TribCast: Runoff Politics and Paying for Public Ed
Ben, Ross, Morgan and Evan raise the curtain on Tuesday's runoffs — with special attention to the U.S. Senate race — and the consider the disappearance of $300 million in public education funding.
Comment Policy
The Texas Tribune is pleased to provide the opportunity for you to share your observations about this story. We encourage lively debate on the issues of the day, but we ask that you refrain from using profanity or other offensive speech, engaging in personal attacks or name-calling, posting advertising, or wandering away from the topic at hand. To comment, you must be a registered user of the Tribune, and your user name will be displayed. Thanks for taking time to offer your thoughts.
Comments (2)
Michael D. Lozano via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Always love a good tribcast...
Chris Frandsen
I would like to express my appreciation to the Texas Tribune for the great data base on public schools that you have made available to us. I will be using it frequently as there are parts of nine school districts in Tx HD 47. I will also be referring my voters to this site frequently.
I am disappointed with the lack of concern shown by this panel about the state of funding for public education. I know you are a news show and are reporting on attitudes of both the electorate and elected officials and you are not taking positions on the facts/issues which is great. Supposedly no spin, right? However the words being used by the panel imply not only the lack of public concern for public education funding but also imply that there really is no impact of the recent cuts on schools. I would not be concerned if the panel had said that the public has not yet expressed concern about the impacts that funding has had on public schools. I know that this seems to be a small point of semantics but you are respected and listened to by people of both sides of the aisle and the attitudes of this panel may weighed more heavily than you realize.
Of course, I am campaigning on the impact of public education on the future of Texas so my comments should be taken with that in mind. It would have been helpful to mention the size of the existing fund which is around $26 Billion dollars to put the $300 million in perspective. Jerry Patterson wants to hold on to an amount equal to about 1% of the existing fund for use in future investments when the schools need the money now and the electorate approved its use by the schools now. This is further evidence that the Republican leadership and its elected officials are not reflecting the will of the people in starving public education funding.
Thank you for being one of the most important resources for the interested public to get news on state and local issues.
Chris Frandsen
Democratic Candidate for Texas House District 47