Houston sheds 9,200 jobs as schools cut

[jannyk]

Source: Houston Chronicle

Job losses in public education overwhelmed any local private sector job growth during July, according to new data released today by the Texas Workforce Commission.

The Houston area lost a net 9,200 jobs last month. Despite gains in health care, manufacturing and energy exploration and production, the creation of 5,100 private sector jobs couldn't make up for the loss of 14,300 government positions.

*
Texas Gov. Rick Perry — touting the state's job growth on the campaign trail — got some bad news this morning: The state's unemployment rate is the worst in nearly a quarter century.

Commission chairman Tom Pauken noted that only two major industries — construction and government - reported statewide job losses last month.

But the increase in the unemployment rate indicates that Texas continues to feel the effects of a stagnant national economy, according to Pauken, who represents employers on the three-member commission.

The Midland area reported the lowest unemployment rate in Texas at 5.1 percent last month. The highest was McAllen-Edinburg-Mission at 13.2 percent.






Read more: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/7704116.html

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Oops

[Bozita]

1. The real "Texas Miracle" is that anybody believes that dumb sonofabitch Perry

[tblue]

5. +1

[efhmc]

2. Perry scores again. Keep them stupid, the repug mantra.

[SoapBox]

3. And as always, will ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC, NPR, PBS report this????

...nada...

Outrageous...it's like a cover up for The Party of Thug and Bully.

Diane Sawyer? ARE you gonna report about this????

[phantom power]

4. sounds like some children being left behind

:(

[Igel]

6. Sure.

Average class size in Houston has swollen, esp. at the post-elementary level. The school I'm in has classes with more than 30 students in them, and that's straining things. Then again, it's also experiencing a fair amount of population growth.

Elementary class size is still capped at 19. My kid's 2nd grade class has 16.

For the first time ever spending per student has decreased. Then again, much of the increase in funding went for special services. I know one girl who was able to ignore the sign language interpreter assigned to her for the day. Another kid who's blind has a person to read and help her. One-on-one assistants really rack up the education dollars, and they *can't* be cut. The happening fields in E Texas are special ed and science.

Many of the districts could put a tax increase on the ballot. They haven't. Others, typically the poorest, are maxed out and charging as much tax as they can.

On edit:

The districts charging less in property tax than they could are mostly (R) leaning or firmly (R). Many of them also tend to have better schools. A few areas are very (D) (they also have good schoosl; they also have fixer-upper houses that start at $500k and more).

[texanwitch]

7. Our neighborhood school was closed.

The kids were are being split between two other schools.

The class room size will get bigger.