This editorial appeared in The Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
Just how desperate must public schools get before Texas lawmakers find the gumption to fix the flawed system they created in the first place?
From the perspective of new House Speaker Joe Straus, it isn't enough that superintendents across the state are pleading that their districts will have to deplete savings, slash programs or increase local tax rates substantially – all of which some have already done – if the Legislature doesn't repair the funding mechanism adopted in a 2006 special session.
"We tend not to address situations until we absolutely have to, and we don't have to this session," Straus said during a wide-ranging meeting with the Star-Telegram Editorial Board last week.
"The political will doesn't exist to do anything major" on school finance this session, he said.
Straus brings a welcome open-mindedness to the speaker's chair, something missing during the autocratic reign of his predecessor, Tom Craddick.
But this type of hands-off, let's-study-it-another-couple-of-years approach is not what Texas public schools need.
To read the complete editorial, visit The Fort Worth Star-Telegram.