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Old 03-21-2011, 06:51 PM
 
2,238 posts, read 9,017,187 times
Reputation: 954

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Austin news, sports, weather, Longhorns, business | Statesman.com
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Old 03-21-2011, 07:41 PM
 
2,627 posts, read 6,574,303 times
Reputation: 1230
It's unfortunate that they had to let 213 first year teachers go, but I'm surprised that they actually hired 213 new teachers last year. That seems like a pretty optimistic thing for them to do in August of 2010.

It looks like the student teacher ratio for K-4th will be 22:1 instead of 19:1 now. That's not too bad where I'm from. I had over 25 kids or more in all of my Elementary school classes in the 80's.
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Old 03-21-2011, 07:44 PM
 
574 posts, read 1,640,454 times
Reputation: 486
The following comment to the article sums it up.

Quote:
Don’t blame Republicans, blame society in general. Seriously, how long do you think we can keep spending money we don’t have and the end result not be job cuts? About .42 of every dollar we spend in this country is borrowed. Education is a huge hole that can never be filled until we decide to fix what is broken about it. Namely parents who won’t parent, kids who won’t learn or be respectiful, teachers who suck, and school administrators and school boards who either don’t know what they are doing or have another agenda. Not all parents, teachers, kids, suck; however, enough do and we can’t do anything about any of them. Teachers need to throw the crappy teachers under the bus. It would help their reputation a lot. Teachers also should demand something be done about students who won’t learn, or adminstrator/school boards who are crappy. To just blame this on Republicans and lack of money is a lazy perspective of what is going on.
Special emphasis in red!
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Old 03-21-2011, 07:54 PM
 
4 posts, read 7,276 times
Reputation: 11
Quote:
Originally Posted by mark311 View Post
It's unfortunate that they had to let 213 first year teachers go, but I'm surprised that they actually hired 213 new teachers last year. That seems like a pretty optimistic thing for them to do in August of 2010.

It looks like the student teacher ratio for K-4th will be 22:1 instead of 19:1 now. That's not too bad where I'm from. I had over 25 kids or more in all of my Elementary school classes in the 80's.
Re-read the article. It is not 213 first year teachers, it is 213 new to district teachers. This includes first-year and experienced teachers who took position w/in LISD in 2010.

And the reason so many new teachers were hired~ there have been several new schools opened in the last 12-24 months.
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Old 03-21-2011, 07:55 PM
 
Location: Cedar Park
171 posts, read 422,793 times
Reputation: 106
I normally don't get political, but I agree entirely with jbiggs statement. Nobody likes the bearer of bad tidings, and our drunken-sailor spending habits have got to stop.

(Caveat: Unlike the government, drunken sailors stop spending when they run out of money.)
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Old 03-21-2011, 08:24 PM
 
Location: Holly Neighborhood, Austin, Texas
3,981 posts, read 6,736,789 times
Reputation: 2882
Well maybe if we got rid of some of the dubious tax exemptions in this state funding would not be such a problem:

BurkaBlog :: Can repealing tax exemptions save the budget?

Why would aviation fuel be tax exempt? Non-prescription drugs? 2nd homestead exemption (the upper 10% must love this one)? Magazines, newspapers, boats/motors (the yacht crowd must love the last one)? And why does the natural gas industry get a special break on "high cost" gas wells? I'm sure they're stockholders were all for it.

I'm just surprised there wasn't a tax exemption for SUVs over 7000lb gross weight and RVs that get less than 4 mpg. After all by burning all those hydrocarbons they're doing their job to support Valero and Exxon/Mobil.

And sorry but the ag exemption is a relic of another age that has negligible benefits and makes for a $2.7billion annual hole. It has been brought up that this could possibly save rural areas from sprawl but I have yet to see proof of this or that they are saving small farmers. Even if they are it is at the expense of other taxpayers and that is not the way to encourage innovation and economic growth in this state.
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Old 03-21-2011, 08:35 PM
 
Location: Cedar Park
171 posts, read 422,793 times
Reputation: 106
The repeal of tax exemptions never turns up as much money as promised. Remember the luxury taxes of the late 80s? They put American yacht building out of business, and had a net negative effect on revenue.

That ag exemption is one of the only reasons organic and local farms make it.
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Old 03-21-2011, 08:43 PM
 
574 posts, read 1,640,454 times
Reputation: 486
Quote:
Originally Posted by verybadgnome View Post
Well maybe if we got rid of some of the dubious tax exemptions in this state funding would not be such a problem:

BurkaBlog :: Can repealing tax exemptions save the budget?

Why would aviation fuel be tax exempt? Non-prescription drugs? 2nd homestead exemption (the upper 10% must love this one)? Magazines, newspapers, boats/motors (the yacht crowd must love the last one)? And why does the natural gas industry get a special break on "high cost" gas wells? I'm sure they're stockholders were all for it.

I'm just surprised there wasn't a tax exemption for SUVs over 7000lb gross weight and RVs that get less than 4 mpg. After all by burning all those hydrocarbons they're doing their job to support Valero and Exxon/Mobil.

And sorry but the ag exemption is a relic of another age that has negligible benefits and makes for a $2.7billion annual hole. It has been brought up that this could possibly save rural areas from sprawl but I have yet to see proof of this or that they are saving small farmers. Even if they are it is at the expense of other taxpayers and that is not the way to encourage innovation and economic growth in this state.
You have a lot of good points on some very bad exemptions! However I have to agree with WoodyTX on the AG exemption. Another issue to consider with that is how one small development in an AG area can cause the price per acre value to significantly increase. Yes that does happen more than you might think. Without the AG exemption any AG operation (small or large) would be paying unnecessarily high taxes.
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Old 03-21-2011, 08:50 PM
 
Location: Great State of Texas
86,052 posts, read 84,481,831 times
Reputation: 27720
Well once a developer buys Ag exempt property then I would like to see it revert.
Having a developer bale hay on platted but yet undeveloped land is playing a loophole in the tax system. Blackhawk in Pflugerville is an example. Road was done and some building occurred..then the RE market when bust. No more houses and they started baling the weeds. Brought it to another property where it sits in the back rotting away.

That's not what Ag Exemption is about.
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