Education Dept. Refuses To Break The Law For Texas

Another school year has started and school districts across the state are still wondering whether they will have to lay off teachers to meet their budgets in this recession economy. There's $830 million sitting in Washington (D.C.) that has been appropriated to help Texas schools and save the jobs of at least 14,500 Texas teachers, but that money can't be released unless and until Texas complies with the rules Congress attached to the money.

But Rick Perry has an election coming up and he hasn't finished playing politics over the release of this money. He's still trying to play to his teabagger base, and obviously thinks his own re-election is more important than the education of Texas children or the jobs of Texas teachers. He's trying to look tough by refusing to comply with the rules laid down by the United States Congress.

This all goes back to federal funds given to the states for education last year. The money was supposed to supplement the money the states had already proposed for education. The money, in addition to state education money, would have insured that schools were adequately funded and didn't have to lay of needed teachers. But Governor Perry and the Texas legislature ignored the intent of Congress and cut state education funding by an amount equal to the federal funds -- leaving Texas schools without the job-saving extra money.

When the U.S. Congress again voted to provide supplemental job-saving funds for schools this year, they knew that the idiot governor of Texas would probably pull the same stunt again and deny Texas schools the extra funds by cutting the state funding. So they wrote a rule into the law this year that would prevent Texas from misusing the appropriation. This rule said Texas would not get the $830 million supplemental appropriation until they promised to not cut state funding to schools.

Governor Perry (pictured) was embarrassed at being caught misusing last year's supplemental appropriation, and has been whining and complaining about the new rules that won't let him do it again this year. He loudly proclaimed that the rules violate the U.S. Constitution, but that was a ridiculous argument. The Congress has the right to assure the funds it appropriates are used as they meant for them to be used.

Now he's claiming the rules violate the Texas Constitution. That's also a bogus claim, since the Texas Constitution does not mandate that Texas cut state education funding when provided with federal supplemental funding (and certainly doesn't authorize the governor to ignore United States law).

Last week, Governor Perry sent Texas Education Commissioner Robert Scott, along with Perry aide Mike Morrissey, to Washington to plead for the release of the funds. But they were sent without the assurance that Texas would abide by the law in using the funds. They were there to ask the Department of Education to break the law and release the $830 million to Texas without the required assurances. The U.S. Department of Education rightly refused to do that and the Texans were sent home empty-handed.

This is exactly what Governor Perry wanted. He's still playing politics with the education money and is trying to convince Texas voters that the U.S. government is being mean to Texas schools. It's just not true. The money is there as soon as Texas is willing to obey the law and fully fund Texas schools.

But while Perry plays politics, the teachers and students of the state's schools are the ones who have to suffer. I would say Perry should be ashamed, but it is now clear that the man has no shame. He's just another career politician who cares about nothing but being re-elected.