Another education-cutter trying to sneak back into office

 

Rodney Anderson, a former legislator and former tormentor of public schools, is trying to make a comeback this November, so he can pick up where he left off three years ago, making deep cuts into educators’ jobs and children’s opportunities.

Anderson is trying to sneak back into office by claiming falsely to be an education champion, and I am sure he isn’t the only education-cutter out there using the same act. His, however, recently was called to my attention. So voters in Texas House District 105 in Dallas County, you have been warned.

Anderson, the Republican nominee in that race, voted for the $5.4 billion in school budget cuts in 2011, before falling victim to redistricting and losing a reelection race in 2012. Now, he is running again.

In a recent campaign flyer, Anderson made several education promises, including pledges to put students and teachers first, spend more money in the classroom and allow schools to “keep their best and brightest teachers.”

Each one is a hollow promise that Anderson cannot be counted upon to even try to deliver.

The budget cuts he voted for the last time he was in the Texas House cost 11,000 teacher jobs, including almost 200 in Irving and Grand Prairie, which are within District 105. Many of those lost jobs had belonged to some of our best teachers. And, thousands of children were crammed into overcrowded classrooms.

He voted for the cuts while leaving several billion dollars of taxpayer money unspent in the state’s Rainy Day Fund. So, if he tells you he had to make the cuts, don’t believe him.

Anderson’s opponent, Susan Motley, also promises to give a high priority to students and teachers, and, unlike Anderson, she is telling the truth, and she will deliver for education.

Anderson and his fellow budget-cutters – candidates and officeholders up and down the ballot — will continue to cloud the air during the remainder of the election season by giving lip service to education and rewriting their political histories. It is easy for voters to get lost in the smoke. So, to be on the safe side, click on the link below and check out TSTA’s endorsements in contested state races. TSTA endorses candidates and officeholders who truly are advocates for public schools, people who can be counted upon to deliver for students and educators, not spin fairy tales.

http://tsta.org/sites/default/files/EndorsedCandidates14_0.pdf

 

 

 

 

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