It’s the same old story in every state with the Republicans and shitty Democrats. The bait-and-switch plan to destroy public education, yet it’s in the Texas constitution somewhere.
With our crooked and inept AG ‘acquitted’ for his ham-fisted behavior, because he is from 1860, Abbott pulled the legislature back in to promote something they said ‘no’ to during their regular session. School Vouchers. Translation into English, privatize education since we know this has been a roaring success with prisons, healthcare, red-light cameras, toll roads and Amerika’s numerous tax dodges…I mean charities. The Republicans have been rehashing St. Reagan’s tactics to make their point, government doesn’t work, elect us and we’ll prove it. How, by refusing to spend a dime of the state’s surplus to raise salaries destroyed by inflation (both parties share the blame here), unless it’s a Big Jebus Charter or Musk’s latest con game. They’ve also made up an arbitrary ratings system that oddly gives failing grades to the ISDs in the Democratic strongholds. I guess they had to find a scapegoat for their past solution, pointless tests.
Abbott is mostly pissed and as expected, blames the Democrats, Teaching Unions, Reds, Immigrants, etc. He seriously can’t claim the Dems given his party has a supermajority in both chambers; it’s why the Senate ignored the facts about AG Paxton despite his Three Stooges-skill level at covering his tracks. Rural Republicans in the House made an weird alliance with Urban Democrats to kill the bills. Texas may be on the rise with it now having four of the 10 largest cities in the US, a still growing population; immigration and people moving from around the country. But like its hated rival, California, there are huge swaths of sparsely populated areas home to small towns, farms, ranches, mines, state parks, oil wells and satellite branches of UT and A&M. This equates tiny school districts similar to the ones I remembered in North Dakota during the Eighties. Beulah was “huge” with our 280 high school students (including eighth grade) while nearby Zap had 35-40. No bribe is big enough for these Republicans to allow the only school for possibly hundreds of miles to close; for chrissake! They’re not senators.
So the bullshit offensive is underway with words from the same playbook used in Florida, Wisconsin, Indiana, Arizona, etc. Choice. Parents’ Rights. Failing Schools! Let me dissect them. Choice. The private schools choose who they let in, not you. Being private, they are openly racist, classist and prejudiced against any child with additional needs: wheelchairs, autism, dyslexia, etc. Through cherry picking, they obviously outscore public schools! To me Parents’ Rights is cover for the mostly Christo-Fascist homeschooling movement. The GOP believes they are allowed to control uteruses and History, what makes anyone believe peasants have “rights.” Failing Schools are their own creation and the voucher they’ll cut proves. Currently, the state spends around five grand per student. Abbott is claiming his plan will give parents eight grand per student. Odd how there’s suddenly an extra three if it’s spent enriching private organizations. Either amount will fall short. For example, 40 years ago, my grandma ponied up the roughly two grand so I could attend Strake Jesuit in Houston. Today, it’s over $25K. It’s an extreme case yet it rings true.
The Republicans will give enough false hope at the expense of public schools since five or eight thousand smackers is a lot of money. It’s enough to subsidized the rich who already send their kinds to posh places, the KKKristians will pocket it while brainwashing their offspring through homeschooling (there’s a whole industry stocked with inaccurate books) and the disillusioned will desperately be ripped off by all the fly-by-night charters. We all know the Republicans fall into two groups; most are rich assholes sending their legacies to the private ones who are taught facts and the true believers indoctrinate. I really hope the Rural Republicans pull through for a change.