Grading Texas

Educators have many important reasons for voting against Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Attorney General Ken Paxton in the upcoming general election. Most have to do with the survival of their profession and their ability to meet the educational needs of the children entrusted to their care.

These would include issues such as inadequate school funding, promotion of private school vouchers, political lies against teachers, meddling in their classrooms and whitewashing their curricula.

But something even more basic is at stake in this year’s election, and that is the survival of our election system itself – and ultimately our country as a democratic republic. Trust in election results is essential in a country where people choose their government leaders in elections, and Greg Abbott, Dan Patrick and Ken Paxton all have helped Donald Trump erode that trust and put our election system at risk.

Polls indicate that 70 percent of Republicans in this country still believe Trump’s lie that Joe Biden “stole” the 2020 election and is not the legitimate president of the United States. This is after a succession of judges, including the U.S. Supreme Court, found no merit to the claims of Trump and his supporters — and after Republican election administrators in key battleground states also denied the former president’s claims.

Although Trump bears most of the blame for this attack on democracy, he has had many enablers and abettors, including hundreds of prominent Republican elected officials who refuse to announce loudly, clearly and repeatedly in no uncertain terms that the lie is a lie. Among them are Abbott, Patrick and Paxton, the three top state officeholders on the Texas ballot this November. They know Trump is lying but for their own political reasons refuse to denounce him.

Paxton filed a lawsuit to overthrow Biden’s election, proving his allegiance to Trump over democracy and lies over truth. Paxton also has spent most of his time as the state’s top lawyer under criminal indictment for felony fraud. He, of course, is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law, but no one knows when – or if – he ever will come to trial. Meanwhile, whenever Trump whistles, Paxton jumps.

Patrick, who regularly promotes ideology over democracy, was Trump’s Texas campaign chairman in both 2016 and 2020 and still regularly courts and praises the former president, with whom he shares a large political base. Members of that base believe the lie and are prepared to destroy the election system on Trump’s behalf, as the attack on the U.S. Capitol already has demonstrated.

Abbott also courts members of Trump’s political base and fears them. So, he avoids saying or doing anything that would turn them against him.

Abbott’s, Patrick’s and Paxton’s refusals to directly challenge the “stolen election” lie – half-hearted ambiguous answers to reporters’ questions don’t count — help the lie continue to grow and undermine a governmental system they all swore oaths to uphold. Their refusals are a sign of cowardice and a disrespect for democracy that alone makes them unfit for public office.

Clay Robison

Gov. Greg Abbott will do almost anything, it seems, to promote school safety without addressing the main issue – the need for gun reform.

He has promoted legislative studies, safety audits, surprise school inspections and locked doors. Now, he has enlisted the help of a fake Texas Ranger, who also happens to be a longtime spokesperson for the National Rifle Association.

Abbott announced that Chuck Norris – former star of the TV series, Walker Texas Ranger, and other tough guy roles – will do public service announcements to help spread the message that anyone who sees suspicious activity around a school should send an alert to the iWatchTexas reporting system.

“Law enforcement can’t stop the bad guys if they don’t know who they are,” Norris says in one PSA. “That’s why I wanted to tell you about iWatch, a website, phone app and service that allows Texans to report suspicious activity.”

If one of Norris’ PSAs actually saves a life, it will be worth the effort.

But how many more lives could potentially be saved if Abbott would promote legislation to make it more difficult for dangerous people to obtain firearms?

He won’t do that though. Instead, he continues to bring out initiatives – some people would call them gimmicks – to pretend to be promoting school safety while keeping the NRA happy.

Norris not only has promoted the NRA, he also has been a spokesperson for Glock, the gun manufacturer.

These PSAs should include the disclaimer: Approved by the National Rifle Association.

Gov. Greg Abbott deploys Chuck Norris to help stop the next school shooting

Clay Robison

Unless the NRA forgets his name or his extremist political base is suddenly struck with a bolt of reason, Gov. Abbott will not address the gun reform issue in any meaningful way. But he will continue to play games – to the point of lying – with gun-weary Texans, including the families and friends of mass shooting victims.

Recently, the Uvalde school board made the politically necessary but wasted effort of passing a resolution asking the governor to call a special legislative session to raise the legal age for purchasing an assault-style rifle from 18 to 21. This, of course, was in response to the fact that the 18-year-old shooter who killed 19 elementary students and two teachers with an assault rifle had easily and legally purchased his weapon from a local gun store.

When a reporter for The Texas Tribune asked for a response from the governor’s office to the school board’s request, an Abbott spokesperson replied that the governor “has taken immediate action to address all aspects” of the Uvalde tragedy.

That was a deliberate, direct lie because the governor has done nothing to address the most critical aspect of the shooting – the ease with which the shooter obtained his murder weapon. Nor has Abbott done anything to keep guns out of the hands of other dangerous people and potential mass shooters.

His spokesperson added, “All options remain on the table.”

Another lie. As far as guns are concerned, the only thing remaining on Abbott’s table is a pile of campaign cash from the gun lobby.

As long as he is in office, Greg Abbott will never seek to enact sensible gun reform laws, not even to protect young children who are among the most vulnerable of his constituents. I would be happy to see the governor prove me wrong, but that isn’t going to happen.

Uvalde school board pushes Greg Abbott for special legislative session to increase legal age for purchasing assault rifles

Clay Robison

The huge surplus that Comptroller Glenn Hegar says the Legislature will have for next year’s budgetary deliberations could be good news for budget-strapped school districts and underpaid school employees. But even with a $27 billion jump (maybe more) in general revenue and the state’s Rainy Day savings account growing to an anticipated $13.6 billion, additional education funding is not a sure thing.

The first priority for Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, if they are reelected in November, will be property tax cuts with almost everything else — except more wasteful spending on bogus border “security” — an afterthought. But with a careful allocation of funds, there should be enough money for property tax relief as well as some other pressing state needs, including public schools, health care, infrastructure improvements and a long-overdue cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, for retired educators.

Patrick’s initial response was to propose using $4 billion of the surplus for property tax cuts and then to shortchange schools. He wants to continue to pay for the teacher pay raises and maintain the education funding approved in 2019 and pay not for a COLA, but another “13th check” for education retirees. That isn’t nearly enough. It is basically maintaining the status quo, which is woefully inadequate.

Patrick and Abbott also are likely to take much of the wind out of the windfall by insisting that legislative budget writers honor the state constitutional spending limit and leave a lot of that extra $27 billion unspent. The spending limit can be overridden with supermajority votes of the House and the Senate. But conservative bragging rights and their goal of squeezing public education and state government are more important to Abbott, Patrick and their allies than taking this rare opportunity to make meaningful progress toward meeting the state’s basic needs.

No one wants to empty the state’s savings account, but there is enough money in the Rainy Day Fund to spend some of it on public needs that are becoming emergencies. Abbott and Patrick, if reelected, are likely to take the extremist position and refuse to spend any of the savings, while the fund continues to grow.

So, even with the huge revenue growth fueled by inflation and high oil prices, writing a new state budget will be difficult. If educators and other Texans who value public services want a fair budget, they will vote to make that possible by electing a new governor and a new lieutenant governor in November.

Inflation, high energy prices mean the Texas Legislature will have unprecedented funds to allocate next year

Clay Robison