When folks are angry, frightened and confused, blame is sure to land everywhere and anywhere. So it was during the Waco Independent School District board meeting last week when district leaders took salvos from teachers whose careers they were trying to salvage amid a possible $8.5 million in state budget cuts.

Even the plan school board members and administrators pursued to save the jobs of most teachers defied easy understanding. At one point board member Larry Perez expressed frustration at the inability by some parents and teachers to fully grasp the rationale behind the crucial timing of this move — and then, incapable of explaining it himself, he asked the superintendent to explain it once more.

Much of it has to do with the Texas House budget, which is increasingly unpopular, even though lawmakers are only following the anti-tax, cut-it-to-the-bone, tea-party dictates of those who got out and voted last fall. With political crosswinds now bouncing lawmakers to and fro, it’s unknown how much money the state will actually cough up for public schools.

State law mandates that districts inform teachers on probationary contracts at least 45 days before the end of the school year of contract non-renewal. But because no one in the Waco ISD (or anywhere else) knows what the final budget in Austin will yield, nearly 200 of 377 probationary teachers were asked to resign.

But, it was noted, this was just a formality till school officials could make other cuts, determine staff needs at each campus, then hire most of them back.

None of which kept a hall full of parents, teachers, even students from expressing disappointment and ire Wednesday. That’s when the board nixed contracts for nearly 180 teachers with the hope most can be rehired, possibly in two or three weeks.

“I know there are some intangibles we’ll lose if we go forward with this,” board member David Schleicher said solemnly before the vote. “There will be some teachers who never get back 100 percent of the enthusiasm they left with.”

Schleicher’s probably right about that. Other impressions from that night:

* Waco City Council PTA President Alisa Petree said there hadn’t been enough opportunity to offer input about alternatives to putting teachers through the indignities they quite obviously endured last week. “I challenge the board to seek parental and teacher input on the important issues facing WISD administration regarding staff cuts and potential program changes and cuts,” she said to applause.

Only problem is that for more than a month the Waco ISD has gathered scores of ideas from parents, teachers and others on its website about ways to cut costs. I spent an evening leafing through some of these. I can’t say any struck me as a silver bullet. Actually, I was surprised at how many of these ideas came from teachers suggesting some other teacher’s program be axed.

* State Reps. Charles “Doc” Anderson and Marva Beck fared well with voters last fall but, judging from comments the other night, it’s a sure bet neither will be honored anytime soon as a Friend of Education in the Waco ISD.

School board member Angela Tekell acknowledged the situation was dire “and this school board has been put in an awful situation and I hope each of you plans to go home tonight and email Doc Anderson and Marva Beck and (state Sen.) Brian Birdwell because they are the ones who put us in this situation.” Such sentiments were echoed by others in the crowd.

* School officials prioritized teachers partly by whether they taught in critical fields such as math, science, special education and bilingual education.

But, there were signs at least some teachers are now ready for merit to be part of the equation. At one point, a pre-kindergarten teacher on a probationary contract rose to speak, then broke into tears about being forced to resign. Sobbing, she said she deserved better: “Y’all should be in the classroom to see who’s doing a good job and who’s not because I believe there are some teachers who have (non-probationary) contracts that — well, I think I’m a better teacher. And I’m outstanding!”

To which someone in the back shouted: “And we’re cheaper to hire!”