Thousands March in Austin Against Education Budget Cuts
By: Meredith Hillgartner
Updated: February 24, 2013
"The $5.4 billion that was cut across the state equates to about $500 a student," Keller said.
Alice Keller is not just the President of Lubbock Educators Association-she is a teacher.
She wants our elected officials to put money they took from Texas schools back where it belongs.
"Anything that we can do as tax payers and as voters to show the legislatures that we are not behind these cuts and that we need to restore them, is going to be a positive thing," Keller said.
Today thousands marched through the streets of Austin with Save Texas Schools to petition legislators to put money back in the education system.
"They are essentially petitioning legislature to reevaluate the cuts that were made and use money from the rainy day fund to reinstate those funds," Keller said.
Save Texas Schools is a coalition of parent, educators and students who support improvements in the Texas education system.
Right now their focus is restoring $5.4 billion dollars cut by legislators in 2011.
"This money is crucial to educating students," Keller said. "But it provides textbooks for students, it provides facilities, equipment, technology."
Keller said the issue will not be fixed right away but they are making legislators aware of what they want changed.
"I hope they are," Keller said. "It's going to be difficult but i think this is a positive step in the right direction to restore these funds to Texas public education anything that we can."
