Brownwood Education: Rural Republicans & Urban Democrats
Some rural Republicans object to education overhaul plan
AUSTIN — A plan to overhaul education in Texas could founder this week if measures aren't taken to address the concerns of rural Republicans who say they can't vote for the proposal in its current form.
The GOP-drawn plan to fund public schools in Texas has been slow to garner support from the large number of legislators who represent rural parts of Texas, both Republican and Democrat.
Those who hail from small-town Texas, where communities often revolve around schools, say the plan does not give their schools enough money for transportation, cuts funding for gifted and talented programs and does not give teachers a pay raise that would encourage them to move to the country.
"I haven't heard a lot of folks supporting it, other than the ones that wrote it," said Republican Rep. Scott Campbell, who represents a four-county district surrounding San Angelo. "It just breaks your heart because people have put in so much time and we still don't have anything."
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"The only difference between (rural Republicans) and their urban Democrat counterparts is the population. We still have working families in modest homes, schools in need of more investment, we share those things in common," Martinez Fischer said.
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