You’ll probably recall that last week the Texas State Teachers Association issued a press release touting a poll that claims that Texans overwhelmingly support using the Rainy Day Fund to “restore” cuts in public education spending. Predictably, it was picked up by the Texas press and presented verbatim – the dean of the Texas political media presented it without critique, saying “This was a very good poll for supporters of public education.”
But what struck me was that the press release didn’t link to the poll questions. In fact, you won’t find them listed anywhere on the TSTA.org website. Well, I take that back – you will find three charts that support the press release. Somehow, Charles Kuffner over at his OfftheKuff blog obtained a Powerpoint presentation about the poll that is very interesting. So interesting that Kuffner didn’t talk about it much.
First off, guess what? Texans are happy with Governor Rick Perry, the Republican controlled legislature, and the direction of the state. How about that? You think the dean will talk about that? How about Kuffner? I’m guessing not because that would destroy the perception that they spend most of their time pushing – in fact, look at what Kuffner wrote in the very piece that included the Republican positives:
It’s great to have public opinion on one’s side. But there’s a disconnect right now between public opinion and what’s happening in the Capitol. Part of that is a function of the way legislative lines are drawn, since the opinion of Republican primary voters is so often at odds with the opinion of everyone else, including Republican non-primary voters.
Except that there is no disconnect according to the very poll he cites, which was paid for and published by the very left leaning TSTA. From the poll:
- Political Mood: State Direction and Governor Perry Rating – Voters remain happy with the status quo; only Democrats are negative.
- Rating of Texas State Legislature – As with Perry, a majority are positive toward the Legislature with Republican voters leading the way.
No disconnect at all. In fact, after reading this line:
Awareness of 2011 Education Budget Cuts – A 58{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} majority claim recall of the $5 Billion school funding budget cuts of 2011. Independents (64{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986}) and Austin market (70{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986}) voters are most aware as are Republican Primary voters (66{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986}).
I’d have to say that the biggest disconnect in Texas politics is the one in which “progressive” bloggers like Kuffner claim that Texas Republican primary voters are “stupid”, “dumb”, “idiotic”, etc. After all the attacks on us, it is nice to see that we Republican primary voters are the most informed group in the state. We already knew that, of course, but it is nice of the TSTA to confirm it. Not that they wanted anyone to know about it but still, it is nice.
Now, about the whole “Texans overwhelmingly support using the RDF” nonsense. Take a look at the questions and you’ll see why they got the results they wanted.
QUESTION: Next, some background information about this. Two years ago, the Texas Legislature CUT over 5 Billion dollars in public school funding in order to balance the state budget while at the same time maintaining 6 Billion dollars in the state’s reserve Rainy Day Fund. Since then, the Texas economy and tax revenues have grown so that now the state’s surplus Rainy Day Fund is now nearly $12 Billion. Given this, would you FAVOR or OPPOSE having the Texas State Legislature restore the 5 Billion dollars they cut in public school funding by putting that money back into public schools?
Well, isn’t that special? The big bad Texas legislature took away money from schools even though they had plenty in the bank. Now the bank fund is twice the size! NOW can we have it back? OF COURSE we favor giving the money back to the children! We aren’t mean!
Or take a look at this one:
QUESTION: Which is closer to how you feel about the impact the 5 Billion dollars in spending cuts had on Texas public schools over the last 2 years?
• These cuts hurt the quality of classroom instruction
OR
• These cuts were absorbed by cutting waste and overhead without really harming the quality of education Texas students receive
That’s laughable.
What if the question had been worded this way?
QUESTION: Allen ISD built a huge football stadium, several superintendents received pay raises even as they laid off teachers, and most graduates have to take remedial courses in college. The state spends 60{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} of it’s budget on schools. Given those circumstances,
• Should we put more tax money into these failing schools
OR
• Hold the budget line and tell them to improve at educating children?
Wonder what the answer would be to that question?
I converted the Powerpoint to a PDF if you want to read the whole thing:
I also find it interesting that the same people that trash Comptroller Susan Combs for “missing” the revenue forecast for the last biennium are taking her word as gospel for the upcoming one. If we shouldn’t have cut funding based upon her inability to forecast revenue two years out, then we darn sure shouldn’t increase funding based on her forecast this time. The prudent thing for the legislature to do would be to keep funding about where it is now and if the revenue does increase, spend it at that time . That way, if revenue doesn’t increase as projected, we won’t have to hear the “progressives” whining about budget cuts.