Grading Texas – Page 136 – Texas State Teachers Association

Anti-public school voucher advocate advising Abbott

Although Attorney General Greg Abbott has been in public office for years, long enough to qualify as a career politician, his campaign for governor so far has been one, long anti-government crusade. And, don’t kid yourselves, folks. If you are anti-government, you are anti-public education.

Judging from his own rhetoric, Abbott’s proudest accomplishment as attorney general has been suing the federal government. Fortunately, he lost many of those lawsuits, including his suit to overturn the Affordable Care Act, a law designed to give millions of Americans – including thousands of Texas school children – a chance at decent health care.

So, what did Abbott do yesterday? Did he interrupt his learning-about-education tour to unveil a proposal to improve public school funding? Of course not. He is still defending the $5.4 billion that the legislative majority cut from the public education budget two years ago. Remember?

Instead, Abbott’s campaign hosted an online discussion with a policy adviser named Merrill Matthews. Although the announced subject was how to continue to fight Obamacare, Matthews also wants to wipe out direct, public funding of public schools in favor of issuing vouchers directly to parents so they can send their children to private schools at taxpayer expense.

The idea ostensibly is to give parents the “right to choose” their children’s education. But, in reality, the proposal would help finish the job the legislative majority and Abbott already have begun – shutting down neighborhood public schools.

From what I have read so far, Abbot doesn’t have a clue about the needs of public schools, the educators who work in them and the students who attend them. But what else can we expect, really, from someone running an anti-government campaign?

No defense for Abbott on education

You could say that Democrat Wendy Davis put Republican Greg Abbott on the defensive in the first exchange over education of their gubernatorial race. But, in truth, Abbott already had put himself on the defensive because he was on the wrong side of education long before he ever launched his gubernatorial campaign.

As Davis correctly pointed out, Abbott persisted in defending an unconstitutional school finance system, even after the legislative majority had slashed $5.4 billion from public schools. Abbott’s response that he was required by the state constitution to defend state laws was weak, coming from someone who aspires to lead Texas.

He, instead, could have demanded that the Legislature give him a school finance law that was defensible under that very same constitution. It didn’t require another court order to point out the obvious unfairness and inadequacy of the current system, but that is exactly what Texas got, despite Abbott’s attempted defense.

Moreover, Abbott dug himself into an even deeper hole on education a few weeks ago by announcing a so-called “budget plan” that would result in even deeper cuts to public schools and other critical state needs. The elements of Abbott’s budget proposal were designed simply to appeal to right-wing ideologues who want to continue to cut every government program in sight, without regard for the consequences.

All of which makes Abbott’s sounding board tour – or whatever he is calling it – of selected public schools seem very puny. At his first stop in Plano the other day, he promoted computers and online learning. In doing so, he tried to ignore the underlying financial struggle of many school districts with overcrowded classrooms, inadequate supplies, thousands of children whose families can’t afford computers and teachers having to take second jobs to make ends meet.

Plano ISD, incidentally, was one of several hundred school districts involved in the school finance lawsuit against the state, the lawsuit that Abbott lost. Had Davis been governor, she would have vetoed the budget cuts, forced the Legislature to try again and may have helped the state avoid the lawsuit.

Davis cut to the bottom line, while Abbott stammered.

A dilemma for business: education or extremism?

To most educators and others who actually care about improving the future of Texas, Michael Quinn Sullivan is not a household name, and thank goodness for that. He is an agitator for a misnamed group called Empower Texans that basically wants the Legislature to stop spending tax dollars for public schools, health care, highways and just about any other public service critical to moving Texas ahead in the 21^st century. He was one of the reasons the Legislature left several billion dollars of taxpayer money sitting unspent in the Rainy Day Fund while slashing $5.4 billion from public education two years ago.

Sullivan’s massive email campaigns and other intimidation tactics in Republican primary races in recent years have helped replace some Republican legislators who dared to be moderate with ideologues from the far right who share Sullivan’s cut-cut-cut litany.

In the blog post linked below, Texas Monthly’s Paul Burka notes that Sullivan finally may be getting some pushback from conservative members of the business community, donors who have a history of supporting Republican legislative candidates but now fear that the continued growth of extremism in the Texas Republican primary is, indeed, bad for business – particularly their businesses.

Contractors, after all, need tax dollars to build highways, and employers need a strong, educated workforce.

It is a war that is developing, not only in Texas, but also nationally.

The business community’s growing dilemma also makes me wonder what business contributors will do in the governor’s race. Traditionally, they have heaped millions on Attorney General Greg Abbott. But does Abbott continue to get their support in his race for governor? So far, Abbott’s gubernatorial campaign has ignored education, health care and every other legitimate Texas need in favor of looser gun laws and other hot-button, right-wing issues that won’t educate a single child or build a single mile of highway.

It’s something to think about.

http://www.texasmonthly.com/burka-blog/mqs-and-those-terribly-liberal-republicans

Abbott strikes another blow against public education

Since he announced his candidacy for governor, Attorney General Greg Abbott has had very little, if anything, to say about the value of public schools and the educators who teach our children. Instead, he continues to pander to the dreams of ideologues who wax nostalgic for the days of horse-drawn buggies, armed face offs outside the saloon and one-room school houses.

The likely Republican nominee’s latest strike against public education is, according to the Associated Press, a proposal to ban school districts from hiring lobbyists to represent them before the Legislature. He said not a word, of course, about the army of lobbyists demanding that the Legislature take large amounts of tax dollars from public schools for private school vouchers or corporate-style charters.

The truth is that school districts are not wasting large amounts of tax dollars on lobbying. Abbott simply is pandering to those Texans who are convinced that public schools are awash in cash, when, in fact, most school districts are still struggling from the $5.4 billion the legislative majority cut from public education two years ago.

Meanwhile, teachers, school administrators and school board members are an invaluable source of information for legislators. Unlike many self-styled education “reformers” who haven’t seen the inside of a classroom in years, teachers and other school officials are on the front lines of education every day. They know what the real needs of students are, and legislators and governors should make them their primary source of education information.

Abbott’s latest blow, though, is simply more of the same. He also continues to defend a school finance system that a judge already has declared unconstitutional because it is inadequate and treats students in property poor districts unfairly. And, a couple of weeks ago, Abbott unveiled a so-called “budget plan” that would make school funding even worse instead of making it a priority.

However, the attorney general is quick on the draw when it comes to other “priorities,” such as passing a law to make it legal to openly carry handguns in public. That priority may make him a perfect candidate for a role on a Gunsmoke remake or sheriff of Tombstone, Ariz., but it does not address the changing needs of 21^st century Texas.

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