Meyerland Democrats to host talk on school finance lawsuit

On Monday, Oct. 17 at Johnston Middle School, a Meyerland Area Democrats forum will discuss the lawsuits over budget cuts.

Texas school districts and other education equity organizations are taking the state of Texas to court over historic budget cuts to public school education in the last legislative session. Paul Colbert of the Equity Center, State Rep. Scott Hochberg and an attorney involved in a school equity lawsuit will speak about why the lawsuits are being filed.

Colbert, a former state representative and expert on school financing, will cover the history of school financing in Texas and why the lawsuit is necessary. Hochberg will cover the actions of the legislature in the recent session, where it made cuts to education, responding to a $27 billion budget deficit.

“This is the first decrease in per-student spending in Texas since World War II,” said Art Pronin, president of the Meyerland Area Democrats Club, in a press release. “These cuts to everything from pre-kindergarten to building science labs to teachers’ jobs will leave our citizens unable to compete in a global economy. Houston and Dallas are already ranked 94th and 96th out of 100 U.S. metropolitan areas in matching education levels with local industry job needs.”

The forum will be held at 7 p.m. and Johnston Middle School is located at 10410 Manhattan.