We know you’ve heard the complaints from the education establishment about their perception that Governor Bush and the legislative leadership are “cutting” education spending this year. Of course the educrats are using the same ploy the liberals used when they claimed the Congress was cutting food stamps, education and other essential areas. There are no cuts, only less of an increase than in past sessions.
Furthermore, we know it’s time to tell the real story about how much more money has been given to education as compared to the increases in students and teachers over the same period of time. These percentages are for the period 1989-90 to 1999-2000, statewide. We’ll give you the percentages - county by county - in the next issue.
Obviously, the increase in total dollars far exceeds the increases in both students and teachers. What we do see is that the teachers haven’t kept up with the students, especially when you realize that personnel who haven’t taught full class loads for a long time are labeled “teachers”.
Don’t be fooled twice; look at the real data before you believe the tales of woe you’ll hear.
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From IVBE's newsletter Voices -- F eb. 2001
