2010 means midterm elections here in Texas. It means that we will be voting on key national and statewide officers, including governor, lt. governor and the state and national house of representatives. More than ever before it will be important for those of us who follow politics to speak up among our friends and co-workers, to pass on well thought out messages to help frame a progressive vision for Texas. Additionally, you better believe the GOP noise machine here in the state will be operating overtime.
Personal objectives for me:
1. Don't let Goodhair run away from his loony tunes primary positions and posturing. I believe he will defeat KB , in light of what I have seen so far. She has been running a horrible campaign and her flip-flopping on her resignation has only made it worse.
2. Keep working to push Democratic candidates leftward especially on health care. That means calling them out when necessary, but also supporting them when I can. It means I will not threaten to vote for the GOP alternative or to "sit this one out", but I will point out to them in no uncertain terms that you can't compromise with those who know that they are completely right and you are totally wrong. That is true at the national level, it sure is true at the state level.
3. Rededicate myself to at least 2 substantive postings a week, in spite of my personal work load. I am not so vain as to believe my prose is deathless , my insights so unique. However, I have something to contribute, even if its calling attention to political facts and analysis that I find and others do not have the time to seek out.
(While the attn is all focused on hot and cold running Hutchisons and wallet scorekeeping-right now neighbors of ours are stepping up to the downticket races all over Texas.
Many thanks to Blue_in_Guadalupe for introducing us to one of them in the particulary critical to our future-the SBOE. I hope we will be learning about many more. - promoted by boadicea)
Dr. Rebecca Bell-Metereau, candidate for the State Board of Education District 5, spoke at a meeting I attended recently and I found her presentation refreshing. She told us about her years in education as a teacher and her experience developing programs at Texas State University to improve student retention. Dr. Bell-Metereau also told us about the academic challenges faced by Texas students who attend out of state colleges due to their poor preparation in Texas public schools.
Dr. Bell-Metereau explained her work on a community board in San Marcos where she successfully worked with people across the political spectrum to accomplish the board's goals. She is running for a seat on the SBOE because she was asked to run and was encouraged by her daughter who has suffered under the current board's dumbed down curriculum standards which are supported by inaccurate texts chosen to meet a political agenda. She told us she respects the all volunteer writing teams and the hard work they do in an effort to give students the best possible curriculum but is appalled at the disrespectful attitude displayed by the incumbent who casually discards their work in favor of hastily crafted partisan based materials.
Dr. Rebecca Bell-Metereau promises to responsibly and ethically manage the Permanent School Fund without regard to personal financial rewards. I'm confident that if elected Dr. Bell-Metereau will be able to enhance the quality of our children's educations through respectful exchanges with the other members of the SBOE.
Excerpt from Circle of Blue WaterNews
Reporting the Global Water Crisis
September 7, 2009
Dr. Peter Gleick is president of the Pacific Institute, an internationally recognized water expert and a MacArthur Fellow. While his specialty is water, this article addresses broader issues that I feel should be of concern to all progressives.
Who would easily see a connection between water and Glenn Beck?
Well, the text is now out and here is the heart of the President's message:
Work hard, stay in school, listen to the adults in your life who wish to help you. No matter how hard it is, no matter how tough your situation, you are responsible for your education, for your fate.
That's it.
Yet, it is the case that school districts have been cowed into defensive posturing and arrangements over these sentiments.
The following is a list of how various school districts are handling the speech. Districts are listed alphabetically:
* Allen ISD: Speech will not be shown to grades kindergarten through third grade but will be used as part of the social studies/government curriculum for grades 4 through 12.
* Arlington ISD: Making the speech available for students and parents on its Web site. The speech will also be available for classroom use as deemed appropriate to the district's curriculum.
* Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD: District will record the speech, and teachers can choose to use it at a later time.
* Dallas ISD: Speech will be live on its cable channel. Principals will decide if they want to air it live.
* Denton ISD: Speech will be available on its Web site for anyone to view, but will not be broadcast to students.
* Duncanville ISD: Social studies teachers will have the option of broadcasting the speech to their students.
* Fort Worth ISD: Speech available live at all of its high schools, but students will not be required to watch it. Students who choose not to view will have alternative activities.
* Frisco ISD: District will record the speech, and teachers can choose to use it at a later time.
* HEB ISD: Speech will be recorded as a podcast. It will be available to social students teachers who want to use it in class and to everyone on the district's Web site.
* Highland Park ISD: Any teacher can choose to broadcast it.
* Keller ISD: Speech will be available live. Teachers can show it if they want to.
* Lancaster ISD: District will record the speech, and teachers can choose to use it at a later time.
* Mansfield ISD: Speech will be recorded, and teachers can use it at a later time.
* Plano ISD: Speech will be available on its Web site for anyone to view, but will not be broadcast to students.
* Richardson ISD: The speech will be available on Wednesday, the day after, and optional for grades kindergarten through 12. Parents will need to give permission for students in grades kindergarten through 8. No discussions or lessons will be offered afterward.
But, of course this is part of something larger. More below the fold.....
While there is currently a national debate over our future, in Texas there is a debate over our past. The Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) released the first draft of proposed new social studies curriculum standards this week, and there is expected to be a debate over what and how history is taught in Texas. This comes only months after the debate about science curriculum standards in which there was a debate over teaching evolution or intelligent design (creationism). The Texas Freedom Network reported that the first draft was encouraging, and that "teachers, academics and other community members on the curriculum writing teams refused to bow to far-right pressure to inject political agendas into history, geography and other social studies classrooms."
The SBOE appointed a panel of experts to advise the SBOE on the social studies curriculum, and points of debate include the role of the Bible and Christian influence on the founding of the United States; debates on which historical figures should be included in lesson plans, textbooks, and standardized tests. The debates about curriculum in Texas have been hyper partisan; a group of fundamentalist Christian social conservatives controls a majority voting block on the SBOE. This partisan divide has far reaching effects, as the curriculum standards, specifically the language used in text books, has a national impact because the text books purchased by Texas (the second largest purchaser of text books in the country) are often used as a model for other states text books.
Governor Pander, I mean Perry, has done much to, I mean for, education in Texas, most of it counterproductive. Continuing his saga of hypocrisy and ideological cant, the Gov used the stimulus money in this past session to fund key education budget items.
While railing against taking federal unemployment money which, he claims , has strings that would cause future budget increases, he does the same thing in dealing with the education budget. As the Fort Worth Star-Telegram rightly points out:
But here's the rub: The Legislature and Perry require that at least half of that $120 per student be spent on teacher pay raises. The minimum raise is $800, but most teachers will get significantly more.
Some school administrators say the same thing about Austin as Perry does about Washington: If they really wanted to help, lawmakers would have sent the money with no strings attached.
Of course, Perry was talking about federal money for unemployment benefits, and unemployed people don't have much political clout. Apparently when the target is education and the money goes to teachers, he not only discards that maxim but is also willing to help tie the strings.
Ultimately, taxpayers pick up the tab. That will become apparent in 2011 when legislators have to fill in the budget hole left when the stimulus dollars go away. The teacher pay raises will be a permanent fixture, as will other spending enabled by the stimulus money.
The Legislative Budget Board estimates the cost for the 2012-13 budget at $2.8 billion. There are no projections about where to find the money, but it will either come from taxpayers or from school budget cuts.
Who knew?
The big problem , of course, is how we fund government here in Texas, property taxes. Unless and until that problem is solved, expect more gimmicks and more legislative schemes that seem to cut or cap taxes, while forcing local districts to raise them or cut educational spending in all too painful ways.
It has been known for a long time that poverty undermines a child's ability to compete academically, to reach their potential. Head Start , one of the most highly praised War On Poverty programs, has won and sustained wide spread support specifically because it tries to address this issue, tries to level the playing field for all our children.
Now comes a new study that indicates that interventions must start even earlier than kindergarten.
[snip]
According to a study out earlier this week, disparities in cognitive development begin to show up among children from different socioeconomic backgrounds as young as nine months of age.
Even before babies begin to walk or toddlers enter preschool, this research shows, children from poor families are trailing behind their more-advantaged peers on measures rating their behavior and cognitive abilities. The same pattern holds for minority children vis-a-vis white children, children of mothers with a high school diploma or less compared to those whose mothers are more educated, and children growing up in Spanish-speaking homes vs. those from English-speaking households. And those differences, the report adds, only grow over time.
Child Trends put together this study for the Council of Chief State School Officers. The researchers based the findings on data from a federal study that is tracking a nationally representative set of infants born in 2001.
They say the results speak to the need to intervene even earlier in children development. Forget universal preschool, these findings seem to suggest. Zero-to-five programs and efforts aimed at engaging and supporting parents could be an even better starting point for closing those persistent achievement gaps that bedevil K-12 educators.
Perhaps somewhat egotistically, Barton apparently likens himself to a biblical prophet who has been ordained by God to rebuild the religious foundations of the nation.
Barton aims to do that by rediscovering an allegedly lost or suppressed Christian history of America. It's an odd task for him, because although he poses as a historian, Barton isn't one. . . .
Texas has decided to steer clear of a national effort - involving 46 states - to develop uniform standards for English and math instruction in public schools.
State Education Commissioner Robert Scott, with the backing of Gov. Rick Perry, has turned down an invitation to work with the other states in drafting "common core" standards for English and math classes, spelling out what students at all grade levels should be taught in those subjects.
Although the standards will be voluntary.....[snip]
Texas officials are wary of getting involved, largely because of the cost to the state of implementing new standards.
[snip]
"Texas historically has never been supportive of the idea of national standards for our schools," said Debbie Ratcliffe, a spokeswoman for the commissioner and the Texas Education Agency. "We believe most Texans want to see our standards developed in Texas."
State Board of Education member Don McLeroy, the former chairman of the panel, noted that the education board now has responsibility to approve curriculum standards and there is no reason to surrender that authority to a national panel. [snip]
The MSM could not or chose not , to comment on the irony of the defense mounted by Texas officials in rejecting this voluntary initiative and the potential funds it could bring to the state. Frist, we rank at the bottom of any and all educational performance ratings and have for years. Thanks heavens for Louisiana and Mississippi , without them we would rank at the very bottom.
Liberty University has prohibited privileges granted to other student organizations, and these privileges where denied based solely on what the organization believes. Did Liberty deny recognition to a white supremacy group, or did Liberty not allow an anti-Semitic organization to use the universities name in association with their group? The university has denied the College Democrats to ability to use the university's name or to receive any funding from the university, based on their support of candidates.
According to a Liberty press release, the College Democrats are allowed to meet on campus, however the student group could no longer identify with the university and the university will no longer sponsor or endorse the group. The university has stated that this would be a better situation for the student group because they did not have to gain approval for meetings and could endorse candidates that are pro-life. However, this also means that the student group cannot participate in promoting their group on campus, and will not be allowed to invite speakers or hold any other events besides the unofficial meetings.
According to a National Public Radio (NPR) report, the chancellor of the university, Jerry Falwell, Jr., said that ""It's not about Democrat/Republican. It's about protecting the sanctity of life." Falwell stated that the reason the student group is not longer recognized was because of its support for pro-choice candidates and candidates that support gay rights. The College Democrats on campus have not publically endorsed abortion rights or same-sex marriage, and in fact the group's constitution expresses their opposition to those policies. In the NPR report Brian Diaz, the President of the College Democrats, said that "Jesus talked about the poor more than he did about abortion or gay marriage."
According to another article in the Washington Post, Diaz stated that the group's constitution, which was approved by university officials, gives the group latitude to endorse candidates. Both the College Democrats and the College Republicans endorsed candidates. Also, according to the same article the two groups where preparing to organize anti-abortion events this fall.
They create illusions of reform. In Texas, one of my favorite candidates for fake reform of the year is the Senate Reform of the TAKS testing system for Texas High Schools.
First, the proposed changes as they were first introduced:
"...Apparently, our teachers are supposed to tell students that whenever we haven't figured something out yet, we should stop our research and assume Goddidit. And if we don't yet know how exactly how the first living cells formed, that somehow negates everything we do know to be true about evolution after that. But worse, they want to mislead our kids into thinking every kind of life appeared all at once, ignoring all the evident stages of progression still absent by then, as well as all the evident predecessors we've found in earlier strata. And they want to teach as fact outright falsehoods easily disproved, as well as pseudoscience already publicly exposed in a court of law. What sort of sinister saboteurs are on these school boards?"
NCLB gave us grade schoolers literally throwing up under the pressure of high stakes testing. It gave us a cottage industry of prep books filled with multiple choice exercises. It gave us the discontinuation of art and music classes to provide time for TAAKS practice ( i.e.) teaching to the test.
In the early states of the Republican revival, GOP strategist learned the value of running candidates for down ballot races , like say, state or local schoolboard. It was good training for the choosen candidates, it gave the GOP a local presence and a platform to publicly expound on GOP themes. As the role of the Religious Right grew in the party, those low level positions often went to activists members of this religious persuasion. The spawn of this strategy was predictable zealous and unabashedly certain in their views, but very few were in the same class as State Board of Education member Cynthia Dunbar, R-Richmond. Witness:
Christians should "occupy" all nations.
President-elect Barack Obama's pro-choice stance on abortion is the same sort of "fascist, supremacist attitude exhibited by Mussolini and Hitler."
Public education is tyrannical, unconstitutional and the Satan-following Left's "subtly deceptive tool of perversion." And parents who surrender their children to government-run schools are "throwing them into the enemy's flames even as the children of Israel threw their children to Moloch."
Ms.Dunbar sits on the Texas State Board of Education. She helps decide on education policies, cirriculum and textbooks for 4 million plus Texas students. Our work to reclaim our country from the nut cases and exremists is not done here in Texas. In particular, we have to pay more attention to these down ballot races.
Inspired by this bit of whismy, I offer for our mutual inspiration, a scenario and a question.
In a fit of humanitarianism, you have just pushed Dan Patrick out of the path of a out of control bus. The political gods have decided to reward you with one wish , one chance to change Texas politics for the better. You may vote a politician off the island, you may alter the workings of one institution of government, you may change the culture of the media, you may change the culture of the political parties, etc. In short, you may make one change in how Texas does the people's business with the intention of making this a more humane, life affirming compassionate place to live and work. What would you do?
The editorial below,from the San Antonio Express-News, on fair taxation rung a bell for me. Then I remembered where I had heard it before.(here, here I wrote about the very same issue. Additionally the brain dead Texas Republican Party has been lying about it for even longer. That topic is paying for public education.
The umpires - in this case, the Texas Education Agency - could let schools or entire districts jump to the next-highest ranking by using "exceptions" - where a 75 percent passing rate really means 70, or 85 percent is almost 90 - that make them look better on paper than they are in real life.
[snip]
These exceptions were supposed to be temporary, but the TEA added more this year without eliminating any. It's not hard to figure out why. State rankings figure into principal and teacher promotions or firings; if bad enough, they can trigger state intervention.
In other words, no good can come from a district strictly adhering to state standards. Well, no good for the adults involved.
Truly knowing where a school stands, and how well it's serving its customers, could mean some very good things for those students who need an educational boost to progress into the workforce.
That's why this newspaper has a long record of supporting accountability standards based on empirical evidence, like the Texas Assessment for Knowledge and Skills.
What no reasonable person can support are standards that shift around day to day, based on who looks good and who doesn't, like a call-your-own-fouls game of pickup basketball.
These guys are absolutely brain dead. They have propped up the High Stakes Testing Hoax for all these years and have just figured out they were duped?
What is both funny and sad is the paper's niave belief that schools are businesses, students and parents are customers and that TAKS represents a kind of "quality control", just like on an assembly line. Wrong, wrong and wrong.
... "I bring greetings from the State Board of Education, which is kind of like bringing greetings from the IRS," he said. "We have a dysfunctional board. We couldn't agree to go to dinner together." Ten, fifteen years ago, Craig said, we would fight it out and then go have a drink together. The board is not that way any more. "The people lose, the parents lose, the school children lose."
Paul Burka, whom I don't always like or agree with hits a home run with this posting....
As I blogged last week, state revenue programs and funding for state programs will be (should be???) one of the top ten items discussed in the upcoming elections. Call me prescient, or better yet, just call me conscious. After the jump, an article this week that demonstrates my point, with analysis.
In the more than fifty years that have passed since the US Supreme Court's landmark decision, segregationists have found new ways achieve the same results.
