Gail Collins looks at the state's plan for cutting education funding and its woeful numbers in teen pregnancy and suggests Texas is not preparing its kids for success. She is particularly irked at our abstinence-only bent in preventing young pregnancies, which you could certainly argue haven't been quite doing the job.
Says Collins: Nobody wants to see underperforming, overcrowded schools being deprived of more resources anywhere. But when it happens in Texas, it's a national crisis. The birth rate there is the highest in the country, and if it continues that way, Texas will be educating about a tenth of the future population. It ranks third in teen pregnancies -- always the children most likely to be in need of extra help. And it is No. 1 in repeat teen pregnancies.
Which brings us to choice two. Besides reducing services to children, Texas is doing as little as possible to help women -- especially young women -- avoid unwanted pregnancy.
Because the state is so large and the population of at-risk so big, Collins kinda jokingly wonders aloud if more states shouldn't encourage Texas to secede.
What's clear is that while Rick Perry has become more of a presence in conservative circuit, he's also beginning to break through into the more liberal stream.
Source: http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2011/02/nytimes-columnist-takes-on-ric.html
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