Texas Should Get Onboard Education Reform

On the state level, funding for education in Texas consumes more than a third of the state’s budget. This money (more than $25 billion) only supplies about a third of the money that Texas education programs currently receive. The majority of funds (more than 50%) come from local school districts, and less than 10% comes from the federal government. So it's easy to see why the state government wouldn't like to spend more on education, perhaps they feel that spending a third of their budget on it makes it a justifiably satisfactory amount.

Unfortunately though, when it comes down to it, the truth of the matter is that the Per-pupil spending on education in Texas ranks us near the very bottom of the scale when compared to the rest of the nation (bottom third). This means that educational programs in most other states have more money to spend on each of their students than Texas does. And if we’re honest, money matters. The more money spent on a child's education the better the child's education is likely to be.

The fact that Texas’s students are at a disadvantage when compared to the rest of the nation is ridiculous. The importance of public education to society is perhaps the most important concern of government. The more educated the populace: the higher the standard of living will be, the more money the economy will generate, the more taxes the government will be able to collect, the healthier the middle class will be…

The federal government is proposing new educational standards, which can greatly benefit Texas’s weak educational system. Though the adoption of these new standards does come with certain strings attached, the benefits far outweigh the costs. Most importantly, Texas will be more on par with the rest of the nation when it comes to the level of education being provided. Also, federal government will increase the amount of funding that it gives to Texas for education. The consequences for Texas, include having to pay more money and surrender some of the micromanagement control it has over educational policies. Both of which are frankly not entirely a bad thing for Texas.

So the next time one of these offers comes knocking on Texas's door, we should answer. Let's not pass up the opportunity to fix the problems of tomorrow, today. Federal standards and money, though often labeled or viewed as evil are more often than not, the better thing to do.