This weekend I had the opportunity to attend Netroots Nation in Las Vegas. While many of you were doubling down at the black jack table, the Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) was doubling down with the future of Texas School children through high risk investment schemes. The Permanent School Fund was set up by the founders of Texas, written into the Constitution to ensure that all children in the state of Texas could receive a quality public education. Unfortunately, members of the board apparently do not believe in public education as Sam Houston and the founders envisioned it. Last week the SBOE members decided to take funds set aside for our children’s education to buy real estate to rent to charter schools at a subsidized rate. It is time to stand up to the extremist members on the SBOE and tell them enough is enough.
In May when the board met they decided to force a politically charged, ideologically-driven social studies curriculum into our children’s classrooms. Their disregard for teachers and experts has spilled over into the permanent school fund debate as well. Last year the financial consultants hired to give advice to the SBOE were fired when some board members did not like the advice they paid for. That advice included not investing Permanent School funds in risky schemes, and one example was real estate for charter schools. Earlier this year the board changed references to capitalism in the social studies curriculum to ‘free market.’ Yet when it comes to charter schools the free market is not enough for them, they feel that they must inject themselves into the business side of education. The board has said that charter schools cannot find the resources to buy or rent facilities for themselves, that the cost is too high. So the SBOE has taken it upon themselves to offer subsidies to charter schools that the free market would not help.
Netroots Nation was great; Rebecca Bell-Metereau and I met many people from across the nation who are concerned with the actions of the Texas State Board of Education. As I walked around the convention from Wednesday night when I arrived to Sunday morning when I left, I saw people wearing the #savehistoy buttons we had brought. Our next Lieutenant Governor in Texas, Linda Chavez-Thompson, even tipped her hat to us during her keynote address. Our panel on the “ABC’s of the Education Culture Wars” was well attended, and we thank everyone for that. I am energized after being at Netroots Nation, the Netroots community is warm and welcoming and I thank you for allowing us to be a part of your movement. We still need your help. Please become a fan on Facebook and Twitter to keep up with my campaign. If you didn’t get a #savehistory button at the convention, or you were not able to make it to Las Vegas, we will send you a button for every donation over $10 from this diary. As our campaign moves forward to November I will need each and every one of you to keep writing and recommending my diaries. We must not let attention wane from this very important race, we must stop the public education extremists in Texas before they spread to the entire county. Don’t let the Texas SBOE continue to double down on the future of our children.