Grading Texas

Clay Robison’s report card on education and the Texas political arena

The biggest myth about the Texas Lottery over the years has
been that it was going to put public education on Easy Street. It does raise
money for education – it transferred more than $1.6 billion to the Foundation
School Fund in fiscal 2019 – but that’s only a small part of the $50
billion-plus spent on Texas public schools each year.

The biggest irony about the Texas Lottery is that much of
the money it raises for education is wagered by the least educated among us,
and that share may grow, now that the Texas Lottery Commission is ready to
launch a special partnership with Dollar General.

According to the Houston Chronicle, the Lottery Commission
will make tickets available at every check-out aisle in all of the nearly 1,500
Dollar General Stores in Texas, which cater primarily to customers on low and
fixed incomes.

Various studies of lotteries throughout the country have
shown that lower-income people are disproportionately more likely to play the
game, hoping to strike it rich on a lucky ticket. Not all poor people are
under-educated, but many are.

The same Chronicle article cites a 2018 survey by the
University of Houston’s Hobby School of Public Affairs, which found that Texas
Lottery players represented all income levels. But the survey also determined
that the lower a player’s education, the more he or she spent on tickets.

Players with a high school education or no high school
diploma spent almost four times the amount on lottery tickets than a person
with a graduate degree. Players earning less than $20,000 a year made up the
highest-spending group.

Then-Gov. Ann Richards had to twist a lot of arms to get the
Legislature to approve the lottery during her administration in the early
1990s, and in doing so she, intentionally or not, helped create the myth about
the lottery becoming a major funder of public education.

As the Chronicle points out, some legislators still can be
heard criticizing the lottery as a “tax on poor people.” But in the end, most
lawmakers find that preferable to coughing up more general revenue for schools.

Since 1997, when lottery proceeds were first dedicated to education, the lottery has contributed $24.1 billion to the Foundation School Program, the Texas Lottery Commission reports. That’s a lot of money, spread over 23 years, but it still is about half – or less – than the total public education budget for this year alone.

Deal with Dollar General revives concerns Texas Lottery is targeting low-income players

Many politicians love to pat teachers on the head, tell them
what a great job they are doing and then tell them to keep their mouths shut
and let the politicians decide what’s best for them. That’s been going on a lot
since TSTA announced its opposition to Proposition 4, the so-called anti-income
tax amendment that wouldn’t ban an income tax but would repeal a potential
source of future education funding.

One of these head-patters wrote in a recent blog post:
“What’s raising eyebrows is why associations dedicated to education policy and
teacher advocacy are weighing in on how tax revenue is collected.”

Teachers better be weighing in on how tax revenue is
collected. Without adequate tax revenue, there would be no public school system.

Teachers and other school employees live professional lives
that are determined by politics. Political decisions determine what they teach,
how big their classes are and how long the school day is. Political decisions
set their licensing requirements and determine their pay and benefits. And
political decisions determine how well or how poorly their classrooms are
equipped with the resources necessary for student success.

The current state constitution, under a provision approved
in 1993, already prohibits an income tax unless a majority of Texas voters
approve one. The same provision also dedicates at least two-thirds of the
revenue from a future income tax to reducing school property taxes and the
remainder to increasing education funding.

Texans aren’t likely to approve an income tax for years to
come, if ever, but TSTA believes it is foolish and short-sighted to wipe out a
dedicated source of future education funding, which is what Proposition 4 would
do.

Despite what its advocates would have people believe,
Proposition 4 would not ban an income tax. It would allow a future legislative
session to approve an income tax on a two-thirds vote, without any restrictions
on how the new revenue could be spent. Lawmakers could even choose to spend it
on corporate tax breaks, rather than on education or any other critical state
needs.

At its core, Proposition 4 is anti-public education, and if
educators don’t raise their voices against it, who will?

House Bill 3, which provided billions of dollars in new
state aid for educator pay raises and other classroom needs, got most of the
attention during this year’s legislative session, as well it should have. It
had been several years since the Legislature made such a heavy investment in
Texas’ future, and it happened only because TSTA members and other educators
voted education first in last year’s legislative elections.

We replaced several anti-education incumbents in the House
and the Senate with new lawmakers who knew that being pro-public schools was
much more than and smile and a pat on the nearest teacher’s head.

But the Legislature, with the votes of several lawmakers who
should have known better, also slipped in and passed a proposed constitutional
amendment that will appear on the Nov. 5 ballot as Proposition 4. If voters
approve it, its effects may not be felt for years, but eventually it could end
up shuttering public schools and crippling other important services.

Proposition 4 would make it more difficult to enact a
personal income tax, something that isn’t going to happen in Texas anytime soon
anyway. But of more critical importance to Texas’ future, Proposition 4 also
would wipe out a constitutional provision that dedicates any future income tax
revenue to education.

This provision, the so-called Bullock amendment, was added
to the Texas Constitution, with voter approval, in 1993, when the legislative
majority had a much keener sense of the future and the growing needs of a
growing state than the current state leadership demonstrates. The provision
says that a personal income tax can be imposed in Texas only with the approval
of a majority of Texas voters. And at least two thirds of the revenue from an
income tax would have to be spent to reduce school property taxes and the
remainder to increase education funding.

All that potential education funding will disappear if
voters approve Proposition 4. The Legislature at some future date could still
approve an income tax on a two-thirds vote of both the House and the Senate
and, with voter approval, could choose to spend the money on anything.

Supporters of Proposition 4 would like you to believe that
Texas has an income tax “crisis.” We don’t. With or without Proposition 4, the
Legislature isn’t likely to approve an income tax for years. But sooner or
later, lawmakers may have to consider an income tax to meet growing spending
needs, and Proposition 4 will make their jobs more difficult, with schools
forced to scramble for funding.

Proposition 4 could even provoke a more-immediate crisis.
Because the amendment doesn’t define individuals as living persons, it could
encourage business groups to go to court and seek rulings exempting
corporations from having to pay billions in state franchise taxes. If they are
successful, billions of dollars would have to be cut from education and other
programs.

The only viable recourse for educators is to continue voting
for education first. That will include voting for more education friendly
legislative candidates in 2020…and voting AGAINST Proposition 4 this fall.

Early voting has started and will run through Nov. 1.

It was a coincidence that Speaker Nancy Pelosi chose National Voter Registration Day to announce her decision to begin a formal impeachment inquiry into President Trump, but those of us who want another president better heed a strong message in the timing.

Impeachment is a justifiable response to this president. But whether he is unseated will depend on next year’s election, not on an impeachment inquiry that may never come to a vote in the House, much less result in a conviction in the Senate, where Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, aided and abetted by the likes of Texas Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, will continue to be Trump’s chief enabler and protector.

The stakes for the 2020 presidential race already were sky-high because the outrages have been many under the Trump administration:

# A continuing assault on public education and other services critical to millions of Americans and the country’s future.

# A continuing assault on basic decency, including racist rhetoric from the White House, the separation of thousands of migrant children from their parents at the southern border and cramming migrant kids into detention facilities little better than cages.

# An incompetent commander-in-chief who ignores constitutional restraints, repeatedly lies to the American people and seemingly takes delight in widening racial, cultural and ideological divisions to a level not seen in this country since perhaps the Civil War.

Only a few hours after Pelosi’s announcement, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, one of Trump’s most-outspoken allies in Texas, issued a statement predicting that “this high-risk strategy by the Democrats will only galvanize and energize the president’s supporters in Texas and across the country.”

Although I rarely agree with Patrick’s political priorities or pronouncements, he is right about this one.

About one-third of the voters in this country, maybe more, believe everything Trump says or don’t care. In their view, what’s wrong with the president of the United States pressuring the president of a foreign country to help him undermine a political opponent? Regardless of the outrage, they will follow Trump over the cliff -- and take the rest of the country with them. The impeachment announcement already has set their social networks afire, and their trolls are working overtime.

Next year’s elections for president, the U.S. Senate, the U.S. House and the Texas Legislature already were going to be critical for educators, students, consumers and anyone else who values our public school system, our network of life-saving and life-enhancing public services, our national defense and our very system of government.

The impeachment announcement means we will have to step up our hard work to force the changes we need at the ballot box.