Greg Abbott (DMN file photo)
An item I wrote on the comprehensive education plan posted on Greg Abbott’s campaign page said he didn’t add up the cost, at least to my satisfaction.
In response, I got an email today from his deputy communications director, Amelia Chasse. Here’s what she said:
The total for all four plans is $775.5 million. Total for the first three plans (not including higher ed) is $387.5 million.
Phase 1 (pre-k—third) contained $118M for gold standard pre-K plus $64M for professional development proposals, totaling $182M.
Phase 2 (governance) will cost $41.1M over the 2016-17 biennium.
Phase 3 (digital) will cost approximately $164.4M for the first biennium.
Phase 4 (higher ed) will cost $403M.
Each of these numbers are contained within the relevant sections of the plan.
I think her last sentence was a nice way of saying, “Look, fella, you’d have seen the big numbers if you had read the plan more carefully.”
Well, I did read it fairly carefully. And just now I went back and key-worded for those four numbers. I found the $118 million in Phase 1, but my search didn’t pick up the others.
No matter. We have them now. And the exercise makes my point: Greg Abbott’s education plan covers a lot of bases — far more than Wendy Davis’s — but it could use better display when it comes to the bottom line.