College Funding

In regards to The Texan Bugle commentary on  "College Funding...", I found this article pretty interesting, you would think that when it comes to money and funding from the state of Texas , especially when it involves the Constitution, that piece of paper that states the system of fundamental laws and principles that signs the functions, and limits of a government or institution, they would really focus on important things.

Mostly people ascertain about all the funding that is provided for planned parenthood and voter ID regulations etc. But when it comes down to something that I think a lot of people, including people in Texas believe is something important and a right to have the government seem to have trouble understanding how or how much funding they should "provide".

I previously wrote a blog about the Texas school Financial Lawsuit that began in October and is still on going. This shows how people in Texas, people directly from the schools, are getting agitated on how this issue is being dealt with.
I think an issue like this should have been dealt with much earlier. With Texas' astonishing growth in population this issue should be re-reviews through out the years, so that the Texas Legislature does indeed provide enough for all grades of education. Hopefully the governor and the Texas Legislature can sort things out and if they can provide adequately.

Six for the Money

      As of October 22, 2012 our school finance system is on trial, which involves more than two thirds of Texas's school districts and many of its charter schools, due to its weak financial structure. Throughout the years Texas's school funding system has been put to question a number of times. It is currently facing 6 lawsuits, which entails complaints from many school associations and coalitions directed to the financial issues in the school systems and covers three major topics; "efficiency, adequacy, and meaningful discretion".
    The way Texas distributes the money to districts is based on a formula which contains regional cost of living expenses, the districts number of bilingual, low  income and special education students, as well as, yearly raised property taxes and other factors. Unfortunately, this formula is based on estimates that haven't been updated in several years, thus creating a major factor on why our schools may be failing.
    In court, there might be some conflicts on how they want to approach certain topics, but all in all, they together will state the same argument of how the state has "failed to adequately fund our public education".
     Obviously something is wrong with Texas's school system if schools are forming together against it, and I agree, we've seen schools that have shut down due to low testing scores, and teachers who have been let go. Billions of dollars have been reduced from our funding for public education, while simultaneously raising school standards. By raising the standards and including harder testing, such as STAARS, and having huge budget cuts we're failing our students. With the tremendous population growth in Texas updating the information we use to determine the amount of funds given to the school districts could be a start to providing able funds. This trial is expected to end in January, i guess we have to wait until then to see if there will be any improvements.