Perry Again Rejects Education Funds

Last year the Texas governor, Rick Perry, turned down over $700 million in federal funds for education. His reason? Because he didn't think that Texas should have to meet national education standards, and accepting the funds would force the state to meet those standards.

I was left to wonder what was so bad about having to meet national education standards. Personally, this shouldn't be a problem for any state since they all (including Texas) should be trying not to just meet, but to exceed those standards. That's because education grows more important every day in this modern world, and a top-notch education is required for American students to compete with students in Europe and Asia. It is no longer good enough just to have a better education than those in the Third World.

But with the recent antics of the Texas State Board of Education, it becomes clear why Perry (and his right-wing fundie brothers and sisters) won't accept the money and bring Texas school standards until to the national norm. Doing so would wipe out their efforts to rewrite American history and stop their efforts to inject creationism into the science curriculum. They would no longer be able to force their religious and right-wing propaganda into Texas school rooms.

Perry got away with rejecting the education funds last year because the legislature forced him to accept other stimulus funds that allowed Texas to meet it's budget. But now he has announced that he will again reject over $700 million ($1.4 billion over next two years) in education funds for the same ridiculous reason. But the situation is different in the next biennium.

Texas has its legislature meet only once every two years. That means it must do a two-year budget, and figures from the office of the State Comptroller should that there will be a $15 to $18 billion deficit in the coming biennium. It simply makes no sense to turn down $1.4 billion in education funds from the federal government over that two year period. That money would not solve the Texas deficit problem, but it would certainly help.

The Republican leadership in Texas is already cutting state services to the bare bones, and will have to increase taxes -- probably by extending the regressive sales tax to cover many items it has never covered before. It is insane to turn down nearly a billion and a half in federal funds to help close the huge deficit gap.