Thread: 3 Way Attack on Texas Public Education; Part 2: Immigration

The Three Way Attack on Texas Public Education; Part Two: Immigration

Author: DrJerryRBurkett — Published: Jul 03, 2011 at 7:38 am

Hispanics now make up 49 percent of the population of the State of Texas and account for 50 percent of the school age population.

When compared to the nation, Texas has 32 percent more Latinos. By stark comparison, the representation in the Texas Legislature is not 50 percent Hispanic. In fact, the few Latinos in the legislature have been working to see that the state is redistricted to represent more of the Hispanics that have entered our state, even suing the governor to see that the needs of this demographic group are met.

However, it would appear that the state legislature has a different agenda when considering our Latino growth that does not mirror opportunity or representation. Two major bills crossed through the Capitol building related to Hispanic growth and labeled through an effort on the State’s part to reform immigration, a Voter ID Bill and Sanctuary Cities Bill, were debated this legislative session.

The Voter ID bill passed the legislature and heads to Governor Perry’s desk. This law will simply require a photo ID to vote in any election. There will be 5 different types of IDs accepted: Texas driver's license, Texas concealed handgun license, military photo card, U.S. passport, or election ID certificate (provided by the Texas Department of Public Safety without charge to those who do not have other acceptable ID cards). The Sanctuary Cities Bill, which did not pass this legislative session, would have prevented cities, counties and other governmental entities from adopting policies that prevent law enforcement officers or other employees from inquiring into the immigration status of a person arrested or lawfully detained. Authorities can subsequently report individuals to federal immigration officials if they are thought to be in the country illegally.

The discussion of Hispanic growth at the school level was not debated and discussed openly during session among lawmakers but it did occur on message boards, blogs, and other web portals. Early discussion of the topic, before the legislative session began, centered on a potential bill that would have required school districts to count the number of illegal immigrants entering our schools. Other thoughts on the topic considered requiring tuition for illegal immigrants, separate tax payments for apartment dwellers, the DREAM Act (which would subsidize education costs and grant amnesty to people 35 years old or younger who illegally entered the United States before they were 16 years of age), and simply preventing children of immigrants from attending school.

Here are some comments on the topic of illegal immigrants taken from only one website news article, copied exactly as they were submitted:

SE--"I live along the border and any local resident, student, teacher can tell you our schools are flooded with illegals. They provide the school with a USA address and they’re in. There are 52 schools in the Brownsville school district!!! How does this not throw up a red flag? Until this problem is addressed we will always need more schools and more funding…and I know where it WON’T be coming from."

James--"Get the illegals out of our schools. I am tired of giving them a free ride."

Les--"i agree !!! the problem is our ckickens### government !!! tell the parent’s of these kid,s to come to the school and make sure the ins is there . ask for proof of citizenship !!! if not load them on buses and take them to the border !!"

Reeper--"For those yelling about illegal’s in school there is one easy way to get some out. Parent’s would have to pay an additional fee for each child they send to school to help give taxpayer’s who never had kids a break in taxes. $100/year/kid would be nice, remember you also get all those federal tax breaks the rest without kids don’t get if you are legal. The cost of my education was far less than it is today, so I’ve paid for my own education 10 fold, yet my parents had already paid for it. When schools first came about the kids education was paid by the parents and community."

Clearly, fear, confusion, discontent, and hard feelings are exhibited in these comments. These frustrations are fueled by demands on our governments to be more fiscally responsible with the tax dollars they are given and to establish reforms of our immigration laws. Because states are limited in how they can respond to immigration, we are seeing various levels of resentment pertaining to our schools, our social programs, and our elections.

Certainly, our federal government does need to address the issue of illegal immigration and not only for national security reasons. Let me remind everyone reading this blog that we are bordered by two countries, one of which is longest unfortified border in the world: Canada. Furthermore, I would argue that the numerous drug cartels fueling Mexico’s drug trade serve a larger threat and problem for the United States than Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya combined.

But, our state constitution is clear on the issue of public education. The opening line of Article 7 states, “A general diffusion of knowledge being essential to the preservation of the liberties and rights of the people, it shall be the duty of the Legislature of the State to establish and make suitable provision for the support and maintenance of an efficient system of public free schools."

In regards to textbooks, section 3 (b) states, “It shall be the duty of the State Board of Education to set aside a sufficient amount of available funds to provide free text books for the use of children attending the public free schools of this State. “

In addition, the 1973 federal IDEA law maintains that it is the responsibility of the states to provide, “free and appropriate education for all students.â€

The Three Way Attack on Texas Public Education; Part One: Fiscal Responsibility

Author: DrJerryRBurkett — Published: Jul 02, 2011 at 7:43 am

When the fall semester begins in August, I will enter my 12th year as a public educator. I began as a high school social studies teacher and moved through college, certification, and promotion to become an elementary school principal. I have seen many changes to education in my short tenure but this coming school year will present many changes as well as challenges I have not yet seen nor could I have foreseen.

The Texas State Legislature wrapped up their special session this week ending a tumultuous six months in session. The session saw across-the-board cuts, debates over using the state's $9 billion Rainy Day Fund, and no indication of raising taxes to meet the needs of students and the elderly for the coming biennial budget.

"This Legislature will go down in the history books as the worst for public education in a generation," said Rep. Mike Villarreal, D-San Antonio. "Now it's time for legislators to go home and explain to their communities why they voted for or against these historic education cuts."

Through the cuts, particularly to education, it became evident that the issue was not only about fiscal responsibility, but also motivated by stresses placed on the state from immigration and growing opinions related to the injection of religion (through vouchers or charter schools) into our schools. For the first time in state history, education, which has been championed by legislative sessions in the past, was now being attacked, blamed, and snubbed due to excess fear related to three major issues for the 2010-11 session: fiscal responsibility, immigration, and charter schools/vouchers/homeschooling.

Fiscal Responsibility
The Tea Party asked for it and voted lawmakers into office who campaigned for it. Thanks to the workings of the federal government on both sides of the aisle, the voting populace voted for the kind of change they could believe in and placed people in office to invoke fiscal responsibility. The populace was tired of seeing tax dollars go out the window and they voted for politicians who would vow to protect taxes and government spending.

What this really meant for the voting public, this fiscal responsibility, was to cut government spending without raising taxes. When lawmakers entered Austin in January, they were faced with a $27 billion shortfall created by a structural tax deficit, created in 2006, a failed business excise tax, and a deflated housing market and recession. To balance this budget, the Republican majority senate and the super-majority Republican house, began hefty cuts to social services and state programs that overwhelm the budget. Two of the largest services in the state budget, public education and Medicaid, were expected to take the biggest hits in the next budget cycle.

After months of bills, committees, debates, and an eventual filibuster to stop potential cuts to public education, the state settled on a $4 billion slashing to the education budget which would touch the 1,024 school districts in the state on an average of about 6 percent (in some cases more) per district. For the first time in a long time, the State of Texas will choose to cut funding from education at a time when Texas is experiencing the highest population growth in the country. Under this current budget, public education will not receive enough funding from the state to adequately educate every student that will enter a school this fall semester.

This fear of government spending has now transcended into the public sector whereby what was once thought as a sacred cow, as represented from previous legislatures, is now under scrutiny and treated like every other government agency that overspends the taxpayer dollar. As such, the lawmakers in Austin did what they were sent to do: they cut government spending and did not raise taxes. In fact, they even failed to use the $9 billion Rainy Day Fund reserve for education (part of the fund was used to plug holes in the current budget deficit). After these things were completed, they did nothing more. The structural tax deficit was not corrected and the state did little to relieve school districts of the cuts they would be facing in their fall budgets.

The response has been, and will continue to be, an effort to seek local revenue to supplement the lost funds that will not be received from the state. One example, the Keller Independent School District, which sought a tax ratification election of $0.13 in mid-June, lost by 17 percent of the vote to create that property tax revenue. The election was largely lost due to a local uprising from a well-funded group known as the Keller Families for Fiscal Responsibility, a Tea Party organization that originated in the neighboring town of Southlake.

It will be this fear of government spending that has caused radical changes that most have not expected. At a time when oil prices are at an all time high, defense spending is higher than ever, yacht owners are receiving tax breaks, and taxes are continually cut, public services that we have taken for granted are becoming the new enemy. Welcome to the new era of fiscal responsibility.

http://blogcritics.org/politics/article ... -on-texas/

Clearly, fear, confusion, discontent, and hard feelings are exhibited in these comments.

Of course!! -- if you're outraged that U.S. tax payers have to provide a free education to the children of illegal foreign nationals, then you're obviously just "confused" or "fearful". This author Dr. Jerry Burkett is a pandering moron.