Gov. Rick Perry's Actions Do Not Meet His Words

Just what are Governor Rick Perry’s Priorities? In 2006 Gov. Rick Perry said “Education is our future, and my highest priority.” Well, his priorities have obviously changed. Another big priority of Perry’s campaign was to “create more jobs.” And what is Perry doing? Exactly the opposite.

 In the summer of 2011 Rick Perry signed off on $4 billion in cuts to Texas education in the 2012 and 2013 budgets.  Because of this it is estimated that 49,000 teachers may be laid off and 43,000 college students will lose almost all or some of the financial aid that they receive. His actions definitely do not match his words.

 In 2012 Gov. some Democrats concerned with the issue hoped that a special session would be called to restore some of the $4 billion cuts from public schools. On Feb. 21, 2012 Perry said that he would not call a special session to address education funding.

"I appreciate all of the legislators' input, but I would be stunned if there is an outcry from the people of this state or, for that matter, a majority of the members of the Legislature that want to come back in here and have a special session when I don't think we need one," Perry said.

Due to Perry’s decision of $4 billion in cuts, this has forced school districts to charge fees on certain school programs and services for students and families. Not only that, this has created classrooms to be overcrowded making it harder for children to learn and have the teachers on on one attention. Also affected by this are Universities, which are considering raising the tuition fee for students to keep up with these budget cuts.

It seems as if Perry is making it harder for people to want to continue their education. Bill Hammond who is a former GOP state lawmaker says that “If we don’t have an educated workforce, the jobs will leave,” “We are not meeting the needs of the future.”

Governor Rick Perry rather make education cuts, than to raise taxes a little. In the 80s governor Bill Clements was faced with a similar situation where cuts needed to be made but he did not cut education spending, he instead raised taxes and investments in public schools; which is what Perry needs to do. Currently Texas faces at least four lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of the public school finance system.

In a state where we now place 47th nationally in what it pays for each student's education, I think it is important that we focus more on how much we should be spending on education. The state’s population is growing, and at a fast rate, so how is cutting back on how much is spent on education going to keep up with this growing population. Governor Rick Perry needs to focus on what’s most important, Texas education and its future.  

TxDOT & City of Austin Pedal More Waste

In a recent article TxDOT & City of Austin Pedal More Waste, written by Dustin Matocha in the Empower Texans Blog he describes the ideas of the Austin City Council as "moronic".  According to the article the Texas Department of Transportation and the City Council of Austin are creating a plan to create more bike-lane bridges in Austin which will also help reduce traffic congestion. Matocha tries to prove a point by criticizing and name calling. 

"There’s something downright moronic that the Austin City Council does or proposes every week, but this one ranks up there with some of their all-time dumb ideas..." said Matocha. 

Matocha's argument is that the City council should spend tax money on more important things like the providing more 911 operators which the Austin Police Department claims they need. He believes it is wasteful spending and emphasizes on how much money will be spent on this plan to create a "bike-share" program in downtown. 

According to Nadia M. Barrera the Bicycle/Pedestrian Project Coordinator of the Neighborhood Connectivity Division in Austin says, "the project seeks to improve connectivity and access for bikes and pedestriants within the Loop 360/Mopac interchange, and to provide connectivity over Barton Creek. Prop. 12 funding is slated for congestion relief.  Since the southbound shoulder will be converted to a travel lane (carrying approximately 2,000 cars an hour), a bicycle and pedestrian facility must be built to accommodate non-motorized traffic. We know that (especially on the weekends) hundreds of cyclists use this corridor to travel southbound."

There are many cyclist in downtown who are very concerned with this issue, and would consider this a main priority. I believe he makes a good point but there are many issues that the city council must deal with, and this is one of them.

Although Matocha gives examples of how much money this will cost tax payers I think he approached this the wrong way. In my opinion his article seems very childish and unconvincing due to his immature criticism of the Austin City Council. Some of his arguments seemed very ignorant and not well supported for example he said that cyclists "don't even pay the gas tax that's helping to pay for their new bridges" , which I think is very untrue many cyclists do own cars and biking isn't their only means of transportation meaning they do pay the gas tax.