Grading Texas – Page 91 – Texas State Teachers Association

Politics and education don’t always mix

Except for former candidate Jeb Bush’s wrong-headed ideas about school accountability and privatization and Ted Cruz’s vow to abolish the Department of Education, candidates for the Republican presidential nomination have mostly ignored the needs of public schools.

So, it’s not much of a surprise when the candidates and their key political supporters also sound as if they have forgotten a lot of what they ever learned in school, particularly about the system of government under which they hold and seek office.

Consider a statement that Gov. Greg Abbott made this week in an interview with The Texas Tribune, after he had endorsed Cruz for president. Asked if he, as governor, could work with Donald Trump as president, Abbott replied that he “can work with any president…and it’s a whole lot easier working with a federal government that follows the Constitution as opposed to violate the Constitution.”

The answer was largely non-responsive as it relates to Trump, since no one really knows what he would try to do with the Constitution as Bully-in-Chief.

Cruz fancies himself a constitutionalist, but he was one of two White House candidates (Bush was the other) proposing after the Paris terrorist attacks to ban Syrian refugees from entering the United States, unless they were Christian. That idea doubtlessly sounded good to Cruz’s right-wing base – which is why he proposed it – but it clearly would violate constitutional protections against religious discrimination.

Abbott tried to ban Syrian refugees from entering Texas, even though immigration, under the Constitution, is a responsibility of the federal government, not the states.

As attorney general before he was governor, Abbott may have set a record suing the federal government and bragged about it. He has never bragged, however, about losing most of those suits, even with a very conservative circuit court with jurisdiction over Texas and a conservative U.S. Supreme Court.

So, now Abbott wants to promote a national effort to rewrite the Constitution to remove safeguards he finds offensive. Fortunately, his idea has about as much chance of becoming reality as Trump has of entering a monastery.

Maybe what Abbott meant to say to the reporter was, “It would be a whole lot easier working with a federal government that interprets the Constitution the way I want it to.”

There are no educational requirements for political candidates or officeholders, and I am not proposing any. But I wonder how many of them could pass the citizenship test required of immigrants who have become naturalized citizens because they really do value our Constitution.

School privatization group increases donations in key educaton race

Texans for Education Reform (TER), the Austin-based school privatization group that wants Chente Quintanilla to help it turn public schools into cash cows for well-heeled entrepreneurs, now has invested almost $300,000 – maybe more by the time you read this – into Quintanilla’s effort to unseat state Rep. Mary Gonzalez in the Democratic primary for House District 75 in El Paso.

A victory by TER and Quintanilla would be a serious loss to school children in El Paso and throughout Texas because Gonzalez, as I have written before, is a true advocate for public schools and has the record to prove it.

Gonzalez has voted to increase school funding and reduce standardized testing. And, as a member of the House Public Education Committee, she has opposed private school vouchers and other school privatization schemes. Quintanilla, as a House member a few years ago, voted for a school finance law that created a permanent funding shortage for public education and voted to increase high-stakes testing.

Despite its name, TER is not interested in real education reform. Its goal is to convince the legislature to expand corporate charter schools and experiment with other privatization ventures that offer its business supporters new investment opportunities – with your tax dollars. The more charter schools, for example, the more rental opportunities for TER members, etc., etc.

When he was in the House, Quintanilla also voted against strong regulations for charter schools, which operate with your tax dollars.

TER has contributed almost $200,000 to Quintanilla during the past month alone in the form of in-kind donations for TV advertising, direct mail to voters, social media, consulting and get out the vote efforts. That kind of support will be hard for Quintanilla to ignore back in Austin if it helps him defeat Gonzalez and TER comes calling. And TER will come calling.

School kids, parents and educators can’t afford to lose Gonzalez. With early voting ending on Friday and Election Day next Tuesday, Gonzalez can use every pro-education vote that District 75 has to offer.

Gonzalez isn’t the only strong supporter of public schools that TER is trying to unseat. Among other targets, the group also is trying to defeat state Rep. Gary VanDeaver of New Boston in the Republican primary for House District 1 in Northeast Texas.

VanDeaver is a former public school administrator, but TER has contributed more than $100,000 for advertising and campaign mail to his opponent, George Lavender, a former House member who voted to cut $5.4 billion from public education in 2011.

Education reform? Baloney.

Trading the pope for the education commissioner

Gov. Greg Abbott turned down an invitation to attend Pope Francis’ appearance today in Juarez, the Mexican city across the border from El Paso. He cited a scheduling conflict. Today was the day he planned to formally swear in the new state education commissioner, Mike Morath.

Governors, of course, can change their schedules – if they want to. But Abbott didn’t, which may seem puzzling because he is a devout Catholic. But Austin American-Statesman editorial writer Tara Trower Doolittle offered an explanation.

“Although Francis’ visit to the United States last fall was met with rock star enthusiasm by the public, his reception by Republican leaders was more muted,” she wrote. “While Catholic theology and GOP ideology align on matters of abortion and gay marriage, the list of issues where they part ways is long: global warming, immigration, Syrian refugees, aid for the poor and the death penalty.”

And she added: “Francis has used his popularity and his pulpit to remind those in power of where the Church stands. Considering the fallout from Pope Francis’ visit last fall, maybe Abbott is wise to stay away.”

Yes, the governor may have avoided a papal tongue-lashing for a chance to brag about his new education pick.

http://viewpoints.blog.statesman.com/2016/02/17/3809/

Farney — the only choice for education in GOP House 20 race

State Rep. Marsha Farney of Georgetown is one of a number of Republican legislators whom TSTA is supporting for re-election because they value public education, the only issue on which TSTA bases its endorsements. Farney is a former, award-winning teacher and school counselor and a public school parent who knows first-hand what works and doesn’t work for school children.

During the last legislative session, she also advocated successfully for an additional $768 million for TRS-Care, the health care program that is so crucial to the well-being of thousands of retired teachers.

Farney is a conservative Republican whose supporters also include the National Rifle Association and the Texas Alliance for Life, an anti-abortion rights group. Despite her conservative credentials, however, Farney is being targeted for defeat by right-wing ideologues in her District 20 primary race.

Her opponents, including such extremist groups as Empower Texans and Texas Eagle Forum, want to run state government off the cliff, and lawmakers like Farney and House Speaker Joe Straus, whom she supports, are standing in their way. These extremists want to all but shut down state government, slashing public education and other public services.

Farney’s primary race is important because District 20 is heavily Republican and the primary winner will represent the Central Texas area in the Texas House during the 2017 legislative session and, perhaps, for years to come. Farney has earned re-election.

So has Joe Straus, who has two right-wing opponents in his Republican primary race in his home district in San Antonio. And so have several other incumbent Republican supporters of Straus who are being targeted by the same groups in other races throughout Texas.

The anti-Farney and anti-Straus forces are not above over-exaggeration and downright lying in their efforts to shove state government back into the 19^th century. Some also are not above spreading anti-Semitic innuendo, which has entered both the Farney and Straus races. Straus is Jewish.

Running against Farney is Terry Wilson, a retired Army colonel and wounded battlefield veteran, who says good things about education but whose main interests seem to be fighting “liberals” and Joe Straus. That’s why Empower Texans and the Texas Eagle Forum are supporting him. They have no interest in public education, except to dismantle it.

http://www.texastribune.org/2016/02/16/straus-empower-texans-play-familiar-roles-house-ra/

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