Gov. Rick Perry: Don't blame us for school budget woes Perry says state not to blame for school woes

School groups took issue with Perry's effort to distance the state from the effects of budget cuts, which by one estimate could cost up to 100,000 school district jobs through the next two years.

"The lieutenant governor, the (Texas House) speaker, and their colleagues aren't going to hire or fire one teacher, best I can tell. That is a local decision that will be made at the local districts," Perry said when asked about a Texas Capitol rally planned Saturday by teachers, parents and others concerned about the potential cuts.

Families and small businesses across Texas "are making decisions about what's a priority," Perry said, "… and I think school districts are no different."

He said if he were deciding, he'd focus on "non-teaching" staff - which a number of school districts have said wouldn't suffice to meet the cuts.

"Let there be no mistake, the decisions being made in school districts across the state regarding staff layoffs are a direct result of state funding cuts proposed by lawmakers," an alliance of education groups said in a joint statement.

"We urge lawmakers to use a balanced approach in developing a state budget, including accessing the rainy day fund" state savings account, said the Texas Association of School Administrators, Texas Association of School Boards and Texas School Alliance.

Texas could fire every school superintendent, all principals and assistant principals, every school counselor, every librarian, every school nurse, all cafeteria workers, custodians and bus drivers - all 329,574 non-teacher jobs - and still not save the $11.6 billion in public education cuts, according to average salary figures on the TEA website.

HISD ponders cuts

The Houston Independent School District Board of Education today will consider decreasing per-student spending by $275, saving $58.4 million as part of its effort to close a projected $171 million budget gap driven largely by expected state cuts. The HISD administration also has identified $45 million in non-classroom cuts that haven't yet been considered by the board.

"We could eliminate our entire central administration and non-classroom spending and it still wouldn't bridge the gap that we're expecting based on the House budget bill," said HISD spokesman Jason Spencer.

Elaina Polsen, Clear Creek ISD director of public information, said, "For Clear Creek ISD, the notion that budget cuts at the state level will not have an impact on the education that our students receive is illogical. … At some point, by doing significant reduction, you impact the level of education our students receive."

Lawmakers are wrestling with a budget shortfall through the next two years estimated at $15 billion to more than $27 billion, when taking into account the amount needed to continue current services to a growing population. The shortfall is driven by the recession and previous budget decisions.

Because education is a big part of the budget, it would take a big hit under starting-point budget proposals that would rely on cuts to close the gap. The House budget proposal - more austere than the Senate's - would give school districts $9.8 billion less than they'd get under current funding formulas, including student enrollment growth.

Pre-K, dropout prevention

They'd see another $1.8 billion in cuts in other programs, such as pre-kindergarten early start grants, school dropout prevention and teacher bonus awards.

Perry, in saying school districts must decide where to cut, contended that there has been a "rather extraordinary amount of non-classroom employees added to school rolls" over the last decade.

"So are the administrators and the school boards going to make a decision to reduce those or are they going to make a decision to reduce the number of teachers in the classroom?" he asked. "I think the non-teaching corps would be the first place that I would look if there were going to be reductions that were made."

Dueling statistics

His analysis was based on a report showing the number of teachers in Texas rose by 27.1 percent from 1998-99 to 2008-09. The number of administrators rose 35.6 percent, according to the report, using figures from the state comptroller and Texas Education Agency.

TEA figures also show, however, that the state's 334,930 teachers made up 50.4 percent of the total education labor force in the state this school year, compared with 274,816 who made up 50.8 percent of all school personnel in the 2000-01 school year.

During that same time, school enrollment has increased by 21.5 percent, according to the TEA. The number of children from low-income families has increased by 46 percent during that time. Those children are more expensive to educate.

Rep. Scott Hochberg, a Houston Democrat who serves on the House Appropriations Committee and has expertise in school finance, said non-teaching positions mean not only administrators but school bus drivers, custodians and others.

"If those are the cuts he wants to make, then I guess he should lay those out," Hochberg said of Perry's comments.

Rationale for firings?

Hochberg added, "Local school boards make decisions about how to spend the money, but the state is making decisions about how many teachers should or should not be retained when they make decisions on things like 22-to-1 (student-teacher limits in the early grades). That's a state decision. So if we're talking about eliminating the 22-to-1 class size limit in K-4, the only reason for us to do that would be to allow school districts to fire teachers."

Safiya Ravat contributed to this report.

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