There’s a dirty little secret hidden in the Senate’s budget celebration: when you account for inflation and Texas’ growing enrollment, the Senate’s budget would actually leave schools with less money per student than they get today.
At a brisk hearing today of the controversial senate bill that would subject welfare applicants to drug screening, bill author Jane Nelson of Flower Mound seemed to understand that barring kids from benefits for life if their parent fails three drug tests is totally messed up.
The Senate passed its budget proposal Wednesday afternoon with broad support—only two senators voted against it. The only real point of debate was whether the budget devoted enough money to public schools.
Eddie Lucio Jr. sounded genuinely concerned about a school voucher bill up for discussion this morning. And he would have sounded even more genuine if he hadn’t told a newspaper—just last week—he was interested in filing a bill to create state-funded private school scholarships.
Sen. Tommy Williams said the ongoing school finance lawsuit makes it difficult to even discuss public school funding—let restore any of the funding cut last session. “I wish the school districts would sit down and talk to us,” he said in one wistful moment.