Hard For Me To Say I'm Sorry

A story I neglected to cover at the time. The government of Canada has officially apologized for its' dreadful, racist Indian residential schools policy. This policy, incidentally, was virtually identical to that of the United States ("kill the Indian; save the Man"). The United States, to date, has never once apologized for any of its policies designed to exterminate the indigenous population of this nation; policies which continue, in a more genteel form, to this very day.

Curses! Foiled Again!

Secular humanist communist pro-evolution Islamofascists conspire to deny Dr. Barney Maddox a seat on the State Board of Education, which would have cemented a Flat Earth Majority. We were all rooting for you, Dr. Maddox! There's a silver lining, though; maybe now you'll have more time to write letters to the editor.

Low Rent Ralph Reed Clone...

...new Chairman of the Texas State Board of Intelligent Design Propaganda (er, I mean--Education).

Vouchers Dead, Dead, Dead

If a Right-Wing Republican dominated Legislature, cowering under the stiletto bootheel of Tom Craddick, can't pass vouchers (or stop a pay raise, however modest, for the liberal, secular humanist, Islamo-fascist teachers), then I think it's safe to say the issue is deader'n a doornail for the forseeable future.
Somewhere, Dr. James Leininger is crying in his bottled organic milk.

Leininger Holds Children Hostage

"Give me vouchers or it's bye bye kiddies!" vows multi-millionaire.

This is easily one of the most despicable, cynical ploys I have ever seen in the sick, sorry world of Texas politics. And it is proof positive that this arrogant blowhole never really gave a crap about poor children in the first place; it was nothing but a political bargaining chip from the start. I wonder how many people at the pro-voucher rally in Austin realize how badly they are being used?

I Reckon They Showed Me

From the Cleburne Times-Review:

Dear Editor:
Guest columnist Patrick Barkman is flat wrong when he writes that Dr. Jim Leininger is “anti-public school.” Most school choice advocates, including Dr. Leininger, believe that competition will help inspire accelerated improvements in public schools, especially in the big cities where generations of children have already been lost. As for Mr. Barkman’s harsh criticism of Dr. Leininger’s politics, the truth is he became passionately involved in helping poor children escape the poverty cycle after having worked as an emergency room physician treating the gunshot wounds of too many children. Dr. Leininger went on to found a medical device company that made him a very successful businessman. He has since devoted a good share of his wealth to what has now become his life-long determination to help children. To date he has personally funded more than $50 million of scholarships to private schools for low-income children in San Antonio and other Texas cities. All but a few of those who have graduated have gone on to self-financed college educations.That Dr. Leininger believes Texas public policy should side with parents who don’t feel that they can wait for “eventual” improvements in public schools is less the political philosophy so clearly disdained by Mr. Barkman as it is simple human compassion and a willingness to stake part of his wealth — and his own reputation — on efforts to make the future better for the parents of promising children desperate to have at least some of the educational choices now only enjoyed by the wealthy.
Ken Hoagland
Houston

This is, one supposes, the same Ken Hoagland who is well-known as the "Mouth of Sauron," the official spokesperson for Leininger's Texans for School Choice, something he chose not to indicate in his boiler-plate press-release. Here's a quick question for you, Ken: if, as you say, Dr. Leininger is motivated solely by his love for poor children, how many scholarships to private schools could he have paid for with the funds he has lavished on his pet candidates over the years?

The War On Public Schools

From the lovely and talented (liberal)Girl Next Door, a review of the latest in the Bush Administration's ongoing policy of denigrating and undermining public education in this country. Remember: ignorant peasants are complacent peasants!

The State of Education Today

From The Poor Man Institute. This puts me in mind of back when I was in law school and teaching government at a couple of local community colleges in Houston to make ends meet. There were the two girls who told me they were dropping my course because it was "too hard," and besides they were just slumming in community college until they transferred to A&M. And there was the priceless look on students' faces when I told they had to write a 20 page research paper (double-spaced, and they had all semester to write it); you'd have thought I had told them to take out their own spleens using only a spork!

Sure Didn't See THAT Coming!

As an homage to George W. Bush, Rick Perry and the GOP Lege have duplicated his feat in turning a surplus into a deficit. AND they managed to do it without spending a dime more on education.

My Infamy Spreads

I can't begin to tell y'all how moving it is to know that Dr. James Leininger was so profoundly disturbed by my April 16, 2006 Cleburne Times-Review column (in which he was mentioned in passing in one sentence) that he had a press monkey shoot off a generic press release of the same sort that's been running in papers all over the state. Of course, this spam statement completely missed my point: I will grant the benefit of the doubt and assume that Leininger is sincerely motivated by the desire to help children through public school vouchers. And he is well within his rights to donote money to candidates who share his beliefs, just like you and I are. The difference, of course, is that the good doctor is a multi-millionaire and we aren't. And, thanks to the Supreme Court, that means he gets more free speech rights than we do. And that, regardless of what cause he champions, is wrong. It's not democracy; it's plutocracy.

Big Law Firms Do NOT Speak for All Lawyers

I don't particularly want to pay more in taxes either, but it's ludicrous that law firms worth literally billions now pay practically nothing to help fund education. Unlike normal businesses, all lawyers pay an occupational tax (also known as the "Thanks for being a lawyer" tax) but if and ONLY if they are a professional corporation, do they have to pay the franchise tax as well. And this is why the biggest law firms are still partnerships. These rich crybabies who have shirked their fair share for years due to a loophole created by lawyer-legislators are giving the rest of us a bad name. And don't believe their cover story about the pain of "passing the tax burden onto our poor benighted clients," either. Big law firms represent big clients. These guys don't make millions and millions of dollars per year by representing misdemeanor criminal defendants or single mothers seeking child support, believe me.

Texans Smarter than Governor, Lege

From the Burnt Orange Report, a recent poll sponsored by the TSTA shows that Texans believe improving education is more important than cutting property taxes by a 3-1 margin. Memo to Rob Orr: now might be a good time to stop representing Highland Park and actually represent your district.

The Puppet Master

People are starting to notice the secretive political sugar daddy of the Far Right, Dr. James Leininger and his efforts to punish a handful of House Republicans who had the unmittigated gall to vote against his private school voucher plan.

Apparently, Some Democrats DO Get It

This is a great article about Southern Democrats introducing bills that allow the Bible to be taught as literature in public schools. I appreciate their efforts for a couple of reasons: first, it shows sensitivity to a very controversial issue that has bitterly divided people of Faith; second, the Bible IS a central, crucial element of Western Civillization and should be taught to students as part of well-rounded liberal education; third, from a purely cynical partisan standpoint, it takes the air of the perception of many that GOP stands for God's Own Party. I wonder if Betty Peters, a Republican on the Alabama school board, appreciated the irony when she accused Democrats of wrapping themselves in Jesus? Probably not.