HISD spends roughly $9,491.90 per student on average across their school district. They are a C-rated school according to the State Accountability Report. El Paso, an A-rated school, get’s $13,534.29 per capita (about). Brazos Port ISD gets $32,148.89 per student.

Yet Governor Abbot will tell you that it’s the fault of the leadership within the school district that is the reason why HISD has been underperforming since 2016.

Further, consider this: if you download the Texas State Accountability Report (like we did), then you’ll learn that SB1365 schools are exempt. Why? Because those are disaster declared impacted school districts. But also, if you’re not careful, you’ll overlook the SB1882 schools, which are not graded as part of the State Summary because they have opted to form partnerships with charter schools. A “partnership” means that the charter school takes over and runs the administration of the school. So less a partnership, and more a private take-over instead of a state take-over.

So, less accountability in the private sector, and underfunding of public schools paints an interesting picture, doesn’t it? It’s kind of like the Texas government is setting up incentives to change public schools to private schools. Almost.

You decide.

https://tea.texas.gov/texas-schools/accountability/academic-accountability/performance-reporting/2022-accountability-rating-system

https://fortworthreport.org/2022/12/13/explainer-how-are-texas-schools-funded/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI0vWbtoHp_QIV5xWtBh3YAQa-EAAYAiAAEgJ6t_D_BwE

https://tea.texas.gov/sites/default/files/senate-bill-1365-explanatory-document.pdf

1882 Schools: https://txpartnerships.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Current-Texas-Partnerships-Sept-2022.pdf

Texas Permanent School Fund: https://tea.texas.gov/finance-and-grants/texas-permanent-school-fund

Tis the season for…fires. Lots and lots of fires along the west coast, and we start out this episode getting caught up on the season. One of the said fires was the result of corporate malfeasance (alleged). Is anyone being held accountable for that? Well…no. However many people are killed due to these fires, nobody in the company (name intentionally withheld) will be held accountable. Let’s look just a bit to the east: Texas. In Texas, the electricity outage during a severe snowstorm led to between 264 (official number reported by the state) and 700 (outside experts have said). Who was held accountable for that? Not a single damn person. Nobody was fired, and in the meantime, Texas folks were price gouged for whatever electricity they did get. You might think we’re complaining about Abbot again. We’re not. This week, we discuss how corporations don’t pay consequences, regardless of the fact that they kill people. Got to break a few eggs to make a healthy profit, amirite?

Image by: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Balise42

The Big Lie is one way to hold power. But pushing the Big Lie is also a way to destroy a Democracy. Families are fighting right now between Russia and Ukraine because many on the Russian side only see state-owned media and think that the Russian “special operation” isn’t targeting civilians. Even family members can’t break through the fog.

Sound familiar? It should. And Texas is leading the nation more in this direction every day. Especially with these new voting laws. Listen to what’s going on in Texas, and watch what happens in the other red states. What’s happening? Corruption. Pure and simple.