12,372 (and counting) fewer TX public school jobs. Thanks, GOP!

The Republicans in the Texas Senate passed their budget today, bypassing the body's customary 2/3rds rule in order to jam it through over Democratic objections to its massive cuts. The 19-12 vote was straight down the party line, meaning that the impact and the consequences belong solely to the Texas GOP. In response, the Texas Progressive Alliance -- of which this blog is a charter member -- has calculated some of the damage to public education. From our press release this morning:

More than 12,000 Texas public school teachers, librarians, administrators, and support staff have left their school job in the roughly three months since the Texas Legislature released proposed budget figures for the 2012-2013 biennium, according to data released Tuesday by the Texas Progressive Alliance.

"There is no bunk in these numbers," said Vince Leibowitz, chair of the Alliance, a group of progressive online activists including more than 50 netroots activists, bloggers, and online writers from across Texas. "These numbers are the cold hard truth (about the Republican budget passed today) and show precisely how significant an impact (it) is already having on school districts across the state," Leibowitz said.

More alarming, he noted, is that the more than 12,000 layoffs, firings, and voluntary or forced retirements represent only a fraction of the devastating toll the proposed budget is taking on public education. "These reductions come from a grand total of 60 of the state's 1,234 school districts, less than five percent of all school districts statewide," he noted. "Imagine how high this number will be when data is collected for all of these school districts," he continued.

The Alliance collected the data from publicly available sources including newspapers, television stations, and other media outlets that cover Texas school boards. The data was compiled by members of the Alliance and includes districts from all parts of the state.

The data was released on the heels of an announcement by the Texas Legislative Budget Board that the proposed budget being considered by the Legislature will be the first since at least 1984 that does not adequately fund public school formula funding and makes no allowance for enrollment growth.

"Yesterday, Senator Ogden was quoted as saying that Texas school districts could 'live with' five percent cuts," said Charles Kuffner, Vice Chair of the Alliance. "Evidently Senator Ogden and Republicans in the Legislature, Governor Perry, and our state leadership think losing 12,000 public school employees, increasing class sizes, and reducing the quality of instruction are worth living with. We do not," Kuffner stated.

The Alliance will continue to track school district layoffs through the start of the 2011-2012 school year and today will ask readers of their blogs to help them track this critically important number in ISDs across the state.

In the table below is the summary of the sixty school districts tabulated. As best as possible, the Texas Progressive Alliance attempted to avoid counting projected job loss figures. The numbers below should reflect jobs that have already been cut and positions that have promised not to be fulfilled. In some cases, news reports reported several totals of jobs reduced or positions not filled; in those cases, the Texas Progressive Alliance used the lowest and most certain of the figures.

School District	Job Reductions	Source
Abilene	14	Abilene Reporter-News, 4/4/11
Arlington	538	Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 4/7/11
Atlanta	14	KTAL 6
Austin	1,153	Austin American-Statesman, 4/6/11
Bay City	43	The Tribune, 4/25/11
Brownsville	275	The Monitor, 4/7/11
Canutillo	13	KVIA, 4/12/11
Cedar Hill	97	Dallas Morning News, 4/5/11
Clear Creek	17	The Bay Area Citizen, 3/11/11
Comal	92	New Braunfels Herald Zeitung, 4/5/11
Dallas	1,450	Dallas Morning News, 4/9/11 & Dallas Morning News, 4/9/11
Denton	274	Denton Chronicle, 3/23/11 & Denton Chronicle, 4/27/11
Eanes	98	Community Impact, 4/8/11
East Central	7	San Antonio Express-News, 3/25/11
Eastland	2	KTXS, 4/5/11
Ector	104	Odessa American, 4/11/11
El Paso	116	KVIA, 3/30/11
Floydada	5	KCBD, 4/6/11
Fort Bend	483	Click2Houston, 4/5/11
Fort Worth	553	KDFW, 4/12/11
Georgetown	142	KEYE, 3/3/11
Gorman	9	KTXS, 4/5/11
Hays	156	Hays Free Press, 3/23/11
Hitchcock	15	Galveston Daily News, 3/30/11
Houston	1,007	Houston Chronicle, 4/12/11
Hutto	74	Hutto ISD, 5/4/11
Irving	278	Dallas Morning News, 4/5/11
Katy	550	KTRK, 4/5/11
Keller	440	Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 5/3/11
Killeen	200	KXXV, 4/8/11
LaJoya	22	The Monitor, 4/8/11
Lake Travis	28	Community Impact, 4/8/11
LaMarque	50	Galveston Daily News, 4/7/11
Lamesa	11	KCBD, 4/6/11
Leander	213	Austiin American-Statesman, 3/22/11
Lewisville	422	Dallas Business Journal, 4/25/11 & Who is Playin, 4/14/11
Lubbock	70	Lubbock Avalanche Journal, 3/27/11
Magnolia	179	KHOU, 3/23/11
Marshall	18	KTBS, 4/19/11
New Braunfels	127	KSAT, 4/7/11
North East	69	WOAI, 4/12/11
Northside	973	San Antonio Express-News, 4/27/11
Pasadena	340	Houston Chronicle, 4/6/11
Pharr-San Juan-Alamo	5	The Monitor, 4/8/11
Plainview	10	KCBD, 4/6/11
Plano	344	Dallas Morning News, 3/29/11
Post	8	KCBD, 4/6/11
Round Rock	280	Fox 7 Austin, 3/25/11
San Angelo	35	San Angelo Standard-Times, 3/26/11
Santa Maria	26	KRGV, 4/13/11
Shallowater	8	KCBD, 4/6/11
Slaton	5	KCBD, 4/6/11
Socorro	100	El Paso Times, 4/10/11
Somerset	73	San Antonio Express-News, 4/12/11
Spring Branch	350	Springbranch ISD, 4/6/11
Tornillo	13	El Paso Times, 4/10/11
Waco	200	KXXV, 4/8/11
West Oso	20	KIII, 3/10/11
Wichita Falls	134	Wichita Falls Record-News, 4/2/11
Wyline (Abilene)	1	KTXS, 4/5/11
TOTAL	12,353

UPDATE #1: Diboll ISD, 5 more. New total - 12,358. Source - KTRE, 4/27/11

UPDATE #2: Refugio ISD, 14 more. New total - 12,372. Source - Refugio Country Press, 4/25/11

Former Pres. Bush video reaction to death of OBL

President Bush Reacts to Osama Bin Laden's Death (with Will Ferrell)

Toons: OBL and the deathers, OBL in Hell, OBL at the bottom of the sea

Let's give credit where it's due: President Kerry would've wrapped this up in 2007.

Those clamoring to give recognition to the previous administration for the killing of Osama bin Laden are like the flies on the ass of the ox who claim credit for plowing the field. Shoo, fly. Look! Fresh droppings!

Tommy Lee Jones, MIB III, and (still hopefully) the US Senate

Via Eye on Williamson, this public service announcement is from Raise Your Hand Texas:



TLJ is currently preparing for the opening of Men in Black III in four weeks. He'll almost certainly make the rounds of the teevee talk shows to promote the movie -- Jay, Dave, Jimmys Kimmel and Fallon, Conan, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert perhaps. It would be a marvelous time for him to spring an announcement that he's at least "considering" a run for the United States Senate from the Great State.

Truly, he's the Texas Democratic Party's only hope. If you're inclined to encourage him to do so, then go to this website and to this Facebook page.

Update: Sorry; MIB3 doesn't open until Memorial Day weekend 2012.

The post-bin Laden Wrangle

So Obama had a pretty good week ...

1. Here's my long-form COLB, now STFU.
2. Here's some in your face, Trump (and booyah, Seth).
3. Let's go with Panetta at Defense and Petraeus at CIA. Huge news all by itself if it happened any other week.
4. Oh, and BTW, that OBL dude? Not taking in oxygen any more, as of a few hours ago. Nope, you don't get to see his body, either. Just the fish at the bottom of the sea do.

Visiting tornado-ravaged Alabama, in the crowd to watch a space shuttle launch that had to be postponed, and the attack on Gadhafi's compound that missed him but got several of his offspring don't even make this list.

Two cautionary notes for the president, however:

1. It's STILL the economystupid (yes, one word), and he better get cracking on creating some jobs, or else it will be Herbert Walker he gets compared to instead of Jimmy Carter; and...

2. All this wild celebrating of someone's demise -- the cheering, chanting USAUSA, climbing lightpoles to wave American flags, etc. -- strikes me as unseemly, no matter how evil the dude was. It always seems to be the most radical, Muslim and Christian, who tend to overgloat about retribution. Which sets up the next round.

Here's the blog round-up from the Texas Progressive Alliance.

Marxists, CFL light bulbs, and Paul Tsongas? These topics and more were discussed during Congressman Michael Burgess' recent town hall meeting in Frisco, covered by the Texas Cloverleaf.

We have a new map for the State House. Off the Kuff has a first look at it.

At TexasKaos, liberaltexan explains the Republican Path to Plutocracy. Are you listening, Paul Ryan?

Former Texas Lt. Governor Bill Hobby served in the office longer than anybody else. So when he sounded the alarm on the Great State's lack of leadership, in a poem he wrote entitled "The Perverted Village," Letters From Texas figured people better listen up.

Texas state comptroller Susan Combs is under intense fire for allowing the personal data of 3.5 million Texans to be left unsecured online for more than a year. Calls for her resignation and various lawsuits aren't being quelled by her belated apologies and offers to pay for credit monitoring services for those affected. PDiddie at Brains and Eggs sees a political career crashing in flames, and a scrum among the GOP sharks in the tank to eventually replace her.

WCNews at Eye On Williamson posts that it's finally here ... Texas Democrats have the opportunity they've been waiting for.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme notes that republicans are going gangbusters killing public education and other institutions.

This week, McBlogger asks David Stockman to STOP THE DEFICIT MADNESS!

Neil at Texas Liberal noted that former Texas Lt. Governor Bill Hobby -- very much an establishment figure -- is wondering if the Republican intent in the ongoing legislative session is to ruin Texas.

When the end came

... for Bin Laden, he was found not in the remote tribal areas along the Pakistani-Afghan border where he has long been presumed to be sheltered, but in a massive compound about an hour’s drive north from the Pakistani capital of Islamabad. He was hiding in the medium-sized city of Abbottabad, home to a large Pakistani military base and a military academy of the Pakistani Army.

The house at the end of a narrow dirt road was roughly eight times larger than other homes in the area, but had no telephone or Internet connections. When American operatives converged on the house on Sunday, Bin Laden “resisted the assault force” and was killed in the middle of an intense gun battle, a senior administration official said, but details were still sketchy early Monday morning.

The official said that military and intelligence officials first learned last summer that a “high-value target” was being protected in the compound and began working on a plan for going in to get him. Beginning in March, Mr. Obama presided over five national security meetings at the White House to go over plans for the operation and on Friday morning, just before leaving Washington to tour tornado damage in Alabama, gave the final order for special forces and C.I.A. operatives to strike.

Mr. Obama called it a “targeted operation,” although officials said one helicopter was lost because of a mechanical failure and had to be destroyed to keep it from falling into hostile hands.

In addition to Bin Laden, three men were killed during the 40-minute raid, one believed to be his son and the other two his couriers, according to an American official who briefed reporters under White House ground rules forbidding further identification. A woman was killed when she was used as a shield by a male combatant, the official said, and two others wounded.

“No Americans were harmed,” Mr. Obama said. “They took care to avoid civilian casualties. After a firefight, they killed Osama bin Laden and took custody of his body.” Muslim tradition requires burial within 24 hours, but by doing it at sea, American authorities presumably were trying to avoid creating a shrine for his followers.

The fate of Ayman al-Zawahiri, the Al Qaeda second-in-command, was unclear Sunday night.

The terse announcement came just after 9:45 p.m. Sunday from Dan Pfeiffer, the White House communications director. “POTUS to address the nation tonight at 10:30 PM Eastern Time,” he wrote on Twitter, sharing the same message that had just been transmitted to the White House press corps.

According to Brian Williams, the “NBC Nightly News” anchor, some journalists received a three-word e-mail that simply read, “Get to work.”

The nation’s television anchors and newspaper editors did not know, at first, that President Obama would be announcing the death of Osama bin Laden, an extraordinary development in the nearly 10-year-long war against terrorism waged by the United States and its allies. But reporters in Washington suspected almost immediately that the announcement could be about bin Laden.

That speculation was not aired out on television immediately, but it did erupt on Twitter and other social networking sites. Wishful thinking about bin Laden’s death ricocheted across the Web — and then, at 10:25 p.m., while Mr. Obama was writing his speech, one particular tweet seemed to confirm it. Keith Urbahn, the chief of staff for the former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld, wrote at that time, “So I’m told by a reputable person they have killed Osama Bin Laden. Hot damn.”

May Day March today

HOUSTON, April 21 (2008) —“I’m going to bring my wife and kids to march May Day this year, that’s going to be my protest of these raids,” a Latino worker who lives across the street from a Shipley Do-Nuts warehouse and company housing compound told the Militant. Twenty Shipley’s workers were arrested in an April 16 raid by federal immigration police.

“I looked down the street and I see all these cop cars in front of the trailers,” the worker, who asked that his name not be printed, said. “I know these people, they’ve never caused any problems, they just worked hard like everybody in this neighborhood—and working for Shipley they don’t make much either. This is completely unjust.”

“That’s just people trying to work, they come into the country to try and feed their family,” Derek Shumake, who also lives across the street, told the Houston Chronicle. “They work hard, and they do jobs most people won’t.”

May Day Funnies

And just in case you missed it ...

Susan Combs is sorry.

Very, VERY sorry.

Taking "full responsibility" for the inadvertent online exposure of the personal information of 3.5 million Texans, Comptroller Susan Combs on Thursday said her agency would pay for free credit monitoring and Internet surveillance to those affected, and her campaign fund would provide identity restoration services for anyone whose personal information is misused.

"I am deeply sorry this incident occurred and I take full responsibility for it," Combs said. "This incident has affected the lives of Texans that I have dedicated my life to serving and I am determined to restore their faith in the Comptroller's Office."

While her office's initial explanation for the incident blamed three other state agencies for failing to send encrypted filed, on Thursday, Combs called the finger-pointing "irrelevant."

"We had the last clear chance to make it right and we didn't," she said.

The comments at the link are running pretty much against her apology.

She also defended her office's hiring of two campaign contributors as consultants to review her office's Internet security, saying state procurement policies limited her choice of technology firms who could immediately begin work on the project.

Because "speed was important," she said she hired Deloitte Consulting and Gartner, Inc., rather than going through the competitive bidding process, because those firms already had contracts with the state.

She declined to comment on a court filing this week in Austin by attorneys who are seeking to take her deposition to get to the bottom of what they called the "most massive and far-reaching invasion of privacy in the history of Texas."

Those lawyers called on Combs to resign, saying she should take responsibility for her office's role in the incident.

Apparently she's going to try to ride the storm out. Good luck with that, Susan. In the meantime the millions of Texans affected by your criminal negligence can take advantage of that discount credit monitoring service, graciously paid for by your political campaign.

Combs had her sights set on moving up from comptroller to something bigger and better someday, just like Todd Staples and Greg Abbott and David Dewhurst and all the other ladies-in-waiting behind Governor Suckseed. There will now be a little less competition in the shark tank.

And I'm certain the pup sharks in the RPT are already sharpening their teeth in anticipation.

Texas House passes redistricting bill

It will soon go to the Senate.

The GOP-led Texas House approved a redistricting plan early Thursday that would all but guarantee a continued Republican majority — albeit a smaller one than the party has now.

The map was approved on a 92-52 vote after a marathon debate that dragged into the wee morning hours Thursday. It would pit several Republicans against each other, the natural result of an unsustainably large super-majority.

Some Republican members and activists wanted to make the map a much bolder grab for conservative seats and limit the number of losses. But House leaders easily beat back those attempts. Either way, there is only so much they can do given the constraints of federal anti-discrimination laws and shifts in population away from conservative rural areas and toward the suburbs that have seen explosive and diverse population growth.

The emotional and heated debate ended up dragging on for some 16 hours, the longest single session in the House so far this year and testament to the importance lawmakers place on their own futures. The map faces a final procedural hurdle before it can move to the Senate.

Once again, if you follow "Inside Baseball" on this sort of thing, then Greg (who live-blogged it yesterday) and Charles have been keeping you up to the minute. If you have only been keeping track via my executive summary, then you will note the following revision affecting one pair ...

Republican Reps. Jim Landtroop and Charles Perry, both from West Texas, would get separate districts under the proposal that would take a single seat out of the region for redistribution elsewhere. Perry and Landtroop called the new proposal a victory for the rural region.

There was some speculation that Charles Perry might try for the Senate against Robert Duncan, but this development likely negates that. Houston's Scott Hochberg, on the other hand, is getting as royally screwed as Kate Middleton.

Two Democrats would also be paired in the Houston area. One of them is Rep. Scott Hochberg, who said map drawers creatively split the 5401 Chimney Rock apartment complex, hoping for his demise. If the map became law, inhabitants of the complex could be in different state House districts depending on which unit they live in, Hochberg said.

I would prefer that Hochberg and Hubert Vo not run against each other; indeed, that one of them moves into Jim Murphy's district and knocks him out. We'll see. There's also the possibility that former state rep. Kristi Thibaut mounts another challenge to Murphy as well.

Paul Burka speculates that this map endangers Speaker Straus -- now, and in the future.

Once again, Straus’s speakership is at risk. This is what happens when you come to the critical moment of the session with no team in place, no plan, and brush fires of discontent among the members. I have to say, though I like Straus personally, he is sowing what he reaped. He has spent the entire session kowtowing to the far right, so that the inmates are running the asylum, and it has gotten him nowhere. He was never going to win them over, and now he has the worst appropriations bill in modern history to show for his efforts, and a potential redistricting revolt on his hands. His speakership is at risk–if not now, then in the Legislative Redistricting Board. Rick Perry will likely send redistricting to the board, probably with whispered instructions to draw a map that pairs Straus loyalists and insulates the conservatives from potential challengers. This could get really bloody.

And Scott at Grits notes that if incarcerated people were assigned accurately in the redraw, then Houston would not have lost a seat. Prisoners don't get representation? That's the Republican way.

Update: Via Eye on Williamson, both the Observer and the Tribune have more on last night's marathon debate.

What's next?

Now that the birthers have been slapped down ...

Update: Never mind. I overestimated the intellect we are dealing with.

Combs under pressure to resign over exposed data

Suggesting that Comptroller Susan Combs should resign for her role in exposing the personal information of 3.5 million Texans, two Austin lawyers have petitioned a state district court for permission to question Combs as part of their investigation into the incident.

Calling the data exposure “an egregious example of incompetence and hypocrisy,” attorney Chuck Herring, representing teacher Sarah Canright, and Jim Harrington of the Texas Civil Rights Project, filed court documents seeking Combs’ deposition.

“Petitioners desire to investigate potential claims concerning the most massive and far-reaching invasion of privacy in the history of Texas,” the court filing stated. “The incomplete, misleading statements issued by Comptroller Combs and the Comptroller’s Office to date raise more questions than they answer. Texans deserve to know the truth concerning how this illegal and unconstitutional invasion occurred.”

Herring noted that Combs has fired four employees but has not personally accepted responsibility for the exposure of the information, which was transferred to the Comptroller’s office by the Teacher Retirement System, the Employee Retirement System and the Texas Workforce Commission.

“If this was the private sector, would she still be CEO?” asked Harrington.

Combs' political career is over, whether or not she is eventually forced to step down. The problem, of course, is that she was just re-elected last November, so there's plenty of time for the people who voted for her to forget all about this. But if she decides to hang on, she'll get a TeaBag primary challenge ... and maybe this time the Democrats will run someone against her (or the TeaBagger) in 2014.

Personally, I wish she would go back to writing those steamy paperback novels.

Update:

Looking for ways to cope with inadvertently exposing the personal data of 3.5 million Texans, the state’s comptroller has retained the services of two firms whose leaders or political committees contributed over $50,000 to her campaign.

Using your political contributors to help hide your crimes. It's just the Texas Republican way.