Grading Texas

A couple of readers objected to my characterization last week of Tea Party supporters as “teabaggers.” This was in an item about how moderate, proeducation candidates in three Republican legislative runoffs – including longtime state Rep. Delwin Jones of Lubbock – were defeated by proTea Party opponents. I did not mean to offend anyone with the characterization, but I will refrain from using it in the future.

I will not, however, quit criticizing the Tea Party movement and questioning why educators would be attracted to its antigovernment, slashandburn goals. When Tea Partiers talk about cutting government, some of the first people in their line of fire are teachers, bus drivers and other education professionals.

Most Tea Partiers aren’t secessionists, despite Gov. Rick Perry’s silly comment about that idea at a Tea Party rally last year. But Tea Partiers share one major goal. They all want to reduce or shrink government. Van Taylor, a Tea Party candidate who won a Republican runoff for the Texas House in Plano last week, has even boasted that he wants to “starve state government.”

Now, we all know what that means. If you starve state government, you are starving the public schools and public school teachers. Education – including public schools and universities accounts for the single biggest share (41 percent) of the state budget. Our public school enrollment grows by many thousands of kids each year, yet Texas ranks only 44th among the states in perpupil spending on instruction and 33rd in teacher pay. So, there isn’t a lot of waste in the classroom. But that’s one of the first places the homeschoolers and voucher advocates within the Tea Party movement will look.

Many school districts already are cutting back on educational programs and laying off teachers, partly because of the economy and partly because of poor support from Austin. Additionally, the Legislature is facing a revenue shortfall as high as $15 billion next January. Do you really want Gov. Perry and the Tea Partiers in charge of balancing the next state budget? I don’t think so.

Perry, a career politician for more than 20 years, has done everything he can to squeeze the life out of our public education system. Don’t let the Tea Partiers finish the job.

For sometime now, environmentalists have been unhappy with Gov. Rick Perry’s probusinessatjustaboutanycost appointees on the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. Now, educators – even those who don’t consider themselves particularly green – also have reason to be concerned.

According to a story in the Houston Chronicle, Valero Energy Corp., one of the country’s largest oil refiners, is asking TCEQ to expand the rules and give the company a full property tax break on equipment at five refineries it operates in Texas. If TCEQ agrees, school districts – which already are suffering serious budgetary problems – stand to lose untold millions in tax revenue. The potential loss to Houston ISD alone would be $2.5 million a year, the newspaper reports.

A provision in the Texas Constitution allows companies to receive tax exemptions for equipment that reduces pollution at the refinery. Valero is asking the TCEQ to grant it an exemption for equipment used to remove sulfur in the production of gasoline and diesel, but local officials say that reduces pollution from auto tailpipes, not at the refinery, as the constitutional provision requires.

The TCEQ’s staff has recommended Valero’s request be denied, but the Perryappointed commissioners have asked the staff to take another look at the issue.

“The three voting commissioners have expressed a willingness to give some tax relief to the company,” the Chronicle reported.

“It’s bigger than Valero,” Texas City ISD Superintendent Bob Brundrett told the newspaper. “With the exemption, then this also becomes BP and Shell and ExxonMobil.”

In other words, if the Valero request were granted, it would set a precedent that could produce a flood of tax breaks for refinery equipment that reduces pollution offsite. That would be very bad news for school districts, other local governments, homeowners, educators and school kids.

Here is a link to the Chronicle story:

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6959428.html

Tuesday’s Republican runoffs proved once again that a political minority – in this case, the antigovernment Tea Party movement – can have a major impact in lowturnout elections. The runoffs, however, didn’t establish whether the Tea Baggers will remain a minority or have taken their first steps to emerging as a major force on the Texas political landscape.

Educators better hope for the former. When a group is out to slash public services, as the Tea Baggers are, the public schools and teachers – which justifiably account for a large share of the state budget – have a lot to fear. If you’re not happy with your pay or classroom resources now, wait and see what happens if the homeschoolers and voucher champions take over the statehouse.

Tea Party coalitions of antiestablishment voters were instrumental in Charles Perry’s unseating of longtime state Rep. Delwin Jones in Lubbock and the Republican victories of John Frullo and Van Taylor for open Texas House seats in Lubbock and Plano. Only Frullo will have a Democratic opponent in November.

Fewer than 8,000 votes were cast in the race that Frullo won, and only about 8,500 votes were cast in Taylor’s race. They won in conservative districts where the Tea Party has some clout, and the Tea Baggers turned out. The PerryJones race attracted about twice as many voters, but Jones has had a target on his back for several years now, mainly because of his opposition to former House Speaker Tom Craddick.

Tea Baggers were not as successful in runoff races with more voters. Their favorite candidate, Rick Green, lost a statewide race for a Texas Supreme Court nomination after more mainstream Republicans became alarmed and rallied around his opponent.

Another farright candidate, Brian Russell, lost a Republican nomination for the State Board of Education. He had even been endorsed by incumbent Cynthia Dunbar, a retiring leader of the rightwing bloc that has made the board a national laughingstock. But more moderate Republicans rallied behind Russell’s opponent, Marsha Farney, in a race that attracted four times as many voters as most legislative runoffs.

The only clearcut Tea Party victory in the March 2 Republican primary was David Simpson’s upset of state Rep. Tommy Merritt in East Texas. Many Tea Baggers undoubtedly voted for Gov. Rick (whatever happened to secession?) Perry, but their favorite candidate, Debra Medina, went down in flames.

State Sen. Dan Patrick of Houston is betting (and hoping) that Tea Baggers are the wave of Texas’ political future. And so, apparently, are the other 57 Republican legislators listed as charter members of the new group, Independent Conservative Republicans of Texas, which Patrick announced the day before the runoff with fond words of tribute to the Tea Party movement.

Patrick is (politically) right. But is he correct? Time will tell.

From conservative talk show host to state senator and, now, founding father. It must be difficult for Dan Patrick to keep up with himself. His latest political endeavor, which he announced this morning, is a new organization called Independent Conservative Republicans of Texas, or ICROT (an interesting sounding acronym) for short.

Patrick lists himself as the founder of the group, which, so far, includes 14 Republican state senators, 44 Republican members of the Texas House and five Republican nominees for House seats. Membership will be by invitation only, he says.

But how independent is independent? Maybe, I suspect, as “independent” as the teabaggers allow it to be

At first blush, ICROT seems more than anything else to be an effort to give some mainstream political legitimacy – while protecting nervous Republican officeholders to the extremist “Tea Party” movement. This is the same political force that put the word “secession” back in our political vocabulary and helped Gov. Rick Perry win the Republican primary.

Patrick’s announcement gives prominent mention to the movement, which started making headlines on the political fringe in Texas about a year ago. And ICROT’s “core principles” recite a lot of Tea Party rhetoric – protecting our borders, protecting the “sovereign rights” of Texas, supporting strong family values and upholding JudeoChristian beliefs.

Educators, however, should be particularly concerned about one other principle – the new group’s pledge to “limit the size of government.” That may very well mean things like tying teacher pay to test scores, larger class sizes and property tax cuts over quality public schools.

Educators also should note that both the Senate Education and House Public Education committees are liberally (sorry, Dan) populated with ICROT charter members. IckRotters on the Senate Education Committee include Patrick, the vice chairman, and Sen. Florence Shapiro, the chairwoman. Those on the House Public Education Committee include Chairman Rob Eissler and Reps. Jimmie Don Aycock, Jim Jackson, Mark Shelton and Randy Weber.

Here is a link to ICROT’s website:
http://www.icrepublicans.com/welcome