 
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