As long as Texas is dead last in the amount of state revenue raised and services offered, then we will also be dead last in results. Unless we adequately fund public education, Texas will continue to rank in the bottom half of the nation on key performance measures: 32nd in teachers' salaries, 38th in state aid per pupil, 48th in average SAT scores and 50th in number of high school graduates.

+Not only does this place our state on the margins of the new knowledge-based economy, but companies will not locate in a state where students do not graduate from high school or perform well on the SAT. If we do not improve current education outcomes in Texas, the state demographer predicts that Texas household incomes will decline $5,000 by the year 2030. Is that the legacy that we want to leave for our children? Texas must commit the resources to fulfill its promise of a better future to our children: "Invest in Kids, Invest in our Future."