FAILING GRADE: Aimless session disregarded schools' urgent plight
Session seen as doomed from start: Lack of even basic plan among finance hurdles
Everyone talks about school reform, but it certainly seems as if no one is doing anything about it- certainly not the Texas Circlejerk...er, Legislature- the same folks who brought you the redistricting clusterf**k. Education reform may still be a pipe dream, but the Legislature certainly seems to be specializing in scoreless overtimes.
Babies must learn to crawl before they can walk, but the Legislature's special session on school finance, officially over Wednesday, went precisely nowhere. Ineffective leadership and the failure of legislators to accept the changing economy of Texas leave school districts to contend with an intolerable status quo and dismal prospects.
There is a joke suggesting the chicken crossed the road to prove to the armadillo that it could be done. In much the same spirit, the Texas Senate, led by Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, passed an imperfect but constructive school finance bill during last year's regular session. The House, not interested, declined to take it up.
This spring, to his credit, Gov. Rick Perry proposed a school finance plan that would have cut property taxes and made up the difference in taxes on cigarettes, gambling and topless clubs. Businesses opposed it because it would tax commercial and residential property at different rates. The House unanimously defeated it, passing its own bill that did not attempt to ease the school finance crisis. Some senators said they were rattled by the House's irresponsible action.
"Irresponsible"? Who knows? I suspect that the House recognized the folly and idiocy inherent in Governor Goodhair's plan. The problem, though, is that no one has come up with an alternative that is acceptable enough to get passed. Thus, we are back to contemplating yet another special session- yet another scoreless overtime consisting of little but copious amounts of mental masturbation. Your tax dollars at work? Not hardly. And not anytime soon.
(Editor's note- My apologies to my gentle readers for the gratuitous use of sexual imagery to describe our esteemed legislative body. Gratuitous insults and expletives seemed so tasteless, and this was the only other option.)
