I attended the League of Women Voters of the Houston Area Texas Governor's race debate held on Sunday, October 3 here in Houston.
The debate was held at the Harris County Department of Education building you see pictured above. As you will note in the picture, this education building is named after Ronald Reagan.
That would be funny if the joke were not on all of us.
Three of the four candidates for Governor of Texas took part in this debate.
The three in attendance were---
Democratic nominee Bill White.
Libertarian nominee and scary person Kathie Glass.
Not attending the debate was incumbent Republican Governor Rick Perry.
Governor Perry does not believe that the people of Texas merit the chance to see and compare all the candidates in one place and at one time.
The focus of the debate was education. There was a warm-up panel of three Harris County school superintendents to discuss education issues in Texas.
So the event was really something of a double feature.
(Below---Double Feature.)
The three local superintendents all agreed that educating kids is a challenge. They all agreed that kids must take many standardized tests, but that they sought to educate kids beyond the tests. They all agreed that money is tight. They all agreed that they agreed.
A top Houston and Texas education blogger is Martha Griffin who writes musings.
As for the debate, here are some observations---
Bill White spoke to the fact that anybody born in the U.S. is a citizen. This was in response to a question about if the children of undocumented persons should get government services. Mr. White's stand is clearly the correct Constitutional view.
Deb Shafto said she would be willing to raise taxes to support education. This is a good position that puts the long-term interests of Texans ahead of short-term politics. Texas has one of the worst drop out rates in the nation.
Angry Kathie Glass said that the number of immigrants coming across the border represented an "Invasion." If you hold this to be true, it seems to me you'd be justified to do just about anything to repel an "invasion."
(Below--Invasion.)
Mr. White did not at any point mention poverty or the large number of poor Texans. He may have alluded to the fact of poverty, but he made repeated and clear mention of the middle class. The middle class does indeed need a government that is on their side. Yet at the same time, it is frustrating that in a state as poor as Texas, the former Democratic Mayor of a city with a near 50% child poverty rate did not discuss attacking poverty as an important way of improving education. We need a root and branch approach to education because as it says in Job 18:16---
"Their roots will dry up, and their branches will wither."
Ms. Shafto said that she has been a union member and that she supported teacher's unions. She said that while she has seen these unions at times pursue things she did not fully agree with, that people have a right to organize and that teachers unions are often good advocates for education.
Extreme Ms. Glass said that she would get rid of truancy laws and that if kids as young as 14 wanted to drop out that they should be allowed to do so.
That is just what she said.
Mr. White said the cost of attending our Texas state universities has gone up a great deal while Rick Perry has been Governor. This is a correct assertion by Mr. White and it is not clear what Governor Perry is going to do about this problem. Maybe if the Governor had been at the debate, his views on the matter would be more clear.
Ms. Shafto used the analogy of a "jump ball" in basketball to describe how Texas teachers are competing for bonuses. I enjoyed this metaphor. As Sojourner Truth knew, we must sell the shadow to support the substance.
(Below--Jump ball)
Far Out Ms. Glass said that local government control of schools was okay, but that Austin should stay out of the picture to the extent possible.
Yet if the issue for libertarians is the place of government in our lives, local government is still government. If any level of government can be trusted to run something as important as are our schools, why can't government be trusted to handle a number of responsibilities? Libertarians live in a fantasy world.
All in all, the debate served a useful public purpose. I urge folks to consider all the candidates. In my view, either Mr. White or Ms. Shafto would do a good job for Texas. I will be voting for Mr. White because he will be a far better Governor for the future of Texas than Mr. Perry. 10 years of Rick Perry so far is more than enough.
(Below--- The debate stage. This is an approved LWV picture. I followed the rules and did not take any pictures inside the debate hall.)
I'll be keeping a copy of this for those nights I can't get to sleep. Talk about a snooze fest - if I just had to pick; it'd be Glass. I liked her Ayn Rand answer and clever wit. Ms. 'Tax The Rich' and Boring Bill have convinced me - they're non-starters. I now understand why no Democrat has held statewide office since White was Democratic state chairman. Think what he could do for our state....LOL! White did Perry a big favor by hiding his tax returns - Perry's lead just widened.
There's actually a 5th candidate - Dr. Andy Barron. He's the only officially registered write-in candidate for governor...
Texas gubernatorial candidate, Dr. Andy Barron, exceeded the criteria set by The Statesman & the other debate sponsors for the Oct. 19 debate on PBS. Why hasn't he received an invitation? Please do the right thing and invite Andy, who has at least 2% statewide support to this debate! Here's the poll for proof - http://www.surveyusa....com/client/PollReport.aspx?g=caa25743-9ae2-44bf-945b-613182a92379
There is an entire subtext of discipline that works that way. Break down most disruptive behavior and you get to the same core: they don't want to be there. So, you take a child that doesn't want to be there and suspend them for one day, two days, or three days. Essentially, you are saying we are punishing you for not wanting to be here by not allowing you to be here. Real Mensa material here.
The concept of suspension is antiquated. It is predicated on the notion that my parents will kick my ass at home for forcing one of them to stay home with me. However, if I don't work and my child gets suspended then I am not punished. Therefore, if I don't feel pain then why should I make my child feel pain. Add it all up and junior is home watching TV on his suspension. What can I do to get suspended?
This is why I oppose compulsory education for students 16 or over. You fight a combative child that doesn't want to be there because you get funds for children that are there and your accountability rating goes down when they are not there. Do work release, GED training, or other technical training in lieu of school.
Amen to that one...
They kicked you OUT OF school for NOT COMING to school??????? That seems counterintuitive.
I would have chosen the "cheerleader in the stairwell" story myself.
You remind me of one of my favorite movie lines. From "Stripes".....
Army recruiter to Bill Murray: "Have you ever been convicted of a felony?"
Murray:"Convicted??? No."
hah, I see the need to know is burning a hole in your brain so...I didn't do nuttin', man, I was framed!
Do you remember Leroy Brown, the 'dealer' in the Crocodile Dundee movie, well that's me...
While I engaged in all of the cited activities at one time or another including those 'funny little brown cigarettes', I was never nailed. The few fights that I did get into were 'good guy' fights where I was trying to defend someone that was being picked on. Any 'bad guy' fights I was involved in I preferred to assume the role of the 'Godfather' as opposed to being the 'enforcer' if you know what I mean.
Ok, the truth...what else...truancy. :O)
That should be "smoking cigarettes". Regular cigarettes or menthol. That was before marijuana became popular. We were the "last of the beer drinkers". Class of '69. Really fine.
Right now, "technically" how long are they supposed to stay in school? 9, 10?????
I would surrender to your better judgement that we "allow" kids to drop out after 9th grade.
aH: 3 days......Hmmmmmmmm. That was usually reserved for some pretty "special" bahavior in my day. That being the 60's. Fighting, smoking in the bathroom (2nd offense), starting a food fight in the lunchroom, bringing a "weapon" to a football game, getting caught during class in the stairwell with a cheerleader.
Not wanting to "out" you, was it one of those????
I killed the Principal...no, not really!
I suppose my view in the trenches is different. My grandfather went to school one day a year: picture day. He did that to prove to his father that he was in school. Otherwise, he was working for his uncles. I'm not saying we should give up, but we spend an inordinate amount of time trying to save kids that are beyond saving and we let the ones we can save slip through the cracks.
It's akin to asking a teabagger to vote for White. It just ain't going to happen, but we can find some folks on the fence......
The drop-out rate in our schools is dismal. I don't claim to be an expert on this but a lot of it is due to economic reasons. Where I worked before, we had a number of Hispanic females who dropped out of school here in HISD and went to work to help support the family. They were very bright and they had worked their way up from housekeeping jobs to administrative office positions through their bi-lingual skills. But none of them had a HS diploma.
Keeping kids in school should be a high priority. ALL kids.
White was an excellent mayor. He's an administrator and a leader, like we used to have in the old days. Not a politician like we usually get now.
aH, you really have peeked my curiosity as to exactly WHAT you did to earn a 3 day suspension.
Excellent piece Neil. Thanks for "going the extra mile" for us.
Although it was a shame we could not hear from our governor, I am sure my mom would have said, "Better to keep one's mouth shut and be thought a fool than to open it and remove all doubt." I fully support Mr. Perry's decision as a "wise" one.
I hope a lot of people change their mind in the next four weeks and agree that 10 years of anybody is plenty. Mr. Perry should move on.
I don't really have an inside view of the educational process so I can't really make relevant comments but I do have a quote from my old high school Vice-Principal:
"When you were in school we couldn't get you here, now that we've kicked you out we can't keep you away!" From my 3-day suspension...
I'll vote for White...he was a good Mayor and sounds like he has the makings of a sane Governor.
That is horrible Rick Perry did not have the courtesy to join them in a debate, very rude in not making an appearance.
I guess he has no ideas or plans of anything.
I'm not for kids dropping out of school, fourteen is way to young.
Allowing 14 year olds to do this, only Hinders the Parents who are trying to keep their kids in school.
What happened to making new ways for our kids to stay in school and graduate High School?
Getting Government services for Kids, good luck with that one. This would not be a long term fix, they will soon be trying to find cut backs.
Living on a border also, there are many illegal people here. Even taking care of that issue won't solve the education problems.
The illegal child at school is a drop in the bucket compared to the education problems.
It might help some of the education problems, but it won't solve the big picture of things.
I do believe we need to protect our borders though. However, you don't want a Jan Brewer Law.
I'm not against Unions.
Unions have to be strong to work.
It was said Quote, teachers unions are often good advocates for education.
How's that going for ya so far?
Quote: local government control of schools was okay, but that Austin should stay out of the picture to the extent possible.
Can we say La La Land?
Have Fun Voting
As an educator, I tend to agree that compulsory attendance is an issue. Forcing students to attend school past their 16th birthday (the old dropout age when I began teaching) is one the bigger mistakes we've made. Forcing someone to be there that clearly doesn't want to be there and can't graduate by their 21st birthday is a waste of resources and creates headaches for educators.
That being said, I'd say 14 is a bit young to allow a student to make that decision. I always felt 16 was the perfect cut off. In terms of funding, this is something I'd like to hear more about from all of the candidates. Robin Hood was declared unconstitutional, but somehow still exists because no one has stepped up and suggested something better.