Lets leave NCLB behind, shall we?

Seeing Texas Talk blog on House Bill 3 and Senate Bill 3 Relating to public school accountability, curriculum, and promotion requirements, I too thought Hallelujah! Though I am not a teacher, I have many family members and friends who are teachers. One in particular has talked about having to ‘teach to the test or TAKS’ and how it puts undue stress on 3rd graders and the teachers. I really don’t believe that you should be stressed out in 3rd grade. The only thing you should be stressed over if you are 8 is when the next Harry Potter movie is coming out.

Besides the students being stressed, the teachers are run ragged trying to get the kids prepared for the TAKS testing and aftermath. Because after the TAKS tests are over, you only have a short time to actually get down to being able to teach everything that should have been teaching throughout the school year. Also if the students, as a whole percentage wise, consistently do make the acceptable range on the tests the teacher’s job may be on the line. If this teacher is in a poor district with little resources and the students’ home life is not conducive to learning, poor scores over all may not reflect on that teacher. More stress….

In talking with a high school teacher friend of mine, he said that most of the kids he sees in his classes are not ready for college level courses even though they may have passed the TAKS testing. A Houston Chronicle article on the HISD schools progress in improving overall students testing scores also had some that worried that many schools put way too much emphasis on the TAKS testing.

I am hopeful that this bill that has now passed both House and Senate committees and is on the intent calendar will be passed and put into place soon. I think it is very important for everyone that we place more emphasis on teaching and learning and less on standardize testing.

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Texas HB 2094

After reading through several articles and getting madder or depressed or being reduced to only thinking of one or two expletives to write about any of them, I had to step back and go have a beer. As Homer says, “Ummmmmm….. Beeeeeeeeeeer” But not just any beer but a fine craft brewed beer from an independent brewer. Much more flavorful and deep than mass market beers out there. Each brewer adds something of themselves to the process.



Back to being disgusted with the legislatures (Yes the federal and state) and thinking that it’s ALL rigged and there is no way to stop bills or move other bills ahead based on public opinion. Then something happens that makes me set back and think, well maybe it’s not ALL rigged. One was an OSHA proposed regulation that would have had an effect on availability of ammunition and reloading supplies. There was a public comment period in which both my husband and I sent in one of those pre-written letters to OSHA. I really did not think that anything would come of it but because of the comments sent in, the regulation was amended. One of the first times in recent memory that something like that had actually worked out the way that I wanted it too.

Now I can chalk up another bill that made it out of committee in the Texas House. This is one that is near and dear to my heart , HB 2094 that would allow small brewers to sell beer on premises. For some small breweries such as Live Oak this means if I wanted to me could go to the brewery directly and purchase some very fine pale ale or HefeWeizen or maybe even Big Bark.

This bill that had been introduced the first time in 2007 died in committee and this year’s version seemed doomed to meet the same fate. However last Thursday things started looking up. The Houston Chronicle ran a story on it last Friday and had been calling around to committee members to see how they would vote. So a bill that had been doomed because of, most likely, back room power brokers had new legs. By shedding the light of day on the bill with people going on record about it, this started this bills own ‘call in’ to let your legislators know how you feel about it. The bill made it out of committee today. I am kind of hopeful it will make it to the floor this session.

It’s not a big deal bill, nothing really earth changing but it reminds me that the system does work. This shows however that if you just set back and grouse about whatever the legislature did or did not do and you did not say anything thing about it to them, you have no room to complain. Also it shows that newspapers still can be powerful and most of all that people can get around a cause and bring it before our elected officials to effect change. But you have to speak up!

Focus on Texas .... not GOP

In reading getting back to our roots, I was reminded that lately it does seem like that Mr. Perry is trying his best to be the biggest right wing, most conservative, makes Ms. Palin look liberal and be in Rush Limbaugh’s top 5 favorite people than to focus on his job of governor. He really should remember that he won re-election after having almost 61% of the voters vote AGAINST him.

It sounds like to me as though Mr. Perry is running for a presidential or vice presidential nod and maybe trying to show up Kay Bailey Hutchinson, his rival for the republican candidacy for governor in 2010. Perry appears to be talking out of both sides of his mouth however in that after Hurricane Ike he wanted FEMA to pay 100% of clean up costs, rather than the normal 75/25 spilt, and also wanted FEMA's help with the recent wildfires but yet wants the federal government ‘out of Texas hair.’

Historian Tory Gattis writes that Texas is primed to be the next big wave in growth in the US, following the growth waves of the East Coast, Midwest and West Coast. Texas should be preparing for that wave by strengthening our public schools, grow our research universities and finance the state’s water plan now. Those are just some of the big decisions legislators have before them in this session. That’s what Perry should be focusing own in my opinion, to grow our state and not his political right wing clout.

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Maybe Disney came come up with a plan....

While reading about the Texas legislature wanting to do something about roads but not wanting to do the unpopular thing and raise taxes to pay for it I was reminded of when we lived in Pflugerville. At the time Pflugerville still had just a volunteer fire department and a small police force operating out of an all in one police station-city hall –jail in beautiful downtown P-ville. But P-ville had grown from a little spot in the road back in ’86 when I moved to Austin to a full fledged bedroom suburb in early 2000’s, It was time to raise taxes and pay for a full time paid fire department, new larger police force and station with a larger jail because of all the new ‘Otis’s’ in town. (If you get that reference you have told someone recently to turn the music down too)

But it was time as the town had too many citizens for a small police force and volunteer fire department to handle and so I cast my ballot to raise my property taxes to pay for the police, fire and ambulance in P-ville. Growing up is hard and owning a home is part of that and all that goes along with that such as property taxes. But those were services that were needed and had to be paid for in part by me the taxpaying citizen. It would be nice to never grow up and live in ‘Neverland’ and not have to think about nearly everything that you own or do being taxed to pay for something and that something’s upkeep. However the legislature seems to think that there are fairies and elves that will build and repair Texas roadways and rail systems. Not raising the state gas tax that helps build new roads and bridges in the last 18 years has put a real burden on the system. It is estimated that the funds that are coming in by 2012 will all be used to maintain and pay debt incurred in building existing roads. With all the new people driving in Texas we need new roads and bridges to be built so that we can zip around and not have to leave hours early just to get to where we are going.

I am not a fan of paying more for gas but also understand that everything costs more to do over time. Why there has not been a system in place of incrementally raising the state sales tax on gasoline that way you do not have to endure a drastic hike all at once? Is it just the legislature wanting to live in ‘Neverland’ so that they can say they never raised taxes? That is the Texas thing to do it seems, low taxes and lower services.

Hightower said it first it seems

What we will drive on if the ledg does not act soon

State Board of Education says its Beer:thirty

This blog is by Dave Mann the Texas Observers reporter who got stuck with the assignment of setting in a Texas State Board of Education meeting that turned into a 6 hour debate over the final version of science textbook standards and curriculum. Textbook companies who produce science textbooks will have to publish the results of this as content in their products which is used throughout the U.S. Also it sets the curriculum for the next decade on what will be taught in Texas in Science classes. This is interesting to me, as I worked for several years for a textbook publishing company. I worked with bids and contracts, having to meticulously make sure that every I was dotted just so because if it was not, the local level Board of Education’s would toss the bid out. I find it both extremely funny and quite sad that most of the proposed amendments to the standards were submitted hand written in the same format and neatness as my grocery list. I have had a bid thrown out because of an incorrect font yet proposals on the state level, that it takes 10 minutes just to decipher what the amendments were saying , are ok?

I think Mr. Mann does a good job of reporting what went on from a pro evolution leaning stand point. That the State Board had a year to hammer this out and was still debating topics as low level as word choice and handing in substantive amendments that were hand written is worrisome. His reporting -- though pro-evolution-leaning -- showed that even on the Education Boards level there need to be some cause for concern as it seemed throughout this meeting, that should have been more of a voting and signing party, it was a tedious “insert the word ‘all’ here” affair.

A Teachers View

The AP news story

Redistricting commission


Bill to take partisanship out of redistricting gains force in Legislature.

Texas House should support redistricting reform

The citizens of the state of Texas need a non partisan approach to the job of Congressional redistricting. Too often the State legislature is unable to get the job of redistricting done due to partisanship. A very messy power grab in 2003 by the new republican majority in the State legislature that lead to eleven Texas Senate Democrats fleeing the state for Oklahoma and New Mexico for 46 days in a quorum busting effort to prevent the passage of the redistricting legislation. This ultimately failed, however the U. S. Supreme Court did throughout the District 23 as in valid citing a Section 2 violation of the Voting Rights Act.

State Senator Jeff Wentworth, R-San Antonio, has been introducing legislation to create an independent redistricting commission since 1993. This commission would have 4 Republican and 4 democratic appointed members plus a none voting chairperson that would be chosen by the members. The members of this commission would hold no elected office or be involved in party of electoral politics while serving on the commission.

I think that Texans would benefit from a bipartisan redistricting commission such as the one proposed. It would remove one of the most overt demonstrations of partisan power by taking it from the political parties in the Legislature. The commission should, being bi-partisan, create more sensible congressional districts for the state. Our present congressional map is considered by many gerrymandering at its worst.

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Bye-Bye, Boys' Club

In all honesty, I did not spend a lot of time looking at the Texas legislature candidates up for election for the November races. I live in Williamson County and it has been a VERY Republican strong hold forever. I was shocked to find out on November 5th when I bothered to look at the Texas races that Williamson County of all places elected a DEMOCRAT and a woman at that. Had to place a call to my UT-ex poly sci major buddy that used to live in my neighborhood that had moved out of state to tell him, I heard the phone clatter to the floor as he dropped it in shock.

I was excited to find this article in Texas Observer about the ‘old boys club’ having a chuck taken out of in the legislature. A grassroots organization, Annie’s List, is helping women to run for and win office. These women are pro choice but after that they are a progressive diverse bunch and Annie’s List helps monetarily, personnel and training wise for the campaign trail.

Reading about this got me excited about following the Texas legislature because of with more women in house we are looking at a bigger push for issues that are close to home, improving education, pay equality, health care and combating domestic violence.

Annie's List
Diana Maldonado

Are we safer yet?

I have worried about another terrorist attack happening here in the U.S. or overseas. What will the terrorists do next? They have gotten more and more sophisticated while the authorities have not seemed to keep up – as in Mumbai. It has been reported that the police there were vastly out gunned by the terrorists. Also 9/11 was not the first time that terrorist activity has graced our shores, domestic terrorist attacked on April 19, 1995 with the bombing of the Murrah Federal building in Oklahoma City. Details came out after that, the perpetrators had visited several federal buildings in different cities in deciding which one to bomb. At the time I was living in Des Moines, IA which was one on the list and I worked near it. Then we have all the work place, shopping and school shootings all perpetrated by people carrying out their own little forms of ‘jihad’ not to mention drunk drivers on the road that could run you over. So are we ever really safe getting out of bed in the morning? (I won’t mention planes falling out of the sky onto your house now…)

In a post 9/11 U.S. it does seem that we have let our civil rights slip away some, just so that we will feel safer. The Patriot Act gives the government sweeping powers to fight terrorism but many of the provisions run counter to the Constitution. Things like innocence until proven guilty, limits on government’s power of search and seizer of property and separation of powers ect. Back in August 2003 the Bush administration released a report that detailed civil rights abuses committed in the implementation of the Patriot Act which got a lot of press coverage but at the time got very little public discussion. Although now I do hear more of a discussion and it seems that we as a nation are waking up and seeing that our fear might have been used against us in order to distract us from other things going on.

I agree with Lawrence in the hope that we do not give up our rights because of fear. We need to be vigilant because I can see that before 9/11 we had let our guard down but I think in some ways the pendulum has swept back to far the other way. "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759

Author John Mueller explains how the terrorism industry thrives on exaggeration

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Lewis Black on why we are so safe....

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The New Poll Tax?

This presidential election saw some of the same long lines in early voting that plagued some parts of the country the last presidential elections. Reports from Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, Oklahoma and other states said that people where waiting up to 8-12 HOURS to vote EARLY. To me, and many others as I have been reading, that smacks of a type of poll tax.

Even though the poll tax was formally done away with in the 24th amendment to the constitution, a wait of that long is a type of poll tax. You have to consider the cost to you to wait for that long in lost wages or even if you have a job that would allow you to miss that much time at work. Then consider if you are in college (classes), elderly or disable (physical stamina) or have small children to take care of. The lost wages and time are enough to deter you from voting if the wait is that long, even though you are not paying cash at the door to vote you are paying via those things.

Also are the lines just a bureaucratic snafu or another way to disenfranchise certain groups of voters? I saw a very interesting graph of news reports of long lines vs. the state population of African-Americans based on the Election Day news articles referring to long lines at polling places.


Long lines are a deterrent themselves because for every person in line who waits the 5, 6, 8 hours it takes to cast their ballot there are how many that cannot for the above mentioned reasons or simply are discouraged from doing so.

To help fix this problem a Florida Congressman Alcee L. Hastings, authored the Critical Election Infrastructure Act of 2008 that would spend $1 billion dollars over the next four year to eliminating long lines by supplying more workers and voting machines. Also he authored the Voter Outreach and Turnout Expansion (VOTE) Act, which would make Election Day a national holiday and allow for no excuse early voting as well as same day voter registration nationwide. I believe this would go a long way in helping to increase voter turnout over all and decreasing the wait time in lines.

">">Poll Tax?

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Ohio 2006

Yes Americans should vote

After reading iGov editorial on why we should vote, I thought about the same responses that I received from my friends as to why some of them would not vote. They ran down some of the same excuses that she stated. My personal favorite that she did not list was “I will go vote if that will shut you up.” My response was “Thank you.”

I agree that we should vote. Even if you live in a state that has gone one way or the other for years, if enough people decided that this is the time to change, then your vote will be important.

In this historic election several states did in fact change color. The electorial college only applys for the presidential contest, the other offices that you are voting on are on a straight popular vote count. The Minnesota Senate race is looking like it is coming down to a few hundred votes. So is Alaska, at the moment, the Democratic candidate is ahead by a FEW votes but “Alaska, determined to continue in its role as the vortex of all things politically strange, still hasn’t counted tens of thousands of ballots” (1) The state of Georgia is having a run off on its Senate set on December 2 this year as well.

There are other countries that face incredible hardships just to cast a ballot. For example, in the Southern African nation of Zimbabwe, there were reports of armed militias attacking sometimes killing political opponents. Also this type of political harassment included assaults, abductions and forced attendance at President Robert Mugabe’s ruling party rallies of the Zimbabwean citizens.

Americans tend not to turn out if the weather is bad, or if it inconveniences them in any way. If the lines are too long, i.e. would have to wait more than 10 minutes. My favorite excuse this year was that they did not know enough about the candidates. Pardon? How could you NOT know SOMETHING about the candidates? With the wealth of information out there on most all of the people running for office, I find that hard to believe.

Our democracy depends on an informed electorate that is our citizens being informed about public affairs. It does not take much to at least scan the paper, or go to a news web site or turn on the television to a news channel while getting dressed. This will at least keep you in the loop to what is going on. Go check out the League of Women Voters voter guide the morning of the election and read up on the candidates if nothing else. Just go and vote and thank your lucky stars, God, Allah, Buddha, Odin, Gluskab, Ehecatl, Bhagavan , Radha or that rock in your garden that you are able to vote freely.

1. The Election Lives!

Photo caption and credits:

Opposition party Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) supporters from the rural south of the country show their broken limbs from an assault in the capital Harare May 3, 2008.

(Howard Burditt / Reuters)