Shrinking Texas School Payrolls Add To Unemployed -- Not Good For Perry

By PAUL J. WEBER

SAN ANTONIO (AP) -- The $4 billion in cuts to Texas public schools this summer might be starting to hit Gov. Rick Perry where it hurts most - his record on creating jobs.

Texas lost 900 jobs in local school districts in August, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. August is when back-to-school hiring typically resumes after districts purge payrolls in the summer, yet districts statewide kept shedding jobs last month for the first time since at least 1990.