Teachers get $10,000 to leave.

     What is the deal with Texas and its teachers.?  "Austin teachers could get $10,000 for voluntarily leaving" is what one article read from the Austin American Statesman.  Budgets are cut because we have to start doing something about all the spending.  No one likes the idea of raising taxes to pay for all the luxuries we as Texans enjoy, so the state of Texas starts cutting back (something we actually need) the amount of employed teachers. Now they decide that maybe we should offer these teachers we are firing (some which have contracts) a little incentive to go without a fuss.  Ten thousand dollars cash is quite a bit of money though, and is hard to pass up if you know you are job searching for next school year.  Good luck.  I would start my search outside of the state (and maybe learn another language).

     The government is actually looking out for itself on that one.  The ten thousand that they are offering up front is a little less than they would have to pay in unemployment.  Unemployment would run around $ 10,790 each in worker's compensation benefits.  This brings up another issue. Where will we get this money? There are about 650 workers still on contract that are to be let go.  This turns into approximately 6.5 million dollars.  Do taxes go up now?  That is a lot of money really fast.  I know it is a long term solution, but right now it looks bad.

    This leaves the ultimate burden on our future, our children.  The student to teacher ratio is only getting worse.  We need to think about what is important.