Texas School Funding Myth

Here's an article from the Statesman by Jason Stanford. The article is about Texas’ inadequate funding for public schools.  Stanford cuts through the “Bull” and gives us a clear picture of what the current state of our educational funding looks like.  His target audience is parents, grandparents, soon-to-be parents, and anyone who will vote to change the current system in place that funds our children’s educational future.

Jason Stanford is a Democratic Political consultant and opposition researcher based here in Austin. He’s served as 2006 Democratic gubernatorial candidate Chris Bell's campaign manager and chief spokesman.  He is also the head of Stanford Research.  His political background and use of stats and figures in his article make his argument seem credible. A good example of this is when Stanford is talking about the contract Texas signed with Pearson, “The legislature raised the financial and academic stakes by signing a $468 million contract with Pearson for the STAAR test and then slashed school funding by $5.4 billion…” Stanford also uses good analogies like: “Dietz’s ruling was the least surprising revelation since Jodie Foster came out of her not-so-secret closet at the Golden Globes.”  Comments like these make the article fun to read and it gives the article sarcastic tone that you would expect from someone who is frustrated with the current school-funding situation.  Stanford’s choice of words and straightforward language makes the article very easy to understand, which is essential when trying to get the majority of the public to see a certain point of view.  This article was enlightening and a pleasure to read.