Education is VITAL and is one of the most important gifts that we can give our children. To ensure that the United States continues to be a leader among nations, we must educate our children well and public education is the leading venue in which we do so in this nation. In addition, a lack of education is one of the root causes to so many social problems our nation faces today such as poverty, homelessness, and crime.

Texas has prioritized balancing a budget above educating and supporting our children. While most will agree that spending outside our means is not a good idea, cutting jobs and resources that help future generations succeed is out of the question! The Texas Education Agency stands to lose about $3,000,000,000, that's 3 BILLION, in funding on this biennial General Appropriations Bill. In addition, Communities In Schools (CIS), a very successful non-profit dropout prevention program, is facing $30,000,000 cuts in funding and AmeriCorps, a national service organization that tutors and mentors children through CIS, is facing extinction.

If we allow these drastic cuts to take place, not only will our children suffer, but it will also negatively affect our fragile economy as hundreds of thousands of jobs will be lost. Time to act is now! Please sign this petition to let our representatives know that they can do better! By signing, you are encouraging our elected officials to utilize the rainy day fund or allocate more current funding to public education.

If we can bailout Wall Street, the banks, and the auto industries, we CAN and certainly SHOULD bailout our children!