I completely agree with the article posted on Sierra’s blog, “One Land, Under Six Flags.”  In her article, Sierra outlined her reasons for why she believes that “Texas is in dire need of an education reform.”  She mentioned how budget cuts made in the state legislature are putting a great deal of financial pressure on school districts.  Affects of this are not limited to old textbooks, art being taken out of the curriculum, and rising tuition costs.  One severe consequence of these budget cuts is a higher student to teacher ratio, which creates a more hazardous educational environment.  In high school science laboratory classes for example, teachers are expected to monitor an even greater amount of rowdy, hormonal teenagers handle dangerous chemicals and equipment.  Another severe consequence of these budget cuts is prevalent in the terrible special education programs within the school districts.  School districts cannot afford professionals who are trained to deal with certain students with special needs. Special education programs in Texas are a joke.  Although, the fact that I am the daughter of a gripey-middle school science teacher mother and grew up around constant “the Texas Education system sucks” chatter might have implanted some sort of bias within me.  Perhaps if she made a better salary compared to the workload and hours put in as well as the education earned to achieve this “professional” career, she wouldn’t have complained so much. 

            In the end though, doesn’t everything come down to money? If there was more money, school districts could provide a safer and more up-to-date educational environment, pay their teachers more, and provide a better special education service to students with disabilities.  If there was more money, colleges and universities could afford to lower their tuition, thus helping more people graduate who would have otherwise been prevented from doing so for financial reasons.  If more people graduate, we have a more educated and efficient society, who go into higher paying jobs and produce more intelligently and efficiently and spend more money, thus positively affecting the economy. If Texas had an income tax, I wonder, would it be able to afford all of these improvements to it’s education system? My guess is yes, but it’s all about money and who would want to give their money away to some pesky income tax?  Certainly not enough of the politically active registered voters in the great state of Texas, that’s for sure.