I honestly didn’t see this one coming.

Texas Education Agency officials are asking state lawmakers for lots of additional money to help the TEA get to the bottom of a most troubling issue: improper student-teacher relationships.

The issue has rocked school districts across the state. Amarillo is not immune from the news of teachers allegedly having improper sexual relationships with students.

https://www.texastribune.org/2016/10/01/tea-requests-more-money-student-teacher-relationsh/

I have no idea if this issue has reached epidemic proportions. I do know that we are hearing more reports of these kinds of events: teachers getting suspended, arrested and then fired over allegations of sexual misconduct.

TEA is going to ask legislators for $400,000 to hire more investigators to examine these alleged occurrences.

This is a hugely troubling issue, no matter how extensive it has become … if it has become extensive.

Parents send their children to school trusting educators to protect them as well as educate them. There can be zero tolerance for this kind of misbehavior.

I happen to be on TEA’s side on this one. If the agency believes there exists a problem in our public classrooms, then it ought to be incumbent on lawmakers — who parcel out public money to pay for our school system — to ensure that the agency has the tools it needs to investigate and solve these problems.