Did you know there is more water flowing in Spring Creek in Irion County than the Pedernales River in Travis County? The Pedernales is bone dry. I can't recall a time that I have ever seen Spring Creek dry.
Update: This page has been updated.
Having been a state employee for 24 years (some of that time as an Assistant Attorney General under Gov. Abbott when he was our Attorney General), I think it is wrong, terribly wrong, for Gov. Abbott to hold teacher pay hostage in order to get the vouchers he seeks, as described in this Texas Tribune article. Government employees, including and especially teachers, are not pawns. The State gets what it pays for, and if the Gov. doesn't value the human element of the teaching profession, the consequence is less qualified teachers.
Our state needs to finance permanent funding for teacher pay so that exactly this kind of political leveraging can't occur.
Say what you will about the inefficiencies of public education (and I do in this website!) treating teachers in this way underscores our state's lack of dedication to public education. Whatever the solutions proposed in the "voucher like" savings plan the Governor wants, what it will do is take more government out of the sunshine.* My solution, instead, is to increase the sun light and create public accountability where none exists.
Creating a permanent funding source dedicated solely for teacher pay is a better approach here. Teachers should not be leveraged this way.
*Update. As of the time of this posting, October 15, 2023, the latest version of SB 1 makes absolutely no reference to the Public Information Act or the Open Meetings Act (chapters 552 and 551 of the Texas Government Code). The legislation also allows for gifts, grants and donations (at 29.353). My experience at Irion County ISD is that school districts DO NOT want to disclose their private donors, even to the point of defying specific Attorney General opinions on the matter. Any voucher system ought to require the highest level of public scrutiny. Taxpayers deserve greater accountability, and a private voucher system without safeguards for sunlight for where the funds are coming from will allow corrupt influence and inefficient use of funds.
Here is the current version of SB 1. This will, of course, change, and here is where you can monitor its legislative history. The bill that takes teacher pay hostage is SB 2, and you can follow its history here. As discussed above, this bill goes no where if the Governor doesn't get what he wants in SB 1.