The next time your representatives threaten to cut education spending, tell them to find the money somewhere else. For example, this is from the Associated Press.

Documents reveal governor’s housing costs. When renovation of the historic Texas Governor's Mansion began 2 1/2 years ago, Gov. Rick Perry waspleased to find some pretty fancy temporary digs: a five-bedroom, seven-bath house in a gatedcommunity. It fell to Austin newsman Jay Root to find out much that was costing taxpayers.Using the Texas Public Information Act, Root spent weeks pulling together invoices, ledgers and otherexpense records from three different state agencies. He found that the rent, utilities and upkeep alone arecosting the state $10,000 a month, twice as much as a downtown penthouse within walking distance ofthe Capitol.Root also revealed that state-paid expenses at the 6,386-square-foot rental house included $18,000 for“consumables” such as household supplies and cleaning products, $1,001.46 in window coverings fromupscale retailer Neiman Marcus and a $1,000 “emergency repair” of the governor's filtered ice machine.He also discovered that Perry had used $130,000 in campaign funds to throw parties, buy food and drinkand pay for cable TV and a host of other services since moving in.

The officials in charge of our budgets threaten to cut spending in places that hurt so that we'll be more likely to support bigger spending and higher taxes. Yet every year I hear about Judges doing $40,000 office remodels, military brass sitting in $10,000 desk chairs, and cities putting up $250,000 "Welcome to..." signs. Yes, schools and defense are the biggest budget line items and are thus are the place where the most money is available to cut, but I know we have a lot of other trivial crap to cut before we have to touch their bottom line by even 1/2 a percent.