(Community Matters) from Kirk Watson’s weekly message:

It’s extraordinary, and aggravating, that these life-saving institutions [MD Anderson and UTMB] are trying to get just to where they were a few years back. Unfortunately, this isn’t the only area in which Texas’ legislative leadership has fallen behind.

The leadership has starved education funding and forced school district after school district to raise property taxes to make up for it.

It’s refused to fund universities, but chastised those who raise tuition so the quality of education doesn’t suffer.

It’s allowed roads to deteriorate and traffic to increase, diverting money from transportation and trumpeting privatization.

And it’s turned its back on nearly a billion dollars in federal funding for children’s health insurance, leaving Texas with the terrible standing as the state with the most uninsured kids.

It’s incomprehensible to me that our generation – which has prospered so much from the investments of our parents and grandparents – has so stubbornly refused to take steps that would ensure opportunity for our children and grandchildren.