SBOE Social Studies Standards

Will "Phyllis Schlafly" be an answer on TAKS test?

School's open! Drive carefully. And keep just as close an eye on what the State Board of Education (SBOE) is up to in Austin. Last week, Jeffrey Weiss, in The Dallas Morning News Richardson blog, asked teachers how they are coping with the law passed by the Texas legislature a couple of years ago calling for, as Weiss put it, "the enrichment curriculum to include, right up there with fine arts and technology applications, 'religious literature, including the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) and New Testament, and its impact on history and literature.'" He didn't get any teachers to respond, so we can't form any conclusions about what the introduction of religious literature into the curriculum is leading to.

In somewhat related news, The Dallas Morning News' William McKenzie reports on Kay Bailey Hutchison's campaign pledge to reverse the GOP's "shrinking majorities" in Texas. McKenzie suggests she might need to rein in the social conservatives to do that. He asks, "will she speak out if the State Board of Education goes off on a tangent in its upcoming decision about what Texas students need to know about social studies?"

We might find out the answer to that question sooner rather than later. The SBOE has taken the first step towards making conservative politics part of the basic knowledge and skills that every Texas schoolchild will have to learn to graduate. The SBOE appointed committees to draft new social studies curriculum standards. What they've come up with sounds like a new front in the partisan political wars will be fought in our children's classrooms. According to the Houston Chronicle, the first draft of new standards calls for students "to identify significant conservative advocacy organizations and individuals, such as Newt Gingrich, Phyllis Schlafly and the Moral Majority." Explosive stuff this. "David Bradley, R-Beaumont, one of the conservative leaders, figures the current draft will pass a preliminary vote along party lines 'once the napalm and smoke clear the room.'"

The standards will be finalized next spring, before Texas voters have another chance to dump these extremist political partisans from the SBOE. But voters should do just that in November, 2010, or whenever incumbents appear on a ballot again. The quality of education in Texas is at continual risk until Texas voters remove these members from the SBOE entirely: Terri Leo, David Bradley, Barbara Cargill, Cynthia Dunbar, Gail Lowe, Don McLeroy and Ken Mercer.

GOP's Shrinking Majority

Hutchison's prescription for renewal in Texas

Kay Bailey Hutchison is touring Texas this week, announcing for about the zillionth time that she is running for governor. But she first has to win the GOP primary against Rick Perry. Her message to Texas Republicans is that unless the Texas GOP dumps Rick Perry and elects her, the future of the GOP in Texas will be a continuation of a decade-long trend of "shrinking majorities." That time span just happens to match Perry's stint as governor. In a speech on Monday, Hutchison said:

"As Republicans, we can continue down the road of shrinking majorities. Or we can inspire, unite, and grow our party. Rebuild it from the bottom up, and reach out to Texans and say, 'If you are for limited government, lower taxes and less spending, we want you in the Republican Party, we welcome you and want you to be active in our cause.' That's how we will win elections, keep the majority and be worthy to lead our great state. And that's what we're going to do if I'm heading the Republican ticket."

My reaction to this was to yawn. It's the same story Republicans have been telling for decades. How is the same-old, same-old going to reverse the "shrinking majorities" Hutchison refers to? William McKenzie, in the The Dallas Morning News Opinion blog, reaches the opposite conclusion. He calls Hutchison's comments "an honest, refreshing admission." What did she say that he found refreshing? Rather, it was what she does *not* say. No talk of God, guns, gays. No bashing of abortion, immigration, environmentalism. No appeal to the social conservatives or the war hawks. Instead, just a narrowing of focus to "limited government, lower taxes and less spending."

We'll see how long Hutchison can keep out of the debate those wedge issues that the social conservatives love. Or if she will be "forceful enough to break from the party's conservative faithful" when the issues inevitably do come up. How the Hutchison campaign plays out in Texas will determine whether the GOP renewal elsewhere is closer than we think or whether Texas continues its trend towards shrinking GOP majorities.

Texas Projection Measure

How much can you learn in a day?

Many odd questions get debated late at night, over beers, in college dorms. Given the demands placed on students with lectures, labs, research and homework, it shouldn't be surprising that one such question that arose was, "How much can you learn in day?" Texas Education Commissioner Robert Scott now faces a similar question, "How much progress over a school year is good enough?"

William McKenzie, in The Dallas Morning News Education blog, reports that Scott is trying to answer that question as part of the accountability ratings for schools. This year, for the first time, Texas is looking at not only how many students pass the TAKS test, but how much students have progressed during the year. Have enough students show enough progress, even if they don't pass the test, and a school could still be given a an acceptable or better rating. Despite some mockery (lowering standards, rewarding for failure, fuzzy math), this makes a lot of sense.

Take for example, two sixth grade teachers. The first has a class of bright students who all start the year performing at grade level. During the year, they learn what's required of sixth graders and pass the TAKS. Good job.

The second teacher finds herself with a class of students who have been left behind. None are performing at grade level. Some are performing two or more grades behind. But, through hard work, diligence and skill, she brings all of the students along, all progressing at least one grade level and some two grade levels during the school year with her. How do we just this teacher's, this school's performance? The old way would judge them unacceptable because so few students passed the TAKS. But most reasonable people would recognize this teacher is doing superior work because her students are making so much progress. Another year or two of such teaching and these students might catch up. The old ratings had no way to recognize that.

The old way of rating schools was blind to such progress. The new Texas Projection Method is designed to identify such progress so that teachers responsible for superior progress can be identified, rewarded and learned from. It's a good goal. Parents, legislators, the public ought to give it a chance to work.

Senator Bill White (D-TX)

Could a Democrat win in Texas?

Martin Frost, former Democratic Congressman from Texas, has an opinion piece in Politico in which he outlines a scenario in which a Democrat, Houston Mayor Bill White, could end up winning the special election held to pick a replacement for retiring Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison. It goes like this. The Republican field attracts many candidates. They split the GOP vote badly. An unelectable candidate (think a Ron Paul) manages to outpoll all other Republicans with only a small percentage of the vote, say 18%. The only Democratic candidate in the race, White, gets all the Democratic votes to make it into the run-off with the unelectable Republican. In the ensuing run-off, White attracts enough Democrats and moderate independents to win.

How likely is this scenario? Not very, in my opinion. But you can't rule it out. Frost points to just such a scenario that resulted in John Tower winning the special election to replace Lyndon Johnson, becoming the first Republican to win Texas since Reconstruction. Of course, first there has to be a special election. Kay Bailey Hutchison continues to play coy about that. Bill White may need a lot of dominoes to fall just his way, but if they do, he's putting himself in position to benefit.

NY and TX and Semiconductors

NY's bet pays off

Semiconductor International, not the usual place you find a discussion about horse racing, takes us to Saratoga Springs to tell us a tale of two bets, one that paid off, one that didn't. The winner was New York's investment in semiconductor fabs in upstate New York. The loser was the state of Texas, whose subsidies for Texas Instruments' empty fab in Richardson have yet to yield results.

There are no lessons here to help us make better bets in the future, but maybe the story offers consolation to the taxpayers in Texas to learn that maybe it wasn't necessarily a stupid bet. Some horses pay. Some don't. That's how gambling works.

Hat tip to Pris Hayes. Follow her on Twitter.

Gail Lowe

Creationist named head of SBOE

Gov. Rick Perry has named Gail Lowe as chair of the State Board of Education (SBOE), replacing Don McLeroy, who couldn't win approval from the Texas Senate for reappointment. Like McLeroy, Lowe is a creationist. The Center for Inquiry (CFI) reports that, in 2009, Lowe voted for reintroducing the "strengths and weaknesses" clause in the Texas school science standards; in 2008, she Strongly Favored rejecting textbooks that do not teach weaknesses of the theory of evolution; and in 2002, she Strongly Favored treating intelligent design as a viable theory on the origin of life.

So what can William McKenzie, editorialist for The Dallas Morning News, be talking about when he says, "For the record, she voted against including creation teaching in science classes"? In a narrow, technical sense, that might or might not be true, but for the sake of journalistic clarity, McKenzie owes the readers more explanation about what vote he is talking about and what Lowe did vote for.

McKenzie does place Lowe in the camp of social conservatives. He also states that he would have preferred Perry pick someone from the moderate-conservative/Democratic minority side of the board, but didn't expect it. He got that right. Texas voters need to turn out of office all of the creationists on the SBOE, so Texas parents can rest assured that their children are learning science in school science classes and not religion dressed up in the pseudo-scientific jargon of intelligent design. The creationists on the SBOE include Gail Lowe, Don McLeroy (who retains his membership on the SBOE, if not his chairmanship), David Bradley, Barbara Cargill, Cynthia Dunbar, Terri Leo, and Ken Mercer. District 12 (Dallas) is represented by Geraldine "Tincy" Miller, who voted against reintroducing the "strengths and weaknesses" wording in the science standards, but she, too, should be voted out of office unless she takes a strong public stand in favor of science and against creationism in any of its guises.

Bailouts and Rick Perry

May I have a word? Astroturfing and honeypots

It's a practice as old as Roman circuses, but it's been given a new name. Astroturfing is the modern day practice of using a professional marketing campaign to rally the public and have it appear as a spontaneous "grass roots" uprising.

One recent example was April's Tax Day Tea Parties, practically produced and directed by Fox News and presented to the public as spontaneous rallies across the nation.

A similar example is the email campaign to "stop the bailouts". One such email spamming inboxes bears the subject line, "Help your country get back on the path to freedom and prosperity." It encourages readers to contact the Supreme Court to stop the government-brokered deal by Fiat to rescue Chrysler from bankruptcy. Oh, and it also asks readers to visit a Web site where they are asked to sign a petition, providing their names, email addresses and telephone numbers.

The telltale sign that this is an astroturfing exercise is the legally required notice at the bottom: "Political advertisement paid for by Texans for Rick Perry." The Web site itself is a "honeypot," a trap set to attract conservative sympathizers and entice them into giving their contact information to the Perry campaign for re-election as governor. The strategy is clear: Perry won't let Kay Bailey Hutchison get to the right of him in his primary election battle. Perry intends to push all the hot button issues to work his base into a fury to ensure they turn out to vote for him.

The irony is that Rick Perry himself is accepting federal bailout dollars to keep the Texas budget balanced. As explained by John Young, in an op-ed piece reprinted in Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

"Gov. Rick Perry, who looks good in any suit, hitched up his designer tie and bragged that Texas was alone among states in cutting taxes during a recession. ...

"Thanks to $12.1 billion in federal stimulus money, this budget holds the rate of spending increase to less than 2 percent, below inflation and population growth. What will happen when those federal dollars go away will likely make even the most hardhearted conservatives wince.

"When those federal dollars go away, we will see what shreds are left of the fine threads our governor and lieutenant governor model today."

It's a nice trick Rick Perry is pulling off ... using federal bailouts to fund his business tax cuts while criticizing that same federal money in speeches to his base. And doing these political contortions without messing a single hair on his head. Kay Bailey Hutchison has her work cut out for her.

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The irony of Rick Perry using federal bailouts to fund his business tax cuts while simultaneously rallying his base to oppose federal bailouts was highlighted today by a story in Dallas Business Journal headlined "Texans receive $100 million in unemployment benefits from stimulus plan." The stimulus plan being disparaged by Perry is providing an additional $25 per week in benefits to Texans who have lost their jobs. Perhaps the next time Rick Perry sends an email to his base criticizing federal bailouts for carmakers in Michigan, he'll rally them to take up their pitchforks and torches and march to their local unemployment offices, too, and take back that $25 from the unemployed workers in Texas, too.

The best part of the story was hearing Tom Pauken, Chairman of the Texas Workforce Commission, brag about the increased benefits. Pauken said, "The $100 million for increased unemployment benefits supplied by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is being pumped back into the Texas economy." Yes, that Tom Pauken, the former chairman of the Texas GOP, the founder of the knee-jerk conservative Dallas Blog, the champion of smaller government, the foe of all things socialist, taking credit for Barack Obama's stimulus plan and its benefits for Texas unemployed workers. The irony would be delicious if it didn't leave such a sour aftertaste.

Perry to Pick SBOE Chair

Let's have another one, just like the other one

In the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Betsy Oney suggests Gov. Rick Perry is facing a dilemma in picking a new chairman for the Texas State Board of Education (SBOE). His last nominee, Don McLeroy, failed to win Senate confirmation, so Perry must pick another to serve until the next legislative session in 2011.

What got McLeroy into trouble was that he was the leader of a faction of seven SBOE members who represented the religious right who, in Oney's words, "see benefit in turning public education into religious education at taxpayer expense. They see benefit in keeping critical thinking out of the classroom."

If Perry picks another member of that faction to serve as chairman, the politicization of the SBOE will continue. If he goes with one of the two moderate Republicans on the SBOE, the religious right may turn against Perry in his campaign for governor. Oney presents this as a dilemma for Perry. Oney calls it, "Money and ideology vs. public's interest."

But Oney never spells out why Perry would find that decision to be a dilemma. Was it a dilemma two years ago when he chose McLeroy? Why does she think Perry would now want a change from the McLeroy era? She says the McLeroy-led SBOE "listened to ideology instead of experts and were intent on imposing an antiquated education system on Texas children." Right. And that's probably what Perry wants to see continue. So, expect him to name as new chair of the SBOE, not the moderate Pat Hardy of Fort Worth or Bob Craig of Lubbock, whom Oney is pushing, but one of the other members from the radical faction that McLeroy has led. And expect Texas education to continue its backward trajectory for at least another two years.

Texas legislative session

Grading Austin

The Dallas Morning News grades the just completed session of the Texas legislature in an editorial today. As to be expected, the grades are mixed. From transportation to education to air quality to the death penalty, the News summarizes its editorial positions and what progress, if any, was made in Austin this session advancing those positions. Read it. It's a great summary of five months of legislative sausage-making in Austin. And it's a great example of why we still need newspapers, staffed with professional journalists, in this day of blogs and Twitter and Facebook.

Blogging the Death Penalty

Do we really need a death penalty blog?

I've commented before on the proliferation of blogs at The Dallas Morning News. There were over 50 and counting then. Today, on the Opinion blog, Michael Landauer talks about the fact that there have been 200 executions in Texas during Gov. Rick Perry's time in office. To mark the occasion (I guess), the News has instituted yet another blog, the TEXAS DEATH PENALTY blog. Is it possible for a blog itself to deserve the death penalty? Other than this comment, don't expect to see any references to the new blog here.

Local option transit tax

GOP to voters: We don't trust you

Richardson likes DART. It's paid into the system for years. So, too, Plano. What about Allen, McKinney, Frisco, and other growing cities to the north? They've said no in the past, but some want to give voters in those cities a local option to raise taxes to pay for the kind of public transportation their exploding growth could benefit from.

One of the suspenseful questions as the Texas legislative session approached adjournment was whether the transportation bill, reauthorizing the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), would make it. Richardson's Senator John Carona (R-Dallas) threatened to filibuster the bill unless a provision allowing local option taxes to pay for public transit projects was in the bill. The session expired without consideration of the bill, eliminating the need for Carona to filibuster.

So, the expansion of light rail to the northern suburbs is in limbo. So, too, is TxDOT itself. And any claim that conservatives make about supporting local options is dead and buried. Michael Landauer, in The Dallas Morning News Opinion blog, blasts the Texas GOP for using a "bucket of half-truths and comical spin" to kill the bill:

"The Legislature is not considering raising the gas tax. That's simply not true. It is considering giving YOU the option of raising it if you want to. You would have to vote twice to raise this tax, first in a state constitutional amendment election, and second on a local plan. The GOP does not trust you to make this decision."

Peggy Venable, conservative activist and state director for the "Americans for Prosperity", pretty much admits to hypocrisy in an essay published locally by Dallas Blog (where else?). She says, "We conservatives usually like local options. But not when the cards are stacked against taxpayers." How does a bill giving taxpayers a vote stack the cards against taxpayers? Venable explains in another opinion piece published on the AFP Web site. "It’s a tax and local officials would put it on the ballot until it passed." In other words, Venable doesn't trust taxpayers to vote the way she wants them to vote and so she opposes even giving them a say. If anyone is stacking the cards against taxpayers, it's Venable. So, the next time you hear a conservative talk about solving problems at the local level, or about giving power to the people, remember the hypocritical position they took to kill the transportation bill.

TAKS Improvements

Lies, damned lies, and statistics

Jeffrey Weiss, in The Dallas Morning News Richardson blog, reports the good news that the Richardson ISD "has reduced the gap in scores since 2005 between white students and those of blacks, and Hispanics. Bottom line: On every test, the gap has shrunk. In some cases pretty dramatically."

It's good news as far as it goes. But, as the saying popularized by Mark Twain goes, "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics." And someone really needs to explain the limitations of the TAKS scores in giving a complete picture of what's going on in our schools. I'm not sure administrators themselves understand just how limited their statistic of record is.

That's because TAKS scores only measure how many students get over a very low bar, not by how far they get over it. Both groups can approach 100% success without the gap in absolute achievement closing at all. It's possible for whites to clear the bar by ever higher and higher margins while blacks are only just getting over. I'm not saying this is what's happening. I'm saying the current TAKS measurement doesn't tell us enough about what's really going on in our schools.

2010 SBOE Election

We're not just voting for governor

The Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) has been the target of the social conservatives for some time now. The SBOE determines the curricula for Texas schools, including textbook selection. The religious right now has a majority, or close enough to it, on this board, to push Creationism and other right-wing causes.

The religious right achieved their power on the SBOE at the ballot box. Conservatives like vouncher proponent James Leininger funded one far right candidate, Cynthia Dunbar, with tens of thousands of dollars, even though she faced no Democratic opponent. Dunbar is famous, not just for being a fervent Creationist, but for predicting the "end of America as we know it" should Barack Obama be elected President. She claims his election is null and void because he isn't a United States citizen. She says that if America suffers a terrorist attack, it will likely be part of a conspiracy by Obama to impose tyranny through martial law. Obama is not the only subject of her conspiracy fantasies. She claims that America is under daily attack by the "militant leftist Judicial branch."

You might wonder how such an extremist achieved a position of such influence over the classrooms of our children in Texas. It's because moderates and liberals haven't paid enough attention to these elected positions. Maybe that's all about to change. According to Burnt Orange Report, organizers are taking notice of the upcoming 2010 election in which Cynthia Dunbar's place on the SBOE is before the voters. "Education First", a network of residents of Cynthia Dunbar's District 10, is holding meetups 17 months before the election "to promote educational excellence by reducing the influence of politics and ideology on the board."

SBOE District 12, including Richardson, is represented by Geraldine "Tincy" Miller, who is a mild pro-science member of the SBOE, but whose vote for teaching science in our schools' science classes and not Creationism is far from assured. It wouldn't hurt for the moderate voters in Richardson to pay attention to SBOE races, too, to keep the Creationists from taking over the SBOE entirely. So, don't get distracted by all the sound and fury that next year's governor race is going to generate. Save just a little attention for those down-ticket races for SBOE.

Cotton Belt rail line; Voter ID

The Nightly Build

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Public-Private Partnership is Key to Rail

The Dallas Morning News reports that DART and Fort Worth's The T are exploring partnering with private companies to accelerate the construction of the Cotton Belt commuter rail line by as much as 15 years. The line would run from DART's Red Line station at George Bush Turnpike in Richardson to the DFW airport and on to Fort Worth. The first section could open as early as 2013.

Key to the project would be a public-private partnership that would exchange private funding for the rights to operate the line. Given that fare revenue alone is not expected to make the project profitable, DART and The T are exploring the possibility of sharing in the increased property tax revenue expected to be generated by developments along the line.

Given that DART board member John Danish just estimated that funding for DART's Orange Line to Irving might be short as much as $190 million, some kind of creative public-private partnership may be the only way the Cotton Belt line can ever get built.

Railroad history in America has always involved a public-private partnership, much more so than highways. DART should be commended for exploring just such a partnership to make a reality a long-planned and much-desired east-west line between the northern suburbs and DFW airport.

In that previous paragraph, I originally wrote that an east-west rail line was "much-needed." I changed it to "much-desired" and even that might be wishful thinking on my part. A DMN reader commented that Dallas differs from New York or Chicago in that our downtown is small in comparison to those cities, implying that there won't ever be enough demand for public transportation to downtown to make rail lines economically feasible. In that case, east-west lines make even less economic sense. That said, if private investment thinks it's worth the risk, the rest of us should get on board.

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GOP Win By Losing

Michael Landauer, in The Dallas Morning News, suggests that the Texas GOP actually wins by failing to pass their requirement for voters to show a photo ID at the polls. He argues that the issue is popular with voters and easy to cast those opposed to it as wanting to steal elections. According to Landauer, keeping it around as an issue for future elections will help the GOP in rallying the base and fundraising.

The nominal reason why the GOP supports the measure is to prevent voter fraud. But there's so little documented evidence that such fraud exists that passing voter ID will have negligible impact on fraud.

Democrats claim that passing voter ID may inconvenience some voters enough to suppress the voter turnout somewhat. In the battle of public perception, Democrats call the bill a voter suppression bill, not a voter identification bill. The votes suppressed may trend Democratic. Whether there's substance to this claim is debatable.

The real value of voter ID seems to be as a wedge issue to get out the vote. Landauer argues that the issue favors the GOP. But for every conservative convinced of massive voter fraud by illegal immigrants or groups like ACORN, there may be an Hispanic voter who sees this as a GOP effort to disenfranchise Hispanics. The election calculus is difficult to measure. But Landauer's analysis might explain best why a voter ID bill has such a difficult time getting passed. Both parties like the politics of the issue just the way they are now.

Cornyn, Perry, Sessions; Richardson trash

The Nightly Build

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Cornyn, Perry and Sessions: Who Is Most Conservative?

Republican politicians in Texas have been competing recently to claim the most conservative wingnut talking point. First, it was Senator John Cornyn Congressman Pete Sessions (R-TX) saying that the Republicans had to become more like the Taliban to regain power. Then, it was Governor Rick Perry (R-TX) offering secession as an option in the face of a Democratic administration in Washington. This week, it's Richardson's own Congressman Pete Sessions (R-TX) wearing the tin foil hat. According to Todd Gillman in The Dallas Morning News Trailblazers blog, Sessions sees a conspiracy in Washington to "diminish employment and diminish stock prices" as part of a 'divide and conquer' strategy on the part of Democrats. What would be the point of such a self-defeating strategy? Sessions says President Obama intends "to inflict damage and hardship on the free enterprise system, if not to kill it."

As Ray Teixeira, author of The Emerging Democratic Majority says of Republicans, "Their biggest problem is that they really believe what they believe."

Correction: Max Edison and Alex Rotenberry tell me that it was Pete Sessions, not John Cornyn, who said the GOP should model itself after the Taliban. They are correct. I shouldn't have relied on memory and instead should have done some fact-checking.

How about this for Cornyn? Remember Inauguration Day when he used a parliamentary maneuver to delay Hillary Clinton's Senate confirmation by one day, just to embarrass Clinton and Obama on Inauguration Day?

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Trash: Not In My Back Yard

It might seem like this next story about trash is related to the previous item about Cornyn, Perry and Sessions, but I assure you the juxtaposition is merely coincidental.

The Dallas Morning News reports that some Richardson residents who live near the Lookout Drive trash transfer station aren't happy that they built or bought houses near the Lookout Drive trash transfer station. Now that the North Texas Municipal Water District (NTMWD), who owns and operates the station, has plans to renovate the 35 year old building, expanding its size and fully enclosing it for the first time, nearby residents see an opportunity to correct their fundamental mistake in ignoring the first rule of real estate: location, location, location. The residents say they just want to limit the size of the station. NTMWD argues that the larger capacity is needed to add flexibility to the system, allowing load shifting during temporary shutdowns of other transfer stations.

Residents want NTMWD to add capacity for flexibility somewhere else, anywhere else, just not Richardson, at least not in their neighborhood. So far, the residents haven't offered an alternative that doesn't just shift the burden to someone else's neighborhood. As long as it remains a classic NIMBY argument, the local residents are not likely to prevail. All the city council candidates, who are elected by the city as a whole, support the plans to renovate and expand the Lookout transfer station.

Campaign sign cleanup; Early voting confrontation; Pete Sessions in Vegas

The Nightly Build

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Out With the Old (Campaign Signs)

Destiny of the "Conserve and Protect" blog is organizing a yard sign cleanup for after the Richardson City Council election. Do your part to ensure that once the election is over, the yard signs are, too, at least for those races that won't have run-offs (that is, Places 1, 5, 6, 7). So, bring your own yard signs (not your neighbor's) for Bob Townsend, Bill Denton, Bob Macy, Pris Hayes, Steve Mitchell, Amir Omar, and Dennis Stewart to Richardson City Hall from 7-9 pm on Saturday, May 9 to return to the candidates for recycling or reuse for their re-election campaign two years from now!

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Temper Flares at Richardson Early Voting

The new The Dallas Morning News Richardson blog is already proving to be a valuable source of Richardson news. Ian McCann reports that former councilwoman and current Richardson Coalition PAC member Martha Ritter accosted candidates Dennis Stewart and Diane Wardrup at the City Hall early voting site today. The Richardson Coalition did *not* endorse Stewart or Wardrup. Ritter reportedly ripped a copy of the Richardson Coalition voter's guide from a sign advising voters that the voter's guide is not an official city publication. Stay classy, Martha.

The "Conserve and Protect" blog also has the story, including before-and-after photos of the sign allegedly defaced by Ritter.

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Who Cares What Happens In Vegas? Not the DMN

Richardson's own Congressman, Pete Sessions, likes to party in Las Vegas and apparently he doesn't care who knows. In 2007, he held a fundraiser at the Forty Deuce burlesque club and raised a few eyebrows (two at least, mine). But folks back in Texas didn't seem to care that Pete Sessions' straight-laced conservative persona doesn't square with the hard-partying Vegas fundraisers. Pete Sessions was re-elected handily anyway.

So, this year, Pete Sessions learns his lesson and holds his National Republican Congressional Committee fundraiser in ... Las Vegas again, this time at the Tao nightclub and restaurant. The Tao's Web site, according to a story in The Washington Post, "features come-hither looking women scantily clad in lingerie slithering all over each other." So much for Pete Sessions' family values. He knows Texans in his district will elect anyone with an "R" after his name, so why hide the hypocrisy?

How is the story covered in the local news? The Dallas Morning News has a brief item by Gromer Jeffers in the Trailblazers blog, but that focuses more on Jeffers' jealousy that government editor Ryan Rusak was picked to go to Vegas to cover the story and not Jeffers. The jealousy seems well placed, as Rusak himself comments on the blog item, telling us more about the price of a vodka and beer at the Tao than about Pete Session's hypocrisy. Must be nice to have a gig that lets you party with a Congressman you're supposed to be covering and then joke about the price of drinks on the company blog afterwards.

Richardson's Council Achievements; Specter and Hutchison

The Nightly Build

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"Thrilling Days of Yesteryear"

Rarely can I recommend reading the inappropiately named Richardson City News. It's not so much that I disagree with the viewpoints expressed there by the site owner, Nathan Morgan. It's more that I can't even figure out what the heck he's talking about. Once in a while, he reprints letters from others and sometimes those are worth reading. This week's letter from an unnamed reader offers something that's been missing from the campaign for Richardson City Council up to now. That's a report card on the performance of past city councils.

To my way of thinking, if you think Richardson is on the right track, you ought to reward incumbents with another term. If you think Richardson is on the wrong track, you ought to vote for the challengers. This reader clearly is not happy with the decisions of prior city councils. See if you agree.

Recent city councils were at least in part responsible for the Spring Valley underpass; the Galatyn overpass; the Eisemann Center; the new TI wafer fab on Renner Rd (not yet in operation); mixed-use developments such as the Block (Arapaho at Jupiter), Eastside (Campbell at Central), the Venue (Galatyn), the Shire (Bush Turnpike at Jupiter) and Brick Row (Spring Valley at Greenville); legalization of beer and wine sales; a smoking ban; zoning laws to restrict adult-oriented businesses as much as legally possible; the relocation or expansion of Countrywide Financial, Blue Cross, MetroPCS, Yahoo, Huawei, Fujitsu and Halff Associates; and a bond rating of AAA (one of only four cities in Texas with that high rating).

This unnamed reader informs us that unless we vote out incumbents like Bob Townsend, John Murphy and Gary Slagel, we risk "go[ing] back to those thrilling days of yesteryear" when the decisions leading to the achievements in the previous paragraph were being made. This unnamed reader thinks those achievements were mistakes. If you agree, vote out the incumbents. But if you think that the list of achievements makes a pretty good report card, then being an incumbent ought to work in a candidate's favor this election. Early voting has begun. Make your own informed decision and vote.

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Should Kay Follow Arlen?

Paul Burka, on his own blog, posts an open letter to Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, pointing out to her that Sen. Arlen Specter's reasons for leaving the Republican Party also apply to Kay Bailey Hutchison's situation in Texas. She wants to be governor but faces a nasty Republican primary in which her opponent, Gov. Rick Perry, has already staked out the far right turf. By running as a Democrat, Hutchison not only avoids all those GOP primary attacks on her insufficiently conservative record. She also would take office as head of a new Democratic majority in Texas, a majority interested in governing, not seceding. OK, Burka could not have been serious about this. Could he?

Tier 1 universities; Money in Richardson politics

The Nightly Build

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A Good First Step For Higher Education

Emily Ramshaw, in The Dallas Morning News, reports that the Texas House has passed a measure that creates three funding pools for the seven "emerging research universities" in Texas, including Richardson's own UT-Dallas. The bill now goes to the Senate.

This is a good step, but note that funding for the pools is not yet in the budget. Without funding, good intentions will lead to nothing. Encourage your legislators to fund this effort.

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Following the Money in Richardson

There aren't many issues in the current race for Richardson City Council. The candidates have mostly agreed with each other during the five forums for candidates. The one topic that seems to come up everywhere -- in forums, in campaign literature, on blogs -- is transparency in government. It means different things to different people. An online city checkbook and video streaming of council meetings are often called for, and all candidates support these measures.

Full disclosure of each candidate's supporters is sometimes mentioned, with different sides finding fault with each other. Some Richardson voters (and candidates) see a conspiracy behind the Richardson Coalition, a PAC made up of some of Richardson's most prominent business and political leaders. Talk is loud enough to prompt the Richardson Coalition to publish an editorial titled, "Follow the Money" in which it defends itself against charges of funding the campaigns of candidates it supports. The Richardson Coalition lists the funds it has donated to political candidates in 2007-2009. It's $0.

The PAC does not state how much money it has spent on its own promoting specific candidates, for example the flier it mailed to voters in which it endorsed seven of the seventeen candidates for city council. Such expenditures may not be monetary contributions to candidates, but these expenditures do directly benefit the candidates that the PAC backs. According to reports on file with the Texas Ethics Commission, the Richardson Coalition PAC lists over $27,000 in contributions it received in 2007 and 2008.

After defending itself, the Richardson Coalition PAC goes on to criticize other PACs for being involved in Richardson politics. Specifically, it criticizes the Richardson Fire Fighters Association PAC for making contributions to candidates. According to reports on file with the Texas Ethics Commission, the RFFA PAC lists over $17,000 in contributions it received in 2007 and 2008. The Richardson Coalition PAC says they "will be watching this carefully to insure that this organization does not receive any preferential treatment, regardless of who prevails in the election." Perhaps what Richardson really needs is a non-partisan group watching all the PACs, including the Richardson Coalition, to make sure that money does not have an undue influence on election results. Like the Richardson Coalition urges, voters are well advised to follow the money.

P.S. Early voting begins today. Don't forget to vote.

Don McLeroy and SBOE; Richardson Coalition PAC

The Nightly Build

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For Once, Good News from the SBOE

Terrence Stutz, in The Dallas Morning News Trailblazers blog, brings us the rare bit of good news regarding the Texas State Board of Education. The SBOE has a near-majority of Creationists who have been working for decades to water down science education in Texas by casting doubt on the theory of evolution by natural selection. The chairman of the SBOE, appointed by Gov. Rick Perry, is Don McLeroy, a Creationist dentist from College Station. At a January hearing, McLeroy demonstrated his own lack of a science education by asking, "Isn't the fact that [teeth] fit together so perfectly a weakness of evolution?"

Stutz reports that the Senate might reject Perry's re-appointment of McLeroy as chairman. Confirmation requires a two-thirds vote in the Senate. Democrats, who control 12 of 31 seats, have signaled they would not vote to approve McLeroy. Hooray! Finally, there's a glint of sunshine on the SBOE. A glimmer of hope that the SBOE might be restored to a body that puts the education of Texas children above personal, religious agendas.

But it's only the beginning of the beginning. McLeroy could still win re-appointment. Or Perry could appoint another Creationist. Regardless, McLeroy would continue to hold his seat on the SBOE. The quality of education in Texas won't be out of danger until Texas voters remove these members from the SBOE entirely: Terri Leo, David Bradley, Barbara Cargill, Cynthia Dunbar, Gail Lowe, Don McLeroy and Ken Mercer.

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The Giant In Richardson Politics Speaks

So far, the Richardson Coalition Political Action Committee (PAC) has been the unseen giant in the current campaign for Richardson City Council. The PAC is made up of all the power brokers of the Richardson establishment (five former council members, four Citizens of the Year, etc.). It's been accused of throwing its weight around, of being behind numerous nefarious deeds, of pulling the strings of various candidates. But mostly, such scurrilous talk has been in private, in emails, and on the blogosphere. Chris Davis is the only candidate who has bordered on the edge of bringing such accusations out in public. In one forum, she hinted of a conspiracy, suggesting that there is a "coalition" of people in Richardson who want to "go back to the council of old."

Up to now, the PAC has been silent regarding the election. Now, the giant has spoken. The PAC, in a mailer, is going public with its recommendations for City Council.

• Place 1
  • The PAC recommends Bob Townsend, calling him a "steady hand." I agree. There's nothing in his past or his vision for the future that calls for a change.
  • Bill Denton, who would make a fine candidate for an open seat, has not made any case for change at all.
• Place 2
  • The PAC recommends Mark Solomon, saying "his record of dedicated service" demonstrates both his competence and ability and to do the job. I agree.
  • The PAC rejects the other candidates because of their inexperience, not because of their visions for Richardson. I agree.
• Place 3
  • The PAC recommends John Murphy, crediting him with keeping Richardson's finances in good shape, keeping government growth in check while still providing excellent services. I agree.
  • The PAC gives its first "Not Recommended" rating to Chris Davis, saying that her service as executive assistant to our Dallas County Commissioner is a serious conflict of interest. I agree there, too. Chris Davis ought to address that conflict by pledging to resign her position with the Dallas County Commissioner if elected to the City Council. The PAC also charges Davis with unspecified "unethical, mean-spirited and untrue negative attacks against opponents." I consider these charges themselves to be unethical and mean-spirited. The PAC gravely undermines its own reputation by spreading unspecific, unsourced rumors.
• Place 4
  • The PAC recommends Gary Slagel, crediting him with leading Richardson through the collapse of the "tech boom" and calling on him to help lead us through the current economic downturn. I agree that Slagel's experience is valuable and good reason to keep him on the Council.
  • The PAC accuses Diane Wardrup of making "untrue, negative attacks" and distributing "illegal flyers." It makes a gratuitous attack on her, quoting unnamed "co-workers" saying unflattering things about her. Like the unsupported rumors spread by the PAC against Chris Davis, I condemn the PAC's methods here.
  • The PAC dismisses Tom Bache-Wiig as being "new to the scene." I agree. He needs to prove himself with more involvement in civic affairs before being ready for City Council. Why the Council saw fit to use the little space it devoted to Bache-Wiig to say he's had 14 jobs in 28 years is unexplained. It should not have been mentioned.
• Place 5
  • The PAC recommends Bob Macy, praising his "maturity and stability." Here I differ with the PAC. Bob Macy may be a genial man, and he may have served the city well in past volunteer positions, but his performances at the forums gave no confidence in his command of the issues or his ability to lead.
  • The PAC's recommendation here looks even more contrived in discussing the incumbent Pris Hayes. The PAC says she has "performed honorable service" during her term on Council, but says "some fresh ideas would be welcome." The PAC provides no examples of Pris Hayes' ideas that the PAC finds to be stale and offers no examples of fresh ideas of Bob Macy. Why the PAC has to use strained logic in recommending Macy over Hayes is more understandable when you see Bob Macy's name listed on the PAC's Web page titled "Who Are We." Leaving out this connection in its recommendations is irresponsible.
• Place 6
  • The PAC recommends Steve Mitchell, who is running unopposed. I agree.
• Place 7
  • The PAC recommends Amir Omar, singling out his strong support for a "Senior Tax Freeze". For that reason, I cannot recommend Omar. A tax freeze for seniors may be good politics now, but it is bad public policy in the long run. Sooner or later, Richardson will have to fix the distortions it will inevitably cause in the distribution of the property tax burden.
  • The PAC gives its second "Not Recommended" rating to Dennis Stewart, apologizing to the voters of Richardson for its past support of Stewart. Here, I'm inclined to agree with the PAC. Stewart made personal attacks on Omar at one forum, including an attack on the spelling of his name. Simultaneously, Stewart wrapped himself in the flag. Stewart, a former policeman, is endorsed by the Richardson Fire Fighters Association. The PAC omits to mention its recently published editorial criticizing union PACs for contributing to city council election campaigns. The PAC has no business denouncing another PAC for involving itself in city politics while doing so itself. Unfortunately, I can make no recommendation in this race. I don't like the politics of Stewart and the Richardson Coalition PAC and don't care for either the senior tax cap proposed by Stewart or the senior tax freeze proposed by Omar.

All told, I agree with the Richardson Coalition PAC on five recommendations, disagree on one and offer no recommendation on one. But I strongly disagree with the PAC's reasoning and tactics in several of the recommendations. So, although our recommendations may align more often than not, I cannot endorse or recommend the Richardson Coalition PAC itself.

Stephen Hawking; Texas SBOE; FrontBurner comments

The Nightly Build

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News of His Death Exaggerated

The famous physicist Stephen Hawking was taken to hospital Monday and was reported to be "very ill." On Tuesday, he was reported to be resting comfortably and his family is looking forward to his complete recovery, according to a statement issued by Cambridge University.

How did local media cover the story? Rod Dreher, in The Dallas Morning News Opinion blog, headlined his thoughts, "Stephen Hawking: obit editorial material?" When readers objected to "yack[ing] up someone's obituary before they're dead", Dreher deftly laid off responsibility on his co-workers: "Keven said we should take this to the blog. She was right to do so, because (as Nicole put it), part of this blog's raison d'etre is to show readers how we do our jobs."

Discussing the guidelines the paper uses to decide which figures merit an obit editorial is a fair subject for this blog.

Assigning writers to prepare obit editorials well in advance for significant public figures who may merit an obit editorial is sensible.

But asking the blog, whether a particular person who takes ill merits an obit editorial should he die, is in bad taste. That's true whether or not it's consistent with the purpose of the blog.

Now that we've settled that it's too early to talk about Stephen Hawking's obituary, is it too late to ask that The Dallas Morning News revive its Science section?

P.S. Kudos to Trey Garrison, who caught Dreher explaining that whether or not a famous person's death merits an editorial often comes down to a "matter of space and timing." "You did that on purpose" Garrison said.

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Terri Leo on the Defensive

The Texas State Board of Education recently took votes to decide the standards for science textbooks used in Texas schools. Conservatives on the SBOE have long championed language that requires textbooks teach "strengths and weaknesses" of scientific theories such as evolution. Scientists have no objection to teaching strengths and weaknesses, but some do object to non-scientists like the SBOE members using such language to push schools to teach non-scientific notions such as Creationism, or its pseudo-scientific variant, intelligent design.

The recent SBOE votes on new standards were mixed. Creationists were unsuccessful in retaining the old "strengths and weaknesses" language in the science standards. But the Creationists were successful in inserting similar language requiring Texas students learn "all sides of scientific evidence." Again, there's nothing wrong with that, provided that Creationism and intelligent design are not passed off as scientific.

Will Lutz Terri Leo, a Creationist member of the SBOE, goes on the attack in an op-ed column in Dallas Blog (naturally!). Or is she on the defensive? She objects to recent moves in Austin to shift some responsibilities away from the SBOE. SB 2275, for example, would take away from the SBOE authority over curriculum and texbooks.

Leo defends the SBOE and its anti-scientific actions. She says it is popularly elected (as if scientific questions are best answered by popular vote). She says the SBOE holds public hearings at which all sides are presented (she doesn't say expert opinion is consistently ignored by some members). She says the SBOE has accomplished much (like suppressing environmentalism and multi-culturalism in schools).

But it's what she doesn't say that is the tell-tale sign that she and the Creationists on the SBOE are on the defensive. She doesn't bring up evolution or intelligent design at all. Perhaps the SBOE has finally gone too far, their attempts to push Creationism in public schools have finally gotten the public's attention, the legislature is finally saying enough is enough. It's time to put science curriculum and textbook decision back in the hands of experienced educators and scientific experts and take it away from ideological politicians like Terri Leo.

P.S. Texas voters can end this educational travesty once and for all by voting to remove these members from the SBOE as their terms expire: Terri Leo, David Bradley, Barbara Cargill, Cynthia Dunbar, Gail Lowe, Don McLeroy and Ken Mercer. Do it for the sake of quality science education in Texas.

Correction: The Dallas Blog article was apparently written by Will Lutz, not Terri Leo. See the comments for more information.

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"Shut up he explained"

Wick Allison, publisher of D Magazine announced on its FrontBurner blog today that henceforth, reader comments will be disabled.

"Many of our commenters have been thoughtful and intelligent, but as months turned into years, Gresham's Law took hold. Comments became increasingly intemperate, irrelevant, and illiterate. Some good people hung on, but many good people left. The concept of user-generated content is fine -- for other Internet sites. But for ours, it has not been a successful experiment."

Like no one could see that coming. FrontBurner, which prides itself on being a "snarky celebration of ignorance," becomes overwhelmed by ignorant, snarky readers. Poetic justice. Hoist on his own petard and all that.

Are there alternatives? Allison hints that, in time, FrontBurner may be technologically capable of allowing comments from invited participants. Perhaps FrontBurner will consider a system like Yahoo! Groups, which can be set to require comments from new readers to be approved before being posted. Readers who demonstrate their ability to be thoughtful would be approved to post directly. Or perhaps FrontBurner will consider a system like Slashdot's, where reader comments are rated and, by default, only the highest rated are visible. Or perhaps FrontBurner is just not interested in readers' opinions. This latest action is the equivalent of Wick Allison sticking his fingers in his ears and saying, "Nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah. I can't hear you!" Which, come to think of it, is a snarky celebration of ignorance, as well.