1. Standing by teachers and students in tough times.

2. State Spending The 2010-2011 state budget, passed by the Legislature in 2009, looks like this:

3. State Spending:

4. State Spending 60.7 percent of all state dollars are appropriated to education, including K-12 and colleges.

5. State Spending Spending on public education has increased significantly.

6. Growth in Education Spending “Texas public education spending nearly doubled during the last decade, increasing from $28 billion to nearly $55 billion...” “…spending per-pupil rose by 63 percent.”

7. Growth in Education Spending

8. Growth in Education Spending Total expenditures have risen above & beyond enrollment growth…

9. Growth in Education Spending

10. Growth in Education Spending And total expenditures have risen above & beyond inflation…

11. Growth in Education Spending

12. Growth in Education Spending Where does that all of that money go? Why are per pupil expenditures so much higher today? The Answer: Bureaucracy

13. Education Bureaucracy If the Texas public education system were a private company, it would be the fifth largest in the world by employee count: Sources: Fortune Magazine and the Texas Education Agency

14. Education Bureaucracy The fifth largest company in the world? But surely most of those employees are classroom teachers, right? Wrong.

15. Education Bureaucracy

16. Education Bureaucracy Statewide, only 50.7 percent of public school employees are classroom teachers.

17. Education Bureaucracy That means for every teacher, public schools in Texas employ one non-teacher.

18. Education Bureaucracy That’s a one-to-one ratio of teachers to non-teachers! But it hasn’t always been this way…

20. 2010-11 - 1:1Source: Texas Education Agency, Personnel and Average Salaries, 1971 – 1983.

21. Education Bureaucracy As spending on public education increases, your tax dollars are being used for purposes with little or no relation to teaching and learning.

22. So when a Superintendent or other school official says that budget cuts mean teachers will have to be fired… Ask: Why not start by reducing non-teaching positions? Why not reduce administrations’ pay & benefit before firing teachers?

23. After all, the core function of Texas public schools is to educate students. And that happens in the classroom.

24. We choose classroom instruction over educational bureaucracy. Where do you stand? texasclassroomsfirst.com