Don't get me wrong, I think vouchers or school choice is a good idea. Competition always makes something better and strengthens an organization. But I don't think it has a chance in hell passing this session. Here's why.
Jimmie Don Aycock has just been appointed as the chairman of the committee that oversees public education. When he first ran for office his opponent was Dale Hopkins - a nice guy but out of his league. His campaign would have gone nowhere except for the deep pockets of Dr. Jim Leininger. From what I remember - and I am too lazy to look up the exact amount - but the good Doctor gave over $300K to Dale to run a brutal campaign against Chairman Aycock. It wasn't pretty and I doubt Aycock has forgotten. I don't know if Dr. Leininger is involved in this latest effort but the reason he poured so much money into the race was because he thought Aycock was not sufficiently pro school choice. Looks like those chickens are coming home to roost.
In addition, you have the same old guys running the show. Dennis Calabrese, Anthony Holm, Dick Weekly, Dick Trubulsi (I know sounds like TLR and it basically is) are the people responsible for putting together the campaign to ram this through. This is the same group that ran the brillant campaign Texans for Excellence in the Classroom - that put a terrible ad on the radio against Senator Eltife who I doubt has forgotten.
There will be some strange coalitions fighting this effort, those who think school choice will hurt public schools (mostly Democrats) those who represent rural districts (mostly Republicans) and those who have been harmed by TLR (most of Bryan Eppstein's clients that happen to be Chairman)
It will be an interesting fight but I don't see it happening.
Big loser - David Dewhurst. He unnecessarily used his political capital to get Dan Patrick's endorsement in his US Senate race which was worth exactly nada.
Adios Mofo's
Sam: People forget that Dick Trabulsi is the uncle of ultra-liberal Democrat State Rep. Mark Strama and Trabulsi is a Democrat himself. The new Public Ed committee, just like the House Judiciary Committee is going to hold it's nose and say "Pee-Yew" when Trabulsi comes marching in to tell them how to behave.
ReplyDeleteAs for this Calabrese fellow, he was involved in an effort a few years back to get rid of the income tax and go to a national sales tax. It never went anywhere but he was well paid and drained millions away from Houston millionaires. Now he is funded by a foundation set up with Enron millions made by a couple that claim that they are Obama Democrats. Enough said.
Roe v. Wade; Prayer in school; The Ten Commandments in public; same-sex marriage; and many other social issues are certainly hot-button topics. Moreover, these are topics that are often brought up as platform issues during the elections, but often dropped when the conservative is elected and in office. Am I wrong to assume that the conservative parties of the US have manipulated those with social conservative political views? Or have conservative politics made the same leaps and bounds that the liberal parties have made on the civil issues?
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