Let’s kick off the weekend on a positive note. School choice scored a major victory in Texas including criminal incitements for illegal use of public funds. Chicago is another matter.
Texas school-district officials are charged with unlawfully using public funds for electioneering reports the WSJ in A Campaign Against School Choice Prompts Criminal Charges
Texas Republican voters sent a clear Super Tuesday message to opponents of education freedom within their party. Ten incumbents who are against school choice were either defeated or forced into runoffs in their primary elections. The results are a clear example of ballot-box accountability for career politicians who put the demands of special interests over the needs of families.
School choice won even as its enemies used taxpayer resources to fight it. This scandal was first exposed by a whistleblower at the Denton County Independent School District who leaked school administrators’ internal emails directing staff how to vote in the Republican primary. The order? Take down candidates who support school choice. Staff were even told that Texas schoolteachers wouldn’t receive raises if the wrong candidates won (an ironic claim, given that the failed 2023 school-choice bill included a $4,000 bonus for public-school teachers). Such electioneering by school districts and administrators is a crime in Texas—a Class A misdemeanor punishable by fines up to $4,000 and up to a year in jail.
Attorney General Ken Paxton swiftly sued the district, alleging violations of the state election code’s prohibition on the use of taxpayer resources for political advertising. As allegations of similar conduct came to light across the state over the following week, Mr. Paxton filed lawsuits against five other school districts. But the state attorney general can bring only civil suits to prevent future violations. A 2021 decision of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals held that only local district or county attorneys can prosecute election violations criminally.
Denton County residents took matters into their own hands. Working with the Liberty Justice Center, a libertarian public-interest law firm, voters took advantage of a little-used provision of Texas law empowering registered voters to trigger a mandatory criminal investigation into the use of government funds for political purposes by submitting affidavits to the local district attorney. A few weeks later the Denton County district attorney obtained an indictment against two administrators named in Mr. Paxton’s lawsuit. Jesús and Lindsay Luján, married elementary school principals, are scheduled for arraignment in Denton County Criminal Court on May 13. They haven’t commented publicly on the charges.
Although it’s an open secret that this kind of activity has been going on unchecked for years throughout the state, it’s the first time an indictment has been handed up for school districts illegally influencing elections in Texas. It won’t be the last. Voters in Harris County have launched an effort to investigate the superintendent of the Huffman Independent School District for allegedly similar illegal conduct. Liberty Justice Center has referred those affidavits to the chief prosecutor of the public corruption division in Harris County.
The same kind of activity happens all across the nation with Chicago being the worst of the lot.
Chicago Teachers’ Union Seeks $50 Billion Despite $700 Million City Deficit
I discussed illegal pandering by teachers and the union is my March 13 post Chicago Teachers’ Union Seeks $50 Billion Despite $700 Million City Deficit
In an email announcing the event, CTU Vice President Jackson Potter noted the union is “partnering” with Bring Chicago Home, culminating in a “Parade to the Polls, where students will march to an early voting site.”
Bring Chicago Home is the leading political advocacy organization campaigning in favor of Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson’s $100 million real estate transfer tax increase referendum, which appears on the March 19 ballot. The union has contributed at least $200,000 to Bring Chicago Home.
18-year old students were dismissed from class and bussed or walked to voting booths to vote for tax hikes.
I am pleased to report the Bring Chicago Home referendum failed by a 53-47 percent margin after after vote-by-mail ballots counted.
Brandon Johnson is the worst mayor in Chicago history, and that’s saying quite a bit.
Chicago Sun Times Poll
- Only 7% of those surveyed rated Johnson’s performance as mayor as “excellent” with another 14% rating it as “good.” The remaining 69% either rated Johnson’s performance “only fair” (27%) or “poor” (43%) or said they “didn’t know” (10%).
- Among Black men, 14% rated Johnson’s performance as “excellent or good,” with 67% branding the work he’s done as mayor as “fair or poor.”
- Johnson got a “fair or poor” job rating from 75% of white registered voters surveyed and 69% of Latinos questioned.
One of the reasons covered in the Sun Times Poll was school choice.
Several questions centered on Johnson’s hand-picked school board deciding to, as the poll put it, “transition away from Chicago’s network of selective-enrollment magnet and charter schools in order to increase enrollment in neighborhood schools.”
Johnson Approval Near Record Low
The above graph from the Illinois Policy Institute.
“Equity” Reimagined
Please consider a case of “Equity” Reimagined in the Windy City
Chicago mayor Brandon Johnson’s December 14 decision to eliminate the city’s 11 selective public high schools, which use standardized tests to determine student admissions, is the latest example of this new notion of equity at play.
Chicago Will Ruin Some of the Top Schools in the Country
On December 23, 2023, I noted Citing “Equity”, Chicago Will Ruin Some of the Top Schools in the Country
Ahead of the Chicago mayoral election, I warned Brandon Johnson was 100% beholden to the teacher’s union. Unfortunately, I was correct.
In the name of “equity” no student will have a good chance get ahead.
Not Just Chicago
On November 13 ,2023 I noted School Choice Dies in Illinois, Congratulations Teachers as 35% Read at Grade Level
Scores for public schools were just released and showed only 35% of students in grades 3 through 8 could read at grade level in 2023, according to the Illinois Report Card. Only 27% met proficiency in math.
High school juniors taking the SAT posted similar proficiency: 32% could read and 27% do math at grade level.
What Equity is Really About
Also in the name of “equity”, the teacher’s union and Gov. J.B. Pritzker killed scholarships for 9,600 poor children.
That’s how deep rot is in Illinois. Offering a chance for even 9,600 kids to get ahead is too much for the unions to handle.
School Choice Campaign Issue
School Choice is universally liked by everyone but Progressive mayors, Progressive governors, and teachers’ unions.
Trump needs to embrace school choice loud and clear. It’s definitely a winning campaign message.
Trump said this in 2020:
“We’re fighting for school choice, which really is the civil rights of all time in this country,” Trump said at the conference. “Frankly, school choice is the civil rights statement of the year, of the decade, and probably beyond, because all children have to have access to quality education.”
“A child’s zip code in America should never determine their future, and that’s what was happening. So we’re very, very strong on school choice,” Trump continued.
“School choice” is the term for giving students and families options in K-12 education, usually referring to charter schools and/or vouchers for private schools.
Trump has always been onboard of School Choice as I recall from his past statements. His conviction for such has only grown I would guess. In fact, if it was a campaign issue in 2020, then it will certainly remain in 2024!
“Equity” – From each according to their ability to each according to their needs.
Why would conservatives support school vouchers? Won’t this encourage tuition hikes at private schools just as student loans has done with higher education? As well as government controls? What is to stop riff-raff from public schools enrolling in private schools, which, if they don’t accept them will be accused of discrimination.
No wonder conservatives lose even when allowed to win elections.
There was recently a post here with reference to WSJ about how blacks were supposedly going to vote for Trump. Well that same WSJ has an article out about Trump losing suburban women and the reason……..abortion!
https://www.wsj.com/politics/elections/abortion-poll-trump-swing-state-voters-2024-election-3e12f57c?mod=hp_lead_pos1
In this case, Trump will lose 39% of women vote. I wonder if there will be a post on this article for some balance….39% > 14%.
What’s that about choice everyone here talking about?
In the most recent list (last week) of voters concerns for 2024, abortion didn’t even make the list, for either party!!
If it wasn’t for the MSM and the Talking Heads, bringing it up, it wouldn’t even make the list of the top 100 concerns imo.
Abortion still exist, it’s still legal, and it’s still being done. So why on Earth would it be a topic, when it doesn’t need to be.
These same clowns do this with Climate Change, Solar Panels, EV’s, and other get rich quick schemes. They get the Government to support it with Taxpayer money against their will, and then have the MSM claim the Country supports it. When in reality, it is the Government, and those that collect from it all, that clamor for it, support it, and Gain From It!!!
WW3 has started.
4/13/24
Not even close
I find it ironic that in a country that prides itself on freedom of choice, that many want to restrict it in terms of school choice.
Only bad / poor school districts want to restrict choice. Instead they should clean up their acts so that kids want to go there.
The obviously thing is that eventually this restriction of choice will come for a lot of other areas too (ie ability to chose EV/ICE vehicles or abortions etc). It’s important to prevent any restrictions on choice regardless of political affiliations.
Only “The Government Backed Teachers Unions” of bad / poor school districts want to restrict choice.
Fixed it…
I have to agree that any victory over public unions is a win. They are just another institution of social activism, and did I mention their sense of entitlement?
But Comrade, the New Soviet Man, errr, I mean American, does not need to choose! We are a Democracy, the New Sov … errr … American has already chosen to let his or her betters decide what is best for the children who will be Soviet Pioneers, errr, American happy children, who want nothing else than to crush the bourgeosie, errr, middle class, wait, they don’t want to crush anyone, oh, this is confusing … Yes, they want a strong middle class of children indoctrinated in … oh no wait … who have voted for the bright shining path of the Dicatorship of the Proletariot, errr, I mean Democracy, where the Party Members, errr, the Oligarchs, uh shoot, no the middle class chooses its own destiny! As long as it follow the Marxist / Leninist canard of Communist Utopia, errr, I mean a progressive liberal Democracy! Your children are safely indoctrinated by teachers unions Comrade! Who could ask for anything more!
Unions are needed based on the extreme care-free corporate greed that’s going on, white-collar especially.
Public (gov’t) unions should be blown away by the president as simply as JFK created it through Executive Order 10988…
“Such electioneering by school districts and administrators is a crime in Texas…”
It certainly doesn’t have the ring of a free and fair election, any more than the impeachment of Trump, after a perfectly legal phone call with Zelenski did in 2020.
We had a ballot proposition to repeal the state gas tax increase. Government workers were caught handing out anti prop 6 pamphlets down in San Diego. There was also a huge anti prop 6 TV advertising campaign, claiming roads would be dangerous if it passed. Six ultimately failed.
“School Choice is universally liked by everyone but Progressive mayors, Progressive governors, and teachers’ unions.”
Totalitarian indoctrination. Teachers unions are even in bed with NewsGuard, to indoctrinate students with official government disinformation and left wing propaganda.
I have no idea why any critical thinker that can connect the dots and see what is happening in the US, would ever entertain living in Chicago or the other marxist strongholds devoted to destruction, corruption, authoritarianism, and degeneracy.
Unions run many of the cities with organized crime entanglements. The party that always screams about Citizens United doesn’t seem to understand that CU is 15th in political contributions. Soros is #1, and 6 of the remaining 9 are unions. When it comes to purchasing politicians, CU has 1/15th the ability as the progressive orgs in the top 10. This is why, when I see tax benefits for buying EVs … but only if they’re union made … I know that POTUS, when saying, “I am the most proUnion president ever” … is making a serious admission
Thanks for remembering us back here in IL, Mish
I finally fled when Ives lost to Rauner.
Fwiw the indictments are crazy and politically motivated in Texas. Republicans use public funds for all kinds of things but are never prosecuted. Another example of the red vs blue nature of things depending on who is in control. Indictments only have credibility when the law is equally enforced regardless of party.
“Indictments only have credibility when the law is equally enforced regardless of party” I hope you say the same about political perscutions and hoaxes against Trump, Navarro, J6 protestors, Bannon, Baker, et al., by democrats DAs, AGs, Biden DOJ, FBI, CIA..
Yeah I do. But I’ll defer to the judgments of the courts and not politicians.
You mean the courts with Negro jurors and Obama appointed judges with Soros prosecutors that will bankrupt a defendant into guilty pleas. . We see how Biden ignores Supreme Court decisions that go against him like canceling student debt
The fact that you are deferring to the courts ignores the obvious fact that you are okay with moving forward with the constant “crimes” despite no crime occurring. I mean when there was no harm in the “valuation of real estate” backing the loan where even the NY Times admits valuations are tough AND the backing banks had no beef with the loan…and the judge moves forward and then issues a sentence that is off the charts …. $455M. I mean sheesh! Guess you’re okay with it because it was the courts decided, not politicians. BWAHAHAHA!!
Your statement you’ll defer to the courts is the liberal bias that getting that far was okay. It wasn’t and you are NOT a moderate anything but a shill for the left in every comment you’ve made.
Convenient deferral–none of those things ever get where they are without the weaponization of the very DOJ/courts you imply are not politicized. There is no longer separation between the 2 groups you mention.
Da Tovarisch!
Oddly Texas was the only state I lived in that didn’t allow inter district transfers of students. The voucher system will effectively end public education in Texas. Next up – no more subsidies for the public university systems. That will cause college costs to skyrocket in Texas where I went to college for $24000 for a 5 year engineering program in the 1990s.
Yeah, and I went to college for half that in the 1980s. Higher education has risen 5x the rate of inflation over the last 50 years, don’t even start to blame that which has not happened yet for the inflation that is pernicious and pervasive. It’s already WAY past that point! Put a kid through uni today, with the polyanna-ish view you seem to have of where university is at…you’ll see that your threats hold no water. It’s insanely expensive! We need massively more choice and ability to take the funding with us wherever we go.
But you did not really get your money’s worth. You get what you pay for, so if you can major in Gender Studies to support castration of children, its well worth spending even 10x more than in the 80s! So what if you can’t get a job with such an enlightened degree, Universal Basic Income is on its way Comrade! And Magical Monetary Theory says we can print all the money we need to pay for all of it!
College costs skyrocketed after government backed student loans, as well as the push for everyone to go to college. Higher demand resulted in higher prices. What would Harvard charge for a degree program if enrollment dropped 75%? They certainly wouldn’t be spending $350,000 a year for a DEI director anymore, among other things.
Why won’t that also happen with school vouchers?
I grew up in Illinois and even as a kids we knew about the Chicago Syndicate — which BURNED DOWN my Uncle’s Bar in a Suburb over his not wanting to pay “protection money.” Their first move was to kill his prized Hunting dog, in a “drive-by shooting.” He heard the shot and saw the Lincoln pulling away with the passenger flipping off my Uncle.
He pushed back and they burned his Bar to the ground. One of the guys has posed as my Uncle and had called in a Cancellation of his fire insurance. These guys were tied in with Mayor Daley.
Chicago is a cesspool. Totally corrupt. It has been rumored that Daley was called by JFK’s Dad to somehow throw the election. I am not sure about it.
Later, my older Brother was in a Union NEAR Chicago. RUN BY THE MOB. You did not “F” with them!
Agreed. Both sides are cesspools of corruption depending on where you are.
One side. Yours
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