It would be a laughable understatement if we were to say that this endorsement comes from our sense that it is time for a change. The truth is, Rick Perry, over two terms, has done nothing to distinguish himself to the working people of Texas, seniors, and the middle-class.
His current campaign theme is: Open for Business! Yeah, well we've known that about him from the "git go". And, we also have taken note of how early in the campaign he went negative---usually the resort of politicians who cannot run on a substantive record. A bit of advice, people who live in $10,000 a month rented, at taxpayer expense, glass mansions really should not throw stones. Nor should politicians who dole out $16-million in state money to companies whose investors are top donors. Nor should politicians linked to rumors of impending divorce, infidelity, and putting to death the innocent. Shootin' up a gol-derned coyote jest don't cut through all that!
All that aside, since it merely makes him the atypical Republican, there is still the nasty reality of what is going on during his watch: The student growth of our public schools is among the top ten percent (6%) in the nation, but Texas is the only state in the nation to cut per student expenditures. And, it shows, as our kids rank 49th in verbal and 46th in math SAT scores. Administrators have grown by 33%, and in-school staffing by only 16% and teachers by a mere 13%.
Texas is in a marked descent toward third world status where the rich get richer and the poor, middle-class, working families, and seniors get screwed. Open for business? Monkey business maybe, bad business certainly. Texans pay some of the highest utility and home-owner insurance rates in the nation and lag behind the rest of the country in services to its poor, disabled and older citizens. No more monkey business, it's time for a change.
Clearly, the issue must not be that be that Rick Perry is so bad, it has to be that Bill White is so much better. And that, dear reader, is quite easily demonstrable.
As United States Deputy Secretary of Energy Bill White led a reform team that resulted in saving billions for American taxpayers. As mayor of Houston, the 4th largest city in the nation, White restructured the city's debt allowing for the creation of new libraries and parks and improved public safety. He balanced the city's budget at the same time he lowered tax rates and increased homestead exemptions for the city's disabled and older citizens.
His education initiatives will put Texas back on the path to education parity and affordable college educations. As mayor, he and is wife, Andrea, initiated a drop-out intervention program that saw nearly 9,000 "at risk" youngsters complete their high-school education that otherwise would have dropped out.
Perry has taken Texas well past the point of mediocrity. Let's change that and vote for Bill White for governor of Texas and begin the road back to preeminence.
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