Dear Texas legislators, My name is Joseph Gallardo, and I am a student at The University of Texas at Austin. I have been a victim of the flawed education system in Texas, and I have suffered many setbacks and had to overcome much adversity to get where I am today. My first-hand experience with these difficulties leads me to hope for immediate and significant improvements in the funding appropriations of our education system. “Inequitable funding of U.S. public schools contributes significantly to the under achievement of our low-income and minority students. It’s something we have to fix if we are to progress as a society.” -Cynthia G. Brown, vice president of education policy at the Center for American Progress. Article VII, Section I, of the Texas Constitution mandates that the State provide an efficient public school system. Despite this law, District Judge John Dietz concluded that the current public school finance …show more content…
If inequality and a sheer lack of fairness to such a large portion of our state is not enough to create change, the future of our state’s economy is at risk as well. The same minorities that are deprived a fair chance at an adequate education are said to make up 36% of the workforce population as of 2012 (Americanprogress.org). Hispanics, who are expected to outnumber Whites by 2020 ("Texas in Focus: A Statewide View of Opportunities- Demographics.”), also have the second highest drop out rate (School Finance 101: Funding of Texas Public Schools). Thus, Texas will have a larger uneducated workforce in the near future (Calkins, Laurel B.). It is then clear that building a better education system not only means better-educated Texans, but a better economy for the benefit of the state and all of those who live within