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In 2011, the Texas Legislature cut $5 billion from the public education budget. More than two-thirds of Texas public school districts filed lawsuits. Then in 2013, lawmakers restored the majority of the funding cut two years earlier. Nevertheless, a court challenge over how the state funds schools has gone forward, with arguments expected in the coming months before the Texas Supreme Court, though not before the current legislative session concludes.
During this session there was little political will to pass any school finance reform. On this edition of Houston Matters, we hear from State Representative Jimmie Don Aycock of Killeen about his efforts to do so. And we talk with, David Hinojosa, the lead litigator in the ongoing Texas school funding trial.
Also this hour: In 2011, the Pew Research Center found "only one half of one percent of the U.S. population has been on active military duty at any given time during the past decade of sustained warfare." Pew has also examined military service by generation. According to numbers released in March, 21 percent of male Baby Boomers are veterans. But service has dwindled in the decades since the draft. Only 8 percent of Gen-X men are veterans; just three percent of male millennials enlist. We hear from Houston area veterans of each generation about their service and their attitudes about the diminishing interest in military service.
Then: From death penalty news in both Texas and Nebraska, to a proposed amendment to the state constitution that would protect Texans’ rights to fish and hunt, and to writing an essay to win a house: we discuss The Good, The Bad and The Ugly of this week’s Houston news. This week’s panel of “non-experts” is comprised of: Houston Chronicle writer Lisa Falkenberg; MochaDad.com blogger Fred Goodall; and Vladimir Davidiuk, Chairman of the College Republicans and Junior Senator in the Student Government Association at the University of St Thomas.
Plus: Maggie Martin sits down with Comicpalooza Chairman John Simons, and Bedrock City Comics owner Richard Evans, to discuss the 2015 edition of the Texas International Comic Con, which opens today (5/22/15) and continues through the weekend at the George R. Brown convention center.
