With the passage of House Bills 2 and 3, the House leadership has proven itself to be unconcerned with some of the state's continuing, fundamental problems.
The Legislature apparently decided that gross inequity in school funding and the regressive nature of Texas's tax structure were not problems to be solved but ideals to further emulate.
First, contrary to the Texas Constitution and most other states' systems, Texas relies mostly on local property taxes to fund its schools. As a result, the quality of homes in a school district often determines the quality of education.
Instead of working to correct this problem, the House decided to increase funding for students in the Highland Park-Sugar Land-Westlake club to the tune of more than two grand per student per year, while increasing funding for impoverished schools in areas such as La Joya and Brownsville by about $40- to-$60 per student - possibly enough to give those schoolchildren the option of chocolate milk at lunch.
This widens the gap between schools with Jumbotrons on the football field and schools with East Germany in geography textbooks. This should have been a problem for even the more extreme "business conservatives," who couldn't care less about education for its own sake, as demographers are predicting falling income and a depressed economy if Texas is not better able to educate itself.
But with HB2 and HB3, the House apparently asked, "How much do we want to punish those who didn't vote for us?" and answered, "A lot," and then asked, "How much do we want to reward those who voted for us?" and answered, "Who cares?" HB3 raises taxes for a majority of Texans, Republicans and Democrats alike, but provides tax breaks for those at the top of the income ladder and for industries with the deepest-pocketed lobbyists.
The state already has a regressive system of taxation, as sales and property taxes make up a larger portion of income for those struggling to make ends meet than for those with disposable income.
With HB3, property taxes will be cut, but sales taxes will be increased to the highest in the nation. Only those making more than about $100,000 per year will benefit from the changes.
Instead of providing Texas with a sound infrastructure to withstand future demographic and economic jolts, the Legislature seems determined to make Texas "Mississippi with better roads." Indeed, Texas already ranks near the bottom of the country in graduation rates, SAT scores, teacher pay and funding per pupil.
With the neglect paid to the educations of working-class Texas children and the over-reliance of the taxing system on their parents, the opportunity for upward mobility and social improvement by all Texans seems to gain obstacles nearly every year. This must be fixed if Texas doesn't want to fall behind the rest of the country.
Lovegren is a government and history senior
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