Rick Perry’s announcement that he will run for president surprised few people, but it still made me cringe.
I’m a native Texan, so Perry has been my governor since 2000. I’ve been directly affected by his policies since I can remember, and as I became more politically aware, I became less impressed.
Quite frankly, the idea that Perry could win the Republican Party nomination makes me want to pee my pants. A Perry presidency is even more terrifying.
I don’t care about his stances on social issues, nor am I a staunch Democrat. I take issue with Perry’s inability to lead Texas and I believe he is incapable of leading the United States.
Statistics paint a dismal picture of Perry’s failings. Texas has the highest number of citizens without health insurance, according to The Washington Post. The Center for Public Policy Priorities found that Texas’ child poverty is the ninth-worst in the nation. It ranks last in the nation in the percent of population 25 and older with a high school diploma, the Texas Legislative Study Group found.
Perry has no plans to remedy any of these situations. Last week, he posted on his campaign site that welfare programs such as food stamps “[is] not the solution but a symptom.”
Perry is outspoken about the evils of President Barack Obama’s plan to provide health care to all citizens.
The ranking Perry is ignoring the most is that last one. Perry’s ignorance of the importance of education is disgusting. Perry’s solution to Texas’s low graduation rates and other education ailments? Cutting $4 billion from public education.
Texas has never shown great support for schools. The Dallas Morning News reports that before 2011, Texas spent $1,359 less on each student than the national average.
Perry refuses to raise taxes, even with public education in dire straits. “No new taxes” has long been a politically savvy move, but states do not run on savvy. They run on investment, and when the money dries up, taxes must be raised or an alternative must be found.
Texas has an alternative. It’s called the Rainy Day Fund, and Perry stubbornly refused to tap it until April, when he agreed to a one-time withdrawal of $3.1 billion.
That didn’t help schools much as the withdrawal was not applied exclusively to education. State funding was still slashed, forcing school districts to start layoffs, increase class sizes and freeze hiring. The Dallas Independent School District cut $90 million, or 6 percent, of its budget, the Morning News reported.
This led U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan to criticize the “massive increases in class size” and say in an interview with Bloomberg Television, “far too few of [Texas] high school graduates are actually prepared to go on to college.”
Texas’s education system is falling apart due to Perry’s unwillingness to do anything but politick. Governing means making hard, sometimes unpopular choices, something Perry has shown himself incapable of doing.
Perry tries to divert attention from his flaws by pointing to his state’s ability to create jobs. While our private sector is stronger than many, some of Texas’s leading job creators are owned by the very federal government that Perry tries to minimize. The U.S. Census Bureau shows that Texas received more than $227 billion of the stimulus money Perry claims to loathe, the third-highest amount in the nation. This hypocrisy is hard to ignore.
Supporting Perry’s bid for the GOP nomination is asking for four years of misguided leadership and slighted public service. Someone who fails at governorship will not magically improve if he is rewarded with the presidency. Someone who cannot handle a state will not be able to handle the country.
Kate McPherson is a journalism sophomore.
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davemundy 9 months ago
Kate, you may not be a "staunch Democrat," but you're most certainly a brainwashed journalism major if you're quoting the Washington Post and the Center for Public Policy Priorities as "unbiased" sources; both are major players for the political far-far left. The amount of money spent on public education has very little effect on the quality of public education; we've seen the cost of a Texas public education double in the last nine years, with almost no increase in performance. It's the system (curriculum and methodology), not the money. There is one thing worse, however: Arne Duncan's Common Core Standards, which play to the lowest common denominator and are so bad that many of the states which originally adopted them to get that "federal money" are trying to get rid of them. Most of us who are fiscal conservatives are no fans of Perry, but the truth is that with or without him, the Texas education system, for all its flaws, is still better than what it would be without all those mean ole conservatives fighting tooth and nail to maintain some semblance of a traditional education. I also do not support Perry for president -- but if the only other alternative is Barack Obama, I fear we may have to get used to saying "President Perry."
shadowwarrior 9 months ago
Kate: Oh, where to start! Your key sources, the Austin based Center for Public Policy Priorities and the Texas Legislative Study Group (which is chaired by uber-liberal State Rep. Garnet Coleman of Houston) are both fronts for the far left. The names of the organizations may sound credible to people outside of Texas, but their policy recommendations are not taken seriously by those who are responsible for crafting state policy.
In this year's recently concluded legislative session, Texas lawmakers actually pumped more money into public education than they did during the 2009 session. This was coupled with increasing the accountability of school administrators and cutting unnecessary staff within the bloated state education agency. I know that these types of moves are abhorrent to teacher unions - but they are quite welcomed by taxpayers. Do you recognize that only Democrats find the concepts of spending restraint and fiscal responsibility less appealing than simply raising taxes in developing sound budget management practices?
Texas leads the nation in job creation since 2001 with over 1.2 million net new jobs. Nobody else comes close. In fact, without Texas, the U.S. would have lost 713,000 jobs over the last decade. Also, SiteSelection magazine, the nation's most respected publication for economic development data & research, just recognized Perry's efforts for generating the most new and expanded commercial facilities in the country for 2010 - more than any other state. He continues to provide valuable leadership by strongly advocating for government sponsored incentives that are widely regarded as critical measures needed to attract corporate re-locations and encourage capital investment - these actions positively impact both small and large communities across the state. Even Paul Krugman would have to admit these tools lead to vibrant job growth and an increase in local tax bases.
By the way, the Texas Legislature used those stimulus dollars to fund Medicaid and education obligations mandated by Federal regulations - isn't that what you want?
If you feel the urge to trash Perry, at least use your own words - along with a tad less hyperbole - you obviously got this op-ed language directly from the DNC. You should be ashamed and so should your editor.
Have a good semester.
naksuthin 9 months ago
Most Americans want the special congressional committee tasked with drafting a long-term solution to the nation's mounting federal deficits to include tax hikes for the wealthy and businesses and deep cuts in domestic spending, according to a new national survey.
A CNN/ORC International Poll released Wednesday also indicates that the public doesn't want the super committee to propose major changes to Social Security and Medicare or increase taxes on middle class and lower-income Americans.
That pretty much sums up how I feel too.
But if you ask people like Perry, they don't agree with most Americans 1. People like Perry support tax cuts for the rich and super rich...people that are actually doing great during these hard economic times. 2. They want to gut Medicare and social security and turn it over to "for profit" insurance companies. 3. Despite the budget deficit, they want to continue to give tax subsidies, tax rebates, and tax credit to corporations like Exxon...the worlds most profitable corporation. 4. They want to continue to waste more money on expensive military hardware... and military programs that can't even win the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq against poorly equipped and highly outnumbered illiterate peasant farmers
The Bush tax cuts for the rich are now in their 10th year. In that time the deficit has skyrocketed to 14 trillion dollars, the unemployment rate has reached 9 percent, food stamp usage is up to 15% of the population,
That's not the picture Republicans painted when Bush enacted the tax cuts for the rich 10 years ago
hermz1 9 months ago
And, of course, let's not forget the pay-for-play political culture of the Perry administration. Perry heads perhaps the most corrupt government of any of the 50 states.
braceyourself 9 months ago
So wait...are we all just going to forget that Perry threatened to have Texas secede?
He's going to try to run a country with which he wanted to cut ties.
SERIOUSLY, THOUGH. READ THAT AGAIN AND LET IT SINK IN A LITTLE.