By J. Lyn Carl, GalleryWatch.com
Austin, TX –
When House Speaker Tom Craddick said yesterday that he hadn't "heard a lot" of criticism of HB 2, the public education reform bill, some folks wondered if he had been holed up somewhere in a vacuum.
Craddick even went as far as to say there had been an "extremely positive response" from House members and that the bill was "very acceptable" to most members of both parties.
You gotta' figure that the "Three Amigos" - Democratic Reps. Jim Dunnam of Waco, Pete Gallego of Alpine and Garnet Coleman of Houston - probably had a one-word response: "DUH."
Craddick's statements were made during a quick media availability at the end of the House floor session Wednesday, only minutes before members of the House Mexican-American Legislative Caucus held a press conference to announce they were awarding Rep. Kent Grusendorf's (R-Arlington) HB 2 a grade of "F" and said it "fails kids, fails teachers and fails the test of leadership."
So just in case the Speaker didn't hear the Caucus folks loud and clear, Dunnam, Coleman and Gallego today cranked their opposition up a few decibels.
Dunnam accused Craddick of using "fuzzy math" in his headcount regarding House members lining up behind HB 2. "With 35 House Democrats at the press conference yesterday and numerous other members expressing their concerns over the lack of new money in HB 2, the failure to provide teachers with a real pay raise, and the super-funding of 24 school districts - it certainly doesn't appear that most members agree with the bill."
In addition to voicing their opposition to the bill loud enough for the Speaker to hear, they also cited discrepancies in what they called Grusendorf's "rhetoric" and the fiscal analysis of the bill. "Once again, the rhetoric just doesn't match the reality," said Gallego. "The numbers from the Legislative Budget Board's (LBB) official fiscal analysis of HB 2 simply don't add up to what we're being told."
Gallego said the fiscal note from the LBB lists the cost to the state for the implementation of HB 2 at $11.7 billion. However, he said another page of the fiscal note says nearly $11 billion is a direct result of lowering local property tax rates to a maximum of $1. "If $11 billion of $11.7 billion is dedicated to lowering property taxes, how can Mr. Grusendorf claim $3 billion in 'new' money?" asked Gallego. "It's been said over and over again that HB 2 would provide more than $3 billion in new money for education, but the LBB numbers tell us that HB 2 fails to provide new money for our schools."
Coleman took Craddick to the wood shed over the Speaker's remarks that the bill will do what is necessary to take "care of us at the courthouse," referencing the fact that the state's school finance system has been declared unconstitutional by a state district judge. "We must look at what takes care of our children and teachers at the schoolhouse - not the courthouse," said Coleman. "We cannot afford to let our legislative leaders turn away from our responsibility to educate our children, because that failure would cost us all for generations to come."