Grading Texas

There is a lot of symbolism, real and imagined, in politics, which is why I find it interesting that Gov. Rick Perry has chosen Charleston, S.C., as the spot to make it clear on Saturday that he is, indeed, running for the Republican presidential nomination.

Most likely, he picked Charleston because it is a major city in an early primary state that offers some of the reddest redmeat conservatives among Republican primary voters. He will be speaking to the RedState Gathering, a conference of conservative bloggers.

South Carolina, you may recall, was where GOP primary voters rescued George W. Bush’s struggling presidential bid against a thenmore moderate John McCain in 2000.

Reaching farther back into history, Charleston Harbor was where the first shots were fired in the Civil War against Fort Sumter.

Perry isn’t a secessionist, although he made remarks last year that appealed to those who like to think secession is an option. And, Washingtonbashing undoubtedly will be a major theme of his presidential campaign.

He probably could still find some applause for the “S” word in Charleston, at least among the voters he will be courting, but you can bet that Perry has dropped that word from his public vocabulary.

Republicans in Wisconsin are taking a lot of comfort from the fact that they still have a majority (one seat) in their state Senate, following yesterday’s recall elections against six Republican senators who voted earlier this year for Gov. Scott Walker’s proposal to strip most collective bargaining rights from teachers and other public workers.

Republicans, who held on to four of the seats but lost two other recall races to Democratic challengers, are spinning the results as a big win for Walker and his conservative, antiworker, antipublic education agenda. But the truth of the matter is that Walker’s power grab has cost his party two Senate seats and continues to reenergize teachers, workers and others who recognize the value of public schools and the crucial role that teachers play in them.

Walker and his supporters contended they were trying to solve their state’s budgetary problems, but in reality they were pursuing an ideological agenda to attack public education and public service. In addition to restricting teacher bargaining rights and other pocketbook issues, Walker presided over major cuts in public education funding, much as Gov. Rick Perry did in Texas.

Walker and Perry are two peas in an ideological pod. Later this year, Democrats in Wisconsin will try to recall Walker. Unlike Wisconsin, though, Texas voters don’t have the ability to recall elected state officials, even those distracted by presidential ambitions.

One Democratic state senator in Wisconsin survived a recall election last month, prompted by Republican opposition to the Democrats’ decision to flee the state to try to stop Walker’s legislation. Two other Democratic senators face recall elections next week.

-From Education Week

The transformation of “free” public schools into “fee” public schools continues. As I have written in previous posts, the Keller ISD’s decision to charge for school bus service may be only the most dramatic example of a new round of fees in Texas public schools, thanks to the Legislature’s and governor’s recent budgetcutting.

If what is happening in Chicago area schools, meanwhile, is any indication, the growth of fees in the public schools may be limited only by administrators’ imaginations and the continued buckpassing of legislators.

Click on the link before to see a roundup by the Chicago Tribune of fees being assessed by public schools up there. There are registration fees, course fees, “roster fees” for kids who make athletic teams, as well as fees for books, labs, etc.

The newspaper found one high school parent whose final tally for her son’s sophomore classes was $665.

“This is like private school,” she said.

Maybe that’s where some governors and legislators would like to see us headed.

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/08/08/01mct_ilfees.h31.html?tkn=UMWF9Ft6%2F%2F8vF%2BdEuxON2wcHsAF2SQ4N3QD%2F&cmp=ENLEUNEWS2

If you have any doubt (and you shouldn’t) about the eagerness of some private schools to siphon tax dollars from the public schools, click on the link at the bottom of this post. The article from Education News Colorado is about a lawsuit challenging a voucher pilot program in that state.

Twentythree private schools in one county, including 18 with religious affiliations, are participating in the program. As the story points out, the private schools – unlike the public schools – can cherrypick their students while using tax dollars to build new classrooms and hire teachers. In short, the Colorado voucher program is an economic development boost for a small number of private schools at a time when Colorado, like Texas, is under attack for underfunding its public education system.

Plaintiffs in a second lawsuit underway in a separate courtroom in Denver argue that Colorado public schools are underfunded by about $2 billion to $4 billion a year, yet the Legislature in that state has carved out more than $2 million for private school tuition.

Granted, the voucher program is limited to 500 children in one county, but that $2 million of tax money should have gone to public schools. The plaintiffs in the antivoucher suit argue that the program violates at least six sections of the Colorado Constitution, including a prohibition against public aid to private schools and churches.

The Texas Legislature, which slashed more than $5 billion from our public schools this year, at least didn’t enact a voucher program. But, even in the face of Texas’ huge revenue shortfall, voucher legislation was filed in Austin, and voucher advocates will try again when Texas lawmakers reconvene in 2013.

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/08/03/37enc_voucher.h30.html?tkn=NQWF7S2oF8Ei4YbKpM5Tv%2FHtR6xMgrYcEVSl&cmp=ENLEUNEWS2