Texas Funds Formula One, May Fire Teachers

Texas Funds Formula One, May Fire Teachers

Texas, which may balance its budget by firing thousands of teachers, plans to commit $25 million in state funds to Formula One auto racing each year for a decade.

Four years after motorsports’ most popular series left the U.S., Texas investors including Clear Channel Communications Inc. co-founder B.J. “Red” McCombs are building a 3.4-mile (5.5-kilometer) track to bring the event to Austin. Comptroller Susan Combs has agreed to pay $25 million for races through 2022, a subsidy questioned by critics and lawmakers as the state cuts costs to close an estimated $15 billion two-year deficit.

“I don’t understand why 25 people in Austin could not put up $1 million each if they thought this was a good opportunity instead of the state making a $25 million commitment,” said Senator Dan Patrick, a Houston Republican. “The developers should find the money through private sources.”

As many as 100,000 teachers in Texas may be fired because of spending cuts to cope with the state’s budget crisis, according to Moak Casey & Associates, an Austin-based education consultant. For $25 million a year, the state could pay more than 500 teachers an average salary of $48,000.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-11/texas-taxpayers-finance-formula-one-auto-races-as-schools-dismiss-teachers.html

This is the new America, land of the wealthy and poor.

The poor don't need an education because they might not want to stay poor otherwise.

:sarcasm:

It's win - win for them. Their whole strategy is to wreck education, then, under the guise of "privatization" fixes *everything* they outsource education to the lowest bidder. Of course with plenty of fat cat middle men to suck off the profits.

Classic corporatist/GOP strategy

What country is this? :argh: