Is this guy really a good leader? I have a good friend in Houston, and her stories about the public school system are curling my toes with all the PC crap. We don’t even have it that bad in New England. I realize the Governor doesn’t sit there and mandate exactly what goes on in schools, but a true leader would sway education away from that garbage. And don’t forget Gardisil (sp?) as long as we’re talking about kids.
The kids of responsible parents are forever being punished, while the others are doted on. Is this really the state we want to look up to??? Does the Governor have any influence on this? Or is he just a token in a state run by others? Is he a leader, or has he just been lucky with a productive state?
You don’t know what you’re talking about but you rattled on at length to drive home that point.
Perry is about as conservative as Guiliani, who he heartily endorsed, by the way.
Texas is a big state.
Houston ISD (Independent School District) is ONE of 1,271 school districts in Texas.
The school districts are Independent.
The school district my kids went to have some of the best schools in the Nation.
He has limited power. We have the State Education Agency but most school districts are powered by the local school boards.
-------- A little more insight regarding Gardisil (which never happened):
This is a quote from a speech by Jessica Farrar, State Rep May 9th, 2007, to the Texas Legislature regarding the HB 1098 to rescind the Exec Order:
"From the beginning, the debate on HPV and the vaccine to prevent its infection in this House has been about everything but saving women's lives. It has been about misinformation on the merits of the vaccine, misinformation on the effect it would have on teen sexuality, and it has most certainly been on everything but the scientific and medical facts that tell us the vaccine prevents both suffering and death.
It has been about the Governor overreaching his authority. This is especially disturbing given the events of the past few days. HB 13, which gives the Governor massive amounts of power, was just passed with almost no hesitation or debate from the vast majority of this House.
Yet those same members that voted for HB 13 condemned what they saw as an overreach of power by the Governor when he actually tried to prevent cancer in women. If that's not hypocrisy on the part of the members of this House, I don't know what is.
The debate has also been about the false belief that vaccine requirements intrude on parental rights. Requiring the HPV vaccine for school admission would not force anyone to get the vaccine.
What it would do is require parents to make an informed decision whether or not to vaccinate their daughters against HPV. It would also provide access to the vaccine to the huge portions of our population that would otherwise never know about it or be offered it....
This is especially relevant today given that we just passed a cancer research bill. Obviously, we realize that this is an important topic. I just wonder if this legislature will react the same way the next time we have a vaccine that prevents cancer available to us and the people of Texas."