"An Insult To The School Children, Parents, and Educators Of Texas"

"An Insult To The School Children, Parents, and Educators Of Texas"

Posted by Chris Bell on November 22, 2005 - 1:31pm.

This morning the Texas Supreme Court announced its long-awaited school finance ruling. The Court ruled that while the de facto statewide property tax is unconstitutional, the overall level of public school funding is adequate. Below is Chris's reaction to the ruling:

I'm disappointed by today's ruling, and I strongly disagree with the Republican Supreme Court's opinion that public education funding in Texas is adequate. School spending in Texas is well below the national average, and unfortunately we can only get out of our classrooms what we're willing to put into them. For the Supreme Court to state that a sub-par public education system is acceptable is an insult to the school children, parents, and educators of the state of Texas.

Mainstream Texans understand that if we want to build the best public schools in the country, we're going to need to invest more in public education. Rick Perry now has a choice. He can either hide behind black robes on the Supreme Court or his hand-picked campaign donors on the tax commission, or he can show real leadership and fight to give our public schools the resources they need to thrive.

http://www.chrisbell.com/blog/112205_supreme_court_statement