Texas public libraries face 70% cut in federal funding

[TexasTowelie]

Texas is finding out that you have to pay to play when it comes to federal funding for public libraries.

Two years ago, when Texas was confronting a $27 billion budget shortfall, state lawmakers chain-sawed the 2012-13 funding for the Texas State Library and Archives Commission by 64 percent.

Now that cut may be creating an even more dire financial problem for libraries.

Since the state isn’t meeting its mandated share of funding, the federal government is threatening to cut nearly 70 percent of its annual funding for Texas public libraries, saying the state has failed to pull its own weight.

More at http://www.star-telegram.com/2013/11/08/5319383/texas-public-libraries-face-70.html?rh=1 .

[madrchsod]

1. the people who need libraries the most will go without.

elections have consequences.

[King_Klonopin]

2. They have libraries in Texas ??

It's just a joke. Trite and overused, and just a dumb joke.
I know, Texas is mostly awesome! No need to get uppity.

[beachbum bob]

3. you think texas politicians actually

want an informed public? LOL...........burn the books, close the libraries, abandon the schools seems like perfectly good strategies for texas politics

[King_Klonopin]

6. They don't burn books -- they re-write them ! HA!!

[Vogon_Glory]

4. Another Slap At Young Mothers And Children From Our Pro-Family Legislators

The looming library funding crisis is yet another gratuitous slap at young mothers and children from our "pro-family" Republican state representatives. I've seen enough of Austin's public libraries during operating hours to know that much of the clientele consists of young mothers with children. I wouldn't be surprised if other libraries across the state, even in the reddest counties, have similar clientele.

Yet at the risk of sounding like someone who blames the victim, I can't help but wonder. How many of these young mothers vote? How many were paying even a little bit of attention when these Republicans got elected?

I truly believe that voters get what they voted for, and also that the electorate not only gets what it voted for, but also that it gets what it didn't vote for when voting-age adults choose to ignore what's going on and blow off the chore of electing their leaders.

[Ilsa]

5. Spot-on. That's who I see, mostly.

They'd rather push the parents into spending at B&N, etc.