Snake Oil

So that didn’t take long.

I wrote yesterday that conservatives’ efforts at school finance reform—with a focus on limiting wasteful spending and promoting school choice—might finally find their way to court one day soon, if they could find a lawyer who’d take their case.

Turns out, they already had. Just this morning a new group called Texans for Real Efficiency and Equity in Education filed to intervene in the school finance suits, asking the court to consider whether our current school system is cost-effective, or creates enough room for kids to opt out of their neighborhood school and enroll in a charter instead.

The Associated Press broke the news that “a small group of parents” were filing this suit—but those little guys have some heavy hitters helping their cause, including former Texas Supreme Court Justice Craig T. Enoch as co-counsel with Houston lawyer Chris Diamond.

“Our suit is about the outcomes for the children rather than just the inputs to the system,” Diamond said in a press release sent out today, which also quotes judges in past school finance decisions, who suggest they might ask the school system to limit waste and boost competition between schools, if only someone would ask them to rule on it.

The group is led by a trio of Austin businessmen, including American Land and Minerals owner James Jones, who cites the pro-charter documentary Waiting for Superman as his inspiration for joining the school finance reform fight. Rounding out the group’s muscle as executive director is former State Rep. Kent Grusendorf, a voucher advocate in his time at the Lege, who’ll “help raise money and oversee the organization’s work towards its mission,” according to TREE’s new site.

The parents listed as plaintiffs include families from Houston, Mansfield, San Marcos and Odem (outside Corpus Christi), unhappy with their traditional public school options.

“The fact that we have media reports of nearly 60,000 children stuck on waiting lists for charter schools, with parents unable to pull their kids out of a school they don’t believe meets their kids’ needs, makes it clear that the system is not treating families equitably,” Diamond said in the group’s press release.

Texas Charter School Association director David Dunn issued a statement this afternoon, gratified someone finally noticed that “charter schools are well-known as some of the most efficient public schools in Texas.” “We applaud the focus on structural efficiency and equitable access,” he said.

David Thompson, the lead lawyer for the largest of the four suits facing the state, said he’s still considering what he thinks about this intervention into his suit, but he understands their interest in getting involved. “There are a lot of different points of view because it’s one of the most important parts of our society,” Thompson said.

Because the four suits still haven’t been consolidated yet in court, TREE may end up intervening in each of the others separately. How big a role they get to play in those suits will be up to District Judge John Dietz, who’s handling all four of the suits filed on behalf of school districts.

You can read the group’s filing here.

During a busy day of reintroducing himself to half the reporters in Austin, Gov. Rick Perry told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram’s Dave Montgomery on Tuesday that he very much doubted there’s much interest in Texas for a special session on school finance.

“I would be stunned if there is an outcry from the people of this state or, for that matter, a majority of the members of the Legislature that want to come back in here and have a special session when I don’t think we need one,” Perry told him.

Other folks have a different read on what Texans really want. For weeks, the Texas State Teachers Association has been pushing for a special session on school finance, to fill in last session’s $5.4 billion hole in school funding with some of that fat Rainy Day Fund we’re sitting on. “Most Texans believe it is senseless to leave more than $7 billion of taxpayers’ money in the bank, while their children’s schools continue to suffer cuts,” TSTA president Rita Haecker said in a statement yesterday.

While the damage is already done for this school year, a note from the Center for Public Policy Priorities points out there’s still a way to recover the $2 billion the Legislature cut from schools’ baseline funding for next year, thanks to a $1.6 billion projected bump in sales tax revenue, along with $400 million from the Rainy Day Fund.

Perry’s against spending any of that Rainy Day Fund on schools, and yesterday’s House Appropriations hearing confirmed that a new session on school finance today would be distasteful in the extreme to lawmakers too.

“I don’t think there’s an appetite to go back in and undo what we did during session,” House Appropriations chair Jim Pitts (R-Waxahachie) said, according to the Dallas Morning News, and Rep. Jimmie Don Aycock (R-Killeen) agreed re-opening the school finance conversation would be a huge mess.

In fact, it’ll probably be a long time before lawmakers do anything at all with school finance while those school finance suits mosey on through the courts. As quoted in the Quorum Report last week (subscription required) Rep. Harvey Hilderbran (R-Kerrville) said even a lower court decision on the suits is “not going to influence what we do state finance wise or ways and means wise.”

It’ll be years until the Texas Supreme Court might come up with any guidance or deadlines for the Legislature.

This may look like a holding pattern at the Capitol, a reluctance to upset tough decisions made last session, but every lean year for a school district makes a difference for its kids—more schools getting shuttered, sports programs cut and new costs, like riding the school bus, passed along to families. Texas schoolkids will get thousands less than the average American student each year. 

It was nearly a year ago that Perry reminded us all how this works: “the lieutenant governor, the speaker, their colleagues aren’t going to hire or fire one teacher,” he said. Think about it that way, and it’s hard to figure why they’d take any responsibility now.

When Ted Kennedy dropped by College Station in 2003, the pissed-off Aggies turned out in droves, mocking the late senator with a look-alike contest, a grape-juice toast and a sing-along round of “Ted the Magic Driver.” When President Obama came three years ago, 1,000 demonstrators railed against his presence, with “pissed-off seniors” cruising in from hundreds of miles away to disapprove of Obama more personally.

So the news that U.S. House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi was spending her President’s Day holiday in Aggieland—the heart of Rick Perry “treat ‘em pretty ugly down in Texas” territory—looked like the setup for a thrilling third round of culture clash. A student group called the Texas Aggie Conservatives promised they’d be there to greet the former House speaker with scathing political street theater. Commenters screamed “liberal hag” and “San Francisco communist” at the news of Pelosi’s coming, announcing they’d canceled their membership in the A&M alumni Century Club, and wondering why A&M doesn’t just invite Mao Zedong to speak next. (Since that TED talk on desert farming co-ops, Mao’s been a star on the lecture circuit.)

With the stage thus set, the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum threw open its doors Monday evening for a polite and well-dressed crowd of hundreds who were interested in what the highest-ranking woman in Congressional history had to say. She spent an hour chatting with Bush’s former deputy chief of staff (and George W. Bush’s chief of staff) Andrew Card, and was eminently deferential to the former president, who looked on from a wheelchair in the front row. It was, after all, his holiday and his museum.

“He was strong enough and confident enough in his strength to talk about a kinder, gentler America,” she said. She recalled Bush’s civility during his time in office, even with his political rivals, “something badly needed today.”

As it turned out, all that vitriol brewing against Pelosi in College Station erupted with a hiccup of a dozen protesters—a sign, maybe, of a kinder, gentler College Station. No “pissed-off seniors” came in from miles away. Nearly all the demonstrators were Texas Aggie Conservatives, the same folks who hand out copies of the U.S. Constitution on campus, and celebrate Ronald Reagan’s birthday by passing out slices of a big cake frosted with the president’s face.

As the much older audience waited outside for the talk, the unhappy students lined up a few hundred feet away. One student wore a ball and chain around his ankle and held a sign reading, “Unchain the American Employer.” Another dressed as Death, complete with the grim reaper’s cloak and scythe, with a paper mask of Nancy Pelosi’s face. “Pelosi = Job-Killer!” his sign explained.

Reporters with questions were directed to speak with Cary Chesire, a group leader who said he was happy with the turnout, and was glad some of the folks waiting to get in to the talk came by to chat about health care and tax policy. “We’ve had a large number of supporters from the crowd,” Cheshire said.

“And curse words,” Death interjected, sounding a little hurt.

Cheshire cut back in. “It’s a great way to get our message out,” he said.

Beside them, two more students said they’d turned up to support the Catholic church’s right to exclude birth control from its health insurance coverage. Their pink signs set them apart from the others. “You can’t be Catholic and pro-choice,” A&M freshman Laura Campos said.

Pelosi, who is Catholic, addressed the issue inside, in response to what Card said was a question from the audience submitted ahead of time.

“I’m from a family that you’d call pro-life. I was raised in that atmosphere. I understand it, I respect it,” Pelosi said. “This is so personal… I’m of an age, we don’t really talk about these things in public.”

“The issue is, in my opinion, not about contraception. It’s about women’s health.” It was her biggest applause line of the night.

“Women have traditionally been discriminated against in the health insurance industry,” she said, making insurance harder to get or more expensive if they are or have been pregnant. “One of the benefits of the Affordable Care Act is that being a woman will no longer be a preexisting condition.”

Pelosi kept reminding the crowd that even her career ambitions were old-fashioned, too—that she’d been a wife and a mother of five first, and ended up in Congress almost by accident. But that was 25 years ago, she said. “It is really urgent that women take responsibility for leadership in the decisions that need to be made for our country,” she said.

She drew lots of applause for that line, and a little less when she suggested campaign finance reform was the way to get there. Women running for office are consistently out-raised by men running against them, she pointed out. “If we can reform the role of money in our political system,” she said,” I promise we will have many more women elected to public office.”

“Change the whole environment [to] one that is much more conducive to us having full participation,” Pelosi urged. “Otherwise, it’ll be incremental for the rest of eternity.”

Until now, it’s been easy to miss the Muslim community in Longview.

As workers, students and families from North Africa and Pakistan have moved to the town over the past few decades, the Islamic Community of Longview has congregated in a member’s apartment to pray and celebrate holidays.

But now that construction is underway on a small mosque on the northern edge of town, the revelation that there are Muslims in Longview planning to worship out in the open has drawn nasty resistance from some future neighbors.

“We’re not acquainted with that culture, and we have children and we have concerns, yes we do,” longtime resident Elizabeth Owens told the Longview News-Journal late last month. “I understand everybody has to worship, but why do they have to bring it to a Christian community? I think that’s terrible.”

Owens planted red signs in yards up and down the street, and on the construction site, with the word “Jesus.” and an ad for the local First Baptist Church. Another resident brought his worries about the mosque to a Longview City Council meeting in late January. Saleem Shabazz, an Islamic Community spokesman, said even before that, a man dropped by the construction site to intimidate workers.

“There are some people here that are just anti-Muslim,” Shabazz said this morning over the phone. He said the resistance to the mosque is coming from people who want to tell him about this country’s Christian roots, and that organized Islam isn’t what Longview is about.

Plenty of others, including Longview police and local Jewish leaders, have jumped in to support the new mosque, Shabazz said. “Even though they might not believe in Islam as a religion, they believe in the right of people to worship.”

It’s hard to argue Shabazz is some kind of outsider in Longview, where he’s lived off and on as a kid, and where his grandfather once led an African-American Baptist congregation.

Almost 30 years since his conversion to Islam, Shabazz said even some of his family doesn’t want to call him by his new name. But he’s had a busy civic life in Longview outside the Muslim community, too. He’s vice-president of Longview’s race relations committee; he volunteers with a kids’ group; and he organizes the Kwanzaa celebration each year.

Longview’s Muslim community includes about 80 people, including children, at major holidays. “You’re talking about people who are going to school, who have families,” he said, “people who have been here 20 years or better.”

“It’s hard to find a place to go and pray,” he said. After Shabazz converted, it took him months to find out where other Muslims were congregating in Longview. Today, he says they’ve simply outgrown the apartments they’d meet in before.
According to the News-Journal, Shabazz has been working with Gregg County Commissioner Charles Davis to handle concerns like noise from the call to prayer (there won’t be one) or potential drainage problems.

“I think it’s full-steam ahead to build a mosque out there. I’m not sure we can do anything about it, or if we should be trying. It’s a free country,” Davis told the News-Journal.

Still, those stories in the local paper keep drawing detractors in online comments—one worries about property values, others about traffic on the mosque’s narrow street—and as workers finish the mosque’s foundation, Shabazz said he hopes to win over neighbors before the building is finished.

“I told them two weeks ago that I’d be willing to meet with them,” Shabazz said. So far, though, he’s heard nothing back.

Wrap-up of the The 2012 Texas Observer Rabble Rouser Round-Up

The 11th annual Texas Observer Rabble Rouser Round-Up and Fat Cat Schmoozefest shook the Continental Club this past Monday, February 27. It was a great party to celebrate the Observer and our wonderful community of supporters and friends!

We’d like to thank a few of those who made it all possible:

OUR DEDICATED SPONSORS
The Texas Observer would like to thank the following people for their generous support of the 2012 Rabble Rouser & Fat Cat Schmoozefest:

$5,000 Community Leader
Lisa Baron Blue

$2,500 Agitator
Sharron Rush
Dale & Libby Linebarger

$1,000 Rabble Rouser
Gilberto Ocañas & Cha Guzman
AFL-CIO and Becky Moeller
Kathleen Clark
James Marston & Annette LoVoi

$500 Legislative Supporter
Nancy Alliegro
American Printing & Mailing
Becky Beaver
State Rep. Lon Burnam
Carlton Carl
Randy Chapman
James Davis & Jan Demetri
Congressman Lloyd and Libby Doggett
Susan Longley
Melissa Jones
Elisabeth Piedmont-Marton and Bruce Marton
Mary Nell & Phillip Mathis
Catherine & John Paul Moore
James Phillips
Robert Shivers into Robert & Nancy Shivers
Travis County Legislative Caucus (Reps Strama, Howard, Dukes, Rodriguez & Naishtat)
State Senator Kirk Watson
Nancy Williams
Marc & Suzanne Winkelman

Our fabulous auction donors

Our Silent Auction raised over $6,700, all of which will go to benefit the work of the Observer. We thank those that donated items big and small to the Silent Auction this year, including:

Phillip Mathis; The Texas ACLU; Alan Pogue; Alison Eden Photography; Allan and Louise Hirst; All Things Considered and Robert Segal; Amie Rodnick; Ann Herbage; Barbara Morgan and the Austin Film Festival; Barbara Schlief; Ben Sargent; Carlton Carl; CBS Morning News and Bob Schieffer; CinnaMan and Michael Hurd; D’ann Johnson; the Davis McLarty Agency; Dick Lavine; Dick Leverich; Ellen Gibbs; Ellen Sweets; Gordon Fowler; Inn Above Onion Creek; Jim Hightower; Malcolm Greenstein; Math for Keeps; Miles of Chocolate; Monkey Wrench Books; Nan Sawyer; Paul Stekler; Relaxing Therapeutics by Jeanne Arquel; Sarah Stevens; Sarah Bird; Texas Healing Arts Spa & Wellness Center; Ty Fain; Robin Jackson Photography; UT Press.

Program participants

Genevieve Van Cleve was an outstanding emcee who delivered a program that was lively, insightful, and fun! Texas State Representative Jessica Farrar struck a high note to start the evening with her keynote speech!

The People’s Friend Recognition and Award

At the event, The Texas Observer announced the 2011 Tyrant’s Foes and presented the 2012 $1000 People’s Friend award to Suzie Canales. The 2011 Tyrant’s Foes included Brian Carr; John Folks; Scott Nicol; Shailey Gupta-Brietzke; Chuck Luther; Zita Telkamp and Therese Cunningham; Wally and Peggy Van Wyk; Allen Weeks; Suzie Canales; and Walter Reaves.
(more at www.texasobserver.org/tyrants-foe)

The 2012 Texas Democracy Foundation Next Generation Leaders

The Rabble Rouser introduced the second class of Next Gen Leaders, including: Joshunda Sanders; Cristina Tzintzun; Phoebe Moore; Matthew Gossage; Brandon Dudley; Andrew Cates; Cliff Walker; Roger Garza; Jaclyn Uresti; Kelly Wilson; Vincent Aguirre; Dan Buda; Melissa Cubria; and Robert Longoria
(more at www.texasobserver.org/next-gen)

Rabble Rouser Committee

These outstanding volunteers and supporters were tireless and we are tremendously grateful for their extraordinary effort. Hats off to a great group of dedicated organizers for throwing such a fabulous party! Thank you so much to: Peter Ravella; Sharron Rush; Jen Cooper; Robert Behrendt; Kate Fain; Eric Scott; Nancy Alliegro; Sean Chitty; Vanessa Fuentes; Belinda Acosta; Diana Claitor; Ellen Sweets; Deliana Garcia; Susan Longley; Shelley Smith; Carlton Carl; Jamie Connatser; Charlotte McCann; and Susan Morris.

Vendors

We greatly appreciate our vendors for the event, including American Printing; CinnaMan; Creative Creations Catering; Hoover’s Restaurant; Satay Restaurant; and, of course, the Continental Club. Plus Chocolate samples courtesy of Miles of Chocolate.

And special thanks to our fabulous band, The White Ghost Shivers!

Staff

We also thank the amazing staff of The Texas Observer, who not only throw a good party but also work hard everyday to bring you the stories not carried by the mainstream press: Candace Carpenter; Krissi Trumeter; Jen Reel; Jonathan McNamara; Dave Mann; Piper Stege Nelson; Forrest Wilder; Susan Smith-Richardson; Patrick Michels; Emily DePrang; and Melissa del Bosque.

Until next year, keep Rabble Rousing and fighting to fix the world!