Education in Texas

The quality of a child's education is important to most voters.  The following are some statistics from the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts website regarding the state of education in Texas:

1.  Texas ranks 49th in verbal SAT scores

2.  Texas ranks 46th in math SAT scores

3.  Texas ranks 50th in the number of people who have a high school diploma

4.  Between 1999 (Betty's first term in office) and 2006, average tuition and fees at community colleges increased 71%; average tuition and fees at public universities increased 95%

5.  Texas ranks 36th in the number of kids who graduate from high school, with only 68% of students graduating.  NOTE:  in 2006 a conservative organization called the Manhattan Institute found that the Texas Education Agency had vastly underreported the number of dropouts across the state (TEA reported a graduation rate hovering around 80%)

Betty Brown has been in office for almost ten years, and she is asking us to send her back so she can serve for twelve.  Look at the statistics above.  Texas isn't even breaking the halfway mark on high school education.  Betty has already had nearly a decade to help turn this around, and we're stuck at 50th, 49th, 46th, and 36th compared to other states across the country.  That's embarrassing.

In September 2007, The Athens Daily Review reported on Betty's priorities for the next two years, as discussed in her announcement speech:  Not one line mentioned improving the quality of education in Texas.   

Texas is too great a state to settle for such mediocrity.