Perry passes the blame for teachers losing jobs

[sonias]

San Antonio Express News 3/9/11
Perry: Buck doesn't stop with state when it comes to teachers losing jobs

AUSTIN — Gov. Rick Perry said Wednesday the state's not to blame if teachers lose their jobs as school districts grapple with the potential loss of billions of state dollars.

School groups took issue with Perry's effort to distance the state from the effects of budget cuts, which by one estimate could cost up to 100,000 school district jobs through the next two years.

“The lieutenant governor, the (Texas House) speaker, and their colleagues aren't going to hire or fire one teacher, best I can tell. That is a local decision that will be made at the local districts,” Perry said when asked at an unrelated news conference about a Texas Capitol rally planned Saturday by teachers, parents and others concerned about the potential cuts.

(snip)
Texas could fire every school superintendent, all principals and assistant principals, every school counselor, every librarian, every school nurse, all cafeteria workers, custodians and bus drivers — all 329,574 non-teacher jobs — and still not save the $11.6 billion in public education cuts, according to average salary figures on the TEA website. Northside ISD Superintendent John Folks said it's true that neither Perry nor state lawmakers send the pink slips to teachers and other school employees whose jobs are on the chopping block. But for the governor to suggest that it's local school boards and school administrators who fire educators is “irresponsible,” Folks said.
“We would not be making reductions in personnel if it weren't due to the state revenue shortfall,” said the veteran superintendent, a leader in the Texas Association of School Administrators.

Classic Rovian trick - take your biggest weakness and try to pin it on your enemy. Sad truth is the people of Texas are getting so dumb they are apt to belieave the weasel and blame their local school districts just like Perry wants them to. :(

Why do all Republicans hate teachers? :mad:

[sonias]

1. Perry says teacher layoffs are a 'local decision'

Fort Worth Star-Telegram 3/9/11
Perry says teacher layoffs are a 'local decision'

AUSTIN -- As teachers prepare for a weekend rally in Austin to protest nearly $10 billion in state education cuts, Gov. Rick Perry said Wednesday that the ultimate responsibility for district layoffs rests in the hands of local school officials, not the state.

(snip)
'Baffled' by Perry

"We're baffled by Governor Perry's comments," said Dax Gonzalez, spokesman for the Texas Association of School Boards. "Let there be no mistake that the decisions being made in school districts across the state regarding budget cuts and teacher layoffs are the direct results of decisions ... at the state Capitol."

School district officials in Tarrant County collectively shook their heads at Perry's remarks.

"It causes me much consternation that he would say something like that," said Cindy Lotton, the Keller district's school board president. "There are problems with funding from the state, and the districts have been tasked with cleaning up the mess."

Perry has is head stuck up his "I'm running for President" ass. This is typical Perry - always pass the buck and never accept blame for anything!

:kick:

[sonias]

2. What $9.8 Billion in Texas School Cuts Looks Like

Texas Tribune 3/9/11
What $9.8 Billion in Texas School Cuts Looks Like

When lawmakers file a school finance bill, they publish a spreadsheet showing how the new funding formulas affect each of the state's more than 1,000 school districts. This year, with a proposed budget that currently cuts $9.8 billion from public schools, no such spreadsheets have been published.

That's, in part, why state Rep. Scott Hochberg, D-Houston, has filed a series of school finance bills — so lawmakers will know what to expect before voting on the state budget.

"We'll be laying out a budget that cuts $9.8 billion out of the schools," Hochberg said. "But that's a number that doesn't mean anything to a legislator unless they know that means you're taking between $500 and $2,500 dollars" per weighted student out of their local district.

:kick:

[sonias]

3. Perry: Don't blame state for teacher layoffs

http://www.statesman.com/news/texas-politics/perry-dont-blame-state-for-teacher-layoffs-1310392.html">AAS 3/9/11

Perry: Don't blame state for teacher layoffs

Texas school districts have for months pointed the finger at the state's spartan budget proposals for forcing them to lay off thousands of teachers and other employees.

On Wednesday, Gov. Rick Perry laid the blame for the impending dismissals at the feet of local administrators and school boards.

(snip)

"It is easy to deflect responsibility and put the blame on school districts," Williams said Wednesday. "We are the ones that have to make the tough calls. Someone has to balance the budget."

(snip)
A Senate recommendation on how to distribute that reduction could come next week. The addition of about $6 billion in school aid would just about match what Education Commissioner Robert Scott, a Perry appointee, has said he needs to keep the state's school system functioning.

The House of Representatives, however, is still targeting the $9.8 billion reduction included in its initial budget proposal.

Perry is acting like the kid that throws a smoke bomb in a room and then runs away saying "I didn't do it". But he has the evidence all over his slimy, sooty hands.

He's a big coward! :puke:

[white cloud]

4. Perry says state not to blame for school woes

Next time maybe the voters will wake up.


AUSTIN — Gov. Rick Perry said Wednesday the state's not to blame if teachers lose their jobs as school districts grapple with the potential loss of billions of state dollars.

School groups took issue with Perry's effort to distance the state from the effects of budget cuts, which by one estimate could cost up to 100,000 school district jobs through the next two years.

"The lieutenant governor, the (Texas House) speaker, and their colleagues aren't going to hire or fire one teacher, best I can tell. That is a local decision that will be made at the local districts," Perry said when asked about a Texas Capitol rally planned Saturday by teachers, parents and others concerned about the potential cuts.

Families and small businesses across Texas "are making decisions about what's a priority," Perry said, "… and I think school districts are no different."

He said if he were deciding, he'd focus on "non-teaching" staff - which a number of school districts have said wouldn't suffice to meet the cuts.

>>>>>


http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/7465134.html



"Texas could fire every school superintendent, all principals and assistant principals, every school counselor, every librarian, every school nurse, all cafeteria workers, custodians and bus drivers - all 329,574 non-teacher jobs - and still not save the $11.6 billion in public education cuts, according to average salary figures on the TEA website."

[sonias]

5. If this doesn't wake people up, I don't know what will

People must be dead - completely dead to let the Rs do this to the public education system!

:grr:

[thanks_imjustlurking]

12. Wait untl the effect of all those unemployed teachers hits.

Wait until people's kids are 60 in a class. Wait until property values go down because the schools are so lousy. Wait until parents have to figure out what to do with the kids when schools are running on a four-day week. Will they get it *then*?

[sonias]

16. It's hard to imagine things getting worse - but you know they can

We're already the laboratory for bad public policy in Texas and the only reason the Wisconsin union busting ugliness isn't happening in Texas is we already have a non-union state.

I agree with you totally things are going to get much, much worse. :(

[The Philosopher]

6. Idiot

I can't believe people listen to him talk and fall for it. I can't believe people are that extremely stupid. I'm going to start believing that his supporters are just evil. Just pure evil.

If you fuck up the financial affairs of the state, which provides funding for those local school districts, you're going to affect a lot of local decisions.

How many in billions is given away in taxes to businesses, just to support an image of being a business-friendly state? How many millions went to businesses and clients who support Perry indirectly by helping out friends, who in turn help out Perry? How much money slips out of our hands because Perry is an idiot and doesn't have the imagination to invest in the future?

[sonias]

8. "Just pure evil"

That's the part that really scares me. The level of hate and ugliness in this state has gone by by a factor of at least 100. All since the bushie ratcheted up the hate in 2000.

The Texas Rs were happy to join in the bandwagon of polarizing this country to unbelievable heights.

And this is where we live - ground zero for republican evil hate. :grr:

[efhmc]

7. The man is a liar and a cheat but he has hair.

[sonias]

9. I'm not even sure the hair is real anymore

Is it a possible hair piece? I mean everything about this man is fake. Just saying.

:shrug:

[efhmc]

11. Would make sense.

[plumbob]

10. Okay, this is so stupid that I don't know how to respond to it.

Crook: "Hands up! Give me all your money!"

Victim: "But I need that money for my daughter's prescription! She'll die without it!"

Crook: "Best I can tell, I won't be stopping anyone from going to a pharmacy. That's a personal decision made by you."

Victim: (Stunned silence)

[jpak]

13. I used to live in Texas when Ann Richards was governor

my sincere sympathies

:(

[SolutionisSolidarity]

14. During the election, he ran ads about how well he had stewarded the state's finances.

Then right after the election, he announced that we have a 25 billion dollar budget shortfall. Now they're talking about opting out of medicaid and gutting every state program.

[Melissa G]

15. That is no Mistake but a Careful Plan

That is Goodhair's idea of stewardship. Gutting medicaid and public schools was always on the list.

[sonias]

17. I agree with you too

Grover Norquist wasn't just in Texas recently to enjoy the warm weather - he's practically living in slick rick's hairdo. And they're both plotting how to further kill what little government services Texas provides.

Dallas Observer 3/9/11
Rick Perry's New Sidekick, Grover Norquist

As mentioned below, Gov. Rick Perry was in town yesterday -- at Manda Machine Company, on Myrtle Springs Road near Harry Hines -- insisting, yet again, that Texas need not tap the Rainy Day Fund to deal with the state's $27-billion-ish shortfall. You can watch the entirety of his speech here, and you'll see standing behind him the man you see above: Grover Norquist, founder and president of the Americans for Tax Reform -- and the man The Huffington Post only yesterday referred to as "the most powerful Republican in America."

Norquist, whose brief remarks at Manda Machine follow, is also considered by many to be the man who helped transform George W. Bush from Texas governor to United States president.

:puke:

[sonias]

18. Teachers riled up over governor's remarks

San Antonio Express-News 3/11/11
Teachers riled up over governor's remarks

As thousands of teachers, school staffers and parents prepare for a state Capitol rally Saturday against education cuts, they've found new recruits and fresh motivation from an unlikely source: Gov. Rick Perry.

Reacting to Perry's comments, some teachers and support staffers said Thursday they were angry and discouraged but mostly emboldened to publicly oppose billions of dollars of cuts in education.

Perry said state leaders were not to blame if as many as 100,000 people lose their jobs at school districts statewide.

“He just seems unaware of the agony schools are going through,” said Carolyn Foote, a librarian at Westlake High School in Eanes Independent School District near Austin. “It's like a slap in the face to anyone working in education.”

Foote, a librarian of 20 years and former teacher, said she felt personally attacked when Perry opined that he'd first cut the nonteaching staff, which he thinks has ballooned over the years.

“His comments just only added fuel to the fire,” Foote said.

Go teachers!!! :applause::applause::applause:

I love teachers! :loveya:

[onestepforward]

22. "HISD was living within its means"

http://www.khou.com/news/local/-HISD-principals-to-decide-on-teacher-cuts---.html

-snip-

All of this, the board emphasized, is not because of a district financial problem, their fingers pointed directly to Austin and the Texas State Legislature.

"People talk about the fact that we just have to live within our means. That's fine, HISD was living within its means. This is not a district deficit. This is not a district crisis. This is not a local crisis," said HISD Trustee Harvin Moore.

-snip-

I saw this on the news last night.

[sonias]

25. "their fingers pointed directly the Texas State Legislature"

That's exactly where the focus should be kept - directly at the Lege who created the mess and continues to make it worse!

:kick:

[sonias]

19. The teachers are coming. And the parents. And the librarians.

AAS 3/10/11
Education advocates to rally at the Capitol as budget cuts loom

The teachers are coming. And the parents. And the librarians.

Thousands of education advocates are expected to descend on the Capitol on Saturday to protest a multibillion-dollar budget hit to public schools under consideration by the Legislature.

Reaction to the budget proposals released in early January has come in fits and starts — a PTA lobbying day here, a Capitol steps rally there. Save Texas Schools, a statewide coalition of education advocates, faith groups and business leaders, hopes to consolidate that reaction and send a resounding message to lawmakers "that this matters to a lot of people in our state," said Carolyn Soote, an Eanes school district librarian who participated in a flash mob at a busy South Austin intersection Sunday to promote the rally.

The efforts are set against a backdrop of a Republican-controlled Legislature that has vowed to balance the budget without raising taxes or tapping the state's rainy day fund. In the face of a recession-induced revenue shortfall and without the one-time federal stimulus money to patch over the deficit, public education funding for the next biennium is more than $9 billion short of what is needed to meet current school financing formulas. State grants for teacher incentive pay, pre-kindergarten and technology in the classroom would be nixed.

(snip)
Organizers are calling on lawmakers to use the state's $9 billion rainy day fund, sign paperwork releasing $830 million in federal education money hung up in a partisan dispute between the state and Austin Congressman Lloyd Doggett, and restructure school finance laws to more equitably distribute state money to school districts, which are funded with local property taxes, state money and federal grants.

Website for Save Texas Schools:

savetxschools.org/
March & Rally to Save Texas Schools:
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Texas State Capitol Complex in Austin, TX.

March: 11:00 am – 12:00 pm
starting from 12th & Trinity (1 block from Capitol)
Rally: 12:00 – 2:00 pm on the South Steps

:kick:

[white cloud]

20. Kool

Maybe this all this Tea Party Red Ink crap will come to a head.

We need to cut rick perry grease, and 120K a year budget first.

[sonias]

21. Yes I think Perry should lead by example

Cut his own salary and benefits and move out of that $10K a month gated community mansion.

That guy is not sacrificing one bit while cutting everybody's else essential programs! :mad:

[thanks_imjustlurking]

24. "That guy is not sacrificing one bit"

Neither are his buddies and campaign contributors.

[thanks_imjustlurking]

23. I will be there.

I'm looking for a place to have breakfast when I get into town right now.

[sonias]

26. I'll be there too

Standing with the people of Texas, the teachers, for the future of Texas.

:grouphug:

[white cloud]

27. Vi Va Tejas for our Texas future

Thanks. Wished we were able-- we would be there

[They_Live]

28. I hope to be there

soon (at the rally). Readying all my recording devices as I type.

[white cloud]

29. More RiPe Fuzzy Math

Texas Gov. Rick Perry's alternate reality: Blame schools for teacher job cuts


Read more: http://www.star-telegram.com/2011/03/11/2915833/texas-gov-rick-perrys-alternate.html#ixzz1GRHPHKuY

[sonias]

31. RiPe

Oh that's good! RickPerry math!

RiPe math = fuzzy math.

I think you've hit on a winning meme there!

:applause:

[sonias]

32. Wow - That's a great editorial!

Star-Telegram Editorial 3/12/11
Texas Gov. Rick Perry's alternate reality: Blame schools for teacher job cuts

It was a classic Perry bomb: Officials in Austin aren't to blame if public school teachers lose their jobs amid state budget cuts, Gov. Rick Perry said Wednesday. If you want to blame someone, blame local school boards.

Yes, he actually said that. Out loud. Television cameras rolling.

"As a matter of fact," he added for emphasis, "the lieutenant governor, the speaker and their colleagues aren't going to hire or fire one teacher, as best I can tell."
He sometimes comes up with stuff like that and tosses it into the public arena like a kid playing with fireworks.

To keep the record straight, the Texas Constitution puts the burden squarely on the state to create and fund a public education system.

:wow:

I wish more mainstream media would speak like this.
:applause::applause::applause:

[sonias]

30. Who Will Be Blamed for Big Cuts in School Funding?

Texas Tribune 3/14/11
Who Will Be Blamed for Big Cuts in School Funding?

There will be blood. It’s undeniable, especially when the governor goes out of his way to say that he doesn’t have any on his hands.

(snip)
House Speaker Joe Straus, R-San Antonio, said a day later that the governor is “technically correct,” in that the teachers don’t work directly for the state and the state won’t be doing the firing. They may be cutting off the food supply to the kitchen, but it’s the cooks who decide which diners will be fed.

All this talk preceded a weekend education rally at the state Capitol, and it accompanies a rising chorus from Republican lawmakers who think the current budget-balancing proposals cut too deeply into education and health and human services.

Relocating the blame isn’t going to be an easy sales job. The school districts are simultaneously losing money from both of their main sources of revenue — state financing and revenue from local property taxes. And while many have money in the bank, their immediate financial futures aren’t promising. Some have responded by declaring “financial exigency,” a way of saying they’ve got budgets so tight they need to lay some people off. Once that’s been declared, a district can send notices to employees who won’t be employees after the current school year. Others are marshaling the arguments for tax increases.

They may be cutting off the food supply to the kitchen, but it’s the cooks who decide which diners will be fed.