Read this and see.
Summary of HB 1 (Public Education Reductions)
The House introduced its initial version of the General Appropriations Act (House Bill 1) for the 2012-13 biennium on Wednesday, January 19. While it is the first draft of the state budget with many hearings and floor debates to come, it does indicate that substantial budget reductions to public education are likely.
In addition to eliminating almost all discretionary grant programs ($1.3 billion in General Revenue over the biennium) in this first draft, HB 1, as filed, reduces the Foundation School Program by $10 billion below what was requested by the Texas Education Agency. Some of the grant programs that were eliminated in the 2012-13 biennium include: the technology allotment ($270.9 million), New IFA ($52 million), property value decline protections, ADA decline provisions ($22 million), DAEP funding, the Reading, Mathematics, and Science Initiatives ($16.1 million), the Early High School Scholarship Program ($43.2 million), the Pre-Kindergarten Grant Program ($223.3 million) , all of the grant programs funded under the Student Success Initiative ($293.2 million) , the High School Completion and Success Initiative ($86 million), the LEP Student Success Initiative ($19,4 million), the DATE program ($385.1 million), science lab grants ($35 million), middle school PE grants ($20 million), virtual school network ($20.3 million), the steroid testing program ($2 million), school bus seat belt program ($10 million), the optional extended year program ($14.1 million), teen parenting ($19.7 million), and the AP Incentive Program ($28.4 million).
I confess, I don’t know what a lot of that alphabet soup means, but it doesn’t matter. After the brief intro, which lays out three different possible ways that the $10 billion reduction might be distributed, is a table of each school district, listed by county, and the amount that it would lose under each scenario. As daunting as $10 billion sounds, seeing the individual reductions for each ISD makes it even scarier. The firm that put this together is the source of that 100,000 teacher layoff figure I keep harping on. As you see stories like these two appear over and over across the state, you’ll know where they’re coming from.
According to Perry, Texas is doing great and has an accountable education system.
Tort reform is going to be a high priority too.
http://www.thegovmonitor.com/world_news/united_states/governor-perry-speaks-at-2011-texas-association-of-business-annual-conference-45484.html
excerpts
“The governor also reiterated the importance of pursuing stronger tort reform protections to further improve the legal climate in Texas with greater accountability, transparency and efficiency.
Reforms should include:
implementing a “loser pays” policy, so victims of frivolous lawsuits do not bear the financial burden of defending themselves
creating an early dismissal option for frivolous lawsuits
ensuring new laws cannot create causes of action unless expressly established by the Legislature
setting up expedited trials and limited discovery for lawsuits with claims between $10,000 and $100,000”
Texas property tax rates higher than national average, Census says
September 30, 2010
excerpts
“On average, Texas homeowners pay more annual property tax than the rest of the nation, according to U.S. Census data interpreted by the Tax Foundation. The research also found that tax burdens relative to home value rank the Loan Star State in third place.”
“As many of Texas’ small business owners struggle with other tax liabilities such as the Texas franchise tax, the news comes with a degree of disappointment. However, recent news shows that Texas is currently thriving in small business and entrepreneurial growth, particularly among the state’s Hispanic population.”
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Tort reform = just more talking points with no real basis in fact.
Loser pays – most well drafted contracts already have a version of this.
Option for early dismissal of frivolous lawsuits – It’s called a summary judgment, and has been available since before I was born.
“ensuring new laws cannot create causes of action unless expressly established by the Legislature” – I don’t know what on earth this is supposed to mean, since courts don’t make laws, they enforce and interpret them.
“Expedited trials…under $100K” – the rules of procedure already have this option for limiting discovery, and we have a separate track of county courts at law specifically for the smaller cases – and have had since forever.
In thirty years plus of practicing in the civil courts, my experience is that frivolous lawsuits make up an incredibly minute percentage of what in reality is already a diminishing docket. What’s really happened, thanks to Bob Perrry and Rick Perry and their ideological brethren, is that options for redress for real people who have suffered real harm have been cut off left and right in the guise of creating a Good Climate for Bidness – and I say that as someone who generally represents small businesses.
““ensuring new laws cannot create causes of action unless expressly established by the Legislature” – I don’t know what on earth this is supposed to mean, since courts don’t make laws, they enforce and interpret them.”
I figured it meant that the Tx. legislature can pass bills that will result in lawsuits (frivolous)–several they are passing right now are going to do just that; voter ID, required viewing of sonograms, immigration bill, and birthright citizenship/14th amendment. But, IANAL. LOL
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