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T.S.T.A Responds To Latest Education Cuts

By KGNS News

It's something that could change the way students learn. Yet another set of budget cuts for teachers has been implemented.
A school advocacy group says an estimated 32,000 school employees across Texas, including 12,000 teachers have lost their jobs due to $5.4 billion in education cuts.
We spoke to a member of the Texas State Teachers Association about how he feels about the cuts.
"We knew they were coming and that's going to get even worse next school year. The sad thing about this is you're hurting the children of Texas."
Rene De La Vina says the children are the ones who suffer because teacher layoffs and budget cuts force more kids into fewer classrooms.
"We used to have 20 students maximum in a class. Now we're talking about 40-50 in a classroom. How can students learn with so many kids in one room?"
Their solution is to ask governor Rick Perry for money from the rainy day fund which currently holds $7.3 billion. De La Vina says that lawmakers could draw $2.5 billion from the fund just for education next year. The Texas State Teachers Association doesn't understand why Perry won't fund the money needed for schools around the state.
"It's a fact that they put more money into prisons than in education and to me that's a slap in the face."
As far as just how many jobs including teachers, teacher's aides, bus drivers and custodians, are in jeopardy, the numbers are alarming.
"Education could cost Texas 50,000 educator jobs and as many as 60,000 private related sector jobs."
As for what's the next step, De La Vina says the T.S.T.A is planning a rally in Austin soon.

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Roe said on Thursday, Feb 2 at 9:15 AM

Where are there 40-50 students in a classroom? The ratio for students to teachers in LISD is 15.4:1 and in UISD it is 16.1:1. Where does this gentleman get his information?

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teacher 1 said on Thursday, Feb 2 at 10:01 AM

I'm a teacher and have 24 students in my classroom all day. That's 24 brains, 24 mouths, 48 feet, 48 hands!!! And one of me. Do the math, that is a lot to handle.

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Anonymous said on Thursday, Feb 2 at 10:22 AM

TU AMA !!!!

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Anonymous said on Thursday, Feb 2 at 10:23 AM

LISD id just a babysitting service. teachers there only show up to collect a paycheck. they do a poor job teaching anything. what they need to do is fire everyone from the TOP all the way down to the comadres!

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LISD said on Thursday, Feb 2 at 10:24 AM

LISD STAFF is waste of money and TAX dollars!

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LOL said on Thursday, Feb 2 at 10:25 AM

!!!!! TU AMA !!!!!!

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thats nothing! said on Thursday, Feb 2 at 10:27 AM

i graduated valedictorian from LARA Academy(twice). straight A's!

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X-Laredo Onda said on Thursday, Feb 2 at 1:39 PM

Get rid of all the gansta/chunta-diva”I wan to make heem a baby” trash. That should drop the teacher to student ratio to 7:1. Teachers can get back to teaching those who want to have an IQ that above a toilet seat and not have to worry what the sh*#-birds are doing. As for the riff-raff, I hear the cartels are looking for a few good t*rds. There, problem solved.

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!st said on Thursday, Feb 2 at 1:42 PM

1st fire the waste lisd has to many people working in the office,they have like 5 spoke person why you only need one person to do all the talking.2nd fire the lazy teachers.3rd cut high salary never understood why we pay 150k or more in this city while other companies in this city are paying under 60k.

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JT said on Thursday, Feb 2 at 3:51 PM

How come there is always money for entitlements? Those are ever cut.

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Jt said on Thursday, Feb 2 at 3:52 PM

Sorry...never

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.. said on Thursday, Feb 2 at 9:53 PM

I spite of the cuts, LISD is still going to open it's new magnet school. I hear it's going to be called the Carlos Villarreal Magnet School of Municipal Corruption and organized criminal activity. The fat man is going to be the first dean of the school. This is to make sure we never run out of local corrupt politicians.

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It's true said on Friday, Feb 3 at 1:32 AM

They should start by enforcing and checking people who reside in the city and pay their share of taxes. This would reduce the number of students! It sometimes feels as if more is done to facilitate free loaders, while tax payers foot the bill.

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lol said on Friday, Feb 3 at 8:17 AM

@ X-Laredo ONDA... we cant have what youre suggesting. that would make too much sense! that would cripple laredo within hours! Laredo operates on premature pregnancies, freeloaders and commadres staffing our schools. i dont know what we would do without them.

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Vicente FOX said on Friday, Feb 3 at 8:20 AM

thank you laredo for educating all my mexican citizens and mojados that attend your schools and freeload off your government!

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Anonymous said on Friday, Feb 3 at 8:20 AM

!!! TU AMA !!!

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X-Laredo Onda said on Friday, Feb 3 at 12:19 PM

@ lol… "What we would do without them?"… Breathe easier due to the added abundance of oxygen…

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.. said on Saturday, Feb 4 at 11:03 AM

If the teachers didn't pay union dues that would be a pay increase all by itself, but then what would that worthless DeLaVina dude do with his life? He would have to get a REAL job.

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X Laredo Teacher said on Tuesday, Feb 7 at 3:09 PM

While I can agree with some of the comments written, some people are missing the important fact of the story which is the budget cuts in education. Instead of blaming the government for their poor spending decisions, you are putting the blame on those of immigrant students who are there to try and get an education. We should be thankful that the U.S. is one of the only countries in the world to offer free education to all, and it’s easy to pass the blame on these so called lazy teachers, but in reality most teachers have difficulties to deal with that non-educators would not understand. As far as class ratios go I can say that in all of my elementary classes the average was 23 students and almost 25 for lower levels such as Kindergarten. Also, by reading some of these comments, it is clear to see that instead of taking time to judge others you could have spent more time paying attention in class to the way English language is written and use of grammar. Just saying.

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