Opinion

Perry shameless to disavow state's role in schools' crisis

Gov. Rick Perry has some nerve to suggest that in the face of the state's fiscal crisis, any public school district wants to lay off teachers.

That wasn't what I heard Tuesday from the Edgewood community that Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, D-San Antonio, convened for a town hall meeting to discuss the $27 billion budget shortfall. And it wasn't what I heard earlier that same day from the Alamo Heights superintendent who spent his lunch hour dashing between elementary school PTO meetings to explain the crisis to worried parents.

“The lieutenant governor, the speaker, their colleagues aren't going to hire or fire one teacher, as best I can tell,” Perry said in a Wednesday morning news conference in Austin. “That is a local decision that will be made at the local level.”

In an annoying refrain repeated by Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, Perry said districts must set priorities when money's tight, just as families and businesses do.

Fair enough. Budget-cutting decisions by school districts are being made by local communities. What Perry always conveniently leaves out of the picture is the gun he put to their heads. The line from the governor to likely teacher layoffs is direct and starts with the work five years ago of Perry's Texas Tax Reform Commission.

The commission, chaired by former Comptroller John Sharp, a Democrat, was Perry's response to a court mandate requiring a fix to the school funding system by June 1, 2006. The governor charged the panel with devising a plan that would “buy down” school property taxes and replace every dollar of the lost revenue with other tax money. Improving public schools and bringing equity to the way they're funded was a tangential concern at best.

Perry was looking for headlines, not push-back. And push-back was what Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn tried to give just one month after Perry and Sharp crowed about their plan. In a strongly worded letter, Strayhorn warned Perry that he was directing lawmakers to “write the largest hot check in Texas history.” Specifically, her analysis showed the scheme was $23 billion short of what was needed to cover the promised property tax cuts over the next five years.

Countless news accounts have replayed the reckless legislative act. So it's astounding that Perry would shun accountability and plow ahead as if voters don't know or don't care.

He added insult to injury Wednesday with his assertion that schools have added “a rather extraordinary amount” of nonclassroom employees and his suggestion that cuts should start there because they don't affect the classroom.

Recent research by Moak, Casey and Associates reveals what can only be described as either Perry's ignorance or his deception. The 1-to-1 ratio of teachers to nonteaching staff has held for more than 20 years. Teachers are central to the classroom, of course. But it's troubling that the governor discounts the support provided by others like bus drivers, custodians, curriculum coaches or counselors.

Alamo Heights Superintendent Kevin Brown borrowed a metaphor he's heard in testimony before legislative committees to describe the choices that districts are being forced to make.

“It's like choosing whether you want your heart or your lungs. What kind of decision is that? You want them both!”

vflores@express-news.net