Governor Greg Abbott is having a temper tantrum. He called a special session to push for vouchers, which failed in the regular session. But now he’s feuding with his Lt. Governor Dan Patrick over what to do about property taxes.
The state is sitting on a $33 billion surplus. Abbott has vowed to veto every bill until he gets vouchers and his own property tax plan. Abbott wants all property taxes reduced, while Patrick wants the biggest breaks to go to businesses.
Gov. Greg Abbott has continued to follow through with his perceived threat to veto a large number of bills in the absence of a House-Senate compromise on property taxes. As of Saturday afternoon, the governor had vetoed 47 bills in the past five days, most of which originated in the Senate, adding fuel to his feud with Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick.
The common theme in his many of his vetoes, 21 of which were announced Friday: The bills can wait until after lawmakers figure out property taxes.
“At this time, the legislature must concentrate on delivering property tax cuts to Texans,” Abbott said in multiple veto proclamations Friday.
He vetoed more than a dozen bills Saturday, which included a new objection tied to school vouchers, another one of Abbott’s legislative priorities this year. In explaining why he rejected a bill setting new training rules for fire alarm technicians, Abbott said the legislation “can be reconsidered at a future special session only after education freedom is passed.”
During the regular legislative session, Abbott spent significant political capital traveling across the state to promote education savings accounts, a voucher-like program that allows parents to use taxpayer dollars to pay for their kids’ private schooling. The Texas Legislature failed to pass such a bill, mostly because of staunch opposition from Democrats and rural Republicans in the House, who argue that vouchers will hurt public schools’ finances. Abbott has said he’ll call a special session specifically to discuss vouchers again.
On Wednesday during a bill-signing ceremony at the Capitol, Abbott raised the possibility of vetoing a significant number of the hundreds of bills that he hasn’t yet signed. With lawmakers still deadlocked on property taxes, Abbott said he “can’t ensure that any bill that has not yet been signed is going to be signed.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Governing by tantrum is now a republican tenet. Not just in Texas, unfortunately.
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yup
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As long as apathy infects most people, nothing will change.
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patthale About apathy . . . . My next door neighbor, a retired professional of some sort and a wonderful neighbor, told me in a wayward conversation, that only touched on the present political situation, that we should remember to be balanced in our politics and give everyone a chance to be heard. After January 6th, and Pence’s saving grace at the edge of the precipice, and the “whole 9 yards,” he didn’t understand anything about what is going on.
I think hundreds of years of relatively comfortable politics has made us so, and that too many “too-laters” will wait until . . . well . . . it’s too late. CBK
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Perhaps there are many moderate/ liberal Americans who figure, this too shall pass. Coupled with that attitude, they don’t follow news closely, much less study the arc of politics over recent decades. So they don’t realize how fed & state govts have been chipping away at democracy.
This is speculation on my part. I live in a blue state, where families very busy with raising kids have enough agita on their plates, and don’t welcome politics into the fray unless something is pushed right in their faces, which hasn’t happened lately, and not likely to in our blue state. They’re glad to relax after 4 yrs of Trump, & covid almost in the rearview mirror…
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bethree5 Yes, I think many truly devout citizens, like my neighbor who is Jewish, cannot believe that things, as they are, can go away; or even that people who took an oath to support their own government really want to get rid of it, though I doubt even many of those really understand what can happen, or what it would be like to live under a dictator.
As a teacher, it took me a long time to break with the idea that everyone in the government, like me, MUST support public education for everyone, like breathing air. Then things started to occur that just could not be explained away with my old thinking in place. My own political education began in earnest with the insights that flowed from those realizations. CBK
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He vetoed 76 bills over the weekend.
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Greg Abbott: What a guy! I read that he vetoed a bill that would allow districts to require water breaks for outdoor workers in the current heat wave.
Compassion is not his middle name.
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Remember when Republicans used to believe in local control?
Those days are long gone.
Now, they believe in only one thing: power.
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Correct…right now he is holding everything, hostage until he gets what he wants – vouchers!!
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“He vetoed 76 bills over the weekend” will make a great negative ad for Abbott’s next election opponent. What a genius. For his next act, one should expect the governor to punch a baby in the face while on camera.
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To be honest, many people are unhappy with Texas mercurial property tax system, which already works in favor of commercial properties. By not being able to report sales figures, commercial owners that can afford to hire lawyers have an advantage in lowering their taxes. They also have the money to take their case all the way to arbitration. It is the residential owner that has harder time with tax protests as there are generally more properties that are comparable in size and location to the home owner’s property. As for Abbott, he is flexing his authoritarian muscles. He is trying to bully Texans as DeSantis does to citizens in Florida.
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Sorry rt, maybe I am just having a dense moment. I do not understand what this means: “By not being able to report sales figures” [why not?], “commercial owners that can afford to hire lawyers have an advantage in lowering their taxes.” I don’t even really get “It is the residential owner that has harder time with tax protests as there are generally more properties that are comparable in size and location to the home owner’s property.” Can you spell it out for this dummy?
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California has a history of surpluses, too — followed by deficits. During the pandemic, California had a big surplus (like $20 billion or more) and Governor Newsom had the legislature approve sending checks to everyone that pays state income tax. Us state taxpayers got a few hundred dollars back months latter soon followed by a huge deficit.
Early this year, the state was running a deficit in the billions. If the state had held on to the previous surplus there wouldn’t have been a deficit later.
Still, revenue flows into states daily, not once a year. Sales tax is a daily thing. Property tax is quarterly. Income tax is deducted from income paid weekly or monthly. I have no idea how often businesses have to pay their taxes. I’ve read that businesses have to submit their taxes quarterly.
Revenue pours in and revenue pours out. Sometimes a state has a surplus for a while and if the state does nothing with it, that surplus might end up vanishing as bills and incomes are paid out when the revenue stream slows up.
A surplus today can be a deficit tomorrow.
Abbott is grandstanding while blackmailing the Texas legislature to give him what he wants just like DeSantis in Florida. Abbott wants the same thing that DeSantis has, total fascist power. He must be jealous of DeSantis.
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Fellow California resident here… Lloyd, from what I understand, Governor Newsom was required by law to send out the checks, due to some legislation (not sure if it was one passed by Republicans or an initiative). Of course such a rule goes against the reality that a budget surplus is not necessarily permanent. I compare the rule to a situation in which, having been sent a one-time $600 stimulus check, I go out and buy a car with 72 months of payments of $600…
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Lloyd and JP Smith Did you see that recent Fox News interview with Governor Newsome? It was apparently over an hour and other parts are also on youtube; but this short clip is exceptional. CBK
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Yes, I did see some of that! So awesome to see someone who can stand up to Sean Hannity!!
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Thanks for sharing, CBK! We need THIS GUY running for president!!!
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Biden has been a much better president than I expected him to be. All honor to him. It’s now time for him to step aside and serve in an advisory role to President Newsom.
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I agree that it’s absurd to veto that many bills. I hope you had a story. on Biden when he had 42 executive decisions and ruined our country (most ever since Truman). As for the border, this is again the dems and the RINOS.
Trump wanted 4 billion to finish the wall and crying, Chuck said its too much. Soros, was sending migrant caravans up to the US. 100 BILLION plus to Ukraine is fine, psychos. Newsom is only the Governor because he is related to Pelosi. California like new york, is a nightmare that is why the smart people are fleeing like flies.
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Josh,
Turn off Fox News and Newsmax for 48 hours. Watch CNN and MSNBC. Open your mind.
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Diane,
WATCH CNN AND MSDNC LOL YOU ARE A LOST PUPPY DEAR!!!! lol, open your mind hahahahahahahahahahaha. Least credible networks on the planet and you are sincerely telling me to watch the junk it feeds your corrupted frail mind. Oh dear. Watch racist JOy Reid or loser Maddow, or fired cuomo fired fat bald guy, fired lemon, lol diane you are hysterically funny!
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Diane Josh might want to try NPR, or BBC, or as bethree5 suggests, C-Span. And their BookTV is great as they interview authors and panels of authors directly who discuss their books. But Rachel also has extremely incisive interviews and podcasts, and her research staff are incredible. CBK
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Josh,
My information is public. Why don’t you use your full name, what state you live in, whether you graduated high school and college?
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Or, Josh, an alternate proposal. I personally do not appreciate any spin on raw news, & don’t watch CNN or MSNBC either [haven’t for years]. Your post is rife with imbibed rants from FOX/ OANN/ et al rw media outlets. Suggest you tune them all out and just watch CSPAN: 24/7 you get to see how House & Senate actually operate, including every committee hearing on multiple topics. You might be surprised.
I am surprised every day at how many wise and statesmanlike govt representatives we have in fed govt, who go about the people’s business without fanfare, and do their best to respond to important daily issues of state and federal import. And if you’re interested in what state govrs have to say, they cover that too, as well as presentations from panels sponsored by conservative and liberal and moderate sources as well. Watch it all, and draw your own conclusions.
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josh just gave himself away. He’s a watcher, not a thinker, reader, discerner, or anything else that requires individual initiative to learn. To paraphrase Carl Sagan, a lack of decency accompanies a lack of understanding of the purposes of the Bill of Rights and the scientific method. And he speaks for about 45% or more of the American population. If that doesn’t scare the hell out of you, I don’t know what can.
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My lord. There is none of this nonsense so outlandish that you don’t believe it, huh, Josh? Tell me, did George also put up those Jewish space lasers? Does the pizza parlor have pedo dungeons? Was CRT responsible for ripping the flowers out of my flowerbed last May? Did I have to wait longer at the stop light this morning because I am white and it’s really us who are being discriminated against? And does it make a difference which kind of bleach I inject?
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Ain’t no way they gonna beam him back up. They were cheering when they beamed him down.
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The members of the GOP are so old but whine like babies. What’s that about?
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I hope you’ll be posting a response to the article below from Education Week on Mississippi: Education Week
LEADERSHIP – POLICY & POLITICS – TEACHING & LEARNING – TECHNOLOGY – OPINION – JOBS – MARKET BRIEF READING & LITERACY Mississippi Students Surged in Reading Over the Last Decade. Here’s How Schools Got Them There By Elizabeth Heubeck — June 19, 20235 min readRudzhan Nagiev/iStock/Getty Images – – –
Mississippi is the poorest state in the nation, and it ranks nearly last in K-12 school spending and per-pupil funding. Years ago, the state’s reading scores reflected those challenges. But not anymore.
In 1998, 47 percent of students in Mississippi performed at or above the basic level of proficiency on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). By 2022, that number jumped to 64 percent—slightly better than the national percentage of 61 percent.
The progress began to speed up 10 years ago, after state legislators passed the Literacy-Based Promotion Act, a sweeping bill that targeted literacy efforts from a number of vantage points.
SEE ALSO Nation’s Top Teachers Discuss the Post-Pandemic Future of the Profession
“Some people call it [improvements in reading proficiency] the ‘Mississippi Miracle’,” said Tenette Smith, executive director of elementary education and reading at the state’s department of education. “It has nothing to do with a miracle.”
Instead, Smith said it has everything to do with the act’s multi-pronged approach to boost reading proficiency.
Part of this approach is the act’s retention strategy, whereby 3rd graders who score below a minimum standardized test score must repeat the grade. This controversial practice has garnered significant attention, including a recent Boston University studythat reported on its positive, long-term effects among Mississippi students. But Smith and Kristen Wynn, the state’s literacy director, pointed to other, lesser publicized strategies they say are having a positive impact on Mississippi students’ improved reading proficiency.
These include free, full-day pre-K programs that promote reading readiness; universal screening for literacy three times a year for students in kindergarten through 3rd grade; individual reading plans (IRPs) for students whose screening results are below grade level; and formal methods for parents to engage in those IRPs. Underscoring these strategies is a significant investment of $15 million per year to support literacy, 60 percent of which goes to coaching and intervention services staff.
It appears to be paying off.
Professional qualifications and right personality required
After the literacy act passed in 2013, the state’s original intent was to hire 75 mostly full-time coaches to work in state schools where students performed the worst on 3rd grade standardized reading assessments, said Wynn. Initially, over 600 people applied for 75 coaching positions, mostly full-time positions whereby each coach would be assigned to work in two schools. Only 24 were selected.
“They were looking for quality over quantity,” Smith said. “That only 24 were selected showed us we had a lot of ground to cover.”
The state was looking for people who were well-versed in evidence-based reading, which is centered on the five core components of reading as identified by the National Reading Panel—phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension—and who knew how to intervene with students who had deficits in those particular areas of reading, explained Smith. Preferred qualifications included a master’s degree in education and three years experience teaching reading.
But, noted Smith, professional qualifications aren’t necessarily enough. “If they don’t have the personality to work with adults, make that connection, transfer the knowledge [of reading instruction best practices] to an adult, then it won’t work out,” she said.
Maryann Mraz, a reading and elementary education professor at the Cato College of Education at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte, has extensively studied the role and impact of literacy coaches on teachers. Her perspective on the traits of effective literacy coaches around the world echoes Smith’s.
“To succeed, literacy coaches must have clearly defined roles, extensive support, and an existing rapport among teachers—or the possibility of creating such rapport,” wrote Mraz in an academic paper on the topic.
Teachers welcome support from literacy coaches
By the 2022-2023 school year, the number of literacy coaches hired by the state increased to 52 deployed to 86 public schools throughout Mississippi, according to Jean Cook, the education department’s spokesperson.
Armstrong Elementary, in Greenville, Miss., was one of them. Lucindy Cunningham, a 3rd grade teacher at the school, has welcomed the opportunity to work with three different literacy coaches in the past ten years. “They aren’t there to evaluate us. They are there to be a support system,” she said.
Cunningham said that, prior to the 2013 literacy act, she wasn’t expected to teach in alignment with the evidence on reading. Having a literacy coach made that shift easier, she explained. She ticks off some of the ways these coaches have supported her: showing her how to set up literacy centers in her classroom that focus on the core components of reading; identifying useful resources, such as those from the Florida Center for Reading Research; explaining how to interpret data from reading assessments and apply it to improve reading achievement; and supporting effective ways of teaching writing.
“They are some of the most well-trained experts in the country,” Smith said of the literacy coaches. They’re also just one piece of teacher support.
Intense professional development
Another component of the state’s literacy act was to overhaul its professional development related to reading instruction. The state now provides to all K-3 general ed teachers and K-8 special education teachers a yearlong, master’s level professional development course grounded in the science of reading, explained Wynn.
“It’s very intense, but we needed it in order to move our students, in order to grow our teachers,” said Wynn. “They were not leaving their teacher-prep programs prepared.”
Wynn said that, prior to 2013, reading instruction throughout the state’s elementary schools was very balanced literacy-heavy, an approach that places a strong emphasis on understanding meaning, and less on the systematic and explicit use of phonics.
“We needed to come together and develop a common language,” she said. The intensive statewide PD, based on the science of reading, helped do that.
In addition to the yearlong statewide PD training, teachers attend smaller, regional sessions specific to their grade levels that provide the opportunity to implement what they learn.
Like the students they instruct, the teachers’ scores count. They are required to notch at least a 60 percent on post-training assessments. “We can then target additional PD based on common deficits,” Smith said.
The coaching instruction and PD are a lot for Mississippi’s educators to absorb. But, said Smith, “We hear from teachers and administrators who say, ‘I didn’t know what I didn’t know.’”
Sent from the all new AOL app for iOS
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Education week bought the hogwash. All of it. Shame on them for failing to investigate. Sadly, Nick Kristof’s nonsense travels far and wide.
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Meanwhile, in Wisconsin, a Democratic governor is all in for vouchers:
Larson says “the governor has a veto pen, and the public is on his side.”
“I and other advocates knocked on doors [for Evers] hoping that public schools would be protected,” he says. “It’s like finding out toothpaste actually causes cavities.”
https://inthesetimes.com/article/tony-evers-is-about-to-sign-off-on-the-largest-voucher-school-expansion-in-30-years
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That’s terrible new about Tony Evers. NPE did not endorse him because of concerns about where he stood, and our friends in WI were angry at us. Now it seems our instinct was right.
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