Texas Republicans Work to Defund Public Schools

Governor Abbott and his Christian nationalist billionaire campaign donors made progress in their effort to defund and destroy public education in Texas when they succeeded in getting Alan Schoolcraft nominated as the Republican candidate for State House District 44 which encompasses Guadalupe and Gonzales counties. I have disagreed with John Kuempel, our state representative since 2010, on most issues I’ve always respected his strong defense of public education. That defense cost him support from Gov. Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick earlier this year which led to his defeat in the Republican primary by Schoolcraft. Some of the money used by the Schoolcraft campaign came from out-of-state billionaire Jeff Yass, of Pennsylvania, who gave Gov. Greg Abbott $6 million to use in support of pro-voucher candidates Schoolcraft.

The coalition supporting the destruction of Texas public schools includes people like West Texas billionaires Tim Dunn and brothers Farris and Dan Wilks, who contribute to various political action committees pouring millions into legislative campaigns for candiates who support school vouchers. The men also fund or serve on the boards of a host of public policy and advocacy organizations that have led the fight for vouchers in Texas. An example of Tim Dunn’s Christian nationalism is that he once told Republican Speaker of the Texas House Joe Straus that he believed only Christians should hold leadership posts. Earlier this year, Baptist News Global published an article by Pastor Rodney W. Kennedy titled "Sorry, Tim Dunn, you are a Christian nationalist".

Recently the campaign donations from Dunn and the Wilks brothers have reached into local communities across Texas, supporting fights over library books, curriculum and vouchers.

There a many examples of the failure of school vouchers to provide high quality education to all our children. There are many reasons for this including the fact that private schools don’t have to accept students with behavioral issues, or learning disabilities. Typically research has shown that parents who use school vouchers to transfer their children to private schools end up with their 4^th or 5^th choice and those schools typically are underperforming their public school counterparts.

Since 2005 when hurricane Katrina struck it New Orleans replaced all traditional public schools with charters run by ostensibly non-profit corporations. Education results for the generation of students passing through those schools has been mixed at best, generally worse than the national average. One of the tricks used by people seeking to profit from charter schools is that while the charter is held by the legally mandated non-profit organization they turn around and subcontract with a for profit group to actually staff and run the school. Often the same people on the board of the non-profit are also on the board or payroll of the for-profit sub-contractor. It’s a scam.

As reported by the Texas chapter of the American Federation of Teachers in their 2022 report “The Lost Decade”, when you take into account actual per-pupil spending in each state compared to the amount needed to achieve the modest goal of U.S. average test scores, Texas comes in 44th place. That leaves more than 90% of Texas public school students are attending inadequately funded schools. Since government budgets are moral documents this tells you what our state leadership thinks of future generations of Texans.

Starting October 21 when early voting begins you have an opportunity to show your support for public education in Texas by voting for Democratic party candidate Eric Norman. Eric believes “It’s time we live our values and support Texas’ public schools.”

Published in the Seguin Gazette - September 25, 2024

Paxton's Voter Suppression

In a throwback to the Civil Rights era Texas Republicans are using the power of government to once again suppress the vote of minority Americans. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sent armed teams to the homes of half a dozen Houston area members of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC). Squads of armed officers banged on doors at 6 a.m. to execute search warrants and seize cell phones and other possessions at the homes of folks like 87-year-old Lidia Martinez, apparently for exercising her right register people to vote.

Voter suppression is a tried and true method for retaining power. Paxton’s actions are suspect given that the allegations are related to the 2022 election and it seems strange that after nearly two years his investigators suddenly got to the point where they are ready to seized “evidence” given that we’re ramping up for another election. We also know that while Paxton’s office has investigated hundreds of people for voter fraud and other election related crimes spending millions of dollars yet has only led to a handful of convictions. None of those alleged “crimes” involved enough voters to even change the election outcome of a city council member let alone a member of congress or the governor.

Paxton has proven time and again that he’s willing to use Texas taxpayer dollars to fund specious lawsuits and prosecutions if it means helping Republicans win elections. In 2020 he sued four other states claiming they didn’t run their elections properly. Needless to say all four were swing states where Joe Biden and Kamala Harris beat Donald Trump. All four lawsuits were laughed out of court, just like so many of his other stunts.

It’s important to remember that Paxton is so corrupt that he was impeached by the Texas House with plenty of Republicans supporting that vote last session.

Paxton is satisfied with just harassing a handful of voting rights activists, he is also threatening to sue Bexar, Travis, and Harris Counties, where Biden/Harris won by large margins, over their efforts to send voter registration cards to everyone. Apparently Paxton doesn’t want private groups to help people register to vote but he also does not want the government to people register to vote.

These tactics are the same sort that led to the Voting Rights Act and in fact were Section 4b of that legislation still in force today many of the Republican voter suppression tactics would be prohibited and the Department of Justice would have sued to enforce it. Unfortunately a decade ago the Supreme Court held that even states with a history of voter suppression can’t be pre-empted from doing it again.

Texas isn’t the only state where Republican voter suppression is going today, Ohio and Alabama are in the act along with several other southern states. Voter suppression can’t just be overwhelmed by getting out the vote, remember that Hillary Clinton beat Donald Trump by 3 million votes and still lost the election due to the electoral college.

It’s going to take patriotic Republicans like former Vice President Dick Cheney who has put aside his partisanship and endorsed Kamala Harris and Tim Walz to restore out democracy.

Food Safety Compromised by Republican Philosophy

Republican philosophy calls for deregulating private businesses claiming regulations get in the way of job creation. Food safety is one of several areas where this philosophy is readily proven wrong over and over. You may remember a few years ago when Blue Bell ice cream contaminated with listeria killed 3 people and sickened many others back in 2015 and their products were pulled from the shelves they unavailable for months. Something similar has happened earlier this summer this time it’s Boar's Head deli meats that were contaminated with listeria killing at least 9 people and hospitalizing 57 others in 18 states, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as of a week ago. Worse it may not be over yet as it can take up to 10 weeks for some people to develop symptoms of listeriosis. Listeria spreads easily among equipment, surfaces, hands and food. The real number of sick people in the outbreak is likely higher than the number reported, as some recover without medical care or being tested for listeria.

CBS News reported last week that records released by the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service through a Freedom of Information Act request show 69 records of "noncompliances" flagged by inspectors over the past year at the Boar’s Head Jarratt, VA plant where the listeria outbreak originated. While the Food Safety and Inspection Service is ultimately responsible for overseeing day-to-day operations at the plant, it actually relies on staff from Virginia — not USDA employees — to man the site.

Just from January this year to July inspectors found what looked to be mold and mildew around the hand washing sinks for the workers tasked with meats that are supposed to be ready to eat. Mold was also found building up outside of steel vats used by the plant as well as in holding coolers between the site's smokehouses. In addition "A black mold like substance was seen throughout the room at the wall/concrete junction. As well as some caulking around brick/metal," inspectors wrote, saying some spots were "as large as a quarter." Other locations in the plant were found to have a number of issues with leaking or pooling water, including a puddle found to have "a green algal growth" inside and condensation that was found to be "dripping over product being held." An inspector found "ample amounts of blood in puddles on the floor" and a "rancid smell" throughout a cooler used at the plant. A number of records also flag sightings of insects in and around deli meats at the plant. Another record flagged concerns over flies going in and out of "vats of pickle" left by Boar's Head in a room. "Small flying gnat like insects were observed crawling on the walls and flying around the room. The rooms walls had heavy meat buildup," inspectors wrote. Other parts of the facility were also found to have bugs, including what looked to be "ants traveling down the wall," as well as a beetle and a cockroach.

This makes very clear that big business has no incentive to protect consumers since it’s not like plant managers could have missed the disgusting conditions of the facility. It also shows that food inspection is under-funded which is why the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service relies on staff from the company to report problems rather than having actual federal employees overseeing food safety. Who is it that keeps complaining about taxes and cutting government spending? Republicans of course and now at least 9 people are dead. What were their lives worth? Remember, it could have been you.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - September 4, 2024