ustxtxb_obs_1987_07_17_50_00021-00000_000.pdf

701 AN S WER I N G Cotole, e eltt S-E-RV-I C E KATHLEEN O’CONNELL P.O:BOX 3005 477-8278 AUSTIN, TX 78764 ANDERSON & COMPANY COFFEE TEA SPICES TWO JEFFERSON SQUARE AUSTIN, TEXAS M:11 512 453-1533 Send me your list. Name Street City Zip FREE GIFT 1714 S. Congress 442-7836 Data Processing Typesetting Printing Mailing Advertising gimmick? Yes. But, the truth is you get something free when you come to Futura. Our friendly account representatives are trained to help you through the toughest print job and they’re backed by years of experienced, professional service to the Austin area. At no extra cost to you, they will help you with your next project. Call 442-7836 for a prompt quotation. a* Em loyee Owned and Managed AUSTIN, TEXAS I/1 It’s not easy work but someone’s got to do it. Rep. Sam Johnson, R-Plano, decided, for half an hour in early July, to protect our state’s children from the dangers of publicly funded kindergarten.’ “Sending children off to kindergarten before they are ready can harm them. They are being pushed too hard too fast. They are under stress, ” Johnson said in an impassioned speech on the House floor as he tried to gather support for his amendment that would have eliminated funding for full day kindergarten in public schools. Johnson had hoped to cut kindergarten classes back to a half day to allow children more time to learn at home, at their mother’s knees instead of wasting afternoons “sleeping with their teachers.” Before Johnson’s amendment went down 89-54 he admitted that what he proposed was “a money-saving thing pure and simple.” The half-day kindergarten amendment would have cut $67.5 million from the proposed $39.6 billion state budget. I/ How about a peripatetic press conference? First Rep. Bill Ceverha, R-Dallas, held a press conference and nobody came. This, he reasoned, because the capitol press corps was across the hall listening to Attorney General Jim Mattox. Ceverha then positioned himself strategically at the door of the AG’s conference room and as Mattox answered his last question announced that Tito Chingunji, anti-Marxist freedom fighter from Angola, was available to the rapidly departing press. The room emptied and the old freedom fighter, well, he just faded away as Ceverha hurried to the floor to cast his vote on cutting public kindergarten funding in half. 1/ The Attorney General is becoming more vocal in his criticism of the state’s leadership. At the LULAC convention in Corpus Christi he warned against public officials who had been “vaccinated with the democratic needle” only to behave like it didn’t take. After his July 1 capitol press conference he decried the appointment of Republicans to positions of leadership in the Democratic House and Senate. “For the first time, in a significant way in Texas, we do not have strong Democratic voices in leadership positions. We have Hobby and Lewis and Clements, none of whom speak with strong Democratic voices,” Mattox said. 1/ Why isn’t Jesse Jackson electable? It’s obvious, according to Republican pollster Lance Tarrance. Talking to Houston Post reporter Jerry Laws on the July 1 Houston debate, Tarrance said that it has to do with photogenics. And Jackson isn’t photogenic “for obvious reasons.” “The three that came off as least photogenic were Jackson, for obvious reasons. Simon may be the smartest man in terms of raw IQ of anybody in that group, but he does not have the photogenic presence to convey that. And thirdly was Babbit, who looked almost superficially theatrical,” Tarrance said. Tarrance never elaborated on obvious reasons. 1/ Rep. Senfronia Thompson, D-Houston, with the help of unlikely partner Rep. Foster Whaley, D-Pampa, successfully passed an amendment to the appropriations bill in July to abolish the Texas Commission on the Arts. In effect, the amendment would deny the arts state money as well as federal money, because the TCA serves as a channel for matching federal funds. Thompson explained her bill in terms of hard choices: “I had to make a choice to cover child protective services or the arts.” However, only $2.7 million of the $6.7 million in savings will go to help victims of child abuse. The House debate focused on the issue that state money for the arts is welfare for the wealthy. When asked where money for the arts should come from, Thompson urged patrons “to solicit funds among their rich buddies.” “Back in my district,” she said, “we don’t ask.for money to make quilts, we do it on our own.” Texas Arts Commissioner Aaronetta Pierce warned, “I promise you, if we don’t get public funding, the arts will be only for the wealthy. Public funding is essential for the accessibility of the arts for all the people.” THE TEXAS OBSERVER 21