Abbott encouraging on education, but…
Gov. Greg Abbott, in his State of the State address, continued to give mixed signals about his commitment to a strong public education system. On the plus side, TSTA was encouraged that the governor supports strong pre-K and early childhood education programs because those are critical to later student success.
But, as we all should know, a meaningful commitment to pre-K and every other step up the public education ladder requires a commitment to resources. And, it was discouraging that the governor called for an end to school finance litigation without saying how he intended to provide public schools with the adequate and equitable funding that all school children need for success.
You may have noticed that the governor gave a specific figure, $4 billion, he wants the Legislature to appropriate for transportation, and he also specified a few billion dollars as his goal for tax cuts.
As TSTA President Noel Candelaria noted, “The governor gave a specific dollar figure for roads and for tax cuts, but, unfortunately, our children’s educational needs did not warrant that level of commitment.”
