Millions for Charter Schools, But Not One Dime for Textbooks

On Friday Texas’ internationally famous state school board reversed itself and passed another motion that should endear themselves to media pundits who love to hate what Texas’ educational institutions are doing to their own school children.

They voted to invest $100 million from the $22 billion Texas Permanent Fund, a fund that is supported by the sale and lease of public lands, including mineral rights, and net realized gains from the sale of Fund assets, to invest in developing and leasing buildings for charter schools, which are privately managed public schools.

The Texas Permanent Fund is a fund that is completely overseen by the State Board of Education. Texas Charter schools, however, are answerable to no one.

Still, according to this article in the Austin American-Statesmen, that is what the majority on the board decided to do, spend public money for charter schools that are run by private companies.

They decided to do that instead of doing something that is more in line with the founding purpose of the Texas Permanent Fund, that is the funding of public schools, and in one particular case of interest, the funding of the purchase of school text books.

Because this year, facing a budget shortfall, instead of invoking use of Permanent School Funds to be used to buy school textbooks, the school board is instead putting off the entire book buying thing.

Saving themselves $500 million.

$100 million of which will now be diverted toward funding of charter schools, this despite the fact that 71 school charters were pulled in the past due to low performance, a rate that exceeds public school failures.

But this is the state you live in, you know? The SBOE was handed the Permanent Fund purse strings several years ago and no one in the Republican Party, the party in power, and the party that saw that handover take place, objected.

As this article suggests, all of that may come to a screeching halt next year when the State Legislature convenes.

After all, when you give a fortune in state funds to a band of kleptomaniacs you are bound to reap what you sow, and the only way to solve it is to snatch it back from them.

It's Party Time at the Fort Bend County Democratic Party HQ

Most Fort Bend County residents don’t even remember the last time they saw the local Democratic Party open a party campaign headquarters during a mid-term election let alone during a presidential election year. Mainly because if they were alive, they were either too young to vote the last time that occurred, or they were living in other places.

I, for instance, was living half way around on the other side of the world the last time the Fort Bend County Democratic Party had a campaign headquarters.

But a Democratic headquarters grand opening is exactly what is going to happen tomorrow at 2:30 PM on Sunday, July 25th 2010.

It will be a sight not to be missed.

Located near the geographic center of Fort Bend County, the campaign headquarters sits just outside of downtown Richmond, the county seat of Fort Bend County, on the right bank of the Brazos River, with the east and west bound lanes of Highway 90A bordering it on the north and south, at 51 East US 90A. [map].

The facility features a large utility/work/meeting room with offices and an area to sell (or outright give away) campaign paraphernalia whose proceeds go toward funding the fall campaign, and a very large “arena” for mass meetings such as will be held tomorrow.

Tomorrow, bring your appetite, your camera and lots of folding green to buy a fish-fry dinner prepared by County Commissioner Richard Morrison.

New county party T-Shirts will be on sale as well as lawn signs that declare our loud presence.

There is even a chance to pick up a new campaign T-shirt and/or lawn sign that is sure to set your Republican neighbors’ teeth on edge even more than the highly successful

“Had Enough” signs from past campaigns.

And then in case you need to stock up for 2012, there will be some “Obama stuff” on sale as well.

Your Democratic candidates will be there in force as well as elected officials who are not running or are running for re-election with no opposition.

Someone said that there would be a “Moonwalk” for the kids, although I don’t even know what that means anymore.

Anyway if you’re looking for something to do on Sunday, and you don’t mind if you spend it with people who still like it when Democrats win, then you know what to do. If on the other hand, you want to bide your time until the Party of the Dark Side figures out which of their varied agenda-driven factions wins out over a choice of a party headquarters, then go ahead and bide.

But holding of breath is not recommended.

Unemployment Relief is On the Way

At 2:13 PM EDT yesterday the House voted on HR 4213, the Unemployment Compensation act of 2010, or rather on the Senate Amendment to the House Amendment of HR 4213, and it finally passed by a roll call vote of 272 Yeas to 152 Nays.

That is, the Feds voted to extend unemployment insurance benefits through 2010 to the hundreds of thousands of families who have had trouble finding jobs in these very troubling times.

31 Republicans rediscovered their human souls and jumped across their party line to vote with the Democratic majority, and 10 Democrats shamefully voted with 149 Republicans against unemployed American families.

My congressman, Pete Olson of TX-22, despite the show he made the other day of having huge concerns about businesses laying off their employees as deepwater oil rigs stand at idle – whether or not there is an officially declared deepwater drilling moratorium – my congressman voted No.

Voted No against the thousands of southeast Texas families that have a hard time trying to find a way back to the workplace.

Voted No against Americans when they themselves are not at fault for being unemployed. That fault, lying with his own Republican Party that unleashed Wall Street, an act that eventually brought the American economy to its knees(if not the entire world’s economy).

Pete Olson and those 148 other Republicans, and yes, those 10 Democrats, should be ashamed of themselves.

Shame to those who, for the first time in history, threatened to withhold real relief from suffering families.

Shame, shame, shame.

$$$ To Promote American Historical Documents?

I noticed a sign stuck in some dirt next to a 3-way intersection today. It roused my curiousity mainly because it did something that I have seen for the very first time.

It appended dollar-signs next to a message exhorting the reader to "Promote the Constitution."

Make money by promoting the Constitution? This can only be a neoconservative nocturnal emmission. 

Here is a close-up of the sign.

Here is the website: www.tawlf.org. (warning, this site can elicit mirth).

Here is an applicable definition.

What Should Shirley Do?

The radicals of the rightwing have pulled another con game, and one middle-aged black woman was the target.

Well, no, the confidence that Americans have in their own government, and in their own institutions was the target. Shirley Sherrod was collateral damage, even though someone painted the laser beam on her while someone else released the laser-guided bomb.

On her.

And the bomb landed and did its damage. Sherrod was out of her job at the USDA, but more importantly, the entire Obama Administration was seen, momentarily, as an administration desperately trying to cover up the fact that their employees were actively engaged in reverse discrimination.

Momentarily, because someone bothered to stop and listen to what Sherrod was saying. And them someone else stopped to view the entire speech in which right wingers charged they had her crowing about her success in getting some payback from white people. Only to find that she was speaking to the reverse of the philosophy that right wingers were trying to hang on her.

In short, speaking to a philosophy that makes neoconservative Republicans’ blood run cold: a black woman who was once the object of racial discrimination herself speaking to the politics of a post-racial America. Speaking to the politics of abandoning past recriminations in favor of a future-vision of colorblindness in America.

A vision, that neoconservatives confirmed for her was still yet just a vision. The last thing that neoconservatives want is racial reconciliation, even though clearly that is still year away.

But the whole thing blew up in their faces. The story was more powerful than their ability to obfuscate and out-shout those who discovered their dastardly conspiracy. They are now running for cover.

So now, what should Shirley do?

Clearly this is fertile ground for a lawsuit. Someone took a perfectly reasonable 40 minute speech and trimmed it to give someone the idea that she was espousing the opposite of the purpose of her speech.

Someone did this and tracing that back to the origin these days is child’s play.

Should Ms. Sherrod take the new job being offered to her? Really it depends on what the rest of the offer is. If this offer is to get her to be good and not talk about this, then no, she should turn the job down. I don’t know her, but I get the impression that this would certainly run against her grain as it does mine.

How does she live then? What does Ms. Sherrod do to keep food on the table?

My short bulleted list:

• A book
• By Fall, with book signature tours.
• Screen rights.
• A campaign to get “Sherrod” included in Webster’s Dictionary as a verb, meaning to take a person’s well-meaning statements on racial equality and twisting them to mean the opposite by those seeking to worsen racial divisions.

I'm sure there is more we can do.

Paradox: The Congressional TEA Party Caucus

I was captivated, and not surprised, by the news, issued last Thursday by CongressCrazy Michelle Bachmann had sent a letter to Nancy Pelosi requesting her permission to allow formation of a new caucus in Congress: the TEA Party Caucus.

Captivated in that I had a hard time trying to figure out how someone who is ostensibly a Washington, DC insider, an elected congressman no less, has the gall to organize a caucus within Congress that endorses the notions of Teabaggers who are rather shrill in their demands for the replacement of all congressional incumbents.

It’s sort of like Jews for Jesus. It’s kind of like Alcoholics for Prohibition.

But given the originator, Michelle Bachmann, who is demonstrably a few peas short of a casserole, I was not at all surprised at the move.

And for the longest time, no one stepped up and signed on to the new congressional caucus, a complete list of which you can find here.

And so today I waited with bated breath as the first meeting of the TEA Party Caucus was held at 10 AM EDT to see who, if anyone, signed up for this group – a group, I will remind you that is in solidarity with those that support the replacement of . . . well . . . the caucus members.

And I finally found a comprehensive list of the 35 members here.

But what really caught my eye, again not surprisingly, was that the caucus was joined by seven, now eight members of the Texas delegation. That’s right, nearly a full one quarter of the initial caucus members are from Texas, another fun fact of which we can all be proud.

Teabaggers from the Texas Delegation follows: Joe Barton (R-British Petroleum), Michael Burgess (R – Fort Worth), John Carter (R – Round Rock), John Culberson (R - Houston), Louie Gohmert (R - Tyler), Pete Sessions (R -Dallas), Randy Neugebauer (R - Amarillo) and Lamar Smith (R – San Antonio).

What, no Pete Olson? Has Pete Olson distanced himself from the Teabaggers since last April when he was the highest ranking speaker at their Teabagger rally in April 2009 in Sugar Land?

Apparently not.

Add to that list of dim bulbs the following: Mike Pence (R - Ind) – the only one of these jokers, by the way, in a leadership position in the House, Paul Broun (R - Ga), Joe Wilson (R – You Lie), Steve King (R- Iowa), Dan Burton (R - Ind), Todd Akin (R – Mo), Roscoe Bartlett (R - Md), Gus Billirackus (R-Fla), John Fleming (R - La), Trent Franks (R - Az), Phil Gingrey (R - Ga), Walter Jones (R - NC), Doug Lamborn (R - Colo), Cynthia Lummis (R – Wyo.), Jerry Moran (R - Kan), Tom Price (R - Ga), Cliff Stearns (R - Fla), Rodney Alexander (R -La), Rob Bishop (R - Utah), Tom Graves (R - Ga), Tom McClintock (R - Calif), Denny Rehberg (R -Mont), Adrian Smith (R - Nev), Cliff Stearns (R - Fla) and Todd Tiahrt (R - Kan).

At first blush, one look at this crew and you realize that the cover that Teabaggers like to associate to themselves, that is, the “bipartisan” label, is totally blown here. These aren’t Independents. These aren’t representatives of the “right of center” that Teabaggers like to identify themselves with, these are from the right wing of the Republican Party.

Even the Libertarian crowd in Congress – and Libertarianism is at the root of the TEA Party Movement, neither Ron Paul nor Ted Poe have allied themselves with the TEA Party Caucus.

Indeed the ones that might be considered more moderate in the Republican Party, have pointedly excluded themselves from the TEA Party Caucus.

And three individuals previously named in the caucus have either withdrawn their names or their staff has denied their involvement: Gary Miller (R – Calif.), Todd Akin (R – Mo), Pete Hoekstra (R - Mich).

In short, these 35 minus 3, Republicans all, have identified themselves with the voting bloc that are more likely to vote against the incumbent, whether they are Democratic or Republican.

So it’s nice then, that these 32 Republicans are self identified as incumbent candidates that Teabaggers are urged to vote against because they, as incumbents, have joined their number.

Normally I would end this piece with the words “It can’t get weirder than this” except that there is something down deep inside me that tells me that I would be premature in making that pronouncement.

I really don’t think we have found the bottom of this thing yet.

To Refudiate or Not to Refudiate, That is the Pedestrian

Sarah Palin appears to be channeling one of my favorite standup comics from awhile ago.

Norm Crosby.

You know, the guy who made a living out of malapropisms?

Indeed, Norm Crosby was known as the "Master of Malaprop."

He’s the guy who used to build an entire comic standup routine by stringing together words, words found in the dictionary or not, it made no difference, in order to describe a situation.

He even made commercials stringing one malapropism next to another, but somehow, if you put some thought to it, you created order out of chaos.

Which was probably the whole purpose of letting Crosby do his routine, you had to think about what he was saying.

Or trying to say.

Getting us back to Sarah Palin. I doubt that she had the slightest intention of mangling her words because people already suspect that she is living on the bleeding edge of her ability to communicate. That she gave in at the end and compared herself to William Shakespeare, who is known to have made up some of his own words, is the ultimate in “self-servitude.”

Shakespeare gave us such words, so common in the English language now, as “bump” and “ding-dong.” He formed words from sounds. Sarah Palin formed a word that stands half way between refute and repudiate, but one that actually means neither.

The difference between Sarah Palin and William Shakespeare is this: Sarah Palin is a former politician with nothing of substance to say, and William Shakespeare is the most revered playwright in the English language.

My guess is that if Sarah Palin really puts her mind to it, she can come up with a word that sounds like the sound of the word. Here, for instance, is the word Sarah Palin could come up with that sounds like the act of deep, concentrated thought:

"                ."

Rick Perry’s Solution to the High School Dropout Rate: A Study of Stunning Ignorance in High Office

Did you know that Governor Rick Perry has finally, once and for all, solved the onerous problem that Texas has in having the second highest high school dropout rate in the country?

My God the man’s a genius.

First Perry announced that someone in the legislature should file a bill that gives tax incentives to small business owners that allow employees without a high school diploma to get some paid time off so that they can get a diploma through night school or paid time off to study for a test to get their GED.

That’s what we call “the carrot approach,” a benign reward system. And this was a grand idea until it was pointed out, here for instance, that the program’s limit of 1000 individuals per year would merely scratch the surface of the hundreds of thousands who could benefit from Perry’s proposed plan.

No problem. Governor Perry is used to setbacks like this. The problem is apparently more acute and their sheer numbers perhaps require more Machiavellian measures.

Enter “the stick approach.”

Last Thursday, on July 15th, Rick Perry unveiled his latest initiative, one that he hopes will finally, once and for all, solve Texas’ very serious dropout rate. From KHOU’s website: 

“HOUSTON -- Texas Gov. Rick Perry says students who drop out of school shouldn’t be able to get a driver’s license and he called for new legislation to enforce his plan to keep kids in school.”

“‘If you are of high school age and you are not in a bricks and mortar or virtual school, you’re not going to get a driver’s license, it’s that simple,’ Perry said during a press conference Monday. ‘The fact is, a single drop out is too many, so we’ve got to continue pursuing sensible, proven options and give every Texan an option at a better life.’”

“Perry said the idea shouldn’t be considered punishment, but an incentive to stay in school.”

“‘It’s going to take a member of the legislature to introduce it and it’s going to take massaging to get it through the process, but I hope they see the incentive and the wisdom of using that incentive approach to keep our young people in either a virtual high school or a bricks and mortar high school,’ he said.”

Now first, before anyone goes off on Rick Perry for proposing this, proposing a law be passed that would seriously cut into individual freedom, a law that would put serious limitations on the social lives of countless Texas citizens aged 16 to 18, before you go and label Rick Perry a monster for proposing this new legislation, consider this:

Such a law has been on the books since 1989.

Texas Transportation Code, Title 7, Subtitle B, § 521.204: RESTRICTIONS ON MINOR

(a) The department may issue a Class C driver's license to an applicant under 18 years of age only if the applicant:

(1) is 16 years of age or older;

(2) has submitted to the department a driver education certificate issued under Section 9A, Texas Driver and Traffic Safety Education Act (Article 4413(29c), Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), that states that the person has completed and passed a driver education course approved by the department under Section 521.205 or by the Texas Education Agency;

(3) has obtained a high school diploma or its equivalent or is a student:

(A) enrolled in a public school, home school, or private school who attended school for at least 80 days in the fall or spring semester preceding the date of the driver's license application; or

(B) who has been enrolled for at least 45 days, and is enrolled as of the date of the application, in a program to prepare persons to pass the high school equivalency exam; and

(4) has passed the examination required by Section 521.161.

[Emphasis is mine].

One might excuse the governor his extreme ignorance if perhaps he didn’t have children. But Rick Perry does. My guess is that both of his children at one point, got a Verification of Enrollment form from their high school’s registrar so they could get a Texas driver’s license while attending high school.

Mine did.

The Bill White Campaign, upon hearing of Rick Perry’s bold new plan, issued this statement:

“‘Unfortunately for Rick Perry, this law has been on the books since 1989 and he's been responsible for enforcing it. Only a career politician would try to sell a law already in existence as his own slick new idea,’ said Katy Bacon, campaign spokesperson. ‘We need a governor who's actually going to work on the dropout crisis instead of dredging up election year sound bites.’”

I think in issuing that statement the White Campaign treated Rick Perry very humanely. After all, calling someone an ignoramus is a little harsh, and should be left to to bloggers like me. 

In their statement they implied that Perry must have known about the existing law. All he was doing was some slick electioneering because no one in the press was going to catch this. No one is going to recall that this is an existing program.

And in that last part they were right. No one caught it.

But what is truly tragic is that this has been the law of the land for over 20 years now, and it is abundantly clear that it has done nothing to curb the dropout rate. A rate that has risen since the bill became law.

Making it altogether clear to me at least that Rick Perry not only has no new ideas, but he also has no knowledge of things that have been tried, and failed. In short, Rick Perry exhibits, in this proposal, a shocking display of ignorance.

What should be clear by now, if we have learned anything, is that you don’t solve Texas’ dropout problem by throwing money at other situations that are unrelated to the problem, and you don’t penalize people for being high school drops out by depriving them of legitimacy.

The high school dropout rate in Texas is like a disease. You don’t treat a disease by adding more unpleasant experiences to the list of symptoms; you treat a disease by attacking the cause.

In short, you do the kind of thing that Bill White began as Mayor of Houston: meet with dropouts face to face and convince them that it is in their own best interest to return to class.

What we need right now are thinkers, doers, and achievers. Bill White knows how to get things done. The very last thing we need in Texas right now is four more years of Ignorance in High Office.

Texas Projection Measure: Wanted Dead, But Alive

Where else but in Texas can you have it where a program’s flaws have been so seriously exposed, even in the press, but its consequence will remain, and is expected to remain, for yet another year to come?

But that is the nature of how things work in the public sector. The flaws of any given system in the public sector can be exposed to the extent of doing real damage to institutions and to individuals, but the program itself is allowed to stand.

In less than 2 weeks time, the TEA will release its campus and district accountability ratings, ratings that are in large part based on the high-stakes test known as the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills, or TAKS. And included in that system of campus ratings and accountability is the newly applied Texas Projection Measure or TPM. Newly applied as in new to the ratings of campuses and districts in the 2008-2009 school year.

The 2008-09 school year is a year that saw a jump in the numbers of campuses and districts rated as Exemplary, the grand majority of these higher ratings were based on the newly instituted TPM.

A predictive program that has been exposed in a recent State House committee meeting, as described in Houston Chronicle pieces by Rick Casey, as one that is less about prediction and more about wishful thinking.

Several pieces on the TPM have appeared in the Dallas Morning News within the last 24 hours. Some of them refer to others of them. But together they weave a story that is truly unnerving to those of us who worry about things like school accountability and the public’s perception of whether the Texas Education Agency is stacking the deck in their favor.

This story reveals that the TPM will be used in the state’s campus ratings system again this year, but that Education Commissioner Robert Scott is now mulling over whether it should be eliminated in the future.

This related blog then speculates on what will happen in 2011 when the TPM, applied to the ratings of Texas campuses for 2 straight years, is dumped. Should that happen they speculate, expect campus ratings in Texas to drop precipitously in 2011 (unless, that is, they dredge up something else to prop up sagging ratings).

This article highlights an elementary school campus in the Frisco area that benefited from TPM ratings “bump” and illustrates how, using Pearson Education’s TPM calculator, a 3rd grade student can fail the TAKS math test by answering 4 less than the minimum (55% correct) to pass (26 out of 40 or 65% correct) and fail the reading test by one question (again scoring 55% correct), yet be scored by the TPM as having passed the math test.

And finally, we see this article where a fair-minded person who acknowledges what the TPM is trying to do, document growth, challenges the notion that the TPM is the vehicle to accomplish that. The ideas of a former Dallas school board member are cited as a possible replacement for the TPM: “We should perhaps see how many students a school is moving toward being "proficient" in a subject, which means they are getting closer to mastering it in a way that prepares them for college.”

To this last idea I have to cry foul. This is nothing more than the flavor of the day writ large. Guess what high schools are required to do now according to state law? High schools are required to certify that Student A is certified to be successful in an institute of higher learning. How one is able to figure that out is anyone’s guess. But now we see an extension of this idea, that a state accountability ratings system isn’t just to measure whether a student can pass minimum standards, something you can measure by having a test which has a passing minimum standard, but now maybe the system is to measure learning in a way that is “getting closer to mastering it in a way that prepares them for college.”

And I have to ask this as well. Isn’t this a measurement that concentrates on the higher end of the student population rather than the lower end? Isn’t this just another way to inflate the ratings by emphasizing success rather than failure to succeed?

Believe me, I am no fan of campus ratings systems, especially when they are based on standardized multiple-choice tests of questionable value and validity. But at this point aren’t we just trying to game the system all in the name of fairness?

And fairness to whom?

John Culberson (R- Houston) Is Factually Challenged

I know. I’m not supposed to use the L-word. Saying someone is a liar is fighting words in some parts. So in saying that Congressman John Culberson is “factually challenged” I have exercised some restraint in rhetoric, but I leave no doubt – John Culberson intentionally said something he knows not to be true. I’m sorry to report it, but John Culberson was simply lying when he said this, as quoted in the Houston Chronicle:

“There have been 50,000 wells drilled offshore and this is the first blowout. It is a catastrophe. It is a tragedy. But it is like an airplane falling out of the clear blue sky. You don't ground all airplanes.”

That’s simply not true.

First, let’s assume that in using the term “offshore” Culberson was referring to the offshore Gulf of Mexico. First because the numbers are right when you limit it just to the Gulf. Worldwide, there are much more than 50,000 offshore wells that have been drilled.

In the Gulf of Mexico, BP’s Macondo well was not the first ever to suffer a blowout.

The honor of being the first rig to suffer an offshore blowout in the Gulf of Mexico actually goes to the C.P. Baker Drilling Barge. In June of 1964, in drilling on an offshore location in Block 273 of Eugene Island, a tract operated by the Pan American Petroleum Corporation the well blew out. A short summary of the incident, found here, follows:

“The crew were preparing to run the 20" conductor and BOPs when, at around 0300 hours in the morning, the water around the vessel began to bubble, boil and eventually geyser up with some force between the hulls of the C.P Baker. Water entered the the vessel through open doors on the main deck and electric power was soon lost. Members of the on-duty crew attempted notify the off-duty crew of the blowout but an explosion occurred about five minutes after the blowout was first noticed. The explosion and fire was described as encompassing the whole vessel, and covered an area up to 100 feet around the vessel.”

“Most survivors evacuated the vessel by jumping from the port bow, after which the two support vessels pulled away from the burning C.P. Baker and began picking up survivors from the water. As a result of erupting water entering the hulls through open doors, the vessel began to heel aft and, after around 30 minutes, C.P. Baker sank by the stern. Gas continued to erupt and burn for the following 13 hours, with limited gas release continuing for the following month.”

Eight men died, 13 were missing and presumed dead, and 22 were injured.

But according to John Culberson, that never happened.

Then there was the Sedco 135F semi-submersible rig that blew out in 1979. The Ixtoc-1 well. Oh, but that was in the Mexican offshore Gulf of Mexico, so maybe that doesn’t count. Or maybe it does, considering that it was the merger of two Schlumberger subsidiaries, Sedco and Forex in 1999 that produced a company that was renamed “Transocean Sedco Forex,” later shortened to just “Transocean.”

The Ixtoc well blew out in June 1979 with initial flow rates estimated at 30,000 barrels of oil per day. Flow was cut to a mere 10,000 barrels per day until it was finally killed 9 months later after having released 3.3 million barrels of crude oil into the Gulf, a lot of which ended up washing onto Texas’ shoreline.

The cause of the blowout? BOP failure. Same as the Deepwater Horizon.

Or what about the Ensco 51 jackup rig that was drilling a well on that same block as the C.P. Baker Drilling Barge, Eugene Island Block 273, when on March 1st 2001, the well blew out resulting in a fire that consumed the rig causing the derrick to collapse onto the platform. The Ensco 51 rig was subsequently repaired in 2002 and has been drilling in the Asia-Pacific regions since then.

But according to John Culberson, that blowout never happened, either.

So contrary to History According to Culberson, the Transocean Deepwater Horizon blowout is not the first time this has happened in the Gulf of Mexico. Nor is it the second or third time. It’s the fourth such incident.

And of the four, the worst of the four.

One would think that we would learn from one blowout to another, and that our record of blowouts in terms of their prevention and emergency response policies would improve with time. But clearly, the reverse is true.

Taking me back to John Culberson’s analogy between the Deepwater Horizon blowout and an aircplane disaster. Just because one plane falls out of the sky, Culberson reasons, is not justification enough to ground all aircraft.

No, not all aircraft. No one is proposing that. Not all offshore oil rigs, either. Just the few tens of rigs that are drilling in the same deepwater environment that the Macondo well was spud in.

OK, so according to Culberson’ analogy, one plane fell out of the sky. And to-date, we don’t have all the answers to why that happened. But according to Culberson, we can’t jeopardize the jobs of pilots, flight attendants and ground crews just because one plane falls out of the sky. Even if we don’t know why it happened.

My only question to Culberson then is this: how many need to fall out of the sky before we need to stop and ask why that happens? Obviously, it’s not one.

Two?

But more to the point, how many millions of barrels of oil do we allow to flow into the Gulf before we are allowed by economics and concerns about jobs in the oil industry to stop and ask how we can prevent that from ever . . . ever . . . happening again?

Alan Simpson Working for “The Lesser People” on Social Security

Fire Dog Lake has an eight-minute hallway interview with former Republican Senator Alan Simpson of Colorado in a You Tube video that they have uploaded there. An interview conducted as he exited a meeting of the recently assembled Debt Commission of which he is co-chairman, having been given that honor by President Barack Obama.

It is the beginning of the clip that renders the most suspension of belief. At the very beginning of the clip, Alan Simpson is caught on camera as characterizing recipients of Social Security benefits as “the lesser people.”

Fire Dog Lake is fair-minded in their attempt to show Simpson making reasoned arguments in the time after which he leveled these insulting remarks at all retired Americans. However my aim is to focus in on Simpson’s obvious disdain for those of us who depend on our earned and deserved social security payments.

His disdain for “the lesser people.”

MTP: The GOP is ROE

You know that you are a completely hooked political wonk when you set your alarm clock on Saturday night so that you are sure that you wake up early enough on Sunday morning so that you don’t miss the 9 AM CDT live airing of NBC’s Meet the Press. That, sadly, has been the state of things in my life for several years now.

And you know that you are completely hooked on MTP when you find yourself missing the deep cuts that former MTP moderator Tim Russert used to apply to the bloviating orators of obfuscation, regulars that appeared on his show weekly.

I miss the "Russert Pounce."

Up until today that is.

Because today, David Gregory was channeling Tim Russert’s spirit. Either that or he has finally acquired the brass appendages that we have all been missing on our Sunday morning politics fix.

This morning, the entire program was devoted to a roundtable discussion between Gregory and the respective chairs of the NRSC, the DSCC, the NRCC and the DCCC. That is, the four gentlemen who are responsible for raising money for Democratic and Republican Senatorial and Congressional campaigns.

At issue was presidential press secretary Robert Gibbs’ unfortunate and unqualified comment that Democrats could lose the majority in November.

Of course they could. But the problem is, Gibbs never addressed the whole concept of “likelihood.”

At this moment of weakness Republicans pounced, and I saw the effect at the Pete Olson town hall meeting last Monday when conservatives in the meeting asked Olson what the plan was after the GOP retakes the House in November. The air sparked with the electricity of certain knowledge of a complete rout in November.

NRCC Chair Pete Sessions attempted to maintain the façade in his opening remark:

“I think the, the public sees this as a long-term debt issue of big government, more spending. The president and the House, at least, are two-tenths through a big government agenda. And the bottom line is, is that people back home see it where government is doing quite well and the free enterprise system and jobs back home are not doing so well. I think change is in the air.”

And it went on like that for the longest time. Gregory danced around the subject of a Republican agenda, but the discussion remained unfocused for what seemed an interminable amount of time.

Bob Menendez, chair of the DSCC and Chris Van Hollen, chair of the DCCC were being overly cautious, having been put there by a desire not to look like whiners that endlessly bemoan the fact that they and their party were put in that position by the policies of George Bush and the Republican Party.

So it looked like a stalemate was shaping up, if not a tilt toward a GOP victory in the debate.

Then at the beginning of the 2nd half hour, David Gregory pounced.

Addressing Pete Sessions (making this not a fair fight at all), Gregory posed this question:

“This has been a debate so far this morning about, you know, the relative merits of Republican rule during the Bush years and what this president has or has not accomplished so far. I think what a lot of people want to know is if Republicans do get back into power, what are they going to do?”

A very pointed question at which time Sessions executed the old Texas Two-Step when he replied [and believe me, I am only including the statements of substance here] 

“…we need to live within our own means…we need to make sure that we read the bills …”

To which Gregory responded (as nicely as he could, I think):

“But, Congressman, that's a, that's a pretty gauzy agenda so far.”

"So far."

Giving him credit that there was more to the GOP agenda than he actually revealed, and Sessions then gave lie to that idea, reasserting that the only two things that need to happen is to balance the budget and read the bills.And that’s it, I swear.

Appearing exasperated at this point, Gregory delved further. This is a questioning strategy not unlike that which 3rd grade teachers use to evoke some higher level critical thinking skills in their students.

“How do you do it? Tell me how you do it. Name a painful choice that Republicans are prepared to say we ought to make.”

Eliciting this response and subsequent exchange:

REP. SESSIONS: Well, first of all, we need to make sure that as we look at all that we are spending in Washington, D.C., with, not only the, the entitlement spending but also the bigger government, we cannot afford anymore. We have to empower the free enterprise system. See, this is where...

MR. GREGORY: Congressman, these are not specifics.

REP. SESSIONS: Oh, they...

MR. GREGORY: And voters get, get tired of that.

REP. SESSIONS: That, that...

MR. GREGORY: You want to deal with entitlement spending...

REP. SESSIONS: They are...

MR. GREGORY: ...will you raise the retirement age on Social Security, will you cut benefits in Social Security?

REP. SESSIONS: Let, let--let's go...

And so he went. Nowhere. Sessions never answered. He never stated specific policies that Republicans are willing to put out there to the American people. Policies that empower Americans to decide who they want to clean up the mess that George Bush left us.

So Gregory turned to RSCC chair John Cornyn. [Not fair really, Two Texas Republicans on the same side in the same room].

MR. GREGORY: Senator, I'm sorry, I'm not hearing an answer here on specific--what painful choices to really deal with the deficit. Is Social Security on the table? What will Republicans do that, that, that would give them--like '94, there was a Contract With America. What are voters going to say, "Hey, this is what Republicans will say yes to"?

And guess what John Cornyn, my senator came up with? The Debt Commission. The commission assembled as a Democratic initiative to determine where cuts should be made. That is, the Republican agenda to revamp the economy is to do what the Democratic Debt Commission comes up with.

MR. GREGORY: But wait a minute, conservatives need a, a Democratic president's debt commission to figure out what it is they want to cut?

Cornyn, backed into a corner, fought his way out by attacking Obamacare. Gregory switched topics and asked about the recently-passed Financial Reform bill. And Cornyn started sputtering about how the bill was too long to read.

“Well, I think--I mean, this is a 2,300-page bill that not even Chris Dodd, the principal Senate author, knows--he said, "We don't know exactly how this will impact the economy or our financial systems for some time to come." I mean, that's part of the problem, as Pete said, passing legislation with unintended consequences and based on an ideological approach as opposed to, "Let's solve the problem" and to help encourage the growth of the economy. As the folks in the business roundtable said, the job-killing agenda of this administration is to make...”

Sigh.

Then the grownup in the room interrupted.

SEN. MENENDEZ: Well, I think, actually, when you look at the choice between where the president has taken the country from what he inherited vs. what our colleagues espouse, which is in essence the Bush voodoo economics, the reality is, in that choice, they have a very clear preference for the president's economic policies. Let me answer the question that my dear friend John wouldn't. Yes, they want to repeal health care, and they say replace. Well, you'll have a whole host of issues that you enjoy today that won't be enjoyed anymore. You won't see seniors closing that prescription drug gap that they have, you won't be able to have pre-existing conditions no longer be a bar to you getting insurance; you won't have a child born at birth who now will be able never--if they have a defect--to no longer be denied insurance. And yes, we have cost controls in that bill. On Wall Street reform, look, two weeks before, two weeks before the Wall Street reform bill was passed, you know, a hedge fund manager ultimately raised a million dollars for Republican candidates two weeks before the bill was being voted on, and they tried to stop us four times in the Senate before we got the Wall Street reform. I think that people in America believe in a free market as we as Democrats do, but there's a difference between a free market and a free fall market.

I’m sorry that this went overly long, but I think we all need to see this for what it is. Republicans are simply out of ideas. It has gone beyond having a knee-jerk reaction to every Democratic plan of “NO.” I think today we have been served a dish called the Republican agenda, a dish served on a silver platter with a silver cover to keep it warm.

And upon having the cover removed, we now see that there is nothing on the plate. There is nothing there. Not because Republicans are incapable of coming up with an idea, not at all. It has become all too clear to me why Republicans offer no new ideas anymore.

The Republicans have run out of fuel. They are running on empty.

White Beats Perry in Cash On Hand: Some Answers

In my previous posting on how Texas’ Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill White has out-performed the fundraising machine known as Re-Elect Rick Perry, I sat in amazed wonderment over the fact that Bill White has $3 million more than Rick Perry has in cash on hand, but the question still begged: how did that ever happen?

Republicans are absolute geniuses at raking in the lucre from lobbyists and all manner of influence buyers. The GOP has a vice-like grip on the throat of power in Texas. They are the go-to people if you want to buy someone’s favor or interest.

So what happened?

Well as it turns out, as revealed here, two things.

First, as the Austin American-Statesman reports, Rick Perry paid the Chris Bell campaign a $426,000 settlement out of his campaign coffers earlier this year. This payment was, as it turns out a settlement that came out of a lawsuit that Chris Bell filed as a result of some pretty shady dealings that went on during the 2006 gubernatorial race that pitted Perry against Bell and two (or was it seven?) other gubernatorial candidates.

From the Austin American-Statesman:

“Asked to explain why the Perry campaign settled with Bell, Perry spokesman Mark Miner said, ‘Due to the unnecessary cost and time factors of litigation, both parties have decided to pursue other strategies.’ He declined to elaborate on those other strategies.”

“Bell alleged that Houston homebuilder Bob Perry tried to hide a $1 million contribution to Rick Perry (no relation) late in the 2006 campaign by sending it to the Republican Governors Association, which then sent $1 million to Perry.” 

“Bell named the Perry campaign and the governors association in his lawsuit. Because the campaign did not properly identify the group on state finance reports, donors to the governors' group were not properly disclosed to the public, Bell alleged. Perry's lawyers have previously said that, at worst, Perry made a reporting error”

A “reporting error” that cost Perry over 400 large. It makes one wonder if this was indeed a “reporting error,” and there is no reason to believe that at all, but even if that were the case, how is it that in light of this “reporting error” Rick Perry is able to balance his checkbook let alone a state budget?

No, it is very clear from news of this settlement that wholesale exchanges of cash from one fund to another, not unlike the Tom DeLay ARMPAC/TRMPAC shenanigans that got DeLay indicted and then chased out of DC, are the kinds of things we are seeing still going on, only this time Perry cut his losses by settling.

Unfortunately it does show up rather glaringly when the January-June TEC filings went public this week.

According to the article, Bell is not finished here. Perry has bought himself out of the lawsuit but Chris Bell is still holding the Republican Governors Association feet to the fire.

“Bell is still suing the governors' group, alleging that it did not take all of the steps required by state law before contributing to Perry's campaign. The suit is currently before state District Judge John Dietz , an Austin Democrat.”

Maybe this explains part two of why Rick Perry’s campaign war chest has lagged behind Bill White’s. Cause and effect notwithstanding, it‘s probably no coincidence that Rick Perry’s campaign fund has yet to receive a contribution from the Republican Governor’s Association. It is, after all, not over for them yet. It is possible that they may have to withhold funds from Perry’s campaign in order to make a future settlement with the Bell lawsuit.

Bill White’s campaign doesn’t have that problem. The Democratic Governors’ Association has, in fact, made campaign contributions to White’s campaign, something to the tune of $1.5 million since February.

So there you have it. White is $3 million ahead of Perry, half of that from a contribution from the Democratic Governors’ Association that is unmatched in Perry’s campaign from the RGA, plus an unexpected outgo to settle a pretty embarrassing lawsuit out of court.

In evaluating the Perry campaign versus Bill White's things tend to "add up" in more than just the usual ways.

Obama Rebuked for Vacationing with the Yankees

You know, you have to have a pretty thick skin to be President of the United States. I remember whenever George W. took a trip to Crawford to clear some brush of some such nonsense we all used to mark the number of days he spent on vacay.

By my count, from January 21st 2001 until January 19th 2009 Bush spent 490 days on his ranch in Crawford, Texas.

He spent 487 days at Camp David.

That, by the way, is 2.68 years.

So, OK. Obama is spending a third weekend on vacation while oil is spewing into the Gulf.

Or wait . . .

They capped that, didn’t they?

No matter. This is Barack Hussein Obama, the Kenyan we’re talking about here. No holds barred if you are a shrill rightwing media political hack. So what is the latest beef?

Well just that rather than take his family to vacation on the Gulf Coast, as he is encouraging Americans to do, he took his family to a National Park in New Hampshire.

Where the Yankees live.

But according to the RNC, Obama makes poor choices vis-a-vis his vacation spots. From CNN:

"The Republican National Committee launched a website blasting what it considers Obama's "leisure activities or missteps" during the oil disaster, like playing golf, attending concerts and vacationing in Asheville, North Carolina; Chicago, Illinois; and now Maine."

"Obama has also faced criticism for scheduling a trip up north, instead of vacationing in the Gulf, as he advised other Americans to do."

Why, oh why, wouldn’t President Obama want to spend some quality family vacation time in the Deep South?

Still confused?

Bill White Campaign a Money Magnet?

I never thought I would live to see it. The January-June 2010 TEC filings are in and the totals show that Bill White’s campaign out-competed the Republican money machine that is the campaign to re-elect Rick Perry by three millions of dollars.

In their news release, White spokesperson Katy Bacon reports that in the 6-month filing period Bill White has become the money magnet that brought over 16,000 individual contributions that totaled just over $7.4 million. 75% of these donations were for $100 or less. 11,700 of these supporters, representing 73% of all of White’s donors, are brand new to the campaign donation scene.

The other 25% of White’s donors are the high-roller and PAC donations that are part and parcel of Texas politics. And yes, as a true believer in grassroots campaigns, I wish it were different, but Republicans wrote the rules here. The rules that they have recently written in Texas Limestone say that you can’t get your message out to Texas, with its 5 major mass media markets, unless you have the wherewithal to get that done.

This brings the Bill White Campaign fund total to a cool $9 million in wherewithal.

And according to the totals I have heard about, Bill White with his $9 million in campaign cash on hand has outstripped Rick Perry’s $6 million total cash on hand.

A table turner if there ever was one.

Pati Jacobs in a Winnable Texas HD 17 Race

One of the things that results if you attended the Texas Democratic Party State Convention this year is that you get your email address on a “good guys” list. So I have been receiving email from candidates left and left.

One candidate for State Rep really impressed me at this past state convention in that everywhere you went, there was Pati Jacobs. She made appearances at all the Education caucuses. She was featured in the General Session as one of the three candidates that are going to tip the Texas State House to a Democratic majority.

So I took a deeper look today, after getting my second email from her campaign, and frankly I have become thoroughly satisfied that in Pati Jacobs we not only have a great candidate, but it also looks like she can be a winner in what otherwise looks like a Republican-leaning house district.

These are exactly the kinds of places/districts we need to win this year.

First, who is Pati Jacobs? She runs a cattle ranch in Bastrop with her brother. They raise grass-fed beef on their ranch, and she is known locally as a community leader.

Now on Jacobs’ cattle ranching, if you have never tasted grass-fed beef you have been denying yourself one of the great pleasures in life. At this juncture in my life I tend toward chicken and fish, so if I cross over and have some red meat, it has to be special.

And grass-fed beef is just the ticket when you want it special.

True story: At work we science teachers sometimes have potluck lunches to celebrate birthdays and special occasions. Last year I made a big pot of Texas-style chili and used a kilo of grass-fed ground chuck that I had bought at a farmer’s market. It was a special occasion for me so I splurged a little, varying from my usual pasta salad. To this day, though, when the subject of chili comes up at lunch, my colleagues still talk about my chili as though it is all I ever made for them.

So there is another association you can make with Pati Jacobs: good Texas chili.

Jacobs’ Republican opponent is the incumbent. By habit, HD 17 voters have voted Democratic when it comes to their state rep, but vote for Dark Side candidates in all other races. So when State Rep Robby Cook decided to hang up his spurs after winning in 2004 by 5,247 votes (53.66% to 44.18%), and by 415 votes in his final term during the 2006 midterm election, the seat was open in 2008. So it came as no surprise that because of the huge turnout in the historic 2008 presidential election brought McCain/Palin voters to the polls in HD 17, the open seat went to the Republican. The numbers though, say everything.

In the 2008 election, McCain got 60.9% of HD 17 voters (37,331 votes) to Obama’s 37.5% (22,980 votes), but in the House race, now incumbent Tim Kleinschmidt got only 32,220 votes (just shy of 54%) to his Democratic opponent’s 25,528 votes (just shy of 43%).

That, friends and neighbors, represents 5,111 swing votes. Over five thousand HD 17 voters who vote for Republican national candidates, but want a Democrat to represent them in the state house.

In short, then, if even half of these five thousand voters show up in the lower turnout mid-term election HD 17 is eminently winnable by a Democrat.

Especially in a mid-term election where the Republican opponent, Tim Kleinschmidt, has been labeled by the Texas Monthly as “Furniture.”

People don’t cross over to vote FOR “Furniture,” they cross over to vote AGAINST “Furniture.”

And lastly, all of those pundits who are expecting an anti-Obama bounce in the mid-term election here have not realized, and will not realize that in Texas, this election is more of a referendum on Rick Perry, his Trans-Texas Corridor, his worldwide laughingstock of a state school board and his and his party’s $18 billion budget shortfall.

So HD 17, with Tim “Lay-Z-Boy” Kleinschmidt as the incumbent, has a big blue target painted on it. And Jacobs has just announced that her campaign is in the enviable position to boast an intake of $100,000 in the January to June TEC reporting cycle. No small thing in a rural district like HD 17. If you are as delighted as I am by the prospects in this race, a race being waged by a very smart and energetic woman, then why not drop by her ActBlue page and drop a couple of dead presidents in her campaign fund?

Because while winning is fun, funding a winner is even more so.

Deficit is Not the Enemy, Deflation Is

As conservatives rock and rattle over unfunded federal spending that would bring relief to hundreds of thousands of American families that have been impacted by intractable unemployment, as they, in an amazing reversal of logic, shriek and wail over the loss of tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans – those tax breaks also being unfunded, both sides of the aisle are acutely aware of the growing federal deficit. Neither, however, can agree on what to do about it.

From my point of view, though, concentrating on the federal deficit is a distraction we can ill afford right now. As a matter of fact, having a deficit, something that is known to drive up inflation sometimes, is not altogether a bad thing right now.

That’s because we now face a more dire circumstance: deflation.

We haven’t seen deflation, that is, a decline in the prices of goods and services, since the Great Depression. Deflation is to a recession what a good barefoot jog in subfreezing weather while battling pneumonia is to health.

It makes it much worse.

But that is apparently where we are heading right now. From AP, through the Chron:

“Wholesale prices dropped 0.5 percent last month, following declines of 0.1 percent in April and 0.3 percent in May, the Labor Department reported Thursday. Core inflation, which excludes food and energy, posted a modest 0.1 percent increase.”

“The third month of declines in Labor's Producer Price Index raised new concerns about the possibility of deflation, a prolonged period of falling prices which has not been seen in the United States since the Great Depression of the 1930s.”

Want a preview of what deflation will do to the US economy? Behold Japan.

From Paul Krugman’s Op/Ed yesterday:  

“Back in 2002, a professor turned Federal Reserve official by the name of Ben Bernanke gave a widely quoted speech titled, ‘Deflation: Making Sure 'It' Doesn't Happen Here.’ Like other economists, myself included, Bernanke was deeply disturbed by Japan's stubborn, seemingly incurable deflation, which in turn was ‘associated with years of painfully slow growth, rising joblessness and apparently intractable financial problems.’”

Years of painfully slow growth.

Krugman offers that the Fed, which is unlike the Senate in that it doesn’t need 60 votes to do anything useful, is stalled on doing anything about deflation right now.

“Now that the nightmare has become reality, however – and yes, it is a nightmare for millions of Americans – Washington seems to feel absolutely no sense of urgency. Are hopes being destroyed, small businesses being driven into bankruptcy, lives being blighted? Never mind, let's talk about the evils of budget deficits.”

What should the Federal Reserve be doing right now? Anything other than what it is doing, according to Krugman, which is absolutely nothing. According to Krugman the Fed has some options.

“It can buy longer-term government debt. It can buy private-sector debt. It can try to move expectations by announcing that it will keep short-term rates low for a long time. It can raise its long-run inflation target, to help convince the private sector that borrowing is a good idea and hoarding cash a mistake.”

My guess is, however, that there is so much hand-wringing over the deficit, and no long-term memory over what exactly eventually drew America out of the Great Depression (a massive federal spending program known as World War II), that our fate has already been drawn in the sand above the swash zone.

And I sit here waiting in vain, I think, for a spring tide to erase our fate, because on the one hand, we have talked ourselves into this, and on the other hand, Republicans would like nothing else than a complete economic collapse to capitalize on in November.

Lebron and Mel Do Have Their Uses

Sometimes it is good to sit back and look at he world the way those of us who are not complete political wonks see things. Drew Sheneman has it exact I think.

For Texas SBOE District 10: Marsha Who?

Today the Texas Democratic Party sent a message to all of us about Judy Jennings’ sometime opponent in her race for a seat on the Texas State Board of Education.

Something to the effect of: Marsha Who?

That is, since July 3rd, when Marsha Farney (oh yeah, Farney) addressed a crowd of Teabaggers and expressed her relief that she was before them and not a bunch of America-bashing Democrats.

To wit:

“I'd rather be here than with those America-bashing Democrats.”

But since then, and the feces storm that ensued, no one has seen neither hide nor big hair of Dr. Farney. The Houston Chronicle admits that they were rebuffed from getting an interview, nor have they received any explanation of her July 3rd remark despite repeated quests via email or phone.

“She has not responded to e-mails or phone calls spread out over the past few days”

Judy Jennings, her opponent in the election was unabashedly taken aback by the whole thing, and asked for her take on the remark offered this:

“‘I guess she believes that anyone who's a Democrat is an America- basher, which maybe means that we don't love our country as much as others do who aren't Democrats,’ Jennings says. ‘I don't know what else it could mean.’”

To which I say, how about this? How about that Marsha Farney is just as rightwing and just as politicized as the board member that she hopes to replace, Cynthia Dunbar. How about that Marsha Farney, upon seeing the recent poll taken across the political spectrum, revealed that Texans oppose the politicizing of Texas educational policies to the tune of 72% opposed, has taken a dive for cover?

How about the fact that Marsha Farney, who proudly displays the banner “100% Pro Life Answers” on the home page of her campaign website, uses the issue of Abortion Rights as a litmus test to attract social conservatives to her cause?

In her most recent statement, Judy Jennings has been on point and on the nose in characterizing Marsha Farney as just another political hack that wants to have her reactionary neoconservative way with the Texas school curriculum.

“‘For weeks I have called on Farney to explain to Texas families whether she would join those already on the SBOE in ignoring the advice of teachers and experts, by continuing to push hyper-partisan ideology on our school children., For weeks she has remained silent. Now that she's proven the extent to which she will pander to a fringe element, she has quickly returned to her 'undisclosed location' and refuses to answer any questions, in hopes that Texans won't notice,’ Jennings said.”

“‘I have been clear from the start. When I am elected to the State Board of Education, I will not inflict ideology on the schoolchildren of Texas. Instead, I will listen to the advice of experts and teachers, and will remain focused on the task at hand - providing our Texas children with a world-class education,’ Jennings said.”

“‘Shamefully, it's now clear that we cannot expect the same from Marsha Farney.’”

I know times are tough. I have had to contend with some unexpected expenditures this summer, too. But it’s worth a $5 or a $10 donation to the Jennings campaign to get her message out to the sprawling District 10 electorate that extends from Houston to Austin.

It’s time to take back our educational system from the political hacks. It’s time to support Judy Jennings in an uphill but winnable battle to retake District 10.

Perry vs. White: A Study in Education Contrasts

What are the two largest areas of state financial responsibility? Arguably they are just about evenly divided between public education and public health services. And today we see that Bill White and Rick Perry are measuring themselves against a scale of who has the best ideas to knock down Texas’ high school dropout rate.

First, you have to agree on what the rate is. According to Perry, who appointed the state’s education commissioner, the figures at the Texas Education Agency are solid gold. And statewide, the TEA says that the dropout rate is 10.5%. According to nearly everyone else, this rate estimate is hopelessly optimistic. Nationally, according to just about every other measurement than the Texas official one, or in this specific case, Texas ranks just ahead of Mississippi in an annual dropout rate of 30.4%.

10.5% versus 30.4%.

You would think, then, that your plan to correct this depends upon which figure you are willing to believe. And in that you would be correct.

Perry, who must ascribe to the lower figure or label himself an incompetent fool who supervises a one-third annual dropout rate, has come up with a plan to encourage high school dropouts to return to school or obtain their GEDs: a business tax incentive.

I first read about that deal here.

He says it will only cost the state $15 million annually, and it will give businesses who allow their employees to go back to school or get their GEDs by giving them 2 hours per week paid time off to do that a $1500 per student tax credit.

Doing the math, that means Perry is willing to spend $15 million per year in order to get 1000 high school dropouts per year their high school diplomas, or the equivalent. Now if the state only had 1000 dropouts per year, that would plug the leak nicely wouldn’t it? Trouble is, even with Perry’s own accepted figures, that is a mere 1/4th of the total annual dropout rate.

Accepting the higher figure found here this figure is a mere 1/12th of the total high school dropouts – annually.

Clearly, Perry proposes to repair what amounts to arterial bleeding with a band-aid.

Democratic gubernatorial nominee, Bill White, has another more robust plan that seeks to plug the leak at its source. This is the educational equivalent, to use a BP oil blowout analogy, to drilling a relief well and killing the gusher at the source rather than attempting to fit a loosely fitting cap at the wellhead.

Bill White knows, because he listens to educators who have learned, that a person's valuation of education begins in pre-Kindergarten. The first of his 5-point education plan is to fund pre-K programs for more children.

This is key. Everything proceeds from there. As a matter of fact there is now enough data to identify probable high school dropouts as early as the 5th grade. If this kind of data is available, this gives teachers and districts a lot of time to institute corrective strategies.

White also outlined a strategy of direct intervention to go directly to the homes of students who do not return to school in the fall. Instituted in Houston, this resulted in the return of 8800 students to high school.

That’s nine year’s-worth of Perry’s program.

Finally, Bill White wants to take Texas off the High-Stakes Testing Standard that has become institutional since George W. was governor.

It. Simply. Doesn’t. Work.

Like it or not, all that has changed in education since the institution of near-complete reliance on TAKS not only for student achievement ratings but for district and campus accountability ratings, has been a change in emphasis from teaching writing, reasoning and critical thinking skills to teaching how to pass a multiple choice test.

Perry, having the ultimate supervisory responsibility with what is happening in public schools, must defend it all.

Must defend the indefensible.

And how does he do it? Perry does what he does best. Perry slaps lipstick on a pig and calls it beautiful and then throws a bone at business. A very small bone.

One can only hope that this latest can of spam issued by Perry will be seen by Texas voters for what it is: a laughable attempt to plug a hemorrhaging wound with a post-it note that says "lern gud".