Venable Quoted in Dallas Morning News ISD Article

Americans For Prosperity's Texas director, Peggy Venable, was quoted in today's Dallas Morning News over budget concerns of area school districts.

The DMN piece - on the front page of the June 30 issue - made mention of AFP as the "conservative" taxpayer advocacy group. Not that I necessarily disagree with the distinction, but articles in past DMN stories have quoted the Center for Public Priorities and other liberal organizations, but Dallas' politically correct media-types refer to them as "organizations that advocate for low-income Texans."

Anyway, Venable's quotes (middle of the article and at the end):

"This is where we need to be. School districts need to be appropriately cautious with their money...This is all a shell game to simply get as much money as they can from the Legislature and taxpayers."

And the end-of-article quote:

"School districts will not be left high and dry," she said. "The taxpayers and lawmakers will not let schools go bankrupt."

To read the article in its entirety, click this link.

The SuperCollider: 15 Years Later

The Ellis County Press has a special commemorative issue this week about the massive Superconducting SuperCollider project. News editor Joey Dauben's column, What'd the SuperCollider profit us anyway? injects some perspective into this unfulfilled project.

Update on Alvord ISD Superintendent John Trice

Alvord Superintendent John Trice has resigned. Only last week, Peggy Venable at Americans for Prosperity called for the Wise County DA to investigate possible wrong-doing by the Superintendent which included both electioneering on school property and school time as well as failure to comply with the Texas Public Informaiton laws by omitting an email from a PI request. The email was threatening an school district vendor. Some Alvord parents and taxpayers are rejoicing this weekend, but not so fast. The school board recently extended his contract for five years. This Superintendent should not be provided a golden parachute, but a pink slip. Read the resignation here: http://www.americansforprosperity.org/index.php?id=5989&state=tx

Gore is attempting to “gore” AFP's Hot Air balloon launch

Breaking news from the “Americans For Prosperity Hot Air tour” team on the ground in Nashville.

This is unbelievable.

The Nashville Parks Department is denying us permission to launch the balloon, citing the fact that our permit says balloon rides but not specifically the word "launch." (Is there a way to provide a balloon ride without a launch?)

This despite the fact that we have explained to them on the phone multiple times our precise flight plan and before today there was no indication that there was a problem or any defect in our permit.

Clearly, global warming alarmist Al Gore is calling in favors to stop the embarrassing visual and negative coverage surrounding our event and ratcheting up the beating he is taking over his home energy use. (You may have read about it – after all the “energy saving” features he put in his home, it is using MORE, not less energy. Yep, he is using more energy in one month than most Americans use in a year. He’s getting a spankin’ on that in the blogs).

Alvord ISD Superintendent May Go Beyond Detention Hall – Directly to Jail

It is clear that Alvord Independent School District (ISD) Superintendent John Trice has potentially put himself – and his school district – in a world of trouble.

Not only was Supt. Trice caught electioneering on school time and school property (http://txpayervoice.blogspot.com/2008/02/alford-isd-officials-electioneering.htm), but Supt. Trice has now threatened a school vendor in an email, and he also failed to provide that threatening email when an open records request asked for all emails from the Superintendent during the time period the email in question was sent.

Looks to this writer as if Superintendent Trice gotten caught in two additional illegal actions and it leads one to wonder just how much more of the turmoil taking place in Alvord ISD is as result of Trice’s reckless activities. It also begs the question: Just how much liability are the Alvord School Board members and the taxpayers of Alvord assuming by virtue of Supt Trice’s actions?

A private company, a telecommunications vendor – clearly pleased that Rep. Phil King had not only helped lower consumers’ telecom taxes, but had also supported eliminating an outdated tax (a legislative position supported by the telecommunications industry along with taxpayer advocates) invited Alvord Superintendent John Trice to an appreciation reception for Alvord ISD (and Trice’s) current state representative. And Superintendent Trice responded not only no, but by saying that he would work to keep that company from getting the school district’s business.

Below is Alvord ISD Superintendent John Trice's email:
____________
[mailto:jtrice@alvordisd.net]
Sent: Thursday, February 07, 2008 1:35 PM
To: (removed by the writer of this post)
Subject: Declined: State Representative Phil King Appreciation Reception
When: Wednesday, February 20, 2008 4:30 PM-6:30 PM (GMT-06:00) Central Time (US & Canada).
Where: Decatur Civic Center

Thank you for the invitation; however, Phil King in his own mailout claims responsibility for doing away with the TIF tax. This source of revenue was critical for schools to purchase computers, build infrastructure (such as the fiber we just purchased from Embarq) and other desparately needed technologies. This tax was very small compared to the property tax needed to recoup this loss of revenue. Mr. King is no friend to public education and I will not support him. If Embarq chooses to support him, I will most definitely propose that we do business with any competitor of Embarq at every opportunity.
If that is not clear enough, please call and I will tell you what I really think of Mr. King!!!
John Trice
______________

Supt. Trice’s email begs several comments:
--First, Supt Trice needs a spelling lesson – it is “desperately” not “desparately”;
-- Second, Rep. Phil King has been a friend to taxpayers and has demanded accountability from school districts. Alvord ISD taxpayers might appreciate that;
-- Third, you clearly don’t understand the TIF tax; and
-- Finally, the employees, taxpayers and parents of Alvord have my sincere sympathy.

As background, I sent a Public Information request to Alvord on February 22, 2008, to Joel Waldo, Administrative Assistant and asked – among other things – for: “Copies of all correspondence sent with Superintendent John Trice’s name since January 1, 2008.”

Clearly, the email pasted above was sent from Supt Trice’s school email account and was sent after Jan. 1 and before Feb 22 – the period designated in the FOIA request.

After sending the request, Trice called the Americans for Prosperity office claiming to be the Public Information officer and said that he would fulfill our FOIA request. He didn’t reveal to our office manager that he was the Superintendent. (She wasn’t fooled, as she knew his name.)

Though the Texas Public Information Act required compliance with my request, I not expect to get all his emails. He didn’t fail to disappoint me. I got emails from Trice commending people, setting meetings, all very mundane emails. I certainly didn’t get his email threatening a vendor with pulling a contract because the vendor (a private company) was participating in an event to honor their state representative.

So for that reason, I want to post this information so the Alvord community can read it for themselves. I hope they will take appropriate action.

Unfortunately, the Alvord School Board has recently extended Supt Trice’s contract for an additional five years. They have put their school district – and particularly the taxpayers and parents -- in a very difficult situation.

Alvord taxpayers should consider forcing a recall vote for any school board member who voted to extend the Superintendent’s contract (at a salary of well over $100,000). They put taxpayer dollars in jeopardy – along with the education of the approximately 700 students in the school district.

-- Peggy Venable, Texas director, Americans for Prosperity

UPDATE: On June 19, 2008, Venable sent a letter to the Wise County District Attorney asking for an investigation and action to be taken: http://www.americansforprosperity.org/index.php?id=5909&state=tx

Republican Leadership: The Voice of Texas

Republicans have been searching for leadership within the Texas Legislature since we won the majority in the House in 2002. There are many outstanding Senators and Representatives serve, many are strong conservatives that understand the issues exceptionally well.

Few Legislators have had the opportunity and the pulpit that State Senator Dan Patrick has. With a radio talk show and a growing network of conservative media outlets around Texas, Dan Patrick has the ability to energize the conservative voting base and speak about the issues that are important to us.

Senator Patrick has recently released his Patrick Pact for Texas. These are very bold initiatives to bring back true spending restraint, true tax limitations, and true border security, while maintaining the pro-life and pro-family precepts which helped the Republican Party take the majority status in the 1990's in Texas.

The six planks of the Patrick Pact are:

1 Reduce the appraisal cap to 3% per year on all residential property Texans are being taxed out of their homes. We must end the stealth 8–10% annual tax increase on homeowners. If local governments feel a need to raise revenue, they should do so by raising the tax rate; not by hiding behind an automatic appraisal increase. Voters can then determine if the increase was necessary and if those elected officials are worthy of re-election.

2 Illegal immigration – secure our borders now The Federal Government has failed to protect our borders as they are constitutionally required. It is time we use Texas taxpayers’ resources to protect our borders instead of providing services to those that entered this state illegally. It is time for Texans to protect the Texas border.

3 Reduce government spending now We elected Republican majorities in the Texas House and Senate and expected them to be fiscally conservative. Our legislature has let us down. The most recent state budget includes a 20% increase in spending. We should focus on needs-based-budgeting, rather than revenue-based-budgeting.

4 Responsible education funding School budgets and administrative positions have increased faster than student enrollment and classroom teacher positions. The legislature should require that 65% of school spending be dedicated to the classroom. We must focus education resources on the classroom instruction of our children.

5 Legislators should put tax cuts before their own pension increases Legislators found the votes to increase their own pensions in the last legislative session, but after two special sessions could not find the votes to reduce your property taxes or lower the appraisal cap. We should focus first on cutting taxes before we increase legislator’s benefits.

6 We are the majority party and we should govern as such I have called for an end to the so called “blocker bill” in the Senate. For years, this Senate tradition helped ensure civility in the upper house, but recently Democrats have used the practice to block meaningful legislation from being approved. We should end the practice of requiring 2/3 of the Senate to agree before a measure can be considered in the Senate.

Texas needs Republican leadership. Senator Dan Patrick is the man to take the lead.

Is It Still 'For the Children?'

The Ellis County Press broke the story today about a Texas Education Agency audit finding that Waxahachie ISD inflated their attendance records to boost state aid, a move that forced WISD to pay back more than $100,000.

There's still the question of the missing $114,000 the TEA audit division couldn't account for.


Reporting by The Ellis County Press several weeks ago, as well as continuous updates on BestSouthwestBlog.com (a sister blog to The Ellis County Observer), finally got the Dallas Morning News' attention on the Lancaster ISD financial problems (to get a better grasp of this, Lancaster bordered the now-defunct Wilmer-Hutchins ISD).

The DMN is reporting what the independent Press and its blog (Observer) have already reported on, which is that TEA audits and financial records of the LISD show mismanagement and inflated attendance records to boost state aid.

Time for Choosing

As the state conventions get underway and parties grapple with the direction they will take, I am reminded of Ronald Reagan's words almost 44 years ago when in the Cow Palace of San Francisco, Rockefeller's moderate and Goldwater's conservative delegates were clashing, Reagan said:

“It's time we asked ourselves if we still know the freedoms intended for us by the Founding Fathers. James Madison said, "We base all our experiments on the capacity of mankind for self-government." This idea that government was beholden to the people, that it had no other source of power except the sovereign people, is still the newest, most unique idea in all the long history of man's relation to man. For almost two centuries we have proved man's capacity for self-government, but today we are told we must choose between a left and right or, as others suggest, a third alternative, a kind of safe middle ground. I suggest to you there is no left or right, only an up or down. Up to the maximum of individual freedom consistent with law and order, or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism; and regardless of their humanitarian purpose those who would sacrifice freedom for security have, whether they know it or not, chosen this downward path.” – Ronald Reagan, A Time for Choosing

It was indeed a time for choosing.

Hold the taps, deliver parents vouchers

It was news hot off the press the past two weeks – low performing schools are shut down by Education Commissioner Robert Scott. Thanks, Commissioner. It’s about time.

We saw teachers and students shocked the last day of school at Johnson High School in Austin Independent School District and Sam Houston High School in Houston ISD met the same fate just this week.

No need for taps.

Our students deserve better than being relegated to failing schools.

When a school fails to perform, it should be shut down. Our tax dollars and our children deserve schools which provide students with opportunity. Yet as these students and teachers disperse, wouldn't it make sense to give the parents the opportunity to determine where their children have the greatest opportunity to succeed? Shouldn't these students get a voucher which they can take to any public or private school their parents choose?

It's time we stop rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic and think outside the box. It's time we enact parental choice in educating children.

When the dollars follow the child, we will be funding education, not educational institutions which may perform poorly for years before finally being closed.

Mis-Spending Incumbent Ousted

Mike Greenlee, a Palmer, Texas city councilman and the Dallas suburb's mayor in the early 90s, lost a re-election battle on May 10 amid a barrage of front-page articles in the conservative Ellis County Press - a newspaper that carried copies of receipts to strip clubs, bars and hotels on its front page, followed by a story two days before the election that exposed Greenlee's signature granting $186,000 in an infrastructure project in 2003.

According to budget documents, that expenditure was transferred from the city's economic development corporation and was not bid, though Greenlee told the public he "had nothing to do with it."


Greenlee's seven-vote margin of defeat also resulted in the election loss of two members of his "slate," Linda Harper and Shannon Conger, both of whom had their names printed on large 4x8 yard signs with Greenlee's name at the top.

Days after the election, Greenlee told The Ellis County Press that it succeeded in "altering" the election with the news coverage.