Perry Rebukes Impeachment Committee; Promotes $10,000 Degrees

"And he [Hezekiah] did what was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father David had done."
2 Kings 18:3

Shortly after Monday's committee vote, Rick Perry upped the ante:

Making sure these graduates have the skills and knowledge they need is as critical as any mission we have before us. An important factor in their success is ensuring they don't carry a crushing debt burden with them after they leave school

Helping students avoid such debt was the goal of the $10,000 degree challenge announced in the 2011 State of the State address. It was a challenge to all Texas colleges and universities to develop degree plans that would cost no more than $10,000.

The idea was to leverage existing technology to cut costs through revolutionary concepts such as competency-based learning, which reduces the need for students to take classes related to skills they've already mastered. This streamlined approach to earning a degree is one that puts the focus on helping a student to earn a quality degree as quickly and efficiently as possible.

So far, 13 schools across Texas have low-cost degree plans in place. These programs use an innovative mix of online classes, dual credit courses, credit for skills mastered and scholarships to bring down the price of tuition and fees.

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Students who graduate from these programs will not carry a significant amount of debt, and they'll immediately be among the most employable Texans in their respective regions.

This is a win for graduates - who otherwise may not have attended college - and a win for employers seeking the most qualified employees. This helps Texas attract employers and means graduates can find good paying jobs.

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Texans have access to some of the greatest schools in the world, but that access is threatened when the price of earning a degree sails out of reach. To allow more students to realize their dreams through education, Texas must protect the gains we've made and work even harder to keep the cost of a college degree affordable for everyone.

 Bravo Mr. Governor, read the whole thing here.

UT admits the unqualified but politically connected

"Dishonest scales are an abomination to the Lord,
But a just weight is His delight."
Proverbs 11:1

A bombshell report from Watchdog.org about UT Law School admissions:

HOUSTON — Some of the least-qualified graduates of the University of Texas School of Law in recent years have high-level connections in the Legislature, which may explain how they got into the prestigious law school in the first place.

A months-long Watchdog.org analysis of political influence on the admissions process at UT Law found there’s some truth, after all, to the old line about who you know mattering more than what you know. We found dozens of Longhorns who don’t know enough to be lawyers but know somebody important in the Legislature.

Two of those mediocre students are legislators themselves.

Some have connections to the leadership circle of House Speaker Joe Straus, others to powerful state Sen. Judith Zaffirini, who’s already been caught three times trying to pull end runs around the admissions process.

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Watchdog.org found a pattern of overlapping political influence and underwhelming performance on the bar exam. Any single one of the cases we describe could have an alternate explanation, such as personal problems that derailed studies.

Taken as a whole, however, they offer clear evidence that political influence is the reason dozens of students who are unable to pass the bar are getting into the state’s top law school.

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Normally, almost nobody who gets into UT Law fails the bar. Watchdog.org found 90 students who had failed it twice or more. That should be reason enough for university officials to double-check their grades and Law School Admission Test — or LSAT — scores to see which students actually earned admission, and who benefited from a political favor.

We found additional reasons to scrutinize 24 names on that list:

• At least 15 of the students are politically connected, either through office, personal relationships, or campaign donations to officeholders who have figured in the fight over UT’s leadership. 

• At least 12 of the students have roots in Laredo, home of state Sen. Judith Zaffirini, who is known to have pulled strings on behalf of other applicants. As Laredo has just 2 percent of the state’s population, it’s highly over represented in this sample. 

• A half-dozen of the students have connections to state Rep. Joe Straus, his close allies, or a lobby shop that rose to prominence with Straus’s ascendance to speaker in 2009. 

• Two of the students are known to have LSAT scores well below UT standards. James Ryan Pitts, son of House Appropriations Committee Chairman Jim Pitts, has now failed the bar exam three times since graduation after scoring a 155 and a 147 on the LSAT, which is scored on a scale of 120 to 180. Those scores rank in the 64th percentile and 33rd percentile nationwide, and are well below the scores in the mid-160s that UT usually requires. 

• Another 2012 graduate with three LSAT scores in the 140s failed the bar exam twice, but because we don’t yet have scores for most of these students, we’re not singling her out and naming her.

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Two recent UT Law grads already were elected officials when they were admitted.

State Rep. Richard Peña Raymond, like Zaffirini a Democrat from Laredo, who was first elected in 1992, failed the bar exam in 2007 and 2008, and is not a member of the Texas bar.

State Rep. Eddie Rodriguez, D-Austin, first elected in 2002, failed the bar three times between 2010 and 2012, and is not a member of the bar, either. One of Rodriguez’s senior staffers, also a UT Law grad, failed the bar three times between 2009 and 2010.

Rodriguez works for the law firm of Brown McCarroll, which dove deep into lobbying during the 2008 election cycle. When Straus led a post-election coup to unseat Republican Speaker Tom Craddick with his “Gang of 11” Republicans and the support of the Democratic caucus, Brown McCarroll was one of the biggest beneficiaries, according to Capitol Inside.

Thanks to the former Straus staffers and the Democratic officeholders it employed, Brown McCarroll was suddenly the second most influential law firm lobby shop in town. Among its employees were state Sen. Kirk Watson, a critic of Regent Hall, and former state Rep. Pete Gallego, now a congressman.

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Of the nearly 2,700 UT Law students to take the exam since 2006, only 29 have failed it three times or more. Thirteen made our list for closer inspection, and seven of those have ties to Laredo.

Among the 13 are Carlos Manuel Zaffirini Jr., the state senator’s only son, and Jeffrey Carona, the son of Republican state Sen. John Carona. Sen. Carona has donated some $31,043 to Zaffirini’s campaign in recent years, in addition to undisclosed sums his company paid her as a “communications consultant.”

As of the February 2014 exam, Ryan Pitts, son of the outgoing Appropriations Committee chairman and one of Straus’ Gang of 11, has failed the bar three times.

Read the whole thing here.

Why Ken Paxton is the only credible Pro-Life Candidate

"And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me."
Matthew 25:40

Earlier today, we spoke with Emily Horne from Texas Right to Life about our mutual endorsement of Ken Paxton in the A.G. race.  After last week's unpleasantness, we felt obliged to present the positive case for Ken on this topic.  Our conversation is below:

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Highlights:

• Ken Paxton was "a pro-life fighter for over 12 years."
• "He's never walked away."

• He understands the issues in depth in a way other legislators do not.
• He consistently takes the harder stand than other legislators.

• 2013: As a member of the Texas Senate education committee, passed a bill banning abortion providers from teaching sex ed; unfortunately, it was killed later in the process.

• 2011: Banned hospital districts that receive state funding from elective abortions.
• Author's Note: FYI, to Travis County readers, this was a smack-down on Central Health.

• Defunding Planned Parenthood
• Split the defunding language into seven separate amendment, so leadership couldn't kill them all.
• Refused to buckle to leadership when they put the screws on him.

Commit2Dallas: Dan Branch and Common Core

May the Lord cut off all flattering lips,
And the tongue that speaks proud things,
Psalm 12:3

Commit2Dallas is an 'educational non-profit' that brings together over 100 crony capitalists 'civic leaders' across Dallas County.  The objective is to get big business working with big government to promote 'educational objectives.'  Commit2Dallas is clearly aligned with the Common Core philosophy.

For example, Commit2Dallas embraces 'cradle to career':

You must learn to read before you can read to learn. Mastering basic math and science lays the groundwork for future problem solving in a 21st-century economy. And being prepared to take advantage of a quality education beyond high school is essential for obtaining a position in our increasingly skilled workforce. In short, education is a continuum. We call this concept the Cradle to Career Pipeline.

In reality, 'Cradle to Career' is about giving bureaucrats the final say in your child's education:

This is a complete mandated federal educational program, cradle through workforce, in all subjects, all grades, all schools, daycares, preschool, K-12, college, with personal child and parent data being collected and stored and shipped around government agencies and certain corporations -- without your knowledge and consent. [Emphasis in Original]

 Mary Bowen has more:



Commit2Dallas is also determined to 'measure what matters':

The Commit! Partnership believes that using data as a constructive tool is essential to better serve every child in our community. Rather than using data to generate competition or place blame, we use data to improve our efforts continuously and collectively. In fact, the only time we single out a partner is to lift up a practice that is proving effective for students and that merits greater attention across the Partnership.

As Jane Robbins of the American Principles Project explains:



But the data collection gets more interesting when we consider HB 2103, a noxious piece of legislation passed by the Texas Legislature in 2013 (sidenote: Which we encouraged Governor Perry to veto):

Interested parties assert that student data collected by the Texas Education Agency should be made more accessible to researchers so that it can be used to improve the state’s education system. C.S.H.B. 2103 aims to provide for this increased accessibility and also seeks to establish an education research center advisory board and set limits on who can request research, which would allow the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to sift through fewer requests and approve researchers in a more timely manner.

And who helped write HB 2103?!?  Dan Branch!!!

And, just to come full circle, guess who's on the 'Advisory' Board of Commit2Dallas:

To summarize: The legislator who wrote the bill to enable Common Core style data collection in Texas also sits on a board attempting to implement Common Core in Dallas County.  That legislator is now running for Texas Attorney General.  We'll stick with Ken Paxton!!!

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Remember, Dan Branch got a $5000 donation from George W. Bush, which is notable when you consider that Common Core began under his administration and that Jeb is a major Common Core booster.

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To learn more about Commit2Dallas, read this presentation they gave to the Dallas City Council two months ago; Dan Branch is mentioned on page 8:

Commit -- Dallas City Cncl by Cahnman

"Transparency" Committee Meeting in Secret

Hide me from the secret plots of the wicked,
From the rebellion of the workers of iniquity,
Psalm 64:2

John H. Reagan State Office Building -- In a moment of political courage worthy of Barack Obama, the Texas House committee investigating Wallace Hall met in public today...for ten minutes before going into "executive session."  Committee co-Chair Dan Flynn spoke briefly after commencing proceedings half an hour late.  He repeated his ongoing tantrum about Wallace Hall's refusal to participate in this fiasco.

Trey Martinez Fischer was the only other committee member to speak.  His discussed the need for the committee to "present a united face."  We have no idea what that means.

To be honest, the highlight of the morning was eavesdropping on a Texas Monthly's reporter discussing Summer camps with one of the U.T. administration people; no incestuous relationship there!!!

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Two more must reads related to the scandals at UT: Wall St. Journal here, Empower Texans here.

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UPDATE: They voted to impeach, we'll comment in the coming days, but TPPF released the following statement....

AUSTIN – Dr. Thomas Lindsay, Director of the Center for Higher Education at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, issued this statement on today's 7-1 vote of the Texas House Special Committee on Transparency to recommend impeachment of University of Texas Regent Wallace Hall:

 

"Today’s vote by the House Special Committee on Transparency — which conducted its debate behind closed doors and with no public record — is a step backwards on transparency and accountability in Texas government. For exercising his right and duty to request information of one of the universities he is entrusted with overseeing, Wallace Hall now faces impeachment and possibly jail. The biggest losers in all this are Texas college students, their parents, and taxpayers. This vote is a powerful deterrent to future efforts to ensure transparency in government, and therefore directly contrary to the best interest of our public higher-education system."

 

Bill Powers Corrupt, Ineffective, and Vindictive "Leadership"

"For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,"
2 Timothy 3:2

Some courageous U.T. Professor has penned an essay chronicling how the University of Texas has moved backwards under Bill Powers' 'leadership':

COURSE CORRECTION: IT’S TIME FOR UT-AUSTIN’S PRESIDENT TO STEP DOWN

I call on University of Texas at Austin president Bill Powers to step down. He has served the university for over eight years, and while successful in some areas, including fundraising, his leadership has failed in ten critical ways.

UT is less affordable than ever; graduation rates are low and stagnant; core requirements are frivolous; controversial views are stigmatized; the university is over-invested in physical plant; it is underinvested in emerging technologies; administrative costs have skyrocketed; the balance of tenure-track and adjunct faculty is out of whack; the curriculum is fragmented; intellectual diversity on campus has withered; academic standards are mediocre; transparency has been forfeited; and the appearance of integrity has been compromised.

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At UT-Austin, tuition went up 22% in the first five years of Powers' presidency (from 2006 to 2011). Average net cost to UT students (taking into account financial aid) went up 33% from 2005 to 2009 (when the UT System stopped reporting this figure).

At the University of Texas, state aid per student has remained fairly constant over the last ten years, lagging slightly behind tuition. State aid as a percentage of total spending has declined, but only because real spending has been growing exponentially. Other public universities have done much better. At the University of Maryland, tuition increased only 0.9% in the last five years, and there have been very modest increases in tuition at Florida State and University of Florida, despite sharp drops (over 50%) in state aid, thanks to increased efficiency.

Administrative efficiency has not been a hallmark of the Powers administration. In the first five years of the Powers era, spending on administrative salaries at UT went up 86% at the university level, 55% in the College of Liberal Arts, and 45% in the College of Business, to take two typical colleges. Powers created an entirely new vice presidential position (in 'diversity and community engagement'), and administrative salaries soared into the mid-six-figures, even for many associate deans. Spending on faculty salaries went up 21% in the same period (15% above inflation), with no increase in student learning, as measured by the Collegiate Learning Assessment (in which UT ranks in the 23rd percentile for its peer group).

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UT’s four-year graduation rate has remained, dismally, below 50%, and even the six-year rate has never topped 80%. Instead of addressing this problem, Powers chose to spend the early years of his presidency “reforming” the core curriculum through the creation of the Commission of 125, which resulted in adding a new, complex, and cumbersome set of requirements (six “flags”) on top of the state-mandated 42-hour core requirements. These flags were used, not to expedite completion, but to reward political constituencies, including flags in “multiculturalism” and “global [i.e., non-Western] cultures.” The two writing flags have become meaningless diversions, requiring no more than 16 pages of writing per semester.

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When UT sociology professor Mark Regnerus published a peer-reviewed article challenging the conventional wisdom on the impact of same-sex marriage on children, UT's administration responded to a groundless charge of 'scientific misconduct' by a blogger in New York by launching a full-scale inquisition of Regnerus's research. In the end, to the credit of Provost Stephen Leslie, Regnerus was completely exonerated of any wrongdoing. (In fact, a recent study of Canadian census data in the Review of the Economics of Households by Douglas W. Allen supports Regnerus's tentative conclusions). There can be no doubt that if Regnerus had reached the politically correct conclusion of 'no difference' between biological and gay parenting, he would never have been subjected in the absence of any prima facie of error to such an exacting investigation. (For more details, read this open letter by a group of sociologists critical of UT's treatment of Regnerus.) Despite the Leslie report's vindication of Regnerus, UT's College of Liberal Arts has posted an unprecedented 'disclaimer' about Regnerus on its web site, clearly signaling to the world that dissident voices are not welcome at UT.

More evidence of the UT administration's bias against conservative viewpoints can be seen in the ongoing persecution of the only conservative student organization on campus, the Young Conservatives of Texas. In September of 2013, the Young Conservatives of Texas held an "affirmative action bake sale," in which identical cupcakes were sold at a variety of prices, lower prices being offered only to minority students. This was an effective and clear statement of conservative principles: it's wrong to treat people differently on the basis of their skin color or ethnicity. However, UT's vice president for "diversity" Gregory Vincent implausibly claimed that the Young Conservatives "create an environment of exclusion and disrespect among our students, faculty and staff." Vincent charged the students with violating the honor code; if this charge had been true, it would have been grounds for expulsion. This pattern of intolerance on the part of UT was repeated in November 2013, when Vincent (once again), joined by President Powers and the Faculty Senate, warned YCT that they were breaking UT's honor code by protesting the non-enforcement of immigration laws by the Obama administration.

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The future of higher education will involve new ways of delivering content to students, through online lectures and video-conferenced seminars. The age of the ‘brick and mortar’ university is coming to an end. The Powers administration, however, has pursued a massive construction program, adding another 5 million square feet to the campus, a nearly 30% increase. While older building are allowed to deteriorate, the new construction places added burdens of maintenance, utilities, and repair on an already over-stressed fiscal structure. The administration has paid little attention to making more efficient and intensive use of existing facilities, through early morning, evening, and weekend classes, for example.

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In the six years before Powers became president, UT earned eleven national championships in intercollegiate athletics, while earning only four in the eight years of the Powers administration. All this was despite a 32% increase in spending on athletics. The fall-off in athletic excellence under President Powers indicates a growing arteriosclerosis, a tendency for administrators to focus more on their own interests than on those of the campus.

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20% of UT tenure-track faculty teach few students (2% of total semester hours), bring in no outside grants, and publish no original research. At the same time, reliance on temporary and adjunct instructors has grown exponentially, with over 50% of the undergraduate student-semester-hours (and over 30% of graduate semester-hours) being taught by non-tenure-track faculty

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The years of the Powers administration have witnessed an acceleration of this trend, with the addition of a host of hyphenated gender and ethnic studies programs: Women’s and Gender Studies, African-American Studies, Mexican-American Studies, and Asian-American Studies.

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A recent study of American history courses at UT by the National Association of Scholars revealed that 90% of junior faculty members in the history department have a primary research focus on race and gender issues, while none concentrate on military or intellectual history.

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In a 2011 book Academically Adrift, Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa found that 36% of the students it surveyed show little or no increase in their ability for critical thinking, complex reasoning, and clear writing after four years of college, as measured by the Collegiate Learning Assessment test. UT-Austin, in particular, has earned embarrassingly poor results on the Collegiate Learning Assessment test, standing in the 23rd percentile among peer institutions. Average scores for UT-Austin students went from 1263 (freshmen) to 1303 (seniors), a barely measurable improvement after four years of college (as reported by the Washington Post, March 14, 2012). Falling standards have begun to affect even pre-professional programs, with the rate of passing professional exams falling in both nursing (96% to 95%) and engineering (90% to 89%) from 2004 to 2008.

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Regent Wallace Hall has been widely criticized for making excessive use of Freedom of Information Act requests for information from the UT-Administration, but these criticisms overlook a more fundamental question: Why was Hall required to use the FOIA in order to conduct an investigation of influence-peddling at a university over which he has been appointed a regent? It is a fundamental responsibility of every CEO to cooperate freely and willingly with his or her own board.

Amen, read the whole thing here.

Dan Branch's Backfiring Sleaze Campaign

"May the Lord cut off all flattering lips,
And the tongue that speaks proud things,"
Psalm 12:3

Reaping what he has sown, there are two awful pieces out about Dan Branch this morning; first up, Breitbart Texas:

PACK OF DOGS: DAN BRANCH, TEXAS MEDIA AND A DEMOCRATIC TRIAL LAWYER ATTACK KEN PAXTON

A Democratic trial lawyer has sent a letter to the SEC attacking Texas AG candidate State Senator Ken Paxton--one week before early voting begins. Rather than an accurate headline acknowledging a political hit job was in process and that there existed great political benefit to the person who sent the letter, a Texas media outlet began reporting the matter as though it was something of substance—not indicating that anyone can send a letter to the SEC at any time they choose.

The San Antonio Express News, widely known for its left-of-center spin on Texas matters, ran a headline that is at best close to the line of deception. They titled their article, “Paxton Draws Complaint with SEC.”

The clear implication is that the SEC has filed a complaint, when the truth is that Democratic trial lawyer John Sloan mailed a letter to the SEC asking for candidate Paxton to be investigated—the letter was not even a formal complaint.

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Breitbart Texas discovered that the Dan Branch campaign’s involvement in the false SEC narrative did not stop at Branch himself simply mentioning it to media, as Holm asserted. Lucas Sheffield, who identifies himself as the grassroots field director for the Dan Branch campaign, began pumping out the deceptive San Antonio Express News article to campaign followers on his Twitter account. Breitbart Texas reached out to the Branch campaign to clarify the role of Sheffield, but the campaign declined to answer any questions.

This is not the first time what appears to be high-level campaign staff for Dan Branch have engaged in either deceptive, or simply bizarre, behavior.

Breitbart Texas previously reported on an issue regarding Dan Branch and an amendment he introduced that could have expanded the use of late-term abortions in Texas.

In that instance, Branch Campaign Manager Enrique Marquez was sent a media request by a Breitbart reporter. Instead of responding, Marquez sent out an immediate press release attacking the reporter. The media request pertained to a previous amendment that Branch had attempted to introduce into a Texas bill that could have expanded the authority of Texas abortionists to have greater leeway in deciding when to perform late-term abortions. The Branch campaign responded by listing other bills Branch was involved in and refused to address the issue of the consequences Branch’s amendment could have had on defenseless lives inside of wombs. The bizarre behavior from Marquez ultimately backfired and brought larger attention to the issue than the article otherwise would have on its own. The original bill's sponsor ultimately denounced Dan Branch for "distorting" the truth on his failed amendment--a denouncement that likely would not have occurred were it not for the actions of Marquez.

Ouch, but we're not done; next up, Tony McDonald of Empower Texans discussing donor intimidation:

During his conversation with Tribune editor Evan Smith, Branch was asked about his support for Senate Bill 346, legislation from last session which was designed to enable bureaucrats to attack donors to conservative organizations while exempting liberal labor unions from the same rules.

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Branch’s reasoning echoed that of State Representative Byron Cook — Straus’s current standard-bearer when it comes to attacking conservative speech — in an interview with the San Antonio Express News last week. In that interview, Cook argued that “the voting public has a right to have a greater understanding of who supports candidates and why.”

Of course everyone who stops for a moment and thinks about that statement knows it isn’t true. The government isn’t empowered to give everyone who supports a candidate a latex-gloved inspection as to why. In fact, the right runs in exactly the opposite direction; citizens have a right to withhold whom they are supporting, or if they openly support someone, why they choose to support them.

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Dan Branch clearly knows how burdensome government paperwork can be. He’s fought transparency for his past as a Washington lobbyist for labor unions. He’s fought additional disclosure for his and his family’s contracts with government agencies. When asked who he’s voting for this election, he, rightfully, responds that it is an “American tradition” that he not be required to say. And even in his rambling response to questions about his own transparency, he recognizes that “transparency” can be weaponized when the principle is used to violate the rights of others.

Yet Dan Branch persists in equating the rights people have to inspect the actions of their government officials with rights he would like to create for people to inspect those who become “involved in the public square.” This, however, runs contrary to our constitutional rights as Americans, and, frankly, the comparison just doesn’t make any sense.

We demand accountability from government officials because they have the power of the sword. Government officials can take our land, our money, and ultimately our lives in exercising their power. That is why it is so critical that we know how and why they are exercising that power, and whether they are exercising it in our interests or in their own.

Citizens who become “involved in the public square” can do nothing more than speak and persuade. More money merely equals a bigger megaphone.

Equating “open government” measures with campaign finance regulations leads to some absurd results. Would Branch think it’s acceptable — as part of an “open electoral process” — to allow any person to demand of the members of a private group to see all of their emails or their calendars on a ten-day turnaround? We require elected officials to comply with that requirement as part of “open government” through the Public Information Act. What about requiring every meeting here at Empower Texans to be recorded and posted on the internet, like we require government agencies to do under the Open Meetings Act? Of course not!

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Goodman’s warnings make it clear that there is a national effort afoot to use government to suppress conservative speech. If Dan Branch cannot understand the legal reasoning behind campaign finance regulation, and why he can’t create a right to peek behind the curtain of every group that enters “the public square,” then he is ill-qualified to represent Texans in the fight for our rights against the Obama administration. This is a high-stakes contest for the future of freedom, and we simply cannot trust Dan Branch and his flawed legal reasoning. Conservatives must unite behind the principled conservative with the proven record, Senator Ken Paxton.

If you support using government to intimidate conservative donors while outsourcing your campaign dirty work to Democrat trial lawyers then Dan Branch is your man.  Cahnman's Musings supports neither of these things.  That's why we're sticking with Ken Paxton!!!