Higher Property Taxes, Teacher Cuts and Blame

Ross Ramsey:

There will be blood. It's undeniable, especially when the governor goes out of his way to say that he doesn't have any on his hands.

Rick Perry, watching over a legislative session that threatens (at this point) to cut $9.3 billion or more from state spending on public education, said this week that it would not be the state's fault if any public school teachers lost their jobs. "The lieutenant governor, the speaker and their colleagues aren't going to hire or fire one teacher, as best I can tell," he said. "That is a local decision that will be made at the local districts."

House Speaker Joe Straus, Republican of San Antonio, said a day later that the governor was "technically correct," in that the teachers don't work directly for the state and the state won't be doing the firing. They may be cutting off the food supply to the kitchen, but it's the cooks who decide which diners will be fed.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at March 15, 2011 1:21 AM
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