If you want see how tough things are getting for the children, parents, teachers and administrators who are all trying to make Texas schools work, I'd like to point you to one thing:
Last Thursday.
Or, more specifically, the schoolnews that bubbled up on Thursday. It was a harrowing day.
The bad news didn’t start last week, of course. It dates back in part to last year’s legislative session, when those in control of the state’s budget decided to slash about $4 billion – I say again, FOUR BILLION DOLLARS – from what local school districts were promised and needed to pay for increasing costs and numbers of students.
Now, $4,000,000,000 is a big number. It’s tough to get your arms around all of those zeros – particularly when legislating is all mixed up with politicking, and when ostensible leaders are running around the state and the country ignoring or denying the damage they’ve caused to our kids and Texas’ future.
The problems are huge, too. Hundreds of Texas school districts have sued the state in an effort to create a better and more fairly funded system. That in itself is extraordinary – those in control of the Capitol have so bungled their responsibilities to our kids that local school boards have been forced to bypass their representatives, senators, Governor and Lieutenant Governor and startasking judges to clean up the mess (more on this later).
Inevitably, the human costs of misplaced priorities were going to surface. A lot of them came up late last week.
Dallas: School closures
Let’s start off in Dallas, where Dallas ISD trustees voted Thursday to shutter 11 schools.
The decision was teed up by the legislature’s budget cut – Dallas ISD had already cut $76 million from the current budget, according to the Dallas Morning News, “largely by offering employees incentives to resign and increasing class sizes.”
But despite that fairly extreme action, the board still had to cut another $38 million for next year. And, as one trustee put it, either the 11 schools had to be closed, or 171 teachers would have had to be fired.
Heck of a choice for anyone who cares about helping kids learn.
You can read more about it in this article (subscription required) or get a blow-by-blow from this blog.
South Texas: No sports
Also on Thursday, the Texas Tribune brought word of the tiny Premont ISD in South Texas, a district of 570 students that was already struggling. Then those in control of the state’s purse strings yanked more than $400,000 out from under the district – which, as the article points out, was already among the most poorly funded districts in Texas.
So, again, faced with a handful of very painful options, the district went for a clearly radical approach that, it hopes, will nevertheless cause the least amount of damage – it put all sports programs on hold for a year.
In the article, some students raise the prospect of fleeing Premont for a district that continues to field teams. Others clearly worry about losing the activity that helped keep them out of trouble.
But most students and parents, it seems, are resigned to the decision. After all, given the circumstances, what else can the district do?
The Houston Chronicle followed up over the weekend with a great column looking at funding inequities among Texas school districts. It showed that districts rated "exemplary" by the state receive over $1,000 more, per student, than those rated "academically unacceptable."
If you're looking at the students thatdistricts are working the hardest to teach – and the costs of meeting those kids' needs – the numbers are even more sobering. Just 17 percent of the kids in exemplary districts qualify for free-and-reduced lunch programs (based on federal poverty guidelines), the column said. In academically unacceptable districts, that figure's around 85 percent.
Keep those numbers in mind if someone – particularly someone who's part of the power structure at the Capitol – tries to lay the blame for these problems on Premont or other victims of the state's school finance system.
Texas: A broken system
That equity issue was the focus of an editorial by James "Kal" Kallison, the president of the Eanes ISD school board, that the Austin American-Statesman published on its website Thursday.
The editorial goes into some detail about the lawsuits I mentioned earlier that school districts are pursuing against the state. You should read the whole thing, which you can find here. This, to me, is the key passage:
“School districts represented in two of the lawsuits believe that ... the finance system still does not produce complete equity among districts. Regardless of the equity issue, most districts do agree that the current amount of revenue ... afforded to all districts in the state is simply not enough to provide for an adequate education of our children, as required by the Texas Constitution and defined in statute.”
Those questions – whether the school finance system is equitable, and whether it’s adequate to educate the children of Texas – are going to be litigated over many months, and it’ll probably be more than a year before the courts finally settle the issue.
But after a day like Thursday – after seeing so many of the issues that our schools have been left to deal with – does anyone believe that the state’s doing right by our schools and our kids?
Austin: The achievement gap
Finally, in Austin, business and civic leaders sat down at a summit on Thursday to talk over the state of early childhood education, particularly pre-kindergarten programs.
Of course, Pre-K has become one of the most important factors that educators look at in gauging how successful students will be. The numbers show that kids who show up to kindergarten with basic language, problem-solving and other skills are far more likely to pass achievement tests in later years – and far less likely to drop out of high school.
So what did those in control of the Capitol do with this inside knowledge about what works in education?
They ignored it. They eliminated a critical grant program and the $200 million it would have contributed tomake Pre-K programs stronger and more accessible across the state.
It was a devastating decision – and that devastation was front-and-center atthe business and civic leader summit Thursday. There, the United Way Capital Area discussed results of a report it produced as part of its "Success by 6"initiative.
The report found that for children as young as 3 – barely older than babies – an achievement gap already can be seen between kids from low-income families and students as a whole.
As the Statesman summarized, “Fifty-two percent of Central Texas children entering kindergarten are ready for school, according to the results. But in Dove Springs, Manor and Quail Creek [three generally low-income neighborhoods that were studied for the project], the proportion considered well-prepared for school ranged from 12 to 15 percent.”
It's a giant problem. All of these stories demonstrate giant problems. And the problems will only grow as this cruel budget and broken finance system settle over the parents, teachers and administrators who are trying to cope with it all.
So the worst thing about Thursday might not even be Thursday. It might be that there'll be more days like it.
As many of you know, every ten years, states redraw their state and federal legislative districts to reflect new census data. What you may not be as familiar with is our infamous redistricting history in Texas.
The most recent, and probably most egregious, attempt at redistricting happened in 2003. We are still recovering from that battle.
Now, it's time for Texas to redistrict according to the new census numbers. So, even facing a deep budget hole and a typical set of legislative battles, we have to tackle redistricting, too.
Let's Get Into the Details
The Texas House of Representatives has 150 members, while the Texas Senate has 31 members. Each of those members' districts must be drawn with almost exactly the same number of people. According to census information, each Senate district should have around 811,147 people. To put that number in perspective, each Texas Senate district will have more residents than the states of Wyoming, Vermont, or Alaska. Each Texas House District should have 167,637 people after redistricting.
Unlike the number of Congressional Districts (which can increase or decrease based on the rate of population growth in Texas relative to the rest of the country), the number of Texas Senate districts is set at 31. So, as the population of Texas increases, the number of people within each Senate district also increases.
Simply dividing the districts evenly by population, of course, isn't very hard. Doing so in a way that is legal, and that fairly reflects Texas regional and political views as well as its historic communities of interest, is another matter. To get more information on Texas redistricting, visit: www.kirkwatson.com.
House District 52 Candidate Larry Gonzales has been touting his fundraising numbers from the last reporting period. However a closer look at the TEC report reveals that more than half of Larry Gonzales's donations came from one man, Houston home builder Bob Perry.
From Bay Area Houston Blog:
According to records at the Texas Ethics Commission, almost half of the $337,000 raised by Gonzales came from one person, Bob Perry. Of the $1.8 Million Perry has donated in 2010, $150,000 was donated to Gonzales and $90,000 was PAC related money. Only 1/3 of all of Gonzales donations came from individuals.
According to the latest TEC reports, Larry Gonzales raises $104,481 (April - June) from 79 donors and has $21,576.39 cash on hand. Bob & Doylene Perry gave $60,000 or 57.42% of the total amount reported. Also notable is Trevor Rees-Jones, President of Chief Oil and Gas also gave $10,000 or 10% of the total money raised by the Gonzales campaign.
Bob Perry is most notable for being a major contributor to 527 groups like 'Swift Vets and POWs for Truth' which mounted a massive PR campaign against John Kerry questioning his service in Vietnam. Perry Also heavily funded Brian Daniels who ran as the Republican candidate for HD-52 in 2008 and ultimately lost.
With such a large disparity in money raised between home builder Bob Perry and other donors, one might wonder who Larry Gonzales is really going to support in the Texas Legislature.
Meanwhile Democratic Incumbent Candidate Diana Maldonado won the fundraising battle raising $114,584.76 from 247 donors (April - June) and currently has $152,618.44 cash on hand.
David Farabee is taking his hat out of the ring in the race for the State Representative District 69 — Wichita Falls mayor Lanham Lyne is throwing his in.
Farabee told the Times Record News Tuesday he will not seek re-election to the post he’s held almost 12 years.
"It was a goal of mine for some time to serve 12 years. When we had a change of leadership in the House, I considered an additional term. Then I revisted my plans and decided to stick with my original life goals," Farabee said.
[...]
Farabee told TRN in an earlier interview that his main reason for considering stepping out of politics was family. He has three children of college and high school age.
"I have personal obligations I have not been able to fulfill because I’ve always put my constituents first," he said.
Rep. Farabee's retirement means that the Texas House will lose a committed public servant, though I and many others I'm sure thank him for his years of public service, and wish him the best as he returns to a more normal life with his family.
Shifting to politics -- the hip-check, Paul-Burka-doom-and-gloom reaction to this news is to think that Farabee's retirement makes it harder for Texas Democrats to take back the House. In reality, it doesn't. Take the following three main factors into consideration:
Democrats Still Win, Despite Retirements
Democrats beat six incumbent Republicans in 2006, when former Speaker Pete Laney retired, and Democrats beat six incumbent Republicans in 2008, when former Rep. Robby Cook retired. Retirements are not welcome -- especially when it's someone as hard-working as Rep. Farabee -- but there is absolutely zero historical evidence to show that it will prevent Texas Democrats from taking back the House. Not that a silly thing like facts will prevent the nay-sayers from nay-saying, but for those in the reality-based community, it's good to remember that.
Democrats Still Provenly Successful in Suburban Districts
Despite those retirements, Democrats continued to win -- and there's no reason to think we won't continue to win in the urban/suburban districts where we've proven to be competitive. The key races in the fall -- including those supported already by Annie's List against Republican State Reps. Dwayne Bohac and Linda Harper-Brown -- are in urban and suburban areas where we have proven over election cycles that we can win. The game plan to get to 76 doesn't change much with this announcement, and again -- the facts and reality is that we're still much better poised to win control of the House in 2010 than the Republicans are.
We have no idea what the field will look like yet.
Rep. Chris Turner didn't announce his candidacy until late December 2007 (Source). Rep Carol Kent didn't announce until the filing deadline. (Source). They both cruised to solid victories in 2010. The field is going to look very different in January than it does today; one more time now -- the facts and reality of recent history show us that
In many ways, today's announcement is a test. It's a test to see which reporters that cover politics operate with facts and historical evidence in mind, and who simply choose to spin their own analysis, absent any evidence or facts.
Will others remember that retirements don't affect our ability to win, that Texas Democrats are still poised to win in suburban areas, and that we have no idea what the field will look like yet? Will they remember that we know how to win these races, and have done so over three election cycles now? And then when you throw in the fact that the Texas Republican House Committee is a complete and utter joke, you've got to ask yourself -- why should we still feel anything but confident in our chances to win in 2010?
Come January 2011, when we elect a Democratic Speaker of the House, the Republicans are going to look how much they lost -- and how quickly they lost it -- and fall apart. Our job is just to get it done.
With the recent release of campaign finance reports, it is a good time to take a look at how some of the incumbent House Democrats likely to be targeted by the Republicans faired in fundraising.
There are many months ahead, but here is the current financial outlook for 10 incumbent House Democrats likely to face comeptitive races next year.
House District 2
Mark Homer raised $4,699 and ended the reporting period with $5,982 on hand. His campaign spent $20,676 during that time.
House District 11
Chuck Hopson raised only $5,750 but has an impressive $66,563 on hand, with expenditures of slightly over $22,900 for the reporting period.
House District 47
Valinda Bolton reported raising $14,800 and ended with $23,532 on hand. Two years ago at this time, Bolton had $13,704 on hand, so the two-term incumbent has almost $10k more than she did at this same point last election cycle.
House District 52
Diana Maldonado raised $18,950 and ended the reporting period with $35,817 in the bank. The Williamson County Democrat and TexBlog PAC endorsed candidate spent a little over $18,000 during that time.
House District 78
Joe Moody of El Paso reported raising $16,950 to end the reporting period with $27,955.82 on hand. Moody, a TexBlog PAC endorsed candidate, won by just over 3200 votes in 2008.
House District 96
Chris Turner reported raising $45,251.24 and had slightly over $102,000 on hand. Great to see huge numbers from a TexBlog PAC endorsed candidate.
House District 101
Robert Miklos, a freshman House member from Mesquite and another TexBlog PAC endorsed candidate, raised $18,340 and has $20,656 on hand.
House District 102
Carol Kent, who defeated incumbent Tony Goolsby in 2008, raised $32,170 and ended the filing period with just over $51,000 on hand.
House District 107
Although he raised only $1,157 during the reporting period and spent more than $60,000, incumbent Democrat Allen Vaught has more than $86,000 currently on hand.
House District 133
Kristi Thibaut, who defeated Republican incumbent Jim Murphy by 497 votes in 2008, has $45,655 on hand. At this point two years ago, as she prepared for a rematch with Murphy after losing in 2006, Thibaut only had $6,851 on hand.
In 2010, voters in Irving will have the opportunity to bring needed change to their community and the state of Texas by electing Loretta Haldenwang to the Texas House of Representatives from District 105. Loretta will be a progressive representative from Irving who will focus on issues that really matter to Texas families, including economic development and improving access to quality education. She will also be the critical 75th vote for new leadership in the Texas House.
Today, Loretta reported receiving more than $61,000 in contributions and in-kind donations since beginning her campaign in late April -- a strong start to what will be a hard fought campaign.
Since starting her campaign, Loretta has been meeting with local activists and leaders in Irving, and has been endorsed by Annie's List, one of the most successful candidate-supporting organizations in the state. She'll be holding a series of meet and greet events this summer and early Fall, which will offer opportunities for volunteers to help with early voter contact and canvassing efforts.
I'm particularly excited about this race, as I'll be leaving Austin for Irving at the end of the month to run the campaign.
If you live in the Irving or west Dallas County area and would like to get involved in what promises to be an extremely exciting campaign, or if you would like to learn more about Loretta Haldenwang, visit her website at www.VoteLoretta.com.
Earlier today, current Texas House Speaker Joe Straus filed paperwork that would enable him to campaign for re-election as speaker upon the conclusion of the legislative session. While not unexpected, the timing would indicate that he feels like he is in a position to secure votes from fellow Republican for having not caved on Voter ID, and killing off debate and passage of Rick Perry's "do not want" bill regarding unemployment insurance.
Of course, all of the following items were as a result deemed less important than Voter ID. Straus and the GOP set the agenda. They, along with the actions of Senate Republicans at the start of session, took actions which had a cascading effect across the legislative calendar.
* The electric co-op reform bill
* Eminent domain
* Averitt's clean air bill
* TDI sunset
* Enabling legislation for $5 billion in highway construction bonds
* Informed consent for abortion
* Solar energy incentive program
* Windstorm insurance (Hurricane season begins Monday)
* Dewhurst's overhaul of health care (SB 6, 7, 8 )
* Unemployment insurance
* Flores' enabling act creating a homestead exemption for disabled veterans
* Criminal asset forfeiture reform (to prevent the abuses that took place in Tenaha)
* Constitutional authorization for bonds for water projects and the state water plan
* Watson's renewable energy bill
So if you were to ask, what is is the House that Straus built- it's constructed of just one brick called Voter ID. Oh, and maybe a budget. But that's about it.
For other thoughts on what this might mean moving forward, I'll point you to read replies by Off the Kuff and Burka.
To watch the Texas House proceedings online, click here.
The Texas House is discussing the Local and Consent Calendar of about 20 pages of bills at a rate of about 6 per hour right now. Members are taking the full, nearly 10 minutes of discussion per bill to discuss the finer details of what consists of mostly Municipal Utility District bills.
We're excited to see members focus on their bills and show such interest. Of course, it's unfortunate that some Republicans are against debate on hundreds of bills that do far more to benefit the operations of Texas... just because they view voting on a Voter ID bill as more important.
I'd invite our readers to watch the proceedings from the link above and read the following articles and posts to get a flavor of today's debate.
So far, there have been fascinating conversations about navigation commissioners in Matagorda County, the historic impact of MUDS on planning philosophy in Houston, whether there's macadamia nuts in macadam (no, there's not) and the the size of Rep. Rolando Guiterrez's uvula.
"I'm not as familiar with water districts as some members are," Burnam told Zerwas, asking for an explanation of such districts.
Another Burnam question about the proposed Waller County Municipal Utility District Number Nine: "Does the number nine indicate there are already eight districts in Waller County?"
I have decided to use this time in a constructive manner, so I have taken up a correction of the spelling of my name on the large House vote panels. Although it may seem trivial to some, I believe it is important that the the House be accurate in it's use of language. As you may note in the photograph, the vote board has the last name Peña spelled without the tilde or Spanish Ñ.
Rep. Jim Dunnam (D-Waco) told members of the press this afternoon that Democrats are more then willing to consent to suspending rules to take up items on the House calendar, in effect turning the Voter ID bill into the House equivalent of the Senate blocker bill.
Creating a de facto two-thirds' rule in the House for the weekend would allow the members to address legislation such as the TDI Sunset bill instead of the Voter ID bill, Dunnam said. It's been 16 years since the last TDI Sunset legislation and he said it was more important to deal with that issue than Voter ID, which he constantly referred to as "voter suppression" legislation.
(Here's a great guest post from Democrat State Representative Mike Villarreal. - promoted by Phillip Martin)
In just a few days, Texas House and Senate negotiators will sit down to start working out the differences between our two versions of the state budget. One of the biggest decisions will be what to do with TEXAS Grants, our state's main financial aid program for college students with financial need. The House increased TEXAS Grants by $224 million, an increase three times more than the Senate.
If you believe we need to help more Texans afford college, please sign our petition at www.leaderslisten.org.
If the House prevails, 70,000 more students will receive a TEXAS Grant in the next two years.
Receiving a TEXAS Grant improves college completion. The Legislative Budget Board has analyzed the unique impact that receiving a TEXAS Grant has on college completion. It found that receiving a TEXAS Grant improves completion by approximately 45% -- an improvement equivalent to boosting a student's SAT score by 350 points, or increasing a student's high school ranking by 30 percentile points.
In a recent report, the Texas Select Commission on Higher Education Global Competitiveness warned: "Texas is not globally competitive. The state faces a downward spiral in both quality of life and economic competitiveness if it fails to educate more of its growing population to higher levels of attainment, knowledge, and skills."
(Wow. Just, wow. - promoted by Karl-Thomas Musselman)
As reported in today's American-Statesman, hours into a hearing of the Health and Human Services Committee, Republican committee member Gary Elkins, an eight-term member of the Texas House of Representatives asked,
"What's Medicaid? I know I hear it ... I really don't know what it is. I know that's a big shock to everyone in the audience, Okay?"
Elkins comes to the Capitol from Jersey Village, which lies along U.S. 290, just outside the tollway in northwest Harris County.
The town is named for the Jersey cows once ubiquitous on Clark W. Henry's 1,236 acre F&M Dairy. Clark sold the land for residential development in 1953, and Jersey Village was incorporated in 1956, around the time Elkins was born.
Jersey Village makes up a small albeit privileged fraction of the 135th House District. The 2000 census found 6,880 people living in Jersey Village, 9,498 in scattered random bits that had been annexed into Houston, and 118,089 spread across the vast non-incorporated areas making up the bulk of the district.
In contrast to Jersey Village, which is 82% white, the Houston bits and unincorporated areas are 48% minority. The poor of the district outnumber the entire population of Jersey Village, which enjoyed a median family income of $82,689 in 2000, some 60% higher than the corresponding national figure.
So if your reaction to Elkins' question was, "Does this guy live in a bubble?" The answer is an unqualified "yes."
