Texas Schools Face Deep Cuts Amid Budget Crunch
Texas is famous for its oversized economic booms and busts, but its schools are bracing for a potentially dramatic bust of their own as state lawmakers consider budget cuts for the coming year that some fear will result in thousands of job losses and the elimination of programs serving students of all ages.
State officials, facing a two-year budget shortfall of anywhere between $15 billion and $27 billion, have proposed deep reductions in school spending, including providing less than is required by the state’s school-funding formula.
Small Airports, Left Behind
Since airlines typically fly turboprops and 50-seat jets on the routes that connect outlying communities to big hubs, the higher cost of fuel and other expenses gets split among fewer passengers. Airlines are retiring these planes because they are unprofitable as oil prices climb.But many small airports do not generate enough traffic to fill larger planes multiple times a day, or attract the low-fare airlines that choose markets with higher volume. And as local residents drive to bigger airports with lower fares, or forgo flying as it gets more expensive, small airports feel the pinch even more.That means communities are fighting to maintain affordable airline service as airlines cut back on flights to money-losing markets..“There are very few communities that are going to lose access to the rest of the world,” Mr. Boyd said. “It’s just that that access may not be from the local airport.”The country’s network of plentiful regional airports connecting to big hubs was largely built in an era of $30-a-barrel oil. But oil prices are now more than triple that, so maintaining commercial airline service to underperforming airports may be unsustainable.
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