In fact, Bush's education record in Texas stinks. Last year, the state had a budget surplus of $6 billion. The Texas Legislature wanted to use most of this surplus for teacher raises, realizing that Texas salaries are far below the national average.
Gov. Bush disagreed. He wanted the lion's share for tax cuts. The money left over, Bush said, should go to school boards to use as they saw fit. He didn't want it earmarked for teacher raises.
After a 6-month battle with the legislature, Bush got $2 billion in tax cuts, but he had to accept $3,000 raises for all teachers. The compromise left Texas teachers better off than before. But due to Bush's opposition, their salaries are still several thousand dollars below the national average.
Low salaries make it hard to attract and keep qualified teachers. Texas has a half-million certified teachers who have left the profession.
Bush deserves little if any credit for improvements in the Texas education system.
His record on education is two-faced. On one hand, he says things like "Teachers are not the object of education reform, they are the engine of education reform." That is the rhetoric. The reality is that Bush successfully pushed to remove all teacher rights -- including minimum salary, tenure and due process protections -- as well as class size and other requirements from the final version of an education bill passed in '95. |
