Advocate Magazine (TSTA)

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Donald Trump won’t move back into the White House for several more weeks yet, but Gov. Greg Abbott and Trump’s other leading supporters in state government already are chomping at the bit to assist the president-elect – and share some of the dubious limelight – in carrying out Trump’s long-promised plans for “mass deportations” of immigrants.

Were Donald Trump to win the presidency in November, it may be an exaggeration to say he would take us all the way back to the Dark Ages, but it is no exaggeration to say he would take our country to a darker time. A time of detention camps along the border, segregated schools, classrooms where hostile acts toward kids who are “different” are tolerated and bleaker economic prospects for millions of middle-class workers, including many of Trump’s own MAGA supporters.

Like hundreds of school districts around the state, Manor ISD in Austin is struggling with its budget after Gov. Greg Abbott shut the door on additional state education funding last year in his misguided campaign for private school vouchers.

Gov. Greg Abbott continues to claim that voucher opponents, not him, were responsible for killing additional funding for public schools last year. But educators in those schools, which are now suffering serious budgetary shortfalls, know better. The governor can lie and try to mislead all he wants, but the truth remains that he – Greg Abbott – killed the school funding bill.

We already knew that Gov. Greg Abbott has a problem understanding that his constitutional duty to provide for public education doesn’t include promoting a multi-billion-dollar tax giveaway for private schools. We also knew that Abbott has a problem with the truth.

State Education Commissioner Mike Morath was flippant to the point of being disrespectful when, in an appearance before the State Board of Education, he blamed school districts for the rising number of uncertified teachers entering the profession. Morath claimed that districts had given up on hiring certified teachers and had moved to “hiring people off the street…It’s as if district leaders say, ‘You have a heartbeat.

Underfunding public education is not the only way the people we call “state leaders” in Texas persistently harm thousands of children and jeopardize their futures. Another way is denying low-income children the health care they need not only for healthy lives but also for success in school. For years, Texas has had the disgraceful distinction of being the national leader among the states in the percentage of residents without health insurance. Many of those people are children, many of school age.

After one regular session, four special sessions and a record $33 billion budget surplus with which to spend on under-funded state needs such as public education and health care, this year has produced one of the biggest legislative failures in recent memory. And without question, practically all the blame belongs to Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov.

After lying for a year or more about the public benefits of spending tax dollars on vouchers for private schools, Gov. Abbott continued the practice after the Texas House delivered a firm 84-63 vote against his top legislative priority. In a statement published in the Austin American-Statesman, Abbott said the “vast majority” of Texans support vouchers. Wrong.