… That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it …
Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty
Cato
2 Comments | 
City government, County Government, Federal Government, State Government | 
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Posted by Cato
Now that we have the TEA imposed board of managers in charge of the EPISD, let’s take a look at the people who compose the board.
We have a lady that was appointed by the TEA to be the EPISD monitor. We know little about her other than she is a career educator that seems to have made a difference wherever she was. Other than the fact that she is not an El Pasoan that was elected by El Pasoans I think her appointment was a good one.
We have a former Texas state representative from El Paso who voted to cut $5.4 billion in funding out of Texas public education. Actually I respect his vote, evidently one made on principle. For my part I would prefer that the state not get involved in funding education. Lower the taxes and fees that they take out of a community and let the local residents decide what their education system should look like. I certainly don’t think that the feral government should be involved. Of course I doubt that many would support my view on this.
The man who is most responsible for El Paso having one of the best water usage rates and capacities in the desert is on the appointed board. He is a well known, well respected force in the water community. He also operated as a tyrant with a “my way or the highway” approach to government. He evidently saw no problem with his government organization buying major construction equipment from one of his board members. Yes it was done legally, but that did not make it right.
The chief financial officer of the city, who is also on the The El Paso Firemen and Policeman’s Pension Fund board has also been appointed. It seems that with both of those organizations the public has had difficulty getting to the truth of their respective finances. Beyond that we will have the incredible conflict of interest between her duties to the city and to the school district. I know nothing of her intentions here but do feel that other people without her conflicts should have been chosen. How will she find time to do her many jobs?
The head of the Region 19 (it used to be Region XIX but during their period of existence public education declined to the point where they changed the name so that the public might understand it) head start program has also been assigned. I hope she does well. The matter of her conflict of interest in serving two separate institutions that frequently interact is another disappointment.
We know that government officials do not relinquish power easily. How long will they stay when we have elected a new school board? Your prediction is probably the same as mine. State law gives them two years. I know of nothing that would keep the TEA from appointing another board after that.
We deserve better
Brutus
3 Comments | City government, El Paso Independent School District, Federal Government, State Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus
I would be embarrassed. It is one thing for an error to creep into a reporter’s article in a newspaper. Editorials however reflect on senior management at the paper. To have an error in an editorial, much less multiple errors, tells us a lot about the quality of their product.
The El Paso Times edition of Sunday, June 9, 2013 either shows how desperate they are or how little they really care about facts. This is a link to the editorial.
Let’s not discuss their opinion at the moment. Let’s discuss why we might even consider listening to them.
The Times wrote “And that’s why it’s important that Steve Ortega be elected major”. Major? After a few years would he be able to appoint himself Emporer? Then again maybe he should join the army.
Later in the editorial the Times incredibly states that the voters of El Paso granted “approval for more than $700,000 million in quality of life projects…”. I hope not much more.
The number they used equates to $700 billion dollars. Those kind of numbers used to only be thrown about by the government in Washington DC — you know, the feral goverment.
The editorial page writer for the Times put the number at $700,000 in an article on the same page that day. That’s might be enough to build a new press box for the Times.
The Times previously endorsed their candidate. Now they devote over 95% of their editorial page to trying to help the same candidate.
With friends like that who needs an opponent?
Muckraker
2 Comments | City government, El Paso Times, Federal Government | Permalink
Posted by Muckraker
The Texas senate has passed a bill that would reduce the number of tests that a student would have to take to graduate high school from 15 to 5.
Good!
I don’t know how this would affect the lower grades but I do know that we are spending too much time preparing for and taking tests. Teachers that I know are virtual slaves to the testing regimen to the extent that they teach to the test, not to the subject.
In my time we took standardized tests, both the Iowa and California ones. The results reflected on us as students. The results reflected on our parents. Poor results brought the parents to the schools to find out what was wrong. Was the child incapable? Was the child not diligent? Was the teacher not doing the proper job?
The families got involved and did not leave it up to our state government to see that the student progressed.
Now unfortunately we seem to have a nanny state where our government is acting to replace parenting.
Let the free market handle this. A poorly educated student yields a low paid employee. Parents used to recognize this. Students were told this over and over.
Give the students a helping hand, not a push.
Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty
Cato
3 Comments | El Paso Independent School District, Federal Government, State Government | Permalink
Posted by Cato
The El Paso Times published this article Thursday, May 16, 2013. In it the reporter wrote that a proposed bill “would give congress the constitutional authority to set term limits.”
That is wrong and in my opinion deserves a printed correction from the newspaper.
The constitution does not give the congress the right to make anything constitutional that is not already included in the constitution or it’s amendments. Article V of the constitution makes provisions for making changes to it. That can either be done by the affirmative votes of 3/4 of the legislatures of the several states or by the affirmative votes of 3/4 of conventions held in the states. That’s it. Period.
I don’t mean to get into the discussion about whether term limits are good or bad. In the case of the president the XXII amendment was ratified in 1951. Up until then there were no limits on how many times an individual could serve as president. Any change in the number of terms a person could serve in congress would require an amendment — that is unless we want to just ignore the constitution, in which case we would have to ask why we even have one.
I hope that the Times takes steps to clarify the situation, but I am not holding my breath.
Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.
Cato
1 Comment | El Paso Times, Federal Government | Permalink
Posted by Cato
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