David Dewhurst channels Dan Patrick.
Being immoral makes Dewhurst sad
Dewhurst, noting his differing view from Straus, said he’s a product of public schools and wants to support them, but said he doesn’t want to leave an estimated 315,000 Texas students in academically unacceptable schools.
“I’m mad. I’m mad as hell about that,” Dewhurst said, adding that it takes on average six years to turn a failing school around. He drew applause from the crowd when he said, “We need to focus on the children, not the educators, not the unions.”
Beyond the ability to transfer to better performing public school, the Senate is looking at a “parental trigger” that would allow a high-performing charter school to take over a failing school after two years, Dewhurst said. He also favors a tax credit bill championed by Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, that proposes tuition tax credit for businesses funding scholarships to private and religious schools.
“It is immoral to leave children trapped in failing schools,” Dewhurst said.
How touching. What is apparently not immoral to David Dewhurst is letting thousands of people die every year, including many children and their parents and other loved ones, because they don’t have access to health care. Putting the health and well-being of thousands upon thousands of children at risk because their parents can’t afford to take them to the doctor, or to the dentist, that’s just aces by David Dewhurst. Putting children who do have insurance at risk of losing it by making their parents do extra paperwork in the hope that some will forget and thus save a few bucks in the budget, totally moral as far as David Dewhurst is concerned. (Yes, I know, he eventually came around on that. Eventually.) He’s so freaking moral I can barely stand it. What a shining example of morality for us all to follow. If he and Dan Patrick cared about children one tenth as much as they care about this school choice crap they’re pushing, the state of Texas would be a vastly better place than it is right now.
Obviously, I think vouchers are lousy policy, and I’m deeply skeptical that more charters will necessarily improve educational outcomes. I’m happy to debate those things on the merits if you want to. But with the appallingly abysmal record that Dewhurst and Patrick and all of the other Republicans have on healthcare access, especially healthcare access for children, they can take that pious bullshit and stick it where the sun don’t shine. Their actions speak far louder than their phony words of concern.
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