We aren't forcing you to lay people off...

As the Legislative Session continues, the arguments about Educational Budget Cuts heats up more and more. Charles Kuffner singles out Perry's statement claiming that the State Government isn't forcing any layoffs, that decision is made at the local level. I beg to differ with this statement. When you leave schools over $9 billion short of previous year's budgets, you give them *no choice* but to lay people off. Perry argues that there has been an increase in non-teachers added over the past few years, and those should be the ones that are laid off. I hate to break it to you Perry, but that increase is less than 1%. Even if you lay off every single non-teacher in the state, not only will you have a non-functioning school system, you'll also still have a deficit. 

Kuffner is trying enlighten all Texans about how naive Perry is. Perry says he's elected on the basis that Texans want him to fix the budget, and that these budget cuts are what we asked for. However, when that "fixing" causes any aftermath, he runs away like a coward, and blames it on anyone else. Don't you think you would be proud of your work if this is what Texans want? Wouldn't you stand up to critics saying that this is what the community of Texas asked for?

Kuffner uses direct quotes to back his argument, which makes him extremely credible. He is sure to have back-up on any statements that he makes, and lets the quotes do the arguing. Kuffner points out the flaws in Perry's arguments about the increase in non-teachers. He also discredits Perry's statements about the layoffs being a local decision.

I completely agree with Kuffner's post. I think that if these budget cuts continue, we might as well get rid of public education all together, or enact a similar program as many European countries do: test kids in elementary school, and if they are college bound they continue to finish their secondary schooling, if not, they go to a trade school where they learn basic mechanical skills. It sounds harsh, but class sizes were already large when I was in high school 4 years ago, and if you double that, no one is going to learn anything.