Government in action (not inaction).
I spent most of yesterday winding through the sub-basement of the Texas state capitol looking for legislative offices. My mission: Meet Republican lawmakers and somehow convince them that inner-city public schools are important. And, to an extent, mission accomplished?!?
One very conservative representative spent the better part of 30 minutes listening to a bunch of teachers plead for money that just might not be there. He told us, point blank, that he didn’t support everything we wanted, like a hard cap statewide on class sizes and spending the majority of the rainy day fund in the next fiscal year to support social programs. However, my gut says I should believe him when he said he values public education and wants to find ways to support it.
The surprise of that conversation? He asked us what we thought of legalized gambling in the state. I jumped in to say Texas should do it in a heartbeat. From what I saw in Illinois, it had positive impacts on job creation and economic development, plus tons of tax revenue.
The other very conservative representative was too busy to meet with us, but we met with her chief-of-staff. He spent about 30 minutes listening to our concerns and assured us that the representative was taking meetings on the budget issues and was looking for a way from keeping cuts from getting too deep. He encouraged us to make an appointment to meet with the representative when she was back in her district on Friday. Then he welcomed another group of parents and teachers into the office for the same conversation. Did angry teachers and parents blow his whole day during a budget crisis? Sure, we did. But, he took the time to listen to the concerns.
Did anyone’s mind get changed by the visit on Monday? Probably not. I’m not so rhetorically flammable to think that the conservative members of the Texas legislature hate public education. On some level, they all support it. Support it more than a tax increase? That I don’t know. But, at the end of the day, if the money isn’t there, schools will face cuts and students will be poorer for it. No one has a magic wand that creates more money, not even the much despised Gov. Perry.
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