Tuesday in Texas: Bad Bills and Educational Robin Hood for the Rich

[TexasTowelie]

By Carol Morgan

Tuesday marks the beginning of the 84th Texas Legislative session, a reality show for those who seek entertainment, something akin to dog fighting for others, and a boon for political bloggers.

The class of the 84th is an ambitious group: the first day of filing saw 350 potential pieces of legislation and as of today, that count climbed to 758. That won’t be the final number because the last day to file is March, 13, 2015.

Some are ho-hum-underwhelming bills commemorating holidays or special events taking place on the legislator’s home turf. Have you ever heard of March for Jesus Day, Massage Therapy Awareness Day or Grapefruit Month?

Some are a waste of time and money. Does anyone think that Texas needs our own version of Fort Knox? Southlake’s Giovanni Capriglione (R) thinks so. He filed a bill to create the Texas Bullion Depository; that’s gold, not soup.

And a bill that guarantees the Second Amendment?

Or a bill which creates an "In God We Trust" specialty license plate? (written by a Democrat?!)

Or James White’s HB 547 to establish covenant marriage?

Or a bill (written by another Democrat!) that prevents the punishment of any child who chews his/her pastry into gun shapes.

You can't make this up.

There have been some excellent bills filed relating to classroom size and reining in outsourcing contracts, but the 84th seems to be mainly fixated on handguns.

34 bills relating to weapons have been filed and most of those include various versions of open-carry.

There are plenty of hateful bills: Senator Donna Campbell, R-New Braunfels, and Rep. Jason Villalba, R-Dallas, would allow businesses to refuse service to LGBT customers or fire LGBT employees based on religious beliefs. In reality, this bill has nothing to do with religion and plenty to do with discrimination.

Bills to drug test welfare recipients and bills to stop the poorest Texas from getting health insurance and the hate goes on ad nauseam.

The award for the most damaging and frightening bill that’s a guaranteed game changer for Texas children (and not in a good way) is Senate Bill 276, filed by the newest queen of mean, Senator Donna Campbell. She calls it “taxpayer savings grants”, but it’s merely a new name for a voucher scheme which will transfer hundreds of millions of dollars from the public schools in Texas to the state’s private schools and religious schools. Think educational Robin Hood for the rich.

The voucher strategy would be the cherry-on-top of the assassination of public education that took place in 2011. Four years ago, Texas Republican lawmakers cut $5.4 billion from the public education budget, resulting in a job loss of 49,000 education jobs; it caused professional staff to fulfill part-time transportation and custodial duties, and increased class sizes. That money has NEVER been restored and Texas still must face a solution on its unconstitutional state funding formula.

I guess it will be ok, because Ken Paxton, our new Attorney General, claimed, “We survived, and we are fine”. And of course, it is enthusiastically supported by our new Lieutenant Governor, Dan Patrick.

I’d like to hear from Senator Perry, Representative Frullo, or Representative Konkler to get their opinions on this piece of legislation. Surely, this bill cannot pass.

All of this potential mess was put in play by voters who didn’t turnout in November or those who blindly voted straight ticket without considering the candidate’s character or legislative history and their stance on important issues.

This is why we have legislators like family values candidate Tony Tinderholt who’s been married five times and lied about his employment history.

Or the re-election of Rodney Anderson who wants to do away with the minimum salary schedule for teachers. Or Senator Bob Hall who has a history of domestic violence.

Or Paul Bettencourt who left office under a cloud of suspicion for using his office as Harris County Tax assessor for GOP business and was sued for obstructing Hispanic voter registration.

Bad bills and broken lawmakers…how does this happen?

A very important man, who you probably never heard of, died on December 30th. In 1960, Dr. Phillip E. Converse co-authored an academic piece entitled “The American Voter”, which concluded that most American voters were remarkably uninformed and nonideological, and that they based their preferences largely on party affiliation.

Something about his theory sounds familiar, eh? Perhaps it’s the only explanation for the third rate Barnum and Bailey Show which begins on Tuesday.

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Carol Morgan is a career/college counselor, writer, speaker, former Democratic candidate for the Texas House and the award-winning author of Of Tapestry, Time and Tears, a historical fiction about the 1947 Partition of India. Email Carol at [e-mail] , follow her on Twitter and on Facebook or visit her writer’s blog at www.carolmorgan.org

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