It wasn’t easy, but Republicans have hammered out a preliminary budget deal. The House proposal is about $58 million more than the Senate’s budget which was approved last week.
Earlier this week, a handful of Republican legislators walked out after demanding more money for their pet projects. Perhaps the most controversial demand they made was to allow traditional public school districts to label their schools as charters in order to get extra funding.
The scam has enabled districts across the state to maintain the status quo without improved services or student performance.
While the districts are full of union members who might vote for them, Child Protective Services children were not a top priority in the deal making. The House members added no more cash for CPS kids than the Senate had already earmarked.
On Wednesday, Brophy McGee, Carter, Coleman, Dial, Orr and Robson stormed out of the House in dramatic fashion in an effort to get as much attention as possible. “There are some things that we have seen in the budget that we like, but when you look at the budget in totality, there are some critical items that are missing,” Carter told the Yellow Sheet.
One Capitol insider said, “I’ll tell you what was missing; the juicy bone they needed to throw their supporters. They got want what they wanted.”