Texas schools slash ed-tech spending
Efforts to bring Texas students into the 21st century with new technology in classrooms have suffered a huge setback this school year -- at the very time the state Legislature tried to make it easier for schools to upgrade.
School districts have sharply scaled back their spending on educational technology in large part because of big funding cuts imposed by the Legislature, financial reports from the Texas Education Agency show. Expenditures on laptops, desktops, portable computers, and related hardware have been reduced to about a tenth of what was spent last year, and school districts have used only 4 percent of their state aid for instructional materials on technology this year. That’s in spite of a 2011 law that allows them to spend textbook money on technology as well as books. Last year, districts spent about $135 million on technology from a state fund. That was before the 2011 Legislature cut regular funding for public schools by $4 billion over two years and trimmed $1.4 billion more in grant money for education.
Texas schools slash ed-tech spending