By Scott Harvey
Austin – State Representative Erwin Cain is proposing school districts focus their belt-tightening on non-teaching staff to preserve the jobs of instructors.
HB 3463 is designed to repeal several mandates affecting school districts and would modify others to give districts greater flexibility.
Cain, R-Sulphur Springs, feels it is unwise for teachers to be the first to go when school districts look at cutting their budget. Cain notes what he calls a disturbing trend over the last several decades of armies of support aides, administrators, and auxiliary staff growing in Texas schools. He feels because of that, fewer dollars make their way to the classrooms where they are most needed.
According to Cain, Texas has more public school employees than any other state in the nation, including California, despite having 1,000 less schools and 1.6 million less students.
Cain serves the citizens of Lamar, Delta, Hopkins, Red River, Titus and Franklin counties.
Cain has also introduced HB 2804, which would move the state from a strategic budgeting format to a line item format. This will make state government more transparent and offer more opportunities to identify waste, fraud, and abuse. He's also proposing HB 1387 to eliminate state grants and scholarships to illegal aliens.