A few of us are going down to be observers and to show the ‘fiscal sanity’ flag in Austin, this Saturday. If it sounds like it’s all ‘save our Schools’ rally is ‘for the kids’, you need to know something about the people behind it:
Who is behind the Save Texas Schools Rally?
Billed as a non-partisan demonstration, the folks behind the Save Texas Schools rally are gearing up for a big event at the Texas Capitol this Saturday to “demand that our lawmakers put education first.”
While it sounds nice on the surface, this event is a red herring designed to prop up unions and distract from the massive waste of tax dollars happening in Texas school districts.
Fred Lewis sits on the steering committee for this event and is in charge of “Strategic Partnerships” for the event. Of course, Lewis is none other than man behind Harris County’s voter fraud scandal that erupted last year.
Lewis founded the left-wing Texans Together Education Fund, the organization that spawned Houston Votes, which was described as an ACORN-style group that committed rampant voter fraud in Harris County last year.
Lewis’ former associate at another left-wing group, Campaigns for People, is Brian Donovan, who now heads fundraising for the Save Texas Schools rally. Donovan also previously worked for the Travis County Democratic Party.
Hundreds of school districts have signed on as supporters of this rally — if you see your district listed HERE, then send your board members a copy of our Red Apple Project Fact Sheet . Show them how cuts can — and should — be made to the bloated school administrations so that tax dollars can be used in the classrooms, where they belong.
Cuts to administration will not be enough to make up for the shortfall, a shortfall that could be alleviated by use of the state’s rainy day fund (which Governor Perry refuses to tap, probably because public education is not a corporation “too big to fail”). Rather than focusing on whose behind the organizing of the event, you might ask yourself why this government supports policies favoring the top 2% of the population. Not to take anything away form anyone who has money, but the vast majority of us depend on government services, which we pay for, and which include public education. Frankly, if we’re going to “waste money” I’d rather see it wasted in education than on more tanks and bombs for a defense budget funded all out of proportion to actual need, or to continue widening the gap between rich and poor. “Restoring fiscal sanity” to government should not mean that the middle class should bend over and take it every time the government wants to screw someone.
You have your Washington, D.C. “too big to fail” leader and our Texas governor confused.
When only 50% of the education funds are spent on instruction (and that is likely a very generous definition of “instruction”), it is clear that cuts can be made without cutting into the classroom.
Wasting taxpayer dollars is not acceptable whether it is in education or in defense.
DRAINING the Rainy Day fund would be a disaster waiting to happen. Think you could hold your breath through the entire hurricane season, hoping one doesn’t come ashore in Texas. And ‘Tanks and bombs are a FEDERAL issue, not state. A really unrelated argument. And if you think this organization who supports reduced spending are far from the ‘top 2%’ Many are in the pay range of teachers. Gap of rich and poor is the standard socialist argument; not something that will not sell well here, but very fitting to the organizers of the event.
We have been supportive of Tea Party ideals, but if you are not well informed, you look foolish. Educators in Texas do not have unions. We have teachers’ organizations that lobby for us and keep us informed about what is happening in Austin, but no collective bargaining rights. In my district there is no seniority or tenure. “Union Thugs” have no voice in our system of education in Texas. Teachers have as much right to rally as Tea Partiers do. Waste? I would like to know your definition of waste. Our district is efficient and will rely on our own rainy-day fund to survive with no teacher layoffs.
Oh Gloria,
I’m so glad you said that. I’m a retired Texas public school teacher, and I hope that unions never get a foothold in our educational system. My first husband and I taught school in Odessa for over 30 years, and we were very active in Texas Classroom Teachers Association. I’ve done some lobbying in Austin my self for Texas teachers. Our district was run very efficiently most of the time with a few exceptions. Like you say, our organization was a professional organization, not a union. We never belonged to the National Education Association (NEA). That was and still is a union. Like you said, union thugs have no say in our Texas educational system. I happen to think that Texas has the best educational system I’ve ever seen anywhere.
I think the tea party has done some good things for the country, but, some members of the group are missing the point. As a teacher for most of my life I have seen there is fat in education that could be trimmed, but what is being proposed is to cut the muscle and bone along with the fat. Unlike Wisconsin, most teachers in Texas care nothing about unions, and most of them are fiscally conservative. I was at the rally and spoke with parents of special needs children. They are worried. I teach a popular elective. Many of students come to school and graduate because they can be in my class. If we eliminate challenging classes and close the door on teaching as a profession, what type of society will we become? The Tea Party (and everyone) needs to get involved in restructuring the system, not wrecking it.
Folks: what is the PERCENTAGE we are talking about here? 13% is the number I have heard. I got news for you: A whole bunch of private sector firms have had to make 2 year reductions of similar sizes. And, in a business where 49% of the employees (and probably 60% of the salaries) are involved in non-teaching staff, most of us have an idea where the cuts need to come.
Efficient? Just looking at the top ten salaries in my district, I can peg two that need to be eliminated (including our professional lobbyist) and two that need significant reductions (one being the CIO, my area of knowledge).
BTW: for those saying we cannot make the cuts would you like to take up where the extra revenue will come from? We can’t avoid the cuts without finding the revenue. (And the rainy day fund it NOT sufficient for the entire shortfall, plus draining the fund completely would mean the next natural disaster could easily turn into a catastrophe)
We home-schooled our 3 kids for most of their education. The youngest 2 spent two and four years, respectively, in public schools. The two boys are now in the Navy’s nuclear power program, so you could say that both my wife and the public schools we chose were successful.
Mike is entirely correct here. The reason home-schoolers and private/parochial schools get so much bang for the buck (private bucks at that) is that they are not top-heavy systems. If all the proposed cuts were to administrative positions, then would the teachers reading this forum have any objections? More to the point, is there any reason the cuts could not be applied strictly to admin jobs, admin perks, admin paper clips, etc.?
Not sure what private sector jobs you are talking about, but school children are not vegetables or computer software. A 13% reduction in funds to Texas education will have a lasting impact or students and our culture. This year I have 250 students and have trouble fitting them into my classroom (Texas is already at the bottom of states in money going to education). Next year, I am told that I will have over 300. I can manage 300 students, but I will probably not be doing much teaching. Do you know how long it takes to grade 300 essays?
Germany rose from the ashes of WWII rapidly because they were an educated country. How well will Texas do in the future when schools close, teachers are laid off, and education in general becomes a lower priority (It has been a low priority in Texas for years).
Some want to save the rainy day fund for a hurricane, but, what happens if the hurricane comes and our society can no longer intellectually handle funds and emergencies.
I have been a conservative Republican most of my life and my wife was even a delegate to one of the Republican county conventions, but we believe education is our future. Perry is making a big mistake.
The Tea Party claims fiscal responsibility yet it doesn’t see the REAL problem in this country and in Texas. It is the corporations who are not paying their fair share of taxes! Gov. Perry has allowed his millioniare and billioinaire friends from paying their fair share. If you really cared about this country, you would do your homework and understand the real enemies of our democracy and our Constitution. We will never prosper as nation if we don’t educate our people. By the way, that Rainy Day Fund belongs to the People, not the government! It is our taxes!
Corporations don’t pay taxes — they collect them. From whom do they collect them? From their customers, their employees (or potential employees), their suppliers (when they cancel or postpone purchases and capital improvements/expansion) or their owners, who are more often ordinary folks (through their mutual funds, retirement plans and the like) than fat cats.
And this is no more evil or unjust than rain. It’s the way the economy works, and no manipulation by government will change it. Remove tax burdens from business and they will be free to do what they are created to do: compete with each other to provide goods and services, which increases employment, lowers retail prices, etc., etc.
Elsa, as a member of the ‘Eat the Rich’ fan club, I suggest you read Iowahawk’s excellent piece on how well that strategy can work. The U.S. already leans more on the rich than any other country in the world and- as of April 1st- the U.S. has the highest capital gains tax rate in the world. You might also want to ask people in New York and California how well their ‘Tax the Rich’ schemes are working these days.
And the Rainy Day fund is already taken from all those ‘evil corporations’ (oil and gas); the explanation of it is here. Of course, where so do all these evil corporations get their money? From their customers, who will also bear the burden of increased taxes on them.
Thanks for clearing that up, now I KNOW I WILL support Save Texas Schools!!!!
I also noted that Allen Weeks who is the chairman of Save Texas Schools is feeding out of the public education funding trough. It’s clear this group is self-serving, not serving the kids but serving the education bureaucrats. Northside ISD’s superintendent Folks makes over $270,000 and only 61% of the students take the college readiness exams — and only 30% of those met the criterion! Only 47% of the staff in that ISD are teachers and central administration staff make an average of two times what teachers make. Thanks for pointing out just who these folks are – and thanks for referring to the Red Apple Project, which uses ISD reporting to TEA. Leaders of Save Texas Schools are focused on saving their jobs and their gravy train, not saving or educating the kids.