Amazing Article from smart mom in Houston! Go Sue!!!!

This letter is, as far as I can tell, pretty damn close to perfect.


Choosing to shortchange our kids
Children will pay for cuts to education
By SUE DEIGAARD MOTHER of TWO

Last week I traveled to the state Capitol in Austin to testify before the House Appropriations
Committee and the Senate Finance Committee. The clerk in the House committee initially did not accept my form because in the box that asked for my title I simply wrote, "Parent in Houston ISD." Which makes me wonder, since when do people in America need a title to make their voices heard in their government? So I added to my title, "Taxpayer and Voter.
The message I delivered to the committee members was simple.
I reminded them that the cuts they are proposing to public education in Texas are a choice.The Legislature may have reached a consensus to cut "only" $4 billion from public education and think that we will consider it a gift that they did not cut the $10 billion that was originally proposed. But it's not a gift.
They are still cutting per-pupil spending by not providing money to fund expected growth in student population. This will have a direct and noticeable impact on children in the classroom. Every time we remove an educational opportunity from a child's environment, it sends the message that that opportunity is not valuable. The decisions our legislators are making will permanently alter how public education will be funded. Those decisions will affect the education of a generation of Texas children, which will have political and economic repercussions that will last for years to come.For one thing, education is the foundation of democracy. And it is a statistical fact that those without an adequate education are more likely to be incarcerated, are more likely to be unemployed and are more likely to draw on social services funded by tax dollars. All of these things cost taxpayers money,and even for those who might choose private school or home schooling for their children, the cost of inadequately educating Texas children will cost all of our children as taxpayers when they grow up.
Our legislators have a choice.
A popular talking point among many members of this Legislature is, "Just like a household, the state needs to live within its means." I don't know about you, but if I had to cut my discretionary spending to the point that I was compromising the education and well-being of my children, I would get a second job to bring more revenue into my home. And I certainly wouldn't cut essential things to my children while money sat in my savings account. Our state officials can make the same choices. They can use our state's savings account, the self-replenishing rainy day fund, but they choose not to. They can generate more revenue in a way that isn't a burden on property owners, such as closing corporate loopholes or fixing the business margins tax, but they choose not to. They claim this budget is balanced, but it's not. A balanced budget would not just cut nonessential services and programs. It would also use available savings and increased revenue to continue to maintain essential services and programs such as public education. We aren't asking anything from our state Legislature that we wouldn't choose to do for our own families.
I have met with several legislators this spring. I find it disingenuous for those legislators who say their voters don't want their taxes raised in the very same conversation recommend that local school districts raise their taxes. What that says to me is that they feel the solution is more revenue. If that is the case, then it is incumbent on our Legislature to raise that revenue in a holistic way that doesn't continue to overburden property owners, and not in a way that is most convenient for their political careers. Our kids need to be put before politics.  Make no mistake about it, our legislators have a choice and they are making the choice to cut funding from our children's classrooms.

Deigaard is a parent of two daughters who attend elementary school in the Houston Independent School District.