RICHARDSON, Texas — A Texas education report released Wednesday that rates school districts by looking at student progress and district spending gives only about 4 percent of schools the top designation.

Texas Comptroller Susan Combs was asked to do the report by the 2009 Legislature, which wanted the office to develop a way to determine which schools were getting both academic success and cost effectiveness in the way they spent money.

"In a time of economic uncertainty across the country it is very appropriate to look at spending for large sectors of the economy, such as public education," Combs said during a news conference at the University of Texas at Dallas. "Public education spending is approximately 44 percent of all general revenue spending of the state of Texas."

SAN ANTONIO -- Unlike the business world that measures its investments by sales and profits, Texas Comptroller Susan Combs looked at academic progress in terms of the cost per student in the state's 1,050 school districts.

The executive summary alone is 50 pages for the mammoth study that includes cost comparisons between similar districts and recommendations on improving their bottom lines.

(AUSTIN) — Texas Comptroller Susan Combs reiterated her long-time commitment to Texas children and nutrition by praising Texas PTA for teaching children healthy habits and making continued efforts to educate parents about health problems posed by the childhood obesity epidemic.

Texas Comptroller Susan Combs said today she will ask the Texas Prepaid Higher Education Tuition Board to hold off on changes in the way people can get refunds from the Texas Tomorrow Fund.

In December 2009, the state’s prepaid tuition program, the Texas Guaranteed Tuition Plan (TGTP), will change the way it allows enrollees to collect refunds on canceled contracts.

The Better Business Bureau has a saying: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. The phrase is directed at con artists intent on ripping off consumers, but it unfortunately also applies to a noble but ill fated cause the government of Texas became involved in.

Some states canceled their tax holidays this year, including Florida and Illinois. But in Texas, state comptroller Susan Combs said the expected uptick in spending will offset the loss of sales tax revenue. The state's main source of revenue is sales tax, she said.

As much as $2.1 billion of your state tax dollars in the near future will be spent to pay the college tuition and fees for about 119,000 Texas children.

A Web site called Get a Life helps middle-schoolers answer the question, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” The Web site is new from Texas Comptroller Susan Combs.