Reason and a semblance of sanity may be returning to the Texas Legislature – or at least to a key state Senate committee.

The Texas Senate Education Committee has recommended returning $1.5 billion to the state’s education fund, which would return some of the money that’s been slashed from public education during the past two legislative sessions.

http://www.texastribune.org/2013/02/28/senators-add-15-billion-public-education-budget/

The panel’s recommendation restores $40 million for pre-kindergarten programs and $20 million for the Virtual School Network.

Understand that this by no means a guaranteed restoration of the money. It has to be approved by the full Senate, by the House of Representatives and signed by Gov. Rick Perry, who’s made a lot of political hay in recent years by decrying what he calls “waste” in government.

But the money should be restored because it is – to coin a phrase popular among liberals – an “investment” in the state’s future.

The state’s 5 million public school students deserve support from our elected representatives. Does more money guarantee that those children will get a better education? Of course not. The quality of their education depends on the quality of their teachers, the involvement of their parents, their physical health, whether they get enough to eat and a long list of other ancillary factors.

Texas, though, cannot continue to cut education because it cannot find expenses to cut in the vast array of other programs. Legislators and their watchdogs can find plenty of waste throughout the state budget.

I do not intend to suggest that public education should be immune from careful scrutiny. I do intend to say out front that public education needs some level of protection against willy-nilly budget slashers.