The Dishonor Roll

Do the Republican members of Texas’ congressional delegation represent the best interests of school kids, their teachers and Texas taxpayers? I certainly have my opinion, but take a look at the following figures and judge for yourself.

This is a breakdown of the estimated amount of money that schools in each lawmaker’s district are expected to receive under the education jobs funding bill that each one of them voted against earlier this week. Also included are the estimated education jobs that potentially are at stake in each district. Thanks to overwhelming Democratic support, the bill passed and was quickly signed by President Obama. And, it was fully funded by offsets in other spending programs. So, it doesn’t add to the federal deficit.

As a whole, the state of Texas stands to gain $830 million and save 14,500 educators’ jobs – if Gov. Rick Perry’s political prancing against the bill doesn’t deprive Texas of its share.

These estimates were compiled by the National Education Association, based on federal funding formulas. Here is how much (in funding and jobs) each of the following members of Congress voted against for his or her district’s schools:

Louie Gohmert of Tyler, District 1 $20.3 million, 362 jobs.
Ted Poe of Humble, District 2 $14.6 million, 260 jobs.
Sam Johnson of Plano, District 3 $18.7 million, 332 jobs.
Ralph Hall of Rockwall, District 4 $16.9 million, 301 jobs.
Jeb Hensarling of Dallas, District 5 $16.1 million, 288 jobs.
Joe Barton of Ennis, District 6 $21.5 million, 383 jobs.
John Culberson of Houston, District 7 $10.1 million, 180 jobs.
Kevin Brady of The Woodlands, District 8 $16.6 million, 295 jobs.
Michael McCaul of Austin, District 10 $15.4 million, 274 jobs.
Michael Conaway of Midland, District 11 $20.8 million, 371 jobs.
Kay Granger of Fort Worth, District 12 $18.3 million, 325 jobs.
Mac Thornberry of Clarendon, District 13 $19.9 million, 355 jobs.
Ron Paul of Lake Jackson, District 14 $18.2 million, 325 jobs.
Lamar Smith of San Antonio, District 21 $14.1 million, 252 jobs.
Pete Olson of Sugar Land, District 22 $15.6 million, 278 jobs.
Kenny Marchant of Coppell, District 24 $14 million, 249 jobs.
Michael Burgess of Lewisville, District 26 $16.1 million, 287 jobs.
John Carter of Round Rock, District 31 $20.4 million, 363 jobs.
Pete Sessions of Dallas, District 32 $21.7 million, 387 jobs.

And, in lock step with the above bunch, Republican congressional candidate Bill Flores of Bryan, Democratic Rep. Chet Edwards’ challenger in District 17, already is attacking Edwards for doing the right thing – voting for the funding bill. Educators, meanwhile, are praising Edwards (at least they should be). The bill is worth $22.5 million and 401 jobs to District 17.

Both U.S. senators from Texas, Republicans Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn, also voted against the funding.