My Random Keys

Austin, Tx- In a surprise move today, Lt. Governor Dave Dewhurst followed the lead of most Texas school districts and laid off thirty-percent of the Texas House of Representatives and kept seventy-percent of the Texas Senators. "We simply do not have the budget to keep these types of programs going, programs that distract us from completely taking Texas education back to the 1960's-level of excellence," Dewhurst said during a briefing this afternoon.

"I am just appalled," Governor Rick Perry said in a telephone interview from one of the nicely refurnished rooms in the newly renamed Governor's Palace. "Dave is making a mess of things now. He should have been much more fair to the Senate and lay off 30% rather than keep 70% of those guys!"

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I'd keep going with this satire, but it's all too painful to conjure up. Every district is getting hit hard. Every facet of education is getting slammed in Texas, all the way to the police departments that protect teachers and students on campuses. Districts are setting their budgets NOW and the state leadership sits under an apparent Get Smartian Cone of Silence, unable to hear the pleas for relief and help from the state and it's broken educational finance system.

Probably sometime during the summer, the Education Governor, Rick Perry, will make a grand show of 'saving' school districts by releasing a small amount that will do very little to replace the quality teachers that had to leave education en mass to find jobs away from the overcrowded classrooms.

I now pray less for the job that I am losing and more for a new wisdom for our political leaders who are directly impacting student performance and retention by reducing our necessary teaching force. I pray these leaders would spend one week, hell- one DAY, in some of our schools, living the life of a teacher. Then go back and try to swallow the appropriation bills that they pass in a secluded room, far far away.

I love being an educator. It is what I want to do and what I am very good at doing. Don't tell me anymore that there are jobs 'out there' and all will be okay. It's not okay for the students that quality people, many in 700 campus teaching positions, are force away. I want to make a difference in my district. I pray that the tide turns soon.