Top 10 reasons to vote against Rick Perry

There are more, but I had to stop somewhere.

# Flunking math His 2006 property tax cuts left an annual $4.5 billion shortage in the state budget because he didn’t fully pay for them. Now, school kids and educators are paying the consequences with outdated textbooks, crowded classrooms and pink slips.

# Starving public education He wants to hold teachers and school kids accountable for their performances but refuses to hold himself accountable for an underfunded school finance system. Under his watch, Texas’ perpupil expenditures are 38th in the country and average teacher pay is 34th, several thousand dollars below the national average. The rankings will sink even lower if Perry, as he has promised, gets to slash and burn his way to “curing” a $21 billion revenue shortfall next year. His handpicked education commissioner already has proposed $261 million in additional cuts from the public education budget.

# All hair and no cattle He talks a good game of economic development and job creation, but underfunded public schools and universities undermine Texas’ ability to adequately prepare young people for the jobs that will make or break the state’s future.

# Payforplay governor – While school districts struggle with their budgets, Perry doles out millions of taxpayer dollars to private startup companies belonging to some of his highdollar political contributors.

# Twilight Zoner He pretends that the dropout rate – one of the state’s most pressing social and economic problems – is much lower than the onethird or more that it is. And, he vetoed a bipartisan prekindergarten bill that would have helped encourage many youngsters to stay in school.

# History class clown One of his former State Board of Education chairs was a leader of the rightwing clique that ravaged social studies curriculum standards, much to the delight of latenight TV comedians. Interjecting their own religious and political beliefs, the rightwingers tried to rewrite history, downplaying the roles of blacks and Hispanics, elevating Confederacy President Jefferson Davis and trying to demote Thomas Jefferson. Perry refused to “second guess” their antics.

# Still in the 19th century – Perry’s refusal to repudiate secession at an antigovernment Tea Party rally also prompted national ridicule, and his erroneous claim that Texas had the right to secede demonstrated an alarming lapse in his own knowledge of Texas and American history.

# The buckpasser – The tuition deregulation law, which he signed, is passing more of the higher education costs to students and their families and pricing more and more young people out of college.

# The bureaucratic meddler – He tried to impose a poorly conceived, onesizefitsall executive order that 65 percent of a school district’s budget be spent on classroom instruction. The Legislature axed it. He also has led efforts to impose a merit pay plan on teachers, despite evidence that such plans waste taxpayer dollars.

# The Bahama beachcomber – He invited two of the biggest enemies of public education – private school voucher advocate James Leininger and antigovernment guru Grover Norquist – to join him in the Bahamas for a few days of sand, surf and stiffing the public schools.

Early voting started today. This is your chance to do something about it!

6 Comments

  • my whole problem here is, haveing lived in Houston, I can tell you that Bill “Elmer Fudd” White is not any better….so that leaves us, as educators, between a rock and a hard place….do we vote for Tweedle Dee or Tweedle Dum

  • Since Ann Richard’s term for Governor, Texas hasn’t had a candidate that may possibly beat Rick Perry. While most of us have never met Bill White, he seems to be well liked by most educators. Rick,as a newly retired teacher, I am saddened by you turning your back on Federal money. What were you thinking? Too much paper work. Welcome to the club. My old colleagues want to thank you for the new paper work which shows more accountability. Good luck,old pals. It seems to me that what’s good for the goose….etc., should be good for the gander.
    We got your drift when you placed the blame on the Democratics, and of course Pres. and Pelousi. Great come back. Goes to show you can fool some of the people…etc. May the best man win.

  • Sad to see a couple of comments here…first off, don’t forget that Congressman Doggett Democrat or Repub, I forget 😉 who put the governor in the Gordian knot of not getting fed funding or overruling the TX constitution. Secondly, Mr. Burka…the merit pay idea Governor Perry championed was apparently so horrible, the Obama Administration has now run with it. Must be a HORRIBLE idea.

    As an educator, I think Perry probably has some ideas that are contrary to what I believe. I might even end up fighting him on some points regarding this as a private citizen. However, to think that Bill White is going to do ANYTHING different with the job is simply willful ignorance on your part, Mr. Burka. I get that you’re probably a dyedinthewool Democrat voter, but please don’t drink the KoolAid of thinking that this crooked, posturing Democrat is any better than the crooked, posturing Republican you are slamming. Thanks 🙂

  • Interesting that we’re 34th on teacher pay, since I know a lot of teachers move here (Houston) for the higher pay.

    Don’t forget that you can’t compare straight up pay, since it costs a lot more to live in other states so they need the higher pay.

    How does a textbook get outdated? Does 1+1 not equal 2 anymore? Did history somehow change?

  • This is depressing.

    Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio have fairly high teacher pay rates, but Austin, Tyler, Beaumont, Waco, Laredo, Amarillo, etc., all pay fairly low salaries for cities their size.

    And, btw, Chris, you do realize that teacher pay comparisons are judged against a standard that takes cost of living into account, not a straightup dollarfordollar comparison.

    “Did history somehow change?” Are you serious? You know, things have happened in history since 2001 (I believe it was) when the last set of Social Studies textbooks were adopted. And there have been mathematical and scientific discoveries since their last adoption as well.

    If the Republicans in the crowd don’t like some of us crossing party lines to vote for a Democrat, they should have helped us nominate a better candidate back in the Spring.

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