This morning the Dallas Morning News released an independent analysis of school teacher cuts that resulted from the 2011 Texas Legislature. Their findings are upsetting, if not shocking. From their story, titled, "Texas schools short by 15,000 teachers this year, analysis shows":

Texas’ public schools should have operated with 15,000 more teachers this year, the fallout from unprecedented legislative-imposed funding cuts. And many educators believe the situation will worsen in the coming school year.

Official state figures show that schools lost 10,717 teaching positions after the state aid reductions. But to keep the student-teacher ratio the same as enrollment grew, the state would have needed 4,417 more teachers on top of the positions lost, for a total increase of 15,134 for the 2011-12 year, according to an analysis by The Dallas Morning News.

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Similarly, state figures show that 25,286 school jobs — including teachers, administrators and support workers — were eliminated this school year. But that also doesn’t take into account the staffing needs for the 65,000 additional students who were enrolled.

In 2011, Texas conservative legislators cut $5.4 billion from Texas' public schools, and have been trying to lie about it ever since. The Texas Comptroller, Susan Combs, who is in charge with balancing the books of Texas' budget, was rated Pants on Fire by Politifact for trying to claim public school funding wasn't cut in 2011. These conservative lawmakers cut children's education, lied about it, and are hiding from the consequences of their actions.