Month: <span>November 2010</span>

The streets beckon

As the House’s chief budget writer has made painfully clear, there will be a human side to the budget cuts that Republicans were promising during their recent, very successful campaign season. “We will have to throw some people out in the street,” Rep. Jim Pitts of Waxahachie replied when asked, at a recent briefing for […]

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AISD board doesn’t get it

Granted, paying Austin ISD Superintendent Maria Carstarphen an extra $25,000 in bonuses this year would have only a negligible impact on the district’s budgetary woes. But, symbolically, the bonus stinks. (I am speaking not only as an employee of TSTA but also as an AISD parent and taxpayer.) For one thing, Carstarphen can make a […]

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Expecting the worst

As headlines from around the state continue to remind us, Texas’ public school budgets are in for more shrinkage, even as enrollments will continue to expand. Superintendents around the state are scrambling to identify potential budget cuts – including educators’ jobs – in anticipation of major reductions in state revenue next year. So, I was […]

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Time to go

With a little luck, this will be the last time I ever will feel inclined to write about that expertinherownmind, Cynthia Dunbar, who this week is participating in her last scheduled meeting as a member of the State Board of Education. Dunbar did the schoolchildren of Texas a favor by declining to seek reelection this […]

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