While the legislature balanced the Lone Star State’s ledger-book last year, they did so in part by taking a well-worn, if unsavory, path to get there. A top priority for the next legislature must be to correct the creative accounting and get rid of the gimmicks so...
State Spending
Educrat Scoffs At College Readiness
Texas public schools have doubled per-pupil spending over the last decade, but the academic results should leave teachers, parents, taxpayers and lawmakers wondering where the money has gone. And one school administrator doesn’t think college readiness should be a...
Praying For A State-Funded Jumbotron
The lawsuit filed by local school districts against the state isn't about getting more money into the classroom, it's about sending more cash into the black hole of the bureaucracy. One superintendent admits he wants more state money so his district can fund a...
Allen Throws Taxpayers Under Bus
There is no doubt Allen has experienced rampant population growth over the past few decades, so the school district is building a new bus barn. Rather than renovate the existing facility, bureaucrats naturally want to instead build a brand new $40 million structure....
Don’t Follow Sacramento
Earlier this fall, Texas’ Republican House Speaker told newspapers he wants the legislature to focus on revenues, not spending corrections. This week, California’s Democratic governor is asking his state to approve increases in their sales and income taxes. Both CA’s...
When an Increase is a Cut
For more than thirty years, official education policy has been “more money means better education.” And taxpayers have dutifully increased spending by a whopping percentage; per pupil spending on public education has doubled just over the last decade. Of course, they...
Insiders Hate Limits On Government
This weekend saw bloated-bureaucracy shills on the attack against the need to limit government growth. In doing so, they demonstrate a casual disregard for both good public policy and the expressed will of the governed: Texas’ voters. The general idea is well...
Straus Pits GOP Against Taxpayers
Texas House Speaker Joe Straus is doubling down on his resolve to oppose further right-sizing of government, instead seeking new revenues (read: taxes) to fill government coffers in 2013. His policy pronouncements in El Paso, and reiterated in Fort Worth, dangerously...
˜Local Control’ Poor Excuse For High Taxes
Local bureaucrats and their Austin apologists have found the ‘local control’ religion, but only as a convenient foil against taxpayer protection. Fearful that their days of unrestricted access to taxpayers’ wallets might soon draw to an end, we suddenly find them...