Texas Civil Rights Review

Category: Uncategorized

  • A New Book on the “Texas Model,” Part II

    By Nick Braune

    (I continue reviewing a 2012 book by Gail Collins, As Texas Goes. Part I was posted on Texas Civil Rights Review on July 16, 2012)

    When Rick Perry was fairly new in the Texas governor’s mansion and George W. Bush was early in his first presidential term, No Child Left Behind (NCLB) passed in Congress. Perry immediately issued a press release bragging that the successful “Texas model” of testing and accountability had been used to create NCLB. But a decade later, when Perry was running his odd presidential campaign, he denounced NCLB as a “federal takeover of public schools” and pledged to shut it down. Perry even refused to participate with other governors in bi-partisan efforts to modify NCLB and said he would eliminate the Department of Education if elected.

    (Although every candidate was against NCLB, Perry’s campaign was looking pretty weird to Americans in 2011, and even Bush steered clear. And of course Perry was not just going to shut down the Department of Education but two other departments; although, when asked on national TV which departments were so hopeless that he would just shut them, he famously could not remember which ones. Perry’s vote-for-me book back in 2010 had clearly implied that he would also rid America of Social Security, but he stammered daily, denying it during his campaign.)

    Let me be clear, I surely do not fault Perry for finally opposing NCLB. NCLB is hopeless, deadening. My real interest is Perry’s bragging that the “Texas model” of accountability and teaching-for-tests had worked so well that America had adopted it. Collins cites a Rand Corporation study showing that the Texas — we test ‘em, we like accountability — model had failed even before NCLB arrived nationally. True, Texas education had improved between 1985 and 2000…but for other reasons.

    Education was a very low priority in Texas for most of the twentieth century. Back when WWII started, says Collins, the U.S. military would always disqualify some young draftees or recruits for being too badly educated to serve, but the Texas percentage of rejections was “twice the national average.” And some state legislators (continuing long after WWII) would say that high school graduation and “book learning” were unnecessary for success in Texas if you have spunk.

    In the early 1980s, Collins says, public education was still “close to the bottom of the barrel,” and beginning school teachers were paid $4,100 a year; however, “administrative costs were high, in part because Texas had 1,031 independent school districts, nearly 400 of which had fewer than 500 students. Funding was wildly inequitable. The wealthiest district in the state had more than $14 million in assessed property value to tax for each child in the local public schools, while the poorest district had $20,000.”

    Texas education did improve between 1985 and 2000, but this “miracle” surely wasn’t due to testing initiated during Bush’s gubernatorial term but due to some structural changes and state money coming in.

    What really improved Texas education? The improvements, according to Collins, were initiated by Democrat Mark White in the mid-1980s, followed by heavy lobbying in the early 1990s by “one of the better right-wing billionaires, Ross Perot,” who told legislators to grow up, spend some money and make changes other states had already made. By 1994 a better budget was passed, with commitments to smaller classes, better teacher training, and more state money going to poor districts. Simple, sensible improvements. If there was a minor “miracle” at all by the year 2001, it was not because of incessant testing and “accountability” for teachers and districts.

    [This review first appeared in “Reflection and Change,” Mid-Valley Town Crier, July 17, 2012]

  • Alexander Cockburn: Surefooted Mountain Goat of Radical Journalism

    It is the symbol of the mountain goat that carries my astonishment and grief at news of the death of Alexander Cockburn.

    “It stays at high elevations,” says Wikipedia of the mountain goat, “and is a sure-footed climber, often resting on rocky cliffs that predators cannot access.”

    Such was the writing of Alex, who always leapt and clattered upon the highest and stoniest peaks. Language for him was not to be wasted in comfy meadows. He reminded readers, syllable by syllable, that human beings are good enough to expect the best from themselves and their history.

    Thanks to the editorial support of Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair, the Texas Civil Rights Review was able to share more than a hundred stories with CounterPunch readers. I would now and then send notes to Alex expressing my gratitude for his editorial support. He would now and then reciprocate with messages of encouragement.

    “THANKS GREG KEEP ON SLUGGING,” he wrote once. So the best way I know to remember Alex is to keep on slugging away! –gm

  • Irma Muniz: Open Letter for Meeting with Obama

    July 21, 2012

    Dear Friends:

    My name is Irma Muñiz and I have struggled for many years to free my husband, Ramiro “Ramsey” Muñiz from imprisonment for a 1994 conviction and excessive sentence of life without parole for a non-violent drug offense. Ramsey and our family have endured pain, agony, and nearly 20 years of suffering. Ramsey is now turning 70 years of age and we refuse to let him die in prison.

    Wrong perceptions and judgment, mistakes, withholding evidence, and Ramsey’s political background contributed to his convictions. He was a community activist during the Civil Rights Movement. Ramsey raised political consciousness in Texas and the Southwest. He enabled many to gain a political voice and seek public office at local, state, and national levels. He incurred legal problems as a result of this activism.

    We have fought my husband’s case for many years, but all appeals have been exhausted as the laws favor the government. I now seek an audience with President Barack Obama so that I can present my husband’s situation to him. I seek letters of support.

    To send a letter of support by mail, please print and sign the sample letter and mail it to me so that I can compile it with others. See the sample letter on the next page.

    To send a letter to President Barack Obama by email, go to the “submit questions can comments” section of the White House website. Copy and paste the letter and sign it or write your own.

    Thank you in advance for helping me to free my husband from his wrongful incarceration since 1994. To learn about him, go to:
    www.freeramsey.com
    www.freeramsey.blogspot.com
    www.studentsfreeramsey.blogspot.com

    Very truly yours,
    Irma Muñiz, Chairperson
    National Committee to Free Ramsey Muñiz

    Sample letter

    July 21, 2012

    The Honorable Barack Obama
    President of the United States
    The White House
    1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
    Washington, DC 20500

    Re: Meeting Requested by Irma Muñiz, wife of Ramsey Muñiz
    July 21, 2012

    Dear President Obama:

    I write to express my support for Irma Muñiz, who seeks a meeting to discuss the case of her husband, Ramiro “Ramsey” Muñiz. This will allow her to present information about her husband’s situation and seek your assistance.

    This humanitarian issue pertains to the suffering that incarceration has on families. Irma Muñiz and her family have struggled for many years to free a husband, father, and son-in-law who is turning 70 years of age.

    You and First Lady Michelle Obama stress the essence of the family. As President of the United States, we ask that you grant Irma Muñiz a meeting and allow her to share one family’s perspective on suffering. Her experience can serve as an example to many who seek a means of overcoming hardship through faith and the love that God gives to all families.

    Very truly yours,

  • A New Book on the “Texas Model” — Part I

    By Nick Braune

    A teacher friend raved to me about a funny but also very informative new book about this troubled state: As Texas Goes, by Gail Collins. Although I told him I would look it up, I wasn’t going to, until it clicked who Gail Collins is. I had drawn a blank momentarily because I was picturing a Texas writer, then I recognized who she is, the very clever, skewering, biting, regular political columnist for the New York Times. (Love the Times or hate it, everyone knows that its editorial writers are world-class — not everyone who wants to write for the Times gets to.)

    I whisked over to Barnes and Noble to snag one: Gail Collins skewering Texas…it’s got to be good. And – let me be clear — my trip to the store was worth it. The book is fairly short, refreshing, and a real kick. It has everything, from current digs at Governor Perry’s incoherent, “oops” campaign for the Presidency to a demystified interpretation of the historic, sentimentalized, Alamo stand of Davey Crocket: Historic, maybe; heroic, maybe; stupid, stubborn and adolescent, surely. I am constantly aware that Texas is not normal, but I have lived here so long that I forget just how people outside the state look at it. And Gail Collins’ book is a brutal, friendly reminder.

    According to Collins, Texas always thinks it should be a model for other states. Governor Perry, for instance, campaigned for president in 2011, touting some economic miracle which Texas could provide for the nation. But of course few people rushed to Perry’s incoherent model once they found out that Texas has very high foreclosure rates, is 49th in average credit scores, is 38th in average hourly earnings in manufacturing, and surpasses every other state except four in child poverty rates.

    Twelve years before Perry was bragging about how America should model itself on Texas’ economy, George W. Bush was campaigning for president saying that Texas is a miracle model for education.

    That campaign was twelve years ago and, not incidentally, Texas is still low (42nd) in the number of high school graduates going to college. Eighth graders in Texas are three percent below the national average in reading, and yet the amount of state aid per pupil is 47th in the country. Collins shows that higher education (from community colleges, on up) is also cheated by Texas: Texas only has two public institutions listed in America’s “100 Best” colleges and universities (U.S. News and World Report’s famous ranking). Two out of a hundred, and UT is ranked 45th and A&M is ranked 63rd.

    Want to shudder, remembering Governor George Bush’s “Texas model” of education and how America fell for it? Get Collins’ book, which has a few chapters on education:

    “Then came the 2000 elections. During the campaign George W. Bush couldn’t stop talking about education. ‘It’s important to have standards,’ he’d say, holding up his hand to indicate the setting of a bar – a gesture that seemed to indicate the standards he had in mind were about five feet high…As a presidential candidate, George W Bush wasn’t just issuing general promises to improve the schools. He claimed to have the secret recipe.”

    But in actuality, according to Collins, Texas’ education testing model was phony and ill-conceived, to the extent that the Bush/Perry Republicans are now denying they ever pushed it.

  • The Ideals of Harry Belafonte — and Obama? — Part II

    By Nick Braune

    My column last week discussed the new autobiography of Harry Belafonte, who was raised in poverty and considerable misery during the Great Depression of the 1930s, and who joined the U.S. Navy at 17 years of age during WWII. He wanted to do something important with his life, as well as to escape poverty. In the autobiography — I read every word of it and studied the pictures — there is a photo of Belafonte in uniform, looking proud and really young.

    With his aspirations awakened, Belafonte became disturbed as he watched how blacks were used and abused in the segregated military. (He himself was falsely accused of some infraction by a racist officer and was thrown into a cell for two weeks.) But after serving his country well and reentering civilian life following the war, he was far more mature than when he left and he viewed the poverty of those around him and the continuing racial discrimination in the country more methodically. He knew he personally had to escape poverty, but he also knew he must spend his life fighting for social justice for others. And he did.

    As I mentioned in last week’s column, Belafonte became America’s most prominent black entertainer: a singer, an actor and an important civil rights activist and strategist, playing a formative role for racial justice, particularly in the tumultuous 1950s and 1960s. And he also played a later role in the fight against South Africa’s Apartheid. I was gripped by his book and his life — yes, he is still alive, almost 80, and still an activist.

    I savored his comments about his decision to use his music and acting training for the liberation of mankind. He could have been a successful crooner like Frank Sinatra, but he explains clearly that he rejected singing about how the moon is blue and I ‘m in love with you. He rejected becoming either a crowd-pleasing slick operator like Sinatra or a self-effacing Sammy Davis, Jr.

    I waited for Belafonte’s comments on Obama, our first Black president who might have represented the audacious hopes of the 1950s and 1960s. True, Obama in his first month of office would appoint a black Attorney General (Erik Holder) and soon would put the first Hispanic (Sonia Sotomayor) on the Supreme Court, but has Obama represented the audacious commitment to equality and justice that he seemed to promise? Not according to Harry Belafonte, one of the great living progressive figures from that decisive mid-twentieth century period:

    “For all his smoothness and intellect, Barack Obama seems to lack a fundamental empathy with the disposed, be they white or black. Frankly, I would have thought the first black president would work especially hard to alleviate the plight of inner-city black Americans. I appreciate the passage of the stimulus package. I understand that a national health insurance bill helps us all. But why, I have kept wondering, hasn’t he used his power to bring more humanity to a justice system that imprisons one out of every three black males in America, giving us the largest prison population in the world? I would like Obama to say forcibly that racial problems exist. Show some heart, put some skin in the game. By tacking to the political center, disassociating himself from the left, he has all but abandoned the poor. And who else, after all, speaks for the poor but the left?”