Gov. Perry's Ship Of Cronies

Gardner Selby has an article in today's AAS on your governor's fateful trip to the Bahamas two years ago, 2 years after Bahamas powwow, school finance still on a slow boat. It's pretty much a rehash of what Bob Gammage said when he announced for his candidacy, Democratic Candidate Vows to Attack Corrupt GOP Political Machine:

Today there is a corrupt political machine which stretches from Washington, D.C. all the way to Austin. Tom DeLay and his cronies are at one end, and Rick Perry and his pals are at the other. The money flows both ways. It has corrupted our politics, corrupted our government and, more importantly, corrupted public policy and betrayed the public trust.

But back to today's AAS article. The only person to come to your governor's aid is Grover Norquist, yes he's the same one that's all wrapped up with Jack Abramoff:

"The governor is a very serious scuba diver," Grover Norquist, a Washington tax cut advocate who joined Perry at Elbow Cay, said this week. "I managed not to drown."

Norquist, like others there, insisted there was ample substance to the gathering.

[...]

Norquist, who heads Americans for Tax Reform, which champions state and federal tax cuts, said Perry came out of the trip comfortable with ideas that remain worthy of becoming law — including the view that school spending increases shouldn't happen without gains in educational accountability. Perry, he said, "took a lot of barbs and arrows from people who wanted to talk about half of it — money (for schools) without reforms. He became stronger politically because he hung tough with a good idea."

I can't wait for that commercial, "I'm proud of my scuba divin' for Texas schools, how 'bout you?" But lo-and-behold, Gorver is an advocate of the "65% Ruse":

"The First Class Education Initiative allows taxpayer dollars to directly reach the children instead of school bureaucrats. Voters can AND will send a powerful message to union leadership. Opposition to this measure to increase funding for classroom instruction and more qualified educators will be detrimental to their general membership."

I wonder where your governor got the idea for the "65% Ruse"? Remember, the "65% Ruse" is just a catchy marketing name to get the general public to buy into the usual Republican "easy fix" line , that actually does no such thing. The "65% Ruse" is being used to defund public education and build a wall between teachers and administrators, divide and conquer. Now that we know that the "65% Ruse" doesn't work and more evidence keeps coming out, let's see who was on the ship:

•Gov. Rick Perry

Anita Perry, first lady of Texas

Grover Norquist, Washington tax cut champion

James Leininger, San Antonio proponent of enabling disadvantaged public school students to attend private schools with government money

Brooke Rollins, president and CEO of the pro-small government Texas Public Policy Foundation

John Nau III, Houston beer distributor

•Mike Toomey, then Perry's chief of staff

•Deirdre Delisi, then governor's deputy chief of staff

Mike Morrissey, governor's budget and planning director

•Dave Carney, Perry's chief campaign consultant

It's easy to tell by looking at who was on the ship that this was a strategy session to come up with a plan to defund public education in Texas and bring on vouchers. As Mr. Selby says in the title, school finance has been put on a slow boat, and who benefits from that? Well it hasn't been public schools, that's for sure. We need to make sure it's not this governor and his cronies who benefit.