Tea Party brewing trouble for educators

A couple of readers objected to my characterization last week of Tea Party supporters as “teabaggers.” This was in an item about how moderate, proeducation candidates in three Republican legislative runoffs – including longtime state Rep. Delwin Jones of Lubbock – were defeated by proTea Party opponents. I did not mean to offend anyone with the characterization, but I will refrain from using it in the future.

I will not, however, quit criticizing the Tea Party movement and questioning why educators would be attracted to its antigovernment, slashandburn goals. When Tea Partiers talk about cutting government, some of the first people in their line of fire are teachers, bus drivers and other education professionals.

Most Tea Partiers aren’t secessionists, despite Gov. Rick Perry’s silly comment about that idea at a Tea Party rally last year. But Tea Partiers share one major goal. They all want to reduce or shrink government. Van Taylor, a Tea Party candidate who won a Republican runoff for the Texas House in Plano last week, has even boasted that he wants to “starve state government.”

Now, we all know what that means. If you starve state government, you are starving the public schools and public school teachers. Education – including public schools and universities accounts for the single biggest share (41 percent) of the state budget. Our public school enrollment grows by many thousands of kids each year, yet Texas ranks only 44th among the states in perpupil spending on instruction and 33rd in teacher pay. So, there isn’t a lot of waste in the classroom. But that’s one of the first places the homeschoolers and voucher advocates within the Tea Party movement will look.

Many school districts already are cutting back on educational programs and laying off teachers, partly because of the economy and partly because of poor support from Austin. Additionally, the Legislature is facing a revenue shortfall as high as $15 billion next January. Do you really want Gov. Perry and the Tea Partiers in charge of balancing the next state budget? I don’t think so.

Perry, a career politician for more than 20 years, has done everything he can to squeeze the life out of our public education system. Don’t let the Tea Partiers finish the job.