Harris County Department of Education chatter

Harris County Republicans excel in the fine art known as the “circular firing squad“. For some reason, the entity that seems to bring out their sharpest aim is the small, financially insignificant but efficient Harris County Department of Education (HCDE). The HCDE Board of Trustees has been controlled by Republicans for years and is generally held in high regard by the citizens that it serves. Now that a new crop of self-styled ‘conservative’ Republicans dominate the board, little thought is given to the citizens it serves and much thought is given to how creative the board members can be to serve their own self-interests.

In that vein, Board Trustee Mike Wolfe issues a call to action for tomorrow’s board meeting:

Please Share, Harris County Conservative Friends:

I need your help this coming Tuesday Morning!

At 8:45am on Tuesday February 28th, I need you to come sign up to speak at the HCDE Board Meeting at the Harris County Department of Education at 6300 Irvington, Houston TX 77022.

I have proposed 3 important agenda items that will impact your future and are on HCDE’s agenda.

1.) In order to save you tax dollars, I am proposing that HCDE tell the the Federal Government that we will no longer be operating any Head Start facilities in Harris County and that it’s time for the Feds to contract with one of their other local providers to do this.

2.) I am proposing that the HCDE Board ask the Texas Legislature to pass Sunset Review Legislation pertaining to HCDE so we can finally prove whether or not HCDE should continue to exist and if there are ways to improve HCDE.

3.) Finally, I am proposing that the HCDE Board host and invite U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVoss to Harris County for a Harris County Education Summit. If the Board approves this, I know that it will happen; it happened with Obama’s Secretary of Education just a few years ago.

Thank You, Friends!

Please arrive between 8:30-8:45am to sign in to speak at our 9:00am HCDE Board Meeting.

There is a lot more on the agenda and you can view it here. But since Wolfe wants opinions on those three items, I’ll give it a shot.

Tell the Feds to take a hike!

The idea that anyone is going to save tax dollars by shutting down the HCDE’s participation in Head Start is fantasy. It isn’t going to happen. In fact, there is a high probability that more taxpayer dollars would be spent. The Head Start program isn’t going anywhere. The HCDE administers it very efficiently with federal grants. Sending that grant money to a less efficient operator isn’t the brightest idea in the world. But hey, tell those Feds to shove it!

Sunset the HCDE!

For this one, it is important to keep in mind why Wolfe is proposing this. Remember, 5 of the 7 members of the board are Republicans. And 4 of the 5 Republicans ran specifically on a platform to eliminate the HCDE (Wolfe, Sumners, Dick, Moore). But after they got elected, it appears that some have had a change of heart. Information will do that to you if you have the best interests of your constituents at heart.

What should an elected official do when he can’t convince his fellow elected officials that his way is the right way? Run to Austin and get the state legislature to do it for him. We see more and more that Republicans give lip service to local control but when they can’t convince people that their ideas are right, they run to Austin for help, seeking a centralized government. All the while complaining about Washington, D.C. and forced programs. Since Wolfe can’t make the case to his fellow trustees to shut down the HCDE, he wants to spend thousands of dollars of state taxpayer dollars to do his job for him. I don’t think that is an appropriate use of taxpayer dollars.

Time after time, audit after audit, trustee after trustee, the results have shown that the HCDE is more efficient and more effective than any alternative proposal. Why not focus on continuing and improving the efficiency of the HCDE? Click here to learn more about the Sunset process.

Fly Betsy DeVos in and have a summit!

Obama did it! It must be awesome!

Wait a minute. Didn’t we just spend 8 years fighting everything Obama did? Now we must emulate what he did? Hmm. And don’t conservatives like Wolfe want to eliminate the U.S. Dept. of Education, not promote it? Something sounds fishy. Photo op perhaps?

The question I would ask is this: how would a summit by Sec. DeVos benefit Harris County taxpayers?

So there you have it. Maybe I’ll drive over there in the morning and speak to the board about these and other things, especially that item on the agenda by Wolfe wanting to limit meetings to four hours. Hey, you signed up for the job, git-r-done or get out of the way and let someone else do it. I’d bet if certain members of the board stopped some of their shenanigans and self-promotion, they could get the business of the people done a whole lot quicker. Yeah, maybe I’ll drive on over and talk about that. Just don’t expect me to listen to their droning on and on for 8 hours like the last board meeting.

The post Harris County Department of Education chatter appeared first on Big Jolly Politics.