Burnt Orange Report

TFN Ranks Educators On Education Issues

By Vince Leibowitz

The Texas Freedom Network has released a report card, ranking members of the Texas House on education issues.

Interestingly, the report card ranks Legislators using the same standards the state uses: Exemplary, Recognized, and Academically Unacceptable.

Of the 63 legislators ranked Exemplary, all but three are Democrats. Of the 23 listed as Recognized, all except two are Republicans. Democrats Al Edwards and Velma Luna made this list.

All 63 legislators ranked Academically Unacceptable are Republicans.

You can view the list here. The complete 'Report Card' is here.

Nevertheless, there are a couple of things you may want to know about the report card, though.

First, except for HB2, almost of all of the votes used to generate the rankings have to do with school vouchers, code named by the Republicans as "school choice." Second, it appears as though absences and 'present, not voting' instances aren't used in calculation of the percentage used to determine a legislator's ranking.

The reason for the selection of the legislation by TFN is, I'm sure, because they are one of the most outspoken opponents of vouchers in Texas. Regardless, the votes of a legislator for vouchers do, in my opinion, certainly define his "acceptablilty" in my eyes.

**Special Thanks to Carl Whitmarsh who forwarded this information to a couple of Democratic lists I'm on.**

Vince Leibowitz is County Chairman of the Democratic Party of Van Zandt County. He may be reached at Vince_Leibowitz@verizon.net or at Vince_Leibowitz@bluebottle.com.