By J. Lyn Carl, GalleryWatch.com
Austin, TX –
Remember that nasty little partisan battle not too many moons ago over redistricting? A trip to Oklahoma, a sometimes screaming battle of words on the House floor, partisan parliamentary maneuvers?
Another such blood-letting could be in the making as House Dems and Repubs are squaring off for what looks to be a battle royale over the public education reform bill coming to the House floor next week.
Rep. Kent Grusendorf's (R-Arlington) HB 2 passed out of the House Public Education Committee, which he chairs, earlier this week after a vote along party lines. The bill is scheduled to be taken up in the House next Tuesday.
Grusendorf held daily press conferences after the bill passed out of committee, a traveling road show of sorts for his legislation, dubbed the "Roadmap to Results."
Today, the House Democratic leadership said that road is leading to a dead end, and they paraded out their own public school reform package. Their "Learn and Live Plan," said Rep. Jim Dunnam (D-Waco), will be offered as a floor substitute to HB 2 next week.
Grusendorf, proud as a peacock over getting his bill out of committee and headed to the House floor with it, got his feathers a little ruffled today when the Democrats told him he had an ugly baby. Any father would.
After the Dems' press conference today, the Arlington lawmaker said that while he welcomes "constructive ideas" for improving public schools in Texas, the House Democrats' plan is "shortsighted." He claims the plan would require a tax hike and it doesn't explain how schools will be held accountable for their spending.
While Grusendorf's roadmap provides $3 billion in new money for public schools, a fact the Democrats have questioned from the get-go, the Dems say their plan puts $5 billion in new funds into the schools and provides significant property tax relief by lowering the current $1.50 tax rate cap to $1.25 per $100 valuation, but will provide even greater tax relief by tripling the homestead exemption from the current $15,000 to $45,000.
Grusendorf called the Democrats' plan a "tax-and-spend" proposal that will only lead to increased spending. "Our plan puts $3 billion more into education and cuts spiraling property taxes by one third, and we get more education for each dollar by asking districts to spend money more efficiently," he said.
"They call their plan 'Live and Learn' which must mean 'living beyond our means and learning to swallow a tax hike'," said Grusendorf.
Well, actually, they call their plan "Learn and Live," but what do you expect a Republican to say about a plan offered by folks from the other side of the aisle who called his bill "fatally flawed," a "roadmap that creates an elite class of schools and leaves 90% of Texas school children behind," and "increases the gap between rich and poor" districts?
"Our 'Roadmap to Results' is a path to the education excellence we all want to reach," Grusendorf said today.
Democrats think the road has more than a few potholes in it and is badly in need of repair.