Tea Party car pools?

Upon returning to work from a couple of weeks off, I am not surprised that school districts still are trying to deal with the $5 billionplus in budget cuts handed them by the Legislature and the governorwhoshouldn’tbe president. And, I notice that the Keller ISD in North Texas has found a way to get the attention of parents who may have been ignoring all the teacher layoffs and other costsqueezing steps.

Keller has laid out a plan to start charging $185 a semester for the first kid and $135 for each sibling – for bus rides to and from school. That means some parents will be paying several hundred dollars a year, more than they would have paid in higher taxes if Keller voters had approved a modest increase in local property taxes several weeks ago.

Keller has the misfortune of sitting in an area of the state heavily influenced by the Tea Party, the antigovernment complainers who believe a quality education belongs in private schools and that other public services grow on trees. The tea partiers were influential in the defeat of the local tax increase proposed by the school district and in electing the legislative majority that slashed state funding for public education.

Maybe the Tea Partytypes now will start organizing car pools for the Keller school kids. It’s the least they can do.