Abbott being Abbott

[kevwun 15853]

Grant trusted his friends and underlings from the Civil War too much during his Presidency.  They served him well during the war, but many of them succumbed to greed during peacetime and took advantage of his friendship.

[RomaVicta 29967]

46 minutes ago, safe sex said:

@RomaVicta you take that back about Grant being a villain

His presidency was a disaster, but you're right. W may not be a villain either. When I started the post, I was thinking of Nixon whose villainy I thought would never be surpassed. Ahhhh, to be young.

[UpperWestside 6186]

6 minutes ago, RomaVicta said:

His presidency was a disaster, but you're right. W may not be a villain either. When I started the post, I was thinking of Nixon whose villainy I thought would never be surpassed. Ahhhh, to be young.

The Noise Control Act of 1972 was one of the best things he got signed into law. It was, and of course it was, rolled back entirely by Reagan. Nixon’s roots in his Quaker faith played a part in getting that act signed into law. That’s all I got on his good deeds.

[MonkeyDoughnut 10350]

17 minutes ago, High Plains Drifter said:

 

Doesn't matter. They strike, they are fired.

 

Agree to disagree.  No chance that happens. Your basically saying Abbott would be ok with rural (and many urban) schools not having school next year.

I don't think you appreciate how under staffed schools are today.

[CooterBrown 18022]

2 hours ago, jimmyjazz said:

Somebody explain how a voucher system would work, please, because it's one issue I haven't paid much attention to.  Would there be any effect on local property taxes?  Would the kids attending private schools via voucher pay any additional tuition, or would that be funded by property taxes, effectively stealing money from the public schools?

your school tax dollars will be diverted from your local ISD and instead subsidize the tuition of kids already in private school because most private schools already operate at capacity.  Private schools receiving your school tax dollars can continue to discriminate against applicants for any reason they see fit, won't have to adhere to any federal or  state educational standards, staffing ratios, special education support, faculty qualifications, etc.  

 

[High Plains Drifter 11050]

4 hours ago, YGIFS said:

One of y'all posted a year or so ago this study that was done about Texas ISD's, and how in like 70% of our counties, the local ISD is the largest economic engine (not 70% of population but maybe it was 70% of voter districts or something along those lines).  Between real estate, construction, employees, G&A budget, food, utilities, myriad metrics..  The local ISD means so much to so many swatches of Texas.  Nevermind the community aspects of sport and social fabric.  You pull the plug on so much as 20% of that money, those towns are fucked.  And they're already beyond fucked.  To AHB's point.  even the most own ourselves to own the libs MAGA dipshits would realize, "Wait, what?  They're closing part of the school and no football this year?  Wait, hang on..."

 

Football will be the absolute last thing to go in rural Texas schools.

 

[Captainant 27726]

3 minutes ago, CooterBrown said:

your school tax dollars will be diverted from your local ISD and instead subsidize the tuition of kids already in private school because most private schools already operate at capacity.  Private schools receiving your school tax dollars can continue to discriminate against applicants for any reason they see fit, won't have to adhere to any federal or  state educational standards, staffing ratios, special education support, faculty qualifications, etc.  

 

TBH, it's not much worse than the Robin Hood policy - it's just that the money is going to christofascists instead of Podunk, TX football stadiums

[High Plains Drifter 11050]

12 minutes ago, MonkeyDoughnut said:

Agree to disagree.  No chance that happens. Your basically saying Abbott would be ok with rural (and many urban) schools not having school next year.

I don't think you appreciate how under staffed schools are today.

 

They'll use scrubs, coaches, substitutes, Sunday school teachers, janitors teaching Chemistry with 60 students sitting in the basketball bleachers before they will allow striking teachers to return to work. 

 

edit: isn't @Sam Lin a principal? Let's ask him what his district (or TEA) would do to a striking teacher.

 

Edited May 16, 2023 by High Plains Drifter

[MonkeyDoughnut 10350]

2 minutes ago, High Plains Drifter said:

 

They'll use scrubs, coaches, substitutes, Sunday school teachers, janitors teaching Chemistry with 60 students sitting in the basketball bleachers before they will allow striking teachers to return to work. 

 

 

 

They can't get those people to teach now, but they are somehow going to find and get them to when shit has really hit the fan?

[High Plains Drifter 11050]

 

I'm not arguing that there isn't a teacher shortage. I'm not arguing that many people who do teach are under qualified or not certified.

I'm just saying that any teacher who strikes, for any reason, is going to get fired, regardless of whatever teacher shortage we have, regardless of what that firing would do to k-12 education in Texas.

Even if a particular principal or school board was willing to let a teacher get away with a strike, no way in hell would TEA or the state go for that.

Anyway, if an actual teacher or k-12 administrator were to weigh in, I'll defer to what they say, and if they disagree with me, I'll admit I'm wrong.

 

[hayden_horn 11365]

7 minutes ago, High Plains Drifter said:

 

I'm not arguing that there isn't a teacher shortage. I'm not arguing that many people who do teach are under qualified or not certified.

I'm just saying that any teacher who strikes, for any reason, is going to get fired, regardless of whatever teacher shortage we have, regardless of what that firing would do to k-12 education in Texas.

Even if a particular principal or school board was willing to let a teacher get away with a strike, no way in hell would TEA or the state go for that.

Anyway, if an actual teacher or k-12 administrator were to weigh in, I'll defer to what they say, and if they disagree with me, I'll admit I'm wrong.

 

i'm not one, but i'm married to one.

lol at firing striking teachers, if there is any kind of critical mass. in aisd, that is about 100 teachers, i'd reckon. the school district, if i can read between the lines correctly, is on the brink of catastrophe, and it's largely due to state lege fuckery. 

it's hard enough to fire teachers already. substitutes are walking out of classrooms.

they cannot hire enough teachers or find enough subs. if teachers ever hawd any leverage at all in this state, now is the time. 

all the covid "why'd we close the schools?" people are going to be laughing at fired teachers and closed schools as their kids come home to...what? 

rural districts would be fucked with 10 or fewer striking.

republicans are about to really start getting what they say they've been wanting, and they are going to reap the fucking whirlwind.

[tchookem 3905]

 
I'm not arguing that there isn't a teacher shortage. I'm not arguing that many people who do teach are under qualified or not certified.
I'm just saying that any teacher who strikes, for any reason, is going to get fired, regardless of whatever teacher shortage we have, regardless of what that firing would do to k-12 education in Texas.
Even if a particular principal or school board was willing to let a teacher get away with a strike, no way in hell would TEA or the state go for that.
Anyway, if an actual teacher or k-12 administrator were to weigh in, I'll defer to what they say, and if they disagree with me, I'll admit I'm wrong.
 

I'm a teacher. I weighed in. I was told I didn't know what I was talking about.

[safe sex 11745]

54 minutes ago, RomaVicta said:

His presidency was a disaster, but you're right. W may not be a villain either. When I started the post, I was thinking of Nixon whose villainy I thought would never be surpassed. Ahhhh, to be young.

Can't recommend Chernow's bio of him enough

[kevwun 15853]

His memoir is also really good.  He was a very good writer.

Edited May 16, 2023 by kevwun

[HenryJames 66158]

Read his autobiography.

[Foosters 17880]

11 minutes ago, hayden_horn said:

republicans are about to really start getting what they say they've been wanting, and they are going to reap the fucking whirlwind.

[High Plains Drifter 11050]

25 minutes ago, tchookem said:

38 minutes ago, High Plains Drifter said:

 
I'm not arguing that there isn't a teacher shortage. I'm not arguing that many people who do teach are under qualified or not certified.
I'm just saying that any teacher who strikes, for any reason, is going to get fired, regardless of whatever teacher shortage we have, regardless of what that firing would do to k-12 education in Texas.
Even if a particular principal or school board was willing to let a teacher get away with a strike, no way in hell would TEA or the state go for that.
Anyway, if an actual teacher or k-12 administrator were to weigh in, I'll defer to what they say, and if they disagree with me, I'll admit I'm wrong.
 

I'm a teacher. I weighed in. I was told I didn't know what I was talking about.

 

Unless I'm an idoit (yeah, I know), it sounds like you agree with me. (Referring to teachers losing their accreditation).

 

 

26 minutes ago, hayden_horn said:

1. i'm not one, but i'm married to one.

 

 2. if teachers ever hawd any leverage at all in this state, now is the time. 

 

3. rural districts would be fucked with 10 or fewer striking.

 

 

1. Ask her what would happen if she went on strike.

2. They have no leverage. Teachers have been abused, blamed, and generally shat on over and over for decades. The general population, and especially the R terrorists who run the state and the TEA, do not give a shit if half the current teachers get fired because they went on strike. They do not care what would happen to k-12 education. They do not care if class size were to suddenly double because half the teachers walked. They'd celebrate it as a way to save money.

3. Yes, you are probably correct. But again, the school boards on up simply don't give a shit. Keeping the teachers down is more important.

 

I can't believe you guys actually think R leadership gives one rat fuck about teachers or k-12 education. They will burn it all down before they allow teachers to get uppity.

Or should I say, burn it all more down more than they already have.

 

 

Edited May 16, 2023 by High Plains Drifter
k-12 failed my typing education

[YGIFS 19452]

1 hour ago, High Plains Drifter said:

 

Football will be the absolute last thing to go in rural Texas schools.

 

I'm not saying it'll get financially cut.  I'm saying that the way the TEA is set, those coaches are considered teachers first.  When they strike this Autumn, they can't just walk a line to protest the academic/educational component of their job and still coach football games.  Those guys are dedicated to their sport, but they're not gonna walk across the line from their neighbors to coach football when their fellow teachers/staffers/admins are taking a stand against the special session.  Their contracts don't work that way,.  

[CooterBrown 18022]

51 minutes ago, hayden_horn said:

i'm not one, but i'm married to one.

lol at firing striking teachers, if there is any kind of critical mass. in aisd, that is about 100 teachers, i'd reckon. the school district, if i can read between the lines correctly, is on the brink of catastrophe, and it's largely due to state lege fuckery. 

it's hard enough to fire teachers already. substitutes are walking out of classrooms.

they cannot hire enough teachers or find enough subs. if teachers ever hawd any leverage at all in this state, now is the time. 

all the covid "why'd we close the schools?" people are going to be laughing at fired teachers and closed schools as their kids come home to...what? 

rural districts would be fucked with 10 or fewer striking.

republicans are about to really start getting what they say they've been wanting, and they are going to reap the fucking whirlwind.

As we saw in Uvalde, you can literally murder their children and they'll line up early to vote in record numbers for Abbott and his ilk. You think striking teachers will make a shit?

 

[tchookem 3905]

I'm not saying it'll get financially cut.  I'm saying that the way the TEA is set, those coaches are considered teachers first.  When they strike this Autumn, they can't just walk a line to protest the academic/educational component of their job and still coach football games.  Those guys are dedicated to their sport, but they're not gonna walk across the line from their neighbors to coach football when their fellow teachers/staffers/admins are taking a stand against the special session.  Their contracts don't work that way,.  

Unions strike. Teachers don't have unions... not in Texas anyway. You may get some coordination from the personal organizations that are out there, but what ya'll are describing is going to come down to individual teachers deciding on their own to not come into work.

There won't be any emergency financial support that other labor unions provide for striking workers. There will be zero legal help for teachers that are fired. Participation in this will be career ending for most of the teachers.

The best you can hope for is a bunch of teachers showing up on a Saturday.

And lol at MAGA football coaches opting into any part of this.

[Ghost of LL 15539]

7 hours ago, atomheartbevo said:

Private schools don't have state championships that you can paint on the side of the town's sole water tower.

I have a lot of problems with a lot of rural voters in this state who vote against their own best interests in order to own the libs.

But at the end of the day, those rural folks know that nobody is beating down their doors to build a private school in the middle of nowhere, else it would have already happened.  They know the school voucher shit is for the MAGA in the suburbs of Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, Houston, etc.

The fun thing is that vouchers would do the most damage to the MAGAts in Southlake that want it the most.

If there are suddenly a bunch of kids going to private school instead of Southlake, two things happen: (1) Southlake's attendance drops, meaning its state funding drops, which means that its rankings go down, or (2) to forestall that from happening, Carroll ISD starts accepting a lot of transfers.  In either event, the value of a house in Southlake goes down.

If I am looking for a house in the Dallas suburbs, why would I possibly move to Southlake if the school district's rankings are shit?  And if the school district is keeping its rankings/state funding up by accepting transfers, why would I pay a premium to move to Southlake when I can live in a neighboring burg and transfer into the school?

Good job, MAGAts--you're about to nuke your own property values.

5 hours ago, jimmyjazz said:

Somebody explain how a voucher system would work, please, because it's one issue I haven't paid much attention to.  Would there be any effect on local property taxes?  Would the kids attending private schools via voucher pay any additional tuition, or would that be funded by property taxes, effectively stealing money from the public schools?

Yes--you'd essentially be taking money directly from public school districts and giving it to private schools, some of which are for-profit enterprises.  That is because state funding is based on attendance.  So the more kids that opt out of the public school district, the lower the district's funding.

4 hours ago, RomaVicta said:

Yes, this separates them from the villains of the past. Harding, Grant, Nixon, and W all actually cared about the country. Harding almost carried off a huge international disarmament treaty as well as presiding over a den of thieves in his administration. Nixon was as cold-blooded as they come, but I have never been persuaded that he would totally sacrifice the US for his own goals for power. W was an idiot. I don't know enough about Grant's time in office, but I don't think anyone doubts his patriotism.

Now all restraints and bonds are off. We're seeing even the facade of a free democracy being tossed to the ground. We are a capitalist country with holy faith in the market and the generosity of the powerful to do the right things. That adherence makes us take the lead in destroying our world for upcoming generations, destroying education, finding a way to make our disgraceful prisons worse by privatizing them, and turning women back into chattel.

$

As noted above, Chernow's biography of Grant is really very good.

[SimonBolivar 10958]

4 hours ago, jimmyjazz said:

The constant fuckery regarding curriculum is a big deal, too.  My kids went to pretty good AISD schools, and in the years where we naturally had a lot more contact with teachers (basically, elementary school) I was always impressed with their teachers' professionalism and commitment to the job.  It seemed like every couple of years they were forced to learn new processes/theories, because why not mess up something that was working perfectly well?  And then there's the whole "teach to the standardized test" approach that was foisted on them . . .

My wife teaches at a poor school in Waco ISD and she's entering her 4th year next year and it'll be her 4th different curriculum. It's insane. 

[atomheartbevo 89777]

4 hours ago, Anwar Namtut said:

http://twitter.com/GovernorLittle/status/1658244671775313921?s=20

Why is he dragging us into his shit?

(I guess I don't know how to do the twitter embed.)

Twitter has issues with certain topics or something, with embeds, over the past few months.  Lots of theories, but yeah some shit just breaks now.

Oh, and we are fucking relying on help from fucking Idaho. 

Abbott has no shame, and no sense of what it means to be a Texan. 

For fuck's sake the Austin area has more people than Idaho.  But Abbott needs Idaho's help.  fuck you greg.

Edited May 16, 2023 by atomheartbevo

[atomheartbevo 89777]

5 hours ago, YGIFS said:

I cannot be the only one that wants to see this play out in real time to see what a September Special Session on gutting small schools plus MAGA/GOP infighting for primary season will do to a large portion of this state.  I'll be watching from my ivory tower while the stupids do combat. 

Come September, the primary picture will be a little more clear (it'll still be Trump and Meatball) and Abbott still won't be in the top 5, and probably not the top 10 if Rick Perry and a few others join in.

Which means Abbott will be even more desperate to score some kind of victory.

[atomheartbevo 89777]

2 hours ago, atomheartbevo said:

Which means Abbott will be even more desperate to score some kind of victory.

And by the way, by this time next year, I think we will look back on the past few months of fuckery from Abbott (and Patrick and Paxton and a few others) as being relatively mild versus what's to come.

Everything they are doing is testing the waters and seeing what the limits are, and so far, there are no limits.

[Sam Lin 3560]

6 hours ago, High Plains Drifter said:

edit: isn't @Sam Lin a principal? Let's ask him what his district (or TEA) would do to a striking teacher.

Nope, not sure who you're thinking of.

[tchookem 3905]

Nope, not sure who you're thinking of.

@Larry T. Spider ?

[pyrohornIII 4817]

What concerns me when it comes to rural schools and vouchers is that parents will decide to homeschool their children.  There will be money to be had by the companies that will develop and instruct the curriculum in a distance learning setting.  Parents sign their kids up for online courses and then team up to provide proctoring by someone onsite.    You would see these learning daycares pop up everywhere basically.  The voucher would pay the online fees plus some could go to offset the in person attendants and the parents would make up the rest.    I've already seen something similar to this in our county. 

I have to wonder how many teachers will retire to open satellite centers like this?  I guess the temptation to be out from under the thumb of the TEA, and be capable of denying any student they don't want would be pretty big.

The following quotes are from an article appearing on site that represents home schooling distance learning programs.  

Quote

 It is your responsibility as a homeschooling parent to keep an eye on your child’s education while he or she is home schooling. You may have your child enrolled in a co-op program or another type of education program in which you pay a fee to enroll your child and someone else teaches the class for you. Homeschool grants are available from various private organizations, including state grants and federal grants for homeschooling.     Home Schooling in Texas according to a voucher friendly source

 

The athletics is taken care of by the lege already.  

Quote

Texas Education Agency offers a homeschooling exemption from compulsory attendance laws, which allows parents to withdraw their children from public school and teach them at home. Additionally, the Texas Legislature has enacted a number of laws that provide homeschoolers with certain protections and rights, such as the right to participate in extracurricular activities and the right to access certain types of public school services.   (Same source as above).

So I have no idea who pays for the upkeep of the facilities, the salaries of the coaches and staffs, etc. since the schools will be losing funding.  

In short, they have something figured out already, and it will result in more indoctrination of our kids and worse educations by less skilled teachers.  

 

[YGIFS 19452]

I don't know if more kids being homeschooled is an intentional or intentional consequence.  But I think back to when my brother and his wife decided to homeschool their kids years ago outside Chicago.  They were unhappy with the schools and she had always wanted to spend more time with her daughters and educate them.  So she got certified and they did it for a few years until they moved downstate to Peoria which has great public schools.  It wasn't political, he's a pretty centrist libertarian/apolitical.  But he would tell me stories of the co-op groups of home schoolers and how it made for strange bedfellows.  Batshit hard-right bible thumpers who thought too much science and not enough Jesus at the schools.  And then anti-establishment washed-up hippies on the other side who felt schools were too saturated in what "The Man" wanted us to think and believe.  So they had enough and finally went back to regular public schools.  

All that to say, here's another thing that's gonna happen.  Abbott and TEA are gonna have to verify your homeschool certification.  That's a given.  But also review your ciriculum for CRT, wokeness, what books you're letting your kids read at home, etc.  If this shit comes to pass in September, I'm telling every Republican and journalist I know that some schoolers won't be allowing moments of silence/prayer, no pledge, providing organic lunches from woke supermarket chains, letting kids read Lonesome Dove, talking about trans issues, mentioning slavery, critical race theory, etc.  The more secondary ripples from this that make it look like the bad idea it is, the better.  

One more aside---spoke with a friend yesterday who is a senior director at TRS about a financial question.  But we got to talking politics.  You gotta feign Abbott support around the office a little, but in general it's quite apolitical.  As it should be.  Anyway, I asked him about vouchers and lower contribution numbers to their fund(s), if an abnormally large number of teachers were to retire in the next year-2 years...what would that do to their models.  And what if an abnormally large number of teachers weren't getting paid for a short period of time, and thus---a portion of their comp not flowing through to the asset allocation models of TRS.  Not everybody, but certainly in the thousands to tends of thousands?  Mister W., stoic as always, calmly replied, "We've already begun planning for that inevitability."  

[Captainant 27726]

1 hour ago, YGIFS said:

I don't know if more kids being homeschooled is an intentional or intentional consequence.

Idk, I for one think it's an intentional consequence. 

2 hours ago, pyrohornIII said:

There will be money to be had by the companies that will develop and instruct the curriculum in a distance learning setting.  Parents sign their kids up for online courses and then team up to provide proctoring by someone onsite.    You would see these learning daycares pop up everywhere basically.  The voucher would pay the online fees plus some could go to offset the in person attendants and the parents would make up the rest.    I've already seen something similar to this in our county. 

My neighbor is a little league coach and was thinking about doing something like this. He plays around 5 rounds of golf a week and played college baseball, so you KNOW he's gonna be a great instructor/proctor for children and foster a good learning environment 

[sasquatch69 603]

15 hours ago, Ghost of LL said:

The fun thing is that vouchers would do the most damage to the MAGAts in Southlake that want it the most.

If there are suddenly a bunch of kids going to private school instead of Southlake, two things happen: (1) Southlake's attendance drops, meaning its state funding drops, which means that its rankings go down, or (2) to forestall that from happening, Carroll ISD starts accepting a lot of transfers.  In either event, the value of a house in Southlake goes down.

If I am looking for a house in the Dallas suburbs, why would I possibly move to Southlake if the school district's rankings are shit?  And if the school district is keeping its rankings/state funding up by accepting transfers, why would I pay a premium to move to Southlake when I can live in a neighboring burg and transfer into the school?

 

This is already happening in Southlake, thanks to the Patriot Mobile takeover of the school board. Teachers and support staff leaving in droves, district now facing a multi-million dollar shortfall, etc. The Southlake Together Twitter account (@southlake4all) does a pretty good job chronicling the insanity. 

Edited May 17, 2023 by sasquatch69

[atomheartbevo 89777]

3 hours ago, pyrohornIII said:

So I have no idea who pays for the upkeep of the facilities, the salaries of the coaches and staffs, etc. since the schools will be losing funding.  

Nobody will.  It will kill off a lot of those rural schools, especially since so many already rely on funding from the state (*ahem* AISD's recapture fund) to begin with.  They won't keep those schools and facilities open so homeschoolers can come in and play football.

For a lot of Republican lawmakers, this is about killing off public education and replacing it with for-profit private/religious schools.  A bunch of kids being pulled into homeschooling won't matter, since many parents will get tired of it and send them back to whatever schools they can (witness how many parents were losing their shit over kids being home during COVID), but if they wait too long, it'll be too late if those public schools have closed down.

[High Plains Drifter 11050]

11 hours ago, Sam Lin said:

Nope, not sure who you're thinking of.

 

oops, sorry to drag you into this shit show.

 

 

[atomheartbevo 89777]

19 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

Here's the thing - I don't think that guys like Abott and DeSantis are true believers in the evil that they do.

It's actually worse than that.  The truth is that they are true believers in just one thing: their ambition and thirst for power.  So, it's not that they actually hate puppies or somesuch.  They really don't care about puppies one way or the other.  But if either one of them believed that the base would reward them with votes if they slaughtered every living puppy, each of them would immediately pour effort into building the most efficient puppy-killing machinery humanity has ever seen.  They would choke a puppy with their bare hands on live TV, and promise "I'm the puppy-killing governor!" over and over.

I had somebody try and tell me that Abbott isn't crazy, that he doesn't believe in the shit he spouts, especially since he's been either a Texas Supreme Court justice, the Texas Attorney General (top cop of Texas), and now Governor of Texas, for 20+ years  and this shit has always been happening under his watch, and he knows it's smoke and mirrors to bring it up when a Democrat is in the White House, and to downplay it when a Republican is in the White House.

My view is, to borrow an example - you may not believe in the Qanon bullshit, you may not believe that Oprah Winfrey or Tom Hanks are trafficking little kids for their adrenochrome fluid to stay young (they are not staying young) or that JFK jr. is still alive and ready to join Trump on the campaign trail.  

But if you believe you have to cater to crazy people in order to win, you're just as fucking crazy.  And, as you said, it's worse, because people like Abbott know these people don't realize they are going to get fucked over by all of this - Abbott is supposed to be a steward of Texas, supposed to be looking out for people, but instead he's catering to a crowd of crazies and lobbyists that want to see all public education destroyed, up to and including through university level (or at the very least at university level, have it reshaped to cater to a small minority of people).

And he's catering to the election conspiracy crowd, which overlaps with Qanon, and if you are not calling these people out for their bulslhit beliefs, and instead are coddling and indulging them in their mental illness, you're a horrible fucking human being because you are allowing others to take advantage of these people.

It's fucking embarrassing that he went to UT, but even more embarrassing that he's an actual Texan.

And it's just really sad that he thinks he can make himself relevant on the national stage.  If you can't do it by the time you're in your 60s, you're never going to be able to do it.  But he still thinks he can catch the eye of people that like Trump or DeSantis, and he's willing to fuck over a lot of Texans to try and chase that national street cred.

[Bozo_Casanova 26522]

20 hours ago, High Plains Drifter said:

 

Doesn't matter. They strike, they are fired.

 

Not so fast, my friend 

18 hours ago, CooterBrown said:

As we saw in Uvalde, you can literally murder their children and they'll line up early to vote in record numbers for Abbott and his ilk. You think striking teachers will make a shit?

 

Yeah but those were other people’s kids- want to see a backlash? See what happens when you inconvenience them.

12 hours ago, tchookem said:

@Larry T. Spider ?
 

@CHAD BRISCOE

[Guest]

Where does the governor work? I assume he has an office in the Capitol, but I've never seen it. 

[tx 3 putt 77323]

22 hours ago, jimmyjazz said:

Somebody explain how a voucher system would work, please, because it's one issue I haven't paid much attention to.  Would there be any effect on local property taxes?  Would the kids attending private schools via voucher pay any additional tuition, or would that be funded by property taxes, effectively stealing money from the public schools?

1. all private / charter schools worth a shit, raise their fees by $10,000

2. Profit 

[Dnaguy 12043]

2 hours ago, atomheartbevo said:

Nobody will.  It will kill off a lot of those rural schools, especially since so many already rely on funding from the state (*ahem* AISD's recapture fund) to begin with.  They won't keep those schools and facilities open so homeschoolers can come in and play football.

For a lot of Republican lawmakers, this is about killing off public education and replacing it with for-profit private/religious schools.  A bunch of kids being pulled into homeschooling won't matter, since many parents will get tired of it and send them back to whatever schools they can (witness how many parents were losing their shit over kids being home during COVID), but if they wait too long, it'll be too late if those public schools have closed down.

1.) Republicans will make change

2.) Things will get worse but only to a point where people will complain

3.) Things will continue to get worse and republicans will distract with culture issues

4.) An outside force will finally cause the bending to give way and the system will break

5.) Only after a crisis will Dems regain power ( or at least some power)

6.) Dems try to clean up mess

7.) Dems blamed for everything.

8.) Republicans regain power and start to break shit again.

rinse and repeat.

Edited May 17, 2023 by Dnaguy

[Ghost of LL 15539]

8 hours ago, Dnaguy said:

1.) Republicans will make change

2.) Things will get worse but only to a point where people will complain

3.) Things will continue to get worse and republicans will distract with culture issues

4.) An outside force will finally cause the bending to give way and the system will break

5.) Only after a crisis will Dems regain power ( or at least some power)

6.) Dems try to clean up mess

7.) Dems blamed for everything.

8.) Republicans regain power and start to break shit again.

rinse and repeat.

I actually disagree with this.  Texas has always been a one-party state.  There's a good reason for that.  For all the talk about how this is a free-enterprise, small-government state, it is really a very heavily regulated state.  Some of that is a function of Texas' economy being heavily driven by resource extraction, which is heavily regulated by its nature.  But another part of it is a holdover from the Progressive Era, when we thought regulation was good, and we never got rid of things like the Cosmotology Board.

Regardless, it means that there are a bunch of industries that are heavily regulated.  And those heavily regulated industries pay a lot of money into campaign contributions.  And it's a whole lot cheaper to pay one party than it is to pay two.

So when the Republicans took power from the Democrats in the late 1980s and early 90s, all of the money shifted from the Democrats to the Republicans.  There really wasn't a minute when TAB and TXOGA and the like were contributing to both Democrats and Republicans.  They want this to be a one-party state, and they pay a lot of money to keep it that way.  And they don't care enough about the Republican Party to fight it if the Democrats ever start to regain power.

[TwiceHorn 31528]

33 minutes ago, Ghost of LL said:

I actually disagree with this.  Texas has always been a one-party state.  There's a good reason for that.  For all the talk about how this is a free-enterprise, small-government state, it is really a very heavily regulated state.  Some of that is a function of Texas' economy being heavily driven by resource extraction, which is heavily regulated by its nature.  But another part of it is a holdover from the Progressive Era, when we thought regulation was good, and we never got rid of things like the Cosmotology Board.

Regardless, it means that there are a bunch of industries that are heavily regulated.  And those heavily regulated industries pay a lot of money into campaign contributions.  And it's a whole lot cheaper to pay one party than it is to pay two.

So when the Republicans took power from the Democrats in the late 1980s and early 90s, all of the money shifted from the Democrats to the Republicans.  There really wasn't a minute when TAB and TXOGA and the like were contributing to both Democrats and Republicans.  They want this to be a one-party state, and they pay a lot of money to keep it that way.  And they don't care enough about the Republican Party to fight it if the Democrats ever start to regain power.

Some smartasses went through the entire body of statutory law of every state looking for mandatory language like "shall" and "must."

By that standard, Texas is the most heavily regulated state in the union.

[DDD Dad 14346]

On 5/16/2023 at 2:18 PM, High Plains Drifter said:

 

Football will be the absolute last thing to go in rural Texas schools.

 

You don’t really have to have class to field a team /Abbott

[Deej 76897]

On 5/16/2023 at 2:18 PM, High Plains Drifter said:

 

Football will be the absolute last thing to go in rural Texas schools.

 

I'm thinking school shootings will be the last thing to go. 

[tx 3 putt 77323]

Do nothing Abbott ….

 

[atomheartbevo 89777]

5 hours ago, tx 3 putt said:

Do nothing Abbott ….

Oh he'll do something....he's going to have to do something to attack San Antonio like he's attacked Austin and Houston/Harris County, because how dare that uppity San Antonio newspaper question him....

[CHAD BRISCOE 372]

On 5/17/2023 at 9:55 AM, Bozo_Casanova said:

Not so fast, my friend 

Yeah but those were other people’s kids- want to see a backlash? See what happens when you inconvenience them.

@CHAD BRISCOE

BLessing's

[Fudge Nuggets 19211]

On 5/16/2023 at 2:49 PM, hayden_horn said:

republicans are about to really start getting what they say they've been wanting, and they are going to reap the fucking whirlwind.

They ain't gonna reap shit.  Shit hits the fan, they will blame it on Lina Hidalgo, Nancy Pelosi, Kamala Harris, Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden.  And the ass-tarded rubes will agree with them and re-elect them at an 80% clip.

[TexasEd 8071]

On 5/17/2023 at 4:53 AM, pyrohornIII said:

What concerns me when it comes to rural schools and vouchers is that parents will decide to homeschool their children.  There will be money to be had by the companies that will develop and instruct the curriculum in a distance learning setting.  Parents sign their kids up for online courses and then team up to provide proctoring by someone onsite.    You would see these learning daycares pop up everywhere basically.  The voucher would pay the online fees plus some could go to offset the in person attendants and the parents would make up the rest.    I've already seen something similar to this in our county. 

I have to wonder how many teachers will retire to open satellite centers like this?  I guess the temptation to be out from under the thumb of the TEA, and be capable of denying any student they don't want would be pretty big.

The following quotes are from an article appearing on site that represents home schooling distance learning programs.  

 

The athletics is taken care of by the lege already.  

So I have no idea who pays for the upkeep of the facilities, the salaries of the coaches and staffs, etc. since the schools will be losing funding.  

In short, they have something figured out already, and it will result in more indoctrination of our kids and worse educations by less skilled teachers.  

 

Yeah, aggy extension learning.  Some donor owns the contract on delivery/technology and aggy brands it and develops content.

[Bullneck 19199]

I was in Austin last week.  I see he signed into law the $400 a year tax on electric cars. 

[tchookem 3905]

I was in Austin last week.  I see he signed into law the $400 a year tax on electric cars. 

Can someone explain the rationale behind this? Is there some cost that EVs have that would require a yearly tax?

[YGIFS 19452]

So we're doing away with the fees collected testing the emissions of carbon-emitting cars in order to charge money on cars that have no emissions?  

With this outstanding logic, there'll be no more alcohol taxes on 3.1-7.1% beer but instead will be collected on 0.5% N/A beer to offset that.  

I got...i'm uh........nothing.  We get nothing for this.  I don't even know.  This is weird, even for Texas.