Getting More Dumber!

     While reading my classmates blogs, I came across a blog written by Mr. Trevino called , "Who's Paying for the 25 Billion ?". The blog is referring to the huge budget debt the state is facing and the likely methods the majority republican state government will use to close the gap. I must say that I agree with Mr. Trevino and would like to add some additional reasoning as to why these are not good methods. He first discusses the fact that education seems to be the first place the government is looking to make budget cuts.Let's take a look at how Texas stacks up to the rest of the states when it comes to education. These stats come directly from the state comptrollers web site..
#14 Percentage of 4th-graders scoring at or above proficient in math in school year 2005 (40 percent)
#20 Percentage of 8th-graders scoring at or above proficient in math in school year 2005 (31 percent)
#35 Number of schools identified as needing improvement based on adequate yearly progress, school year 2004 (199)
#35 Percentage of 8th-graders scoring at or above proficient in reading in school year 2005 (26 percent)
#35 Percentage of 4th-graders scoring at or above proficient in reading in school year 2005 (29 percent)
#36 High school graduation rates in school year 2002 (68 percent)
#46 Average math SAT scores in school year 2005 (502)
#49 Average verbal SAT scores in school year 2005 (493)
It seems like cutting education budget would be like pourring salt into an already wounded system. It does make sense though. Keeping the education level low creates uneducated laborers, which benefits corporations. The main concern of Republicans.
     Mr. Trevino then points out the next place to make cuts will likely be law enforcement. Texas currently ranks 37th in # of homicides per 100,000 people. This means that you are less likely to be murdered in 36 other states. Texas also ranks #44 in crimes per capita and #39 in number of violent crimes per capita. Seems to me this is another bad place to look for budget cuts.
     According to U.S. census figures. in March of 2009 alone the state of Texas paid government employees a salary of  $1,225,533,903. With those sort of numbers it is hard for me to imagine that better places to make budget cuts do not exist. The people of Texas will , however, continue to vote these people into office. Somebody, please give me an educated reason why! Please tell me soon because at this rate the "educated Texan" will soon be extinct.