Strayhorn And Vouchers

OTG latest campaign strategy is to remind folks, even before she was the Mayor of Austin and sucked Austin deeper into the STNP, she was a school teacher:

Teachers unions typically back the Democratic nominee. But Strayhorn, a Republican with a son working in the White House, is a former Austin schoolteacher, high school tennis coach, school trustee and mayor running as a "Texas independent."

Not that she's one to switch sides or anything but it now appears she's stealing Kinky's message:

"I think this state is hungry for independent leadership. People are sick of all the politics. Texans want somebody who can get the job done."

That's almost exactly what novelist and musician Kinky Friedman said when he launched his independent campaign for governor last year. Back then, Strayhorn was still talking like a Republican who planned to challenge Perry early in the primary, railing loudly against his lack of leadership in the Legislature and calling him a "do-nothin' drugstore cowboy."

Then watch her flip-flop on vouchers:

Perry "is just systematically dismantling the public-school system" by not increasing the budget enough and favoring a pilot voucher program that would divert public money to private and church schools, she said.

Strayhorn has supported the same pilot voucher program in the past. She said that she still supports the idea but that now is not the time for it.

"I'm not saying that I would never support them," she said. "I'm saying that I would take vouchers off the table for discussion. No more talk until we address the needs of the public schools."

Correct me if I'm wrong here but weren't vouchers proposed in the first place because we weren't addressing the needs of public schools? Therefore, if we start meeting the needs of public schools why would there be a need to look a vouchers? Vouchers are how public schools will be defunded. How can she be allowed to talk about Perry doing this on the one hand and still support vouchers on the other? I don't know it just looks to me like a candidate trying to have it both ways. Leaving herself open in case she needs vouchers for political reasons some time in the future. To me you're either with the teachers and against vouchers or you're not. It still makes me wonder why the TSTA is backing OTG.