| The Texas Association of Business (TAB) must really, really like El Paso State House candidate Hector Enriquez. Enriquez is running in the Democratic Primary for an open seat against BOR-endorsed Mary Gonzalez.
Enriquez also holds the dubious distinction as being the only non-incumbent Democrat to be endorsed by TAB. (And even then, TAB only endorsed 2 House incumbents - one who is unopposed). So, they're going out on a limb for this guy. They tend to endorse Republicans, and they definitely don't endorse normal, unsafe Democrats. Not in primaries...except Enriquez.
Perhaps it has to do with their part in the school finance lawsuits. That's what the Texas State Teachers Association believes, who sent this in a press release last week:
El Paso educators today challenged District 75 legislative candidate Hector Enriquez to explain why he apparently is promoting a special interest lawsuit that could devastate public schools in El Paso County.
"Mr. Enriquez is either unaware of the damage this lawsuit could inflict on our schools, or he is joining forces with those who would destroy our public education system," said Glenda Hawthorne, president of the Socorro Education Association.
Enriquez recently re-tweeted news that the Texas Association of Business (TAB) has joined a lawsuit filed by charter and private school advocates, which attempts to strike down education standards and safeguards crucial to maintaining a strong learning environment for students. Enriquez, a candidate for the Texas House District 75 seat in the May 29 Democratic primary, has been endorsed by TAB.
TAB joined the so-called "efficiency" lawsuit, which claims Chapter 21 of the Education Code is unconstitutional. The net effect of striking Chapter 21 would be repealing the 22-to-1 class size cap for elementary students, removing all training and certification requirements for teachers, eliminating critical class-preparation periods for teachers and jeopardizing teacher retirement benefits.
While it is encouraging to see anyone take issue with this Republican Legislature's record on public education, the largest problem is the gigantic slashes to funding, not standards that keep our education from going lower.
It's hard to tell exactly how conservative Enriquez's education ideas are, but between TAB, his Perry donations, and his scant issues page, we can probably connect the dots. You would think that a candidate in a safe Democratic seat would be a prouder progressive. |
