How Rick Perry destroyed public schools in Texas and why it is Obama's fault

[Horse with no Name]

Yes. I said that. When Obama gave the stimulus money, his FAILURE was not to regulate it more tightly and word-by-word specify what the money was to be used for AND to assure that the funds went to supplement and NOT replace existing funds.
The republicans have wanted nothing more than for his presidency to be a failure. They really don't care who they have to destroy to get that.

For those that don't know, Texas schools have been a financial mess for as long as I can remember.
Nobody has been able to fix them.

So, when Perry took the stimulus money for education, he promptly took matching funds out of the education budget. The stimulus money wasn't even noticed because there was NOTHING extra--only the same old problems that Texas schools had. NOTHING changed.

So now, with the stimulus money gone--Perry refused to put the money he took OUT of education back in the budget. Now, the school budget woes just got dealt a death knell.

The schools are terribly underfunded.

Had a conversation this weekend with someone who works for one of the largest school districts in the area. She said her district put out a memo that basically said if they leave their job for any reason, not to expect it back. ALL jobs openings have been cut by attrition. Their insurance just skyrocketed. Said that she is making $100 a month less this year than last. AND, her last statement was "Obama really screwed this up". First of all, this isn't a dumb person. I did try to ask how in the world Obama could screw up something that was state-funded. She said it was because Obama cut off the stimulus money and now jobs would be lost. She said Rick Perry said that the stimulus would end up losing jobs and it did. He was right. I tried but was unable to get her to understand that Perry just simply fulfilled his own prophecy. Those funds should have NEVER been a substitute for existing funds--they should have been mandated to be additional funds.

However, Texas schools are in serious trouble right now and have lost billions of dollars.

Just last week in our school district, the school board cut Head Start to almost nothing. Another friend lost her job.

NOW...the republicans know how to frame this and it is Obama's fault. And reasonable people who are fixing to feel some major pain in an already painful economy are buying it.

The republicans punked Obama again. It is really getting painful to watch. But even I have a hard time understanding why the language on how the stimulus funds could be used wasn't stronger and more direct.

Texas has been trending towards purple. I think you are going to see a huge change in the next election. My friends aren't partisan. But now they HATE Obama because it was framed so that this whole school budget mess which has been taking place for decades has now hit critical mass and is affecting them and not just the students.

[hobbit709]

1. they haven't fixed them because nobody wanted to.

The clowns in the Lege and the school districts would have had to deal with reality and that's the last thing in the world they want to do.

Rather than come up with an equitable funding solution and actually fund the mandates, they would rather repeat the R Mantra of "NO New Taxes" ad finitum and pretend that it will go away by the next session.

And of course the school districts would rather spend millions on new football stadiums than fund what they are supposed to be about-i.e. EDUCATION.

[Tippy]

2. The sadest part of this is

The chilren suffer, republicans don't care that they are not being educated, hell that is only a small part of it....Obama could pay for everything out of his own pocket and they would still fault him.

[jbond56]

3. get your facts straight

http://blogs.chron.com/txpotomac/2011/02/rick_perry_seeks_repeal_of_edu.html


"his FAILURE was not to regulate it more tightly "

wrong!

Republican control, No child left behind, robinhood, lack of a strong union are all reasons our schools are in trouble.

[Horse with no Name]

5. THE FUNDS SHOULD HAVE NEVER BEEN ALLOWED TO BE A REPLACMENT

for existing funds. That isn't hard to understand.

What it allowed Perry to do was win another election because he was ABLE to cut the budget and use stimulus funds in its place.

So, nobody hurt until now when the money is gone and he refused to put it back in the budget.

What Doggett was trying to do was to assure that what is happening now wouldn't happen. That Rick Perry would put the funds back in because he knew that the prick wouldn't do it.

[jbond56]

7. exactly my point

You blame D's for not regulating it enough when Perry is just ignoring all the regulations and doing whatever he wants. So blame the people who tried to do something or blame the person who is responsible?

Perry was reelected by hiding all of Texas's massive debt and fooling the voters in to believing it was someone else's fault.

My point is hold the people who are making the decision responsible.
Stop blaming the people trying to improve things.

[Horse with no Name]

9. Did you read the OP?

Seriously?

It is the framing of the argument.

I think Obama should have not put the money in the position without strict guidelines so that this wouldn't happen. These people are jackals. They want nothing more than to tear him apart...and as a result, our entire party. Putting extra money in the budget would have been GREAT! That is why Perry didn't do that...he can't be having great things happen in this state because of the Democratic President. So, he torpedoed the efforts--now, who couldn't have seen THAT coming??

THAT is the only fault I see...but I am not the one blaming Obama--the TEA is sending out memos to this effect to its members. THIS failure will go down as his fault...whether or not you or I agree on semantics.

[ananda]

4. Sorry to bust your bubble about Texas trending...

... but people have been saying that for years, and Texas is more red than ever.

[Horse with no Name]

6. It has been. Most of the major cities went Democratic.

However, I do expect that to change with this monumental crisis.

Edited to add most because I think Ft. Worth went republican.

[MrTriumph]

10. And stimulus money was used to start building toll roads in Tarrant County.

Democrats can't even use anti-toll road fervor as an issue because the Obama administration provides funds to start construction of privately owned toll roads.

This administration is absolutely clueless.

[hfojvt]

8. I am not getting the complaint

First, that the stimulus funds should have been used to supplement existing funds?

Uh, the problem at the time was the same, or worse, than the problem is now - states were several hundred million or several billions short of existing funds. There were not existing funds to supplement.

Second, stimulus funds at the time prevented or reduced the cuts you are seeing today.

Third, it is the newly elected Republicans who are pledged to give no more money to help states with their fiscal problems.

Fourth, Texas schools may be a financial mess, I don't claim to know jack squat about that way up north here, but recent reading tells me that educationally, which is sort of the point of schools, Texas is doing quite well.

http://www.dailyhowler.com/dh032311.shtml

"Must we explain the various reasons why SAT scores aren’t used for this purpose? Good! Instead, we can return to the “gold standard” data from the NAEP, in which we’re able to share some good news with Mrs. Bush: Texas students score above the national average on almost all relevant measures; on most relevant measures, Texas students score well above the national average. In reality, it would be hard to find a single measure where Texas students are at the bottom of the nation. Even in eighth-grade reading, black kids in Texas score 3.4 points above the national average for their peers. Hispanic kids beat the national average by 3.5 points.

In eighth-grade math, the news is better. Black kids in Texas outscore their national peers by 12 points. Hispanic kids in Texas outscore their peers by 11 points. White kids are up by eight.

Someone should give Mrs. Bush the good news: Texas kids, and Texas teachers, aren’t at the bottom of the heap! In fact, they aren’t even close to the bottom. Presumably, Ravitch understands this. Why did she play us this way?"

and

http://www.dailyhowler.com/dh032511.shtml

"By a very rough rule of thumb, ten points on the NAEP scale is often said to represent roughly one academic year:

Black students, average score in fourth-grade reading, NAEP, 2009:
Wisconsin: 191.8
Georgia: 204.3
North Carolina: 203.7
South Carolina: 200.1
Texas: 212.8
Virginia: 210.0

White students, average score in fourth-grade reading, NAEP, 2009:
Wisconsin: 226.9
Georgia: 229.0
North Carolina: 230.0
South Carolina: 226.4
Texas: 232.1
Virginia: 233.8

We didn’t cherry-pick the subject. Wisconsin schools tend to underperform on the NAEP, in pretty much every measure. In particular, Texas schools pretty much outscore Wisconsin’s in every demographic, in all four subjects the NAEP tests—fourth grade and eighth grade reading and math. (Eighth-grade reading, Ravitch’s favorite? Black kids in Wisconsin, 237.6. Black kids in Texas, 248.9.)"

[zbdent]

11. dontcha know?

that would be "regulating" stuff ... can't have regulations ... unless it's something that a Democrat suggests ... then you have to account for every penny ... even imaginary potential costs (there was a cancellation of a project because someone MIGHT have cost overruns ...)

[The Philosopher]

12. Rick Perry

refused Federal stimulus money because of the regulations.

http://governor.state.tx.us/news/press-release/14146/

Gov. Perry frames it as a State's rights issue. In his view, Texas is doing well and doesn't need the Federal government to dictate what Texas can and can't do. In his view, Texas is not failing in any area and not doing anything wrong, while the Federal Government IS and even more, putting its nose into other people's business. Saying that the President should have added more regulation would play into Gov. Perry's hands.

[Horse with no Name]

13. $11M in Stimulus Money to Improve Rick Perry's House

I live here in Texas. Seriously, don't listen to what he says, watch what he does.



http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/05/22/734323/-$11M-in-Stimulus-Money-to-Improve-Rick-Perrys-House

>>>snip
AUSTIN, Texas – While Gov. Rick Perry is criticizing Washington bailouts, state lawmakers are planning to use $11 million in federal stimulus money to help rebuild the badly burned Texas Governor's Mansion.

Approximately $10 million in state tax money will also be spent on a renovation, which is expected to cost about $20 million, officials said Thursday. A House-Senate committee agreed on the expenditures late Wednesday night...

"If we're going to fix it up we're going to have to use stimulus money," said state Sen. Steve Ogden, R-Bryan. "We've made a decision to use the stimulus money. This is a good use of it."

[The Philosopher]

14. Yes

I live in Texas as well.

[MadMaddie]

15. Sorry you can't blame Obama for this one

Perry wanted to destroy the school system and he succeeded. I went to school in San Antonio in the 80's and it was already downhill.

President Obama provided the money for the States to act like States and use the money properly. President Obama doesn't need to hold each states hand to make sure they follow through on properly spending the money.

Rick Perry and TX Repugs are alone responsible for destroying the school system.

Now, I will agree that the Democratic party state wide and nationwide has EPIC FAILED to communicate who screwed up and why this isn't being fixed I don't know.

Your friends know who is responsible and it's Rick Perry. Your friends know the history and to blame President Obama is childish....President Obama provided TX an opportunity to fix it's mess and Perry chose not to.

[Horse with no Name]

16. I only blame him for not attaching strict regs to it

because he KNOWS that the repugs will do ANYTHING to derail his agenda.

I blame Perry for screwing Texans.

The problem is...as with my friend...the majority of folks ARE blaming Obama because that is what is being sold to them. Obama is TAKING the money away...when in essence, Obama gave EXTRA and Perry took it away...it is all about the lies and propaganda.

My friend says they get an email EVERY day from the TEA, but really wouldn't go into specifics of what they say...my guess is the same propaganda she was spewing. I'd love to see a teacher from Texas illuminate that.

[dionysus]

17. well, this is a creative exercise in blaming Obama for republican's dirty deeds...