In low-spending Texas, the kids are not all right

[sonias]

Paul Krugman NYTimes 2/27/11
Leaving Children Behind

(snip)
Consider, as a case in point, what’s happening in Texas, which more and more seems to be where America’s political future happens first.

Texas likes to portray itself as a model of small government, and indeed it is. Taxes are low, at least if you’re in the upper part of the income distribution (taxes on the bottom 40 percent of the population are actually above the national average). Government spending is also low. And to be fair, low taxes may be one reason for the state’s rapid population growth, although low housing prices are surely much more important.

But here’s the thing: While low spending may sound good in the abstract, what it amounts to in practice is low spending on children, who account directly or indirectly for a large part of government outlays at the state and local level.

And in low-tax, low-spending Texas, the kids are not all right. The high school graduation rate, at just 61.3 percent, puts Texas 43rd out of 50 in state rankings. Nationally, the state ranks fifth in child poverty; it leads in the percentage of children without health insurance. And only 78 percent of Texas children are in excellent or very good health, significantly below the national average.

But wait — how can graduation rates be so low when Texas had that education miracle back when former President Bush was governor? Well, a couple of years into his presidency the truth about that miracle came out: Texas school administrators achieved low reported dropout rates the old-fashioned way — they, ahem, got the numbers wrong.

"ahem, got the numbers wrong." Krugman's being nice. It's more like they "fixed" those numbers just to make the bushie look good.

Excellent warning to the rest of the states - never believe that the "miracle" economic engine is working in Texas - especially when it's our Texas republicans the same demanding draconian spending cuts nationally.

Molly always called Texas the laboratory for bad public policy.

:shrug:

[Vogon_Glory]

1. Much of the Lab's Work Has Been Outsourced

You know, for a while I had begun to hope that things were finally getting better. Ann Richards beat Clayton Williams. The Democrats still held the Texas legislature while the Reaganauts were running rampant in Washington. Even after Dubya was elected Governor, his first few years weren't as bad as they could be.

Unfortunately, we're now into Rick Perry's third term. What's scary is that the Radical Right has succeeded in passing such cr@p as Arizona's SB 1070 and Bible Belt states have succeeded in passing repressive anti-abortion laws, and that the stumbling block that the Texas Democratic Party represented has been removed. I now worry that things will get so bad that only after a couple of decades of grinding poverty, hunger, and want will it dawn on the dispossessed poor and former middle class that non-voting or voting for Republicans is a counter-productive behavior.

Of course by that time I wouldn't be surprised if by then illegal migration from Mexico has stopped because the US has turned into a Third World poverty-ridden pest-hole and a brain drain of America's best and brightest to Europe, Asia and better lives is well underway (Of course the miserable quality of US foreign language instruction in public schools might delay the latter).

:argh:

[sonias]

2. "brain drain of America's best and brightest"

I know what you mean. If I had kids or was just starting out in life myself, I would have serious reservations about living here.

I'm still waiting for that pendulum to swing back to the left. It seems to be stuck on the conservative right wing side now. :(