Raise Your Hand if You Ride the Texas Public Education Gravy Train!

“Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive.”

- Sir Walter Scott

Let’s talk about Raise Your Hand Texas. Raise Your Hand Texas is a group that was formed just last year, and it sure seems like a nice bunch. Look at that cute kid on the website, and there’s a school bus, and a #2 pencil. People involved with this group must really care about the kids.

Last year the Raise Your Hand Texas website had a clear anti-voucher statement which I can no longer find. And one of the group’s missions was to “defend public schools” – but that has been removed from the website, as well. It appears that the entire site has been sanitized. If I hadn’t read the Raise Your Hand Texas website before these changes were made, I might think this was just an innocuous group created by nice people.

Based on RYHT’s presently disclosed current priorities, I might even consider joining.

• Public school accountability- good.
• Quality Pre-k for all 4 and 5 year olds – great for Least Restrictive Environment (but let’s get appropriate special ed PPCD services up and running first, shall we?)

Have you ever seen a fully loaded Ford? The bells and whistles are there to keep you from looking too closely at what moves the machine.

I’d like you to look past the screaming “WE LOVE KIDS” graphics and meet some of the players driving Raise Your Hand Texas.

The changes to the RYHT website have muddled the group’s identity, and I hope that the following information will help to clarify RYHT’s motives as well as help you see the connections between politicians, lobbyists, unions, private law firms, public schools and advocacy groups.

You see, Raise Your Hand Texas is where they all come together. They all come together in a group that used to be about “defending public schools” and anti school choice politics. Or is it still?

I was going to create a graphic to show the connections in RYHT, but there are so many players in this group that it won’t work in the space this blog allows. Instead, I will list some names that caught my attention.

Let’s start with former lieutenant governor and former senator, Bill Ratliff. The Texas Ethics Commission lists Bill Ratliff as a Texas Association of School Boards lobbyist. Bill Ratliff’s son, Thomas Ratliff, is also a lobbyist, and Bill Ratliff acts as advisor to Thomas Ratliff’s firm and its clients.

Raise Your Hand Texas is pleased to announce that on December 10, 2008 from 12:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. (CT), Former Lt. Governor and Chair of RYHT, The Honorable Bill Ratliff, will join Pre-K Now and the Texas Early Childhood Education Collation (TECEC) on the National 2008 Pre-K Now Satellite Conference. This is a live, interactive event that will be broadcasted through television and the Internet.

The conference theme is “Breaking Down Barriers to Quality Pre-K” and the host is Ray Suarez of the PBS NewsHour.

Former Lt. Gov. Bill Ratliff will be an honored guest and will speak on the Texas-specific portion of the conference (presented by TECEC) which begins at 1:45 p.m. (CT). He will be joined by Texas Senators Judith Zaffirini and Leticia Van de Putte, co-authors of the pre-filed Senate Bill 21 which proposes quality full-day pre-k to all currently eligible four-year-olds, a major priority for RYHT. Please also see pre-k House Bill 130, pre-filed by Representative Diane Patrick.

If you are interested in supporting high-quality pre-k, we encourage you to get informed and get involved by attending a conference viewing site in your community.

Merging lobbyists with representatives… and the line blurs.

More on Ratliff later. Let’s go back to the Raise Your Hand Texas website briefly. Check out the speakers on the right side of the main page: http://www.raiseyourhandtexas.org

There’s Mike Moses, former TEA Commissioner of Education and Dallas ISD Superintendent from 2000-2004. Remember the wheelin’ dealin’ Ruben Bohuchot? Dallas ISD Executives under Mike Moses indicted by Feds.

There’s David Anderson. David Anderson is the name of the TEA General Counsel. I wonder if it’s the same David Anderson!

Clay Boatright’s in there. He’s on the board of the ARC of Texas, and he’s the president of the ARC of Dallas.

Catching on?

Representative Allen Vaught tooted several times about Raise Your Hand Texas during the Woodrow Wilson Education Debate in October, always followed by a weepy, sad, “if only there were enough money.”

“So what?”

Remember, Allen Vaught’s campaign is primarily funded by the Texas Parent PAC. The Texas Parent PAC is primarily funded by the CEO of H-E-B Grocery Stores, Charlie Butt.

Still with me?

Well Charlie Butt’s name is in the RYHT mix with all the others. That’s Raise Your Hand Texas and the Texas Parent PAC – sing it with me.. “together at last!”

The Texas Parent PAC is the group that’s been buying up house districts across Texas, including my own District 107. Those of you in the know probably raised your eyebrows when you read Representative Diane Patrick’s name in the RYHT information I quoted earlier. Representative Patrick is another Parent PAC/Butt/RYHT darlin’.

Clear as a cow pie?

Back to the Ratliffs. There are more Rats than just Bill and Thomas.

Apparently Shannon Ratliff worked 35 years for McGinnis, Lockridge & Kilgore and then switched to Akin Gump. McGinnis, Lockridge & Kilgore represents Eanes ISD in many areas including attempts to withhold public information from the public and writing amicus briefs about “Vexatious Requestors.”

There’s another Shannon Ratliff, too. Apparently, Shannon Ratliff II works with Dave Thompson, Bracewell Giuliani attorney who is leading the charge to sue Lake Travis ISD parents for using the Texas Public Information Act “too much.” Find Shannon II and Dave together on the “Texas Lobby Power Rankings.” Akin Gump made the list, too. And yes, McGinnis, Lockridge & Kilgore as well.

While you are being smart investigators and not falling for cheesy, misleading website graphics, I encourage you to scan the “About Us” section of the Raise Your Hand Texas website. Look for your own ISD. Then check out your ISD’s website and see if they plug RYHT, as well. Coppell ISD had RYHT prominently displayed on the main page of their website for a while.

Smell that cow pie?

This is a scary group because the main gravy train organizers are trying to bring business and parents on to support their “cause” … to strengthen the gravy train.

They are feeling the heat.

That is why Raise Your Hand Texas exists.