Report calls quality of life in Texas 'abysmal'

[ensho]

http://www.theeagle.com/politics/Report-calls-quality-of-life-in-Texas--abysmal-?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+TheEagleRegionAndState+%28The+Eagle+Local%29&utm_content=Google+Reader


Texas ranks near the bottom of all states in taxing and spending per capita, but is dead last in the percentage of adults with a high school diploma, according to a study released Tuesday by a panel of mostly Democratic lawmakers.

-snip-

Lawmakers who serve in the Legislative Study Group, which prepared the rankings, called Texas' performance "abysmal" and urged the state's Republican leadership to use the poor showing as inspiration to improve.

Texas has the highest percentage of uninsured children and ranks near last in the amount of state and local money spent per student in public schools. It also found that Texas "has the dirtiest air in the nation," said Rep. Elliot Naishtat, treasurer of the 35-member panel.

-snip-

"We've earned a reputation as first in jails and last in schools. Given that we lead the nation in the number of people we execute and the fact that we're last in high school graduation rates, I'd say that we've lived up to our reputation," Naishtat said.

Conservatives quickly criticized the report.

-snip-

The report ranked Texas first among U.S. states in carbon dioxide emissions and for the amount of hazardous waste generated, second in the number of students enrolled in public schools and seventh in teenage birth rate.

Texas ranked 33rd in the average salary of public school teachers, and 46th and 47th respectively for tax revenue raised per capita and tax expenditures per capita. The state ranked 49th in both average credit score and the percent of its low-income population covered by Medicaid. Texas was ranked last in the percent of pregnant women receiving prenatal care in their first trimester.

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BP's ongoing Gulf crime isn't helping people either - making them sick

wonder if Texans have the strength and will power to protest

[Dappleganger]

1. Florida is headed in the same direction.

[northoftheborder]

2. I wonder, too. I doubt it. It's never been any better, so people don't know how life could be.

[RKP5637]

4. Yep, sadly after awhile it's generational and none know any different. n/t

[seabeyond]

6. except i grew up in calif. lived here for a couple decades. texas is a big state. 4x4

isnt going to help the graduation level.

4yrs science
4yrs math
4yrs english
4yrs history

this will be the first graduation class that has to graduate under 4x4 i cannot imagine it has done anything good. a child fails one class and so far behind cannot catch up in the following years.

[RKP5637]

3. But they want to write and rewrite our textbooks for us... about time IMO to

dump Texas as a publishing source for textbooks.

[ensho]

8. kick - letting them do school books is madness

nt

[damntexdem]

5. Well, we can only go up from here.

;-)

[seabeyond]

7. i understand the pollution is down in brownsville, houston. you have any?

we dont where we are at.

[dkofos]

9. After 15 years of repulicon rule, what did you expect.

[ensho]

10. I expect people are sick to death of it

nt

[dkofos]

11. I certainly am. But I am not the majority.

[WatsonT]

12. I was wondering when there'd be a backlash

from that article putting CA at the worst place to live.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

13. The company my girlfriend works for outsourced to a cheap factory in Texas

Just take a stab in the dark at how well that has worked out...

Printed circuit boards used to be manufactured in Taiwan and finished in Irvine, Now the whole thing is done start to finish in the DFW area by rank imbeciles. The defect rate is through the roof and stolen prototypes show up on eBay every couple of weeks.

I am aware there is a vast and professional high-tech sector in Texas, but these guys aren't it. But the company in question is hyped by the state as an example of how Texas business and more importantly Texas labor can compete with anyone, anywhere. Minimum wage labor, sourced by temp agencies assembling circuit boards with surface mount components... what could go wrong?

[BobbyBoring]

14. This is the result

Of all the gerrymandering the rethugs did back in the late 70s and early 80s.

Texas should not be a model for school text. It should be a lesson in the harm of re districting~