“Allen Vaught unquestionably supports public education and is proactive in finding solutions that improve and strengthen our neighborhood public schools.”

- Pam Meyercord, Texas Parent PAC

Ready for this? Here’s the latest from Truett Trailer Park deep in the heart of District 107:

This school in Allen Vaught country is begging for $10K from a private company’s “shittiest school in America” competition. If you’d like to vote for Truett Elementary as the shittiest school in America and help them get $10K from Big Lots, please click here and vote 3 times a day until July 12.

Be sure to watch the video, because there are some things I’d like you to notice aside from the obvious which I profiled in Welcome to Truett Trailer Park last year.

First, please take note of the many spelling errors in this very public video. Go ask the principal, Tiffany Nemec, for a tour of Truett and ask yourself if you would be willing to work in those conditions. I am not saying that everyone who works at Truett is incapable of spelling “poses” but the best and brightest simply are not going to work in conditions that set everyone involved up to fail and fail hard.

Truett Elementary

I’d also like you to notice the comparison with Bishop Lynch High School which sits right across Inadale from Truett Trailer Park. I was saving this for a rainy day, but let’s go ahead and compare these schools now.

Bishop Lynch

The contrast between Bishop Lynch and Truett is stark on the surface. But when you look at the numbers, there’s not a huge difference. The average per pupil amount in the state of Texas is $10,162 and Bishop Lynch tuition is $10,400.

However, for that $250 difference, Bishop Lynch has been able to expand to meet the needs of the student population (3 times in the past 10 years), work with the community to forge healthy relationships and turn out a bunch of well-educated kids who are prepared for college. The facilities and landscaping are a source of pride in our neighborhood, and thankfully block the view of the Truett trailers for people passing down Ferguson.

Bishop Lynch isn’t perfect. There have been financial scandals that hurt the school, but the problems are resolved by firing thieves and tightening financial oversight. Parent and student satisfaction is watched closely, because the parents have the option to leave. They are not tethered to Bishop Lynch, and when they leave, the money follows them. It would be ridiculous to pay for something you do not use.

So what’s the real difference in these schools, District 107? How much of that $10,162 is actually making it to Truett Trailer Park? I don’t have an exact number for that, but it is less than $5K.

Do you remember last fall when I was trying to figure out what exactly a voucher is? If not, it’s here. Still confused? You aren’t alone. Here’s more.

Here’s where I’m going with this. In a strange turn of events, something emerged from this past legislative session. Allen Vaught and his gang of *waaah SB 1000 is a voucher* Tools put together a bill called HB 130.

HB 130 has done something huge for our state by providing a working definition of the word voucher from the anti-voucher folks themselves.

HB 130 was the same as SB 1000 with one key difference: The administration got a cut of the kids’ cash. HB 130 was cool with using public education cash to send kids to private schools. Religious schools were not excluded, so that’s cool, too.

Here’s the difference between Truett Trailer Park and Bishop Lynch, District 107: Bishop Lynch spends that money in the classroom. Truett spends that money on an administration that has proven over and over again that it is a terrible steward of our children’s money and quite possibly a front for a crime syndicate.

A proactive solution for Truett Elementary, Mr. Vaught, would be to cut out that waste and send the $10,162 directly to Tiffany Nemec.

But that is a voucher, according to Vaught himself. If the administration doesn’t get their mitts on the money designated for the neighborhood school, it is suddenly an SB 1000 situation, not an HB 130.

Let me tweak Pam Meyercord’s thoughts on Allen Vaught to reflect the actual situation:

“Allen Vaught unquestionably supports our corrupt administration and is proactive in finding solutions that protect the adults who exist off our taxes at the expense of the children in our failing and dangerous neighborhood schools.”

Don’t forget to vote for Truett as the crappiest school in America for the next few days. Thanks to Allen Vaught and his proactive solutions for our District 107 neighborhood schools we may actually win! Go District 107 – let’s be the best at being the worst!

“By dividing the people we can get them to expend their energies in fighting over questions of no importance to us except as teachers of the common herd.”

– Civil Servants’ Year Book

Although there is no history of asthma in our families, our son suddenly developed severe asthma when he was a toddler. He must carry an albuterol rescue inhaler with him at all times, and during certain times of the year his activities are limited by his health. He also has a nebulizer at home, but he cannot leave the house without his rescue inhaler.

In the past we were able to get his inhaler every month for $4. The major pharmacies provided a list of commonly prescribed medicines at this cost, and it was a huge help to consumers who either do not have access to health insurance, do not choose to purchase health insurance or who, like us, purchase health insurance which we can hardly afford to use.

“Life is a process of becoming, a combination of states we have to go through. Where people fail is that they wish to elect a state and remain in it. This is a kind of death.”

- Anais Nin

Allen Vaught said of SB 1000, no way lady, that’s a voucher. No way am I going to support something that would reiterate existing federal disability law at the state level. No way am I going to support something that says if your crappy neighborhood school cannot or will not provide FAPE to your child with autism they must fund that child’s FAPE in a private setting. Vaught was perfectly aware of the major regression our son faced after only 3 months trapped in an inappropriate classroom. Our son and our family have been through a lot in his short life, and that is one huge nightmare we should never have been put through. Like thousands of others, we were stuck with a suffering child and a school that was daring us to sue.

“A lot of people were salivating over the funds and the patronage, and picturing the precious little poster child for their gigantic graft scheme.”

- Anonymous

“I’m opposed to the voucher program, I campaigned against it, I voted against it, but my heart goes out to these people because to them that’s the only ray of hope they see”

- Allen Vaught, co-author of HB 130 voucher

This was a good move, Governor Perry – one that quite possibly avoided a huge class action discrimination suit from Texas parents of children with disabilities.

Raise Your Hand Texas/Vaught/Texas Parent PAC/Bill Ratliff/Mike Moses may have dropped some tears in their beers last night, but despite not getting this massive babysitting program, they still got their money.

“Allen Vaught. Do nothing rep-except for one non-creative, “duh” bill concerning child seats. But maybe doing nothing is better than screwing up?”

- Burka Blog 10 worst/best legislators

How do bad things keep happening in all of the school districts in HD-107, Representative Vaught? Your bad dog bill, your coal plant bill which you are hoping will quiet those pesky autism parents, the discriminatory pre-school voucher (which pissed off autism parents across the state), protecting criminal backgrounds of anyone who works for public schools… your latest moves don’t cut the mustard. We haven’t seen enough “proactive solutions for neighborhood schools” to hold Texas public schools accountable to children and taxpayers. In fact, some of your legislatin’ may have made things worse. Lots worse.

“Besides, assuming both candidates are creationists, a dentist is preferable to a lobbyist. We know nothing about Thomas Ratliff’s career, and it’s possible that he’s the most honorable lobbyist alive, so what follows isn’t about him personally. Speaking generally, however, our opinion is that lobbyists are either procuring favors from the legislature — which is despicable — or else they’re begging (or bribing) for a client’s freedom from burdensome legislation. Begging and bribing are unseemly manifestations of a degenerate regime. If such activities are necessary, we think that rather than resorting to lobbyists, either the legislature should be replaced or the oppressed people should re-locate.”

- The Sensuous Curmudgeon

Didn’t want anyone to miss this one. Thomas Ratliff is scurrying for a spot on the State Board of Education. Vaught hypocrisy is referenced by a Collin County parent in comments (see red highlights below), and some good questions are being asked of T-Rat. Please read through all of the comments: http://www.texasmonthly.com/blogs/burkablog/

“Frankly, this is not cojones. This is cowardice.”

- Madeline Albright

Spanish is a tricky language to learn. Mix up one letter or squiggly line and you’ve ordered penis instead of chicken, you’ve exclaimed “Happy Butthole!” instead of “Happy New Year!” or you’ve mixed up testicles and courage for drawers and compartmentalization… segregation.

Did you all stay up late enough to witness the HB 130 love fest around midnight on May 27?

Austin was falling all over itself for the “educationally disadvantaged”. What sort of horrible person would deny those kids a quality pre-K education in a nice private school setting?

The answer to that is no one.

Have you ever talked to your senator? It’s a good day to let your senator as well as all of the members of the senate education committee know what you think about HB 130, the private pre-K voucher co-authored by Allen Vaught.

“The whole modern world has divided itself into Conservatives and Progressives. The business of Progressives is to go on making mistakes. The business of Conservatives is to prevent mistakes from being corrected. Even when the revolutionist might himself repent of his revolution, the traditionalist is already defending it as part of his tradition. Thus we have two great types — the advanced person who rushes us into ruin, and the retrospective person who admires the ruins. He admires them especially by moonlight, not to say moonshine. Each new blunder of the progressive or prig becomes instantly a legend of immemorial antiquity for the snob. This is called the balance, or mutual check, in our Constitution.”

- Gilbert Keith Chesterton

Artistic expression can take on many forms. Sometimes the message is so subtle that even the artist doesn’t realize there’s something good in there. Something to ponder, maybe to grasp onto and make a part of yourself. Something to make things better.

Escaping the Box!

Woodrow Wilson High School students, many of whom reside in District 107, have put together one of those rare beautiful things by filling the school parking lot with empty cardboard boxes.

“And just because we can it don’t mean that we should.”

- That 1 Guy

Item 1: The Big

Matt Pulle has a nice article on Texas Watchdog about Senator Royce West, his connections and how West’s legislation gets him some dime. http://www.texaswatchdog.org/2009/05/state-sen-royce-wests-firm-earned-1m-from-public-agencies-many-aided-by-his-legislatio/