Update 05242023 at end.
In the latest U.S. News study of U.S. states Texas ranked 34th in education, 31st in healthcare. The Best States studies are done by the Wharton School, Trump’s alma mater.
Among developed countries the U.S. ranks high in overall education, but 38th in math and 31st in science. That puts our country near the bottom of 35 OECD countries.
Sorry, I’m still working on my essay about our healthcare system, but will say that the U.S. ranks dead last among similar developed countries, yet our per capita costs are twice theirs, except Switzerland, 75%. Switzerland doesn’t have government healthcare, citizens are required to buy health insurance from private insurance companies.
Some of what we’re seeing in the news is distraction from the damage done by the stupidity warned against by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. The freeze disaster last February is an example. Millions of people lost power, the cost was $billions, more than 700 people died. A few companies made $billions from inflated gas prices.
Governor GW Bush deregulated energy in Texas for Enron. Texas is the only state independent of the two major grids in the U.S. Please see what Lt. Governor Patrick and Rick Perry said about the freeze.
There are five oil and gas $billionaires who are major donors to Republicans in Texas, notably the five Texas Rail Road commissioners and the judges on the state Supreme Court. The latter were all first appointed by Perry and Abbott to conveniently open seats. All are members of the right wing “conservative” Catholic dominated Federalist Society.
Three of those $billionaires are “evangelicals”, the Wilks brothers and Tim Dunn. The Wilks brothers have their own fundamentalist church and are donors to several national right wing organizations. Money trumps ideology, they sold their fracking companies to an equity investment firm in Singapore.
Tim Dunn has spent $millions trying to turn Texas into an aristocratic theocracy.
The fourth is Energy Transfer CEO Kelcy Warren. He made $2.4 billion from increased gas prices during the freeze, increased prices thanks to the appointed officials of Texas regulatory entities. He gave $millions to Republican politicians, $6 million to Perry.
Ironically the fifth is a Pakistani Muslim immigrant who has close ties to Saudi Arabia.
Those $billionaires and others are also donors to Texas Land Commissioner George Prescott Bush, son of Jeb Bush, heir apparent to the Bush dynasty. He has all his tickets punched for a political career, superb education, military service, even in the Middle East under a cover name.
After hurricane Harvey in August 2017, federal funds were finally approved by congress for recovery. Most wasn’t made available until 2019.
Texas Republicans have made the state the most difficult to vote. ALEC written legislation passed in 2011 was declared unconstitutional in two courts, one was the Fifth Circuit federal court.
Trump appointed Federalist Society judges allowed that legislation to be implemented in 2018. It includes an “exact match” requirement that targets women. More recent legislation targets Houston and Harris County, like Austin and San Antonio, a large population of black Americans, and bastions of Democratic voters.
Read the quote from Edith Jones, who wrote the opinion. Ironically Blackstone was a British lawyer who supported “religious tests” for office.
In 2013 the legislature cut funding for healthcare, resulting in clinics closing, that only provided well woman care and contraceptives. The results included as many as 240,000 self-induced abortions in just three years. In response to testimony from doctors, the legislature gave more than $100 million to anti-abortion organizations; and “crisis pregnancy centers”, where women are lied to, their abortions delayed, and if they agree to have the babies they have to give up all rights, even if they change their minds. See my blog on “Big Lies”.
Texas gives among the least in state funds for public schools, $6,000 per student. Federal and state spending cuts push necessary expenses down to local authorities, they have to issue bonds and raise property taxes, among the least of all states. Texas is near the lowest in state education funding, but has given hundreds of $millions to private charter schools, as much as $12,000 per student. Responsive Education Solutions is one of the largest. Thanks to Dan Patrick, Texas taxpayers gives them over $200 million a year in taxpayer funds. They have more than 100 campuses in Texas and Arkansas, and an online school run from Virginia. RES is a project of DeVos supported “conservative christian” Hillsdale College in Michigan. They taught creationism and global warming denial.
The SCOTUS decision on education funding for religious schools opens the door for taking more from public education. Dan Patrick, not his given name, whose only qualification is being a $millionaire religious right radio host, has been pushing for religious school vouchers for years. It’s not a coincidence that he made announcements at Catholic schools.
In response to the lack of adequate funds for public schools, and the agreement to the problem by the Texas Supreme Court, the legislature passed “Robin Hood” legislation. It’s cost public school districts $3 billion.
Texas doesn’t have an income tax. Most of the revenue is from local taxes and federal funds, and bonds. The interest on those bonds is tax exempt income to the same people who benefit from tax cuts. One of the reasons for the economic health of Texas are oil/defense salaries and wages, thanks to strong unions.
Houston mayor Annise Parker, an openly lesbian woman with a wife, and her Democratic city council, passed the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance in 2014:
"The City of Houston seeks to provide an environment that is free of any type of discrimination based on sex, race, color, ethnicity, national origin, age, familial status, marital status, military status, religion, disability, sexual orientation, genetic information, gender identity, or pregnancy."
In 2015 an effort led and funded by Lt Gov Dan Patrick, quack doctor Steven Hotze, the Texas Pastor's Council and others, succeeded in repealing the ordinance.
Update 05242023
In addition to not allowing polling boxes on university campuses, the legislature is again targeting Houston and Harris County with more voter suppression.
The Texas legislature let die a bill to require the Ten Commandments to be posted in all public school classrooms, but did pass legislation allowing chaplains in schools as counselors.
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