In re School Marshals

A few weeks ago, the Texas House voted by rather large margins to allow rural school districts without their own police forces to designate employees as “School Marshals,” allowed to bring their concealed weapons into schools. On Wednesday, the Texas Tribune reported that that bill, HB1009 (proposed by Jason Villalba [R-Dallas]), had also passed the Senate without amendment and is on Rick Perry’s desk.

The bill, which passed 28-3 (journal not available now), would have those rural school districts without their own police forces (so it is 100% irrelevant to Houston) choose an employee to undergo 80 hours of training. In comparison, a CHL requires just 8 hours. This rigorous evaluation would include sanity and other mental health evaluations. Only at that time would the employee become a deputized School Marshal authorized to bring deadly weapons to a school.

Living up in Massachusetts has given me to opportunity to meet some remedial individuals on the left who actually believe the world would be a better place if nobody had a gun. I have a problem with that. What I do not have a problem with, certainly, is well-trained, sane individuals having guns to protect the general population. Education and regulations are certainly good ways to prevent mass tragedies, but sometimes, deadly force is the only way to stop an ongoing one.

Drug Testing turns into a pumpkin

Well, some of it anyways. The Texas Tribune reports that, very late Tuesday night, the Texas House voted to pass SB21, which mandates drug testing for unemployment insurance applicants, whilst letting the clock run out on SB11, which mandates drug testing for welfare.

The journal states that SB21 passed 104-42, with most all of the Democrats voting against the legislation. That is far better than the Senators could say, where these pieces of legislation were approved nearly unanimously.

SB11, meanwhile, had been vigorously pushed late in the evening, but when the clock struck 12, the legislation, along with many others, simply turned into a pumpkin, to borrow a metaphor from a Disney movie.  I am almost a little bit disappointed, because while the bill was being debated, Amendment 4 by J.M. Lozano (D-Kleberg) had been adopted. It would have, among other things, forced Rick Perry to pee into a cup.

Even less standardized testing

Huzzah! The Texas Tribune reports that HB866, a bill by Dan Huberty to allow many students to skip standardized testing in the fourth, sixth and seventh grades, has been approved by the States Senate 29-2 after passing the House unanimously late last month. The two nays came from Dan Patrick (R-Harris) and Brian Birdwell (R-Hood). Birdwell is so right-wing he is probably upset that all the tests hadn’t been abolished, and Patrick probably couldn’t stand the idea of anyone else spearheading something pertaining to education.

The Tribune article reports that this new program, which would only allow the test waivers if the students did “well” on their 3rd and 5th grade tests, respectively, would require an exemption from the Federal Government. Another bill, HB2836, which I talked aboutlast month after it passed the House, originally would have axed writing tests for 4th and 7th graders. The Senate butchered that bill last night, so that the “new” version would only create a commission to “look into the matter.”

As a general rule, standardized tests for Elementary education is quite the asinine proposition. Organizations like the Texas Association of Business are deadset against reducing these tests, arguing that it is a good way to measure how well a student is doing. I still think that Grades are all that are needed to “measure how well a student is doing” until at least the start of High School. Let us hope the Obama administration agrees and grants Texas waivers from the (ludicrously named) No Child Left Behind Act that would allow the reduction of these high stakes tests.

 

Soda ban: Texas edition

Michael Bloomberg has a new ally in Texas. Who, you ask? Senator Carlos Uresti. I am being somewhat facetious, of course, but the legislature has just given final approval to a bill that would ban sugary drinks, such as Coca-Cola and Dr Pepper, from public elementary and junior high schools.

HB217 completely flew under the radar. It passed the House on May 10th by an official vote of 95-44. However, a lot of members later complained that their votes were incorrectly attributed. Taking into account all of these errors, the real roll call was 92-49. All of the opposition came from Tea Party Republicans. Among the moderate Republicans voting in favor was Sarah Davis. I have heard for a while now that her close call election has moved her into the centre, and now I am really starting to see it.

At press time, the journal hadn’t gone up, but this article by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram states the roll call at 24-6. I can guess who the half-dozen Senators are, but I am positive as to their political party.

A few months ago, I penned an op-ed about how, by and large, Soda bans like the one in New York are silly, stupid and unneeded. However, I do see some good in this legislation. There is a big difference between a consenting adult and a little kid (14 and younger). This legislation would not apply to High School students.

The bill is not especially contentious, with most beverage associations as well as Coca-Cola itself supporting it. Time will tell if the Governor does too.

 

Guns-on-Campus dead, for now

John Whitmire today announced that Guns-on-Campus, HB972, is dead–for now. The Chron reports that the Senate Dean reported that the 2 Democrats needed to support the legislation in order to bring it to the floor were not there.

This is a sharp aboutface from what Whitmire was saying last week, when the measure passed his Committee. At that time, Whitmire warned that if the less-severe Senate version did not pass, the more Conservative House version would be brought up during special session. From what I understand, nothing has changed, so I do not quite understand why Whitmire is so recalcitrant again.

My money is still on this thing passing, I generally do not trust what Senator Whitmire says, mostly because it changes by the week.

E-Voting for Soldiers

The San Antonio Express-News reports that HB1129 has passed the Senate, after passing the House. The bill would create a “pilot program” in one county that would allow for members of the armed forces officially residing there but de facto living in combat zones to vote via secure email addresses. 

I had never heard of this bill, which aggravated me a little bit. The press let us down on not reporting this potentially significant legislation. The Express-News speculates that the one county will be Bell, Bexar or El Paso, those with military bases therein.

The journal states that the bill passed the House unanimously, and a Senate panel unanimously as well. They haven’t published the roll call for tonight’s vote, but I can assume it had no opposition as well. The Secretary of State, John Steen, will make the final choice on the county selection. The bill now heads to the Governor.

The election in AL2

Everyone seems to be talking about AL3, but that is definitely not the only competitive election this year. Andrew Burks, one of our more…entertaining….Councilmembers, has an opponent, who I was able to talk at length with recently.

His name is David W. Robinson, a local architect with a long history on many municipal boards and commissions. He has a shell of a website at “http://www.davidwrobinson.org/” (it seems to have stolen the font from Ellen Cohen’s runs) and a Facebook page here. Robinson ran for AL2 back in 2011, and received a puny 12% of the vote.

I guarantee he will receive more than that this year. His Facebook page lists a plethora of supporters, including Peter Brown, Anne Clutterbuck, Sue Lovell, Kristi Thibaut and Michael Skelly. Robinson has gotten quite the nod from Parker’s prime constituents, as well as the moderate wing of the GOP (it still exists in Houston). If Robinson could really get GOP support, this would be his election for the taking. But things rarely work out so easy.

As a general rule, I support the incumbent until a challenger can convince me otherwise. As of now, Robinson hasn’t done that, but there is a lot of time left and he doesn’t even have a complete website to share his thoughts yet. Burks has been, despite his oddities, more or less a good liberal Councilmember. If Robinson runs on a single issue “reform-food-truck-laws” platform, I will be a zealous supporter, though.

The campaign is already getting heated, with Burks recently “interrogating” Robinson at a City Council meeting. Certainly going to bring out the popcorn for this one.