Burnt Orange Report

HD 48: More Endorsements

By Karl-Thomas Musselman

The Donna Howard campaign picked up a couple more endorsements today from the Austin American Statesman and Austin Chonicle.

AAS: Howard, 54, a former Eanes school board member, offers practical experience writing school district budgets, a valuable perspective for legislators grappling with school finance and that's why we recommend her to voters in this special election. The Legislature has enough members looking out for business interests, but what it could really use is someone experienced at balancing a school district budget using an antiquated property tax to meet modern educational needs.

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There is nothing to implicate Bentzin in the legally questionable activity of the business association, but we are also troubled that he agreed to pay Colyandro indirectly through a contract with a printer. Texas campaign law requires candidates to report accurately all contributions and expenditures.

Rider, a former Austin school district board president, can lay claim to practical school board experience, but her tenure as the school board's president was marked by internal turmoil and a data-manipulation scandal that resulted in an unprecedented indictment of the school district.

Although he hasn't specifically said so, Gov. Rick Perry is expected to call the special session after the March primaries. Therefore, there will be no long learning curve for the winner of this race. Howard isn't likely to need one. Though Howard is a bit soft on specifics, she is smart enough to realize that a freshman's effectiveness is likely to be minimal, but she is capable enough to minimize the seniority gap. Both Bentzin and Howard are energetic, knowledgeable and committed to the community.

Chronicle: The dominating issue is education, because of its importance to District 48 voters, and because of the public school finance crisis and upcoming special legislative session, likely to be called this spring. Although Bentzin is running as a moderate determined simply to "improve the schools," he would replace his predecessor Todd Baxter as a reflexive vote for the GOP leadership, and he has already declared his support for private school vouchers "in certain circumstances" – a position indistinguishable from that of the stealth voucher promoters at the Capitol.

Both Donna Howard (Eanes ISD) and Kathy Rider (Austin ISD) have school board experience, and are acutely aware of the issues facing the public schools and the necessity for the state not just to reform school finance but to fund more of it. Both are fully qualified for the seat, and it would have been helpful to hear them battle it out in a real primary. But because of the difficult arithmetic of this particular election, we strongly believe supporters of public education should unite behind a single candidate – indeed, it would have been nice if the Democratic Party had had enough common foresight to do so. By a narrow but significant margin, we believe the candidate with the best chance to defeat Perry's anointed candidate is Donna Howard.

Remember, Early Voting ends this Friday. Info on times and locations are here.