Texas public schools are on their own with Gov. Abbott

• Despite the 13.7 percent growth in the total student population from 2008 to 2017, “the proportion of funding the state contributes declined by 12.6 percent per pupil.”
• “About 40 percent of Texas teachers expect to take on other jobs outside of the classroom in order “to meet family expenses,” according to the Texas State Teachers Association.”
• “At least 3,600 teachers have left the state’s retirement plan as the public pension system considers raising premiums for healthcare.”

Property taxes are high, because Abbott fails to fund education

• The San Antonio Express-News Editorial Board wrote, “…districts are forced to make up the difference through property taxes. It targets cities, counties, and fails to adequately address school finance”
• According to the Center for Public Policy Prior­ities, “The state could reinvest the money it saves from increased property tax revenues back into the school system, but instead they ‘shuffle’ the money around to other parts of the budget and use the savings to ‘pay for tax cuts.’”

Abbott allowed Texas to illegally excluded thousands of children from Special Education

• “Texas state officials had denied for months that any child had been inappropriately kept out of special education.”
• “For years, Texas education officials illegally led schools across the state to deny therapy, tutoring, and counseling to tens of thousands of children with disabilities.”

Under Abbott, Texas schools ranked 40th among the states heading into 2017

• In 2016, “Education Week, a newspaper that covers K-12 education, ranked Texas 43rd among 50…The newspaper grades states in three categories: chance for success, school finance and K-12 achievement.”
• “The grades don’t look good for the Lone Star State. Overall, Texas got a C-. It got the same grade for student achievement in grades K-12. It posted a C on students’ chance for success later in life. But on school finance, Texas got a D.”

Abbott’s broken promise to teachers

• Governor Abbott in 2016 supported giving teachers a $1,000 raise but did not offer where those funds would come from. Yet another a hollow campaign promise.
• In 2018, Abbott promised higher salaries again. Click here to read why teachers themselves say Abbott’s, “record reveals false promises and no new state money for public education.”

• FACT: [Abbott] declared victory after funding a tiny pre-K program that didn’t even make up for cuts in previous years, and approved a little funding for universities, which tea party lawmakers let slide in part because they were so minor.
• FACT: This year, Texas’ top education officials told school district administrators that they cannot use state funding to provide schooling for children housed in migrant shelters.
• FACT: “A majority of students at the top-rated high schools in Texas are likely to need remedial coursework when they get to college…
• FACT: State auditors said the Texas Education Agency seriously mismanaged the processes of procuring two major education contracts over the last couple of years, including a no-bid special education contract that lost the state more than $2 million.