According to the Dallas Morning News, State Rep. Rick Noriega who is currently campaigning to take over John Cornyn’s senate seat believes that the Texas education system needs to be overhauled How does he want to achieve this overhaul? He wants to spend more of your tax dollars on the federal level.
There is already a big problem when the federal government tries to get involved in the public education system in any state. It should be pointed out that the United States Constitution does not speak of the subject of education, and under the tenth amendment of the U.S. Constitution any powers not delegated to the federal government by the Constitution are given to the states, or to the people. However, Rick Noriega believes that a portion of taxpayer money should be used on the federal level to expand overall federal funding of public school programs, and give incentives to math and science majors to go into education, because according to Noriega many middle school and high school teachers working in Texas have not been trained by institutions of higher education to teach the subjects that they are currently teaching. Noreiga blames the teachers for the problems facing the public education system in Texas and believes that the solution is to just pour more money into it.
What democrats like Rick Noriega do not seem to realize is that the State of Texas is among the top fifteen states as far as public school spending is concerned, but Texas is also among the bottom fifteen in the quality of the education that is being provided. Why is that? State spending on public education has increased over fifty percent over the last decade. Per student revenue has gone up over forty percent, while enrollment has only gone up fifteen percent. Over the last decade SAT scores have been at a stalemate and in many cases have declined. Only fifty percent of every dollar that is spent towards public education by the State of Texas is put towards the classroom. More money is being put into public education, but there have not been any positive results to comfort taxpayers who are asked constantly by independent school districts that they live in to give more and more money, because these school districts say they do not have enough, which could not be farther from the truth.
There is certainly a need for reform within the public education system in Texas, but that reform should not include more public spending, and should not include more federal government intervention. Taxpayers need to demand that more money be put into the classroom, and into the education of our youth instead of turning the education field into a system that is putting more of a priority in giving adults jobs than teaching young people.
