The Week in the Rearview Mirror

Rep. Senfronia Thompson, D-Houston, is running for Speaker of the House and said she has filed the legal papers and will begin collecting pledges from House members right away.In a press release announcing her candidacy, Thompson attacked House Speaker Tom Craddick's administration, saying bipartisanship in the House has disappeared, that members of both parties "have been punished for voting their districts and their consciences," and accused the Midland Republican and his supporters of defeating members who voted against publicly funded vouchers for private schools. "I can no longer stand by quietly and watch such damage be done to this institution without complaining loudly and vigorously," she said in a press release. A spokeswoman for Craddick, Alexis DeLee, said he has already collected enough pledges of support to win reelection to the House's top office. "She's entitled to her opinion... but we already have the votes to win," DeLee said. She said Craddick has collected pledges from "more than 110" members of the House for reelection at the beginning of the regular session in 2007. Craddick's term runs through the end of the year -- the House starts its business every two years by electing a speaker. But the House also has the power to pull down a speaker, moving to "vacate the chair" and then electing someone else to preside over the chamber. No speaker has been openly challenged since Gus Mutscher in the early 1970s. He went out on the wave of the Sharpstown bank stock scandal, which resulted in the election of a huge number of new members in 1973. One of them was Senfronia Thompson. Thompson, who sent a press release with the news, couldn't immediately be reached for questions about it.


Here's the text of Thompson's announcement: A Woman Seeks More House Work/Thompson Announces for Speaker of the House Rep. Senfronia Thompson (D-Houston) has filed papers declaring my intention to run for Speaker of the House. Thompson confirmed that she will begin collecting pledge cards for Speaker's race. Mrs. Thompson is the first woman to seek the top House office. Thompson is the longest serving woman and longest serving African-American in Texas Legislative history. She and former Speaker Pete Laney are the only remaining House members of the Reform Class of '73, the state's largest freshman class ever, who were elected following the Sharpstown Scandal. That class ushered in a wave of reforms on open records, open meetings, ethics and women's rights. If elected, I would be the first speaker from Houston since 1939. Harris County makes up one-sixth of the Texas House. "I promise that I will serve the House in a bipartisan manner, allowing my fellow members to vote their districts, their hearts and their consciences. The celebrated Bipartisan nature of the Texas House came from Speakers allowing members to vote their districts. Thompson said that the 150 House Districts are all different, and each member should be free to vote in the best interest of their district. Only when the membership is free to vote for their constituents will the House function properly again and be able to solve big issues like school finance. "In addition, I also ask that my fellow members join me in working with Lt. Governor Dewhurst and the Senate to craft fair and balance legislation that will treat all children of Texas fairly and give them a better shot at the future. Also, I would extend this treatment to our Texas taxpayers," Thompson continued. Representative Thompson stated that her decision to run for Speaker is based on her personal experience during the past three and half years. Bi-partisanship has disappeared and the result has been harmful not only to our schoolchildren and taxpayers, but to the House as a whole. Republicans and Democrats in the House have been punished for voting their districts and their consciences. Some Republican colleagues have been defeated by the Speaker and his supporters for voting against a voucher system that would do injury to their own school districts, Thompson pointed out. "I can no longer stand by quietly and watch such damage be done to this Institution without complaining loudly and vigorously," Ms. Thompson reiterated. " I urge my fellow members, Democrat and Republican, to join me to restore dignity, fairness, balance and progress to the House of Representatives. The legislators who preceded us and those who will follow us deserve to know that in 2007, the House will declare a clear, loud "NO" to partisanship and Big Lobby power and said yes to the voters and children of Texas." Her legislative career included such legislation as the James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Act, bans on racial profiling, drug courts, alimony, dozens of child support reforms, contraceptive parity laws, the state minimum wage, judicial reforms and numerous insurance, fraud, credit, and local reforms. Ms. Thompson is a strong believer in public education that is evident by having been a public school teacher, received an undergraduate degree and three postgraduate degrees from Texas' public universities. Her Amicus brief on public school financing was cited by the Texas Supreme Court majority when they declared Texas' old public school finance system unconstitutional. In 1977, Rep. Thompson used her own funds to successfully convince the United States Justice Department to sue Texas for discrimination in financing, hiring and admissions at Texas traditionally Black public universities, creating a fund to improve facilities, libraries and faculty.Thompson has garnered accolades and awards from the Family Law Section of the Texas State Bar, Nation magazine (one of 8 Legislators in the country), Texas Monthly (one of the Top 10 Legislators), the County and District Attorney's Association, the bipartisan Texas Women's Political Caucus (Woman of the Year), and scores of other groups. Texas Silver-Haired Legislature honored her for work on the personal needs allowance which allows nursing home residents to keep a little of the pensions or Social Security to pay for personal items like toiletries, shoes, robes, radios, reading materials and haircuts. "I am grateful to have been the recipient of the Rosa Parks Award from the Texas Legislative Black Caucus." Thompson added, "last session, one of the greatest honors I have ever received was bestowed upon me the Mexican-American Legislative Caucus, the Matt Garcia Award."

Thompson served as chair of the Judicial Affairs from 1991 until 2000 when Rep. Tom Craddick was elected Speaker; at the time, Judicial Affairs was one of the Legislature's most active committees. Previously, the committee was named the Judiciary Committee and the Rules and Resolutions Committee. In addition, she has chaired or co-chaired several other special and select committees and subcommittees. She previously served four terms on the powerful Appropriations Committee and two terms on the agenda-setting Calendars and three terms on the agenda-setting Local and Consent Calendars Committees. Additional Biographical information available upon request.

We've written about plans for a media campaign to promote the governor's tax bill, but the size of the thing is news: Political associates of Gov. Rick Perry are gearing up a television, radio and direct mail campaign with a proposed budget of $6 million. The campaign, funded at least in part with corporate money, won't be directly linked to Perry's reelection campaign. But it's being run by his top political aides.Perry and former Comptroller John Sharp -- along with a handful of political operatives -- made their opening pitch to a group of lobbyists for trade groups this week, describing the project and setting the stage for a big fundraising campaign. Lawmakers will convene next week to consider the tax bill pushed by the governor. They've got a storefront -- Texans for Taxpayer Relief -- and aides to the governor say it'll be able to take corporate contributions as well as money from individuals. They've already got their website up: www.taxpayerrelief.com. It's an election year, and Perry's on the ballot, and his face will be on at least some of the commercials, but the organization won't be directly involved in his campaign effort. That's the opening for corporate money. Perry, asked how he planned to pay for the promotional effort, told reporters to "Ask Kathy" -- referring to his press secretary, Kathy Walt. She said the proponents of the tax bill plan to use the same kind of money the opponents are using: "The tobacco companies are using corporate money to attack the tax bill." But they're not on the ballot this year. Walt and others said Perry and Sharp -- who headed Perry's Texas Tax Reform Commission -- have already been filmed for some commercials, though the final spots haven't been put together. Perry's political team is working on the tax campaign. Dave Carney, his general consultant, presented the idea at a meeting of lobbyists. He cited surveys done by Mike Baselice, the governor's pollster. David Weeks is working on the commercials; he's done Perry's work (among others) for years. Ray Sullivan, Perry's former press secretary, is in the mix, handling news pests. And Jennifer Lustina has signed on to raise money for the project.

Management had a rough night, with five candidates backed by the governor and/or the speaker defeated in primary runoffs.Barbara Ann Radnofsky knocked off Gene Kelly, who gave the new Democrat a scare in the first round of the primaries. She got just under 60 percent and will face U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison in the fall. Maria Luisa Alvarado won the Democrats' nomination for lieutenant governor, handily beating former state Rep. Ben Z. Grant in the runoff. Alvarado got 58 percent. Grant, along with Bob Gammage and Fred Head, ran on a reform message. The three were members of the Dirty 30 -- a group that bedeviled House Speaker Gus Mutscher in the early 70s and ran him out of office. Gammage lost in the primary. Head will face Republican Susan Combs in the race for comptroller in November. John Zerwas beat David Melanson in the HD-28 GOP runoff, getting 53 percent. Rep. Glenn Hegar, R-Katy, the incumbent, won a primary for state Senate and then got lucky when the Democratic nominee in that race dropped out. George Antuña beat Steve Salyer in the HD-118 race in San Antonio, the seat now held by Rep. Carlos Uresti (who won a state Senate primary against Frank Madla). Republicans are trying to flip that Democratic seat to their column, and many think their chances are better with an Hispanic candidate. Antuña got 81 percent of the votes Tuesday night. Rep. Terry Keel, R-Austin, passed on another term to run for the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. He came up short, losing to Charles Holcomb, who got almost 54 percent of the vote. Holcomb has to retire partway through his next term -- that court has an age limit, and he's approaching it. In the race to replace Keel, Bill Welch beat Alex Castano on the GOP side, getting 55 percent of the votes. He'll face Valinda Bolton, who easily beat Jason Earle -- son of the Travis County district attorney -- in the Democratic primary. Ronnie Earle's son got 33 percent. Former Rep. Ken Mercer, R-San Antonio, defeated incumbent Dan Montgomery for a seat on the State Board of Education. Rep. Scott Campbell, R-San Angelo, lost his reelection bid, pulling under 40 percent of the votes in a runoff against Drew Darby, also of San Angelo. House Speaker Tom Craddick was backing Campbell, endorsing him and appearing in the district on his behalf. Campbell was one of four Craddick candidates defeated in the runoffs. And incumbent Al Edwards, D-Houston, lost his seat in a runoff against Borris Miles. Edwards came within a hair of winning outright in the March primary, but Miles rallied in the runoff and got almost 54 percent. Edwards is one of a group of Democrats who have backed Craddick; some of his fellow Democrats were involved in the effort to knock him off. Rep. Richard Raymond, D-Laredo, held off former Webb County Judge Mercurio Martinez in HD-42, winning the Democratic primary with almost 58 percent. Rep. Suzanna Gratia Hupp of Lampasas could be replaced by a candidate backed by the Texas Parent PAC. Jimmie Don Aycock beat Dale Hopkins in the GOP primary for Hupp's spot, winning almost 58 percent. Susan King edged by Kevin Christian in the GOP primary to replace Rep. Bob Hunter, R-Abilene. She got 103 more votes than he got. Gov. Rick Perry did phone messages for Christian, urging Republicans to vote, but that fell short. Christian is a former chief of staff to Hunter (though Hunter stayed out of the race); King is one of several candidates this year who started with a stint on a school board. Another of that PAC's candidates missed, when Tan Parker squeaked by Anne Lakusta by 48 votes out of 6,356 cast. Parker had endorsements from Mary Denny, who's giving up the House seat, and former U.S. Rep. Dick Armey. In Houston, Jim Murphy beat Michael Scofield in the GOP race to replace Rep. Joe Nixon in the House. Murphy was endorsed by Nixon; Scofield, a former aide to Gov. Perry, was endorsed by radio host Dan Patrick, who just beat Nixon and two others in an expensive and noisy Senate primary.

That act following the Easter Bunny by a day is none other than your Texas Legislature, coming to Austin to work on a problem that has left them bewitched, bothered, and bewildered for years: School finance.They'll be watching a 45-day egg timer, trying to make the school finance system legal by a June 1 deadline imposed by the Texas Supreme Court. And they have the luxury of two options for increasing state funding and lowering local funding for schools: a burgeoning budget surplus and a new business tax cooked up for Gov. Rick Perry that has managed to remain alive in public without attracting the ire of most businesses. It looks like most won't attack it, and a few of them will even promote it. But it's hard to raise taxes when there's money in the till -- nobody in state office today has had the experience of passing a tax bill except when the state was in some sort of fiscal mess. And the surplus -- estimated for the moment at $4.3 billion -- might be bigger than that. The story starts on Monday, with this lineup: • Perry will issue the call -- the official agenda -- for the legislative session. He has said he'll try to confine it to school finance, shutting out distractions like education reforms, appraisal caps, and such. That ordinarily happens sooner, but by holding it back, Perry prevented lawmakers from pre-filing legislation on pet projects, and also gave other state leaders less time to look at the exact wording of the call so they could figure out loopholes. • Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn will issue a new estimate of how much money the state has available for spending. The number now is $4.3 billion, and while some state leaders contend the money is earmarked for various projects and contingencies, it's officially uncommitted. And Strayhorn is widely expected to say there's even more money available; most estimates start at $2 billion, though some think there's much more than that. She wasn't sprinkling any numbers into the conversation, but told a gaggle of reporters that the economy and state tax revenues are doing very, very, very well. We'll find out Monday whether that was foreshadowing or just a head fake. • Lawmakers will show up, call the roll and wait for presentations of the tax bill by former Comptroller John Sharp, who was appointed by Perry to head the Texas Tax Reform Commission that cooked up the tax bill. Other members of that commission will be around to help present the plan. The surplus is probably the best clue to what'll happen during the legislative session. The Perry-Sharp plan would spend $1.4 billion of that, but would leave the rest in state accounts to be spent elsewhere. They've cautioned against spending more of it. House Speaker Tom Craddick, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and others, like the wonks at the Center for Public Policy Priorities, have been warning lawmakers that the current surplus isn't really a surplus at all, what with the state's needs in everything from education to health and human services to you-name-it. They've made some progress on that front. Some conservative lawmakers, encouraged by the Texas Public Policy Foundation, would rather attack this without a tax bill. Rep. Bill Keffer, R-Dallas, put it into words recently, saying the surplus is really a tax over-charge that ought to be refunded in the form of property tax cuts. If Strayhorn increases the amount of money available, Sharp and Perry will look like a couple of diet counselors at a fast-food convention. Even if lawmakers think a tax bill would be a better long-term solution, a big surplus will look like the irresistible #1 Combo Plate at their favorite Mexican restaurant. They'll be tempted to put that diet on hold until the regular session in January.

Add Sen. Mike Jackson, R-La Porte, to the list of people interested in the GOP position on the ballot in CD-22, where U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land, plans to retire next month.DeLay's spot on the ballot will be filled after four precinct chairs -- one from each county in the district -- pick someone. That person will face former U.S. Rep. Nick Lampson, a Democrat, in November. As for the rest of this year, Gov. Rick Perry has said he doesn't intend to call a special election to put a temp in DeLay's job. • Democrat Chris Bell says he'd end tuition deregulation and lower tuition rates if elected; those rates jumped significantly when lawmakers left them in the hands of universities. The schools complained for years that lawmakers were capping their tuition and short-sheeting them on other funding, and when they were set free, they began raising costs to compensate. Bell says that was a bad idea that keeps some Texans out of college due to high prices. • Independent Carole Keeton Strayhorn wants to move the state's standardized tests -- the TAKS test given to public school children -- from the spring to the fall. She says that would make the test more diagnostic and says teachers could then use the rest of the year responding to the results and helping kids where they need it. • Gubernatorial appointees and their families contributed $3.8 million to Gov. Rick Perry over the last five years, according to the latest report from Texans for Public Justice. TPJ says one-third of Perry's appointees gave to his political campaign -- two-thirds didn't, which is different sort of news -- and they gave an average of $3,769. Their whole report is online at www.tpj.org. • John Courage, the Democrat challenging U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith, R-San Antonio, gets a fundraising visit next week from U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wisconsin. They're doing a "listening session" with students at the University of Texas, and then a fundraiser that evening, also in Austin.

Bill Ceverha got a clean bill of ethical health from former Judge Mike McCormick, who was hired by the Employee Retirement System to ferret through charges of ethical lapses by Ceverha, a board member. McCormick's report says Ceverha was eligible (not a lobbyist) when he was appointed to that board, that he hasn't violated standards of conduct or done anything that should disqualify him from the board, and he recommended no action be taken. The board took the report and called it done. House Democrats accused Ceverha of taking the post while he was still a lobbyist, and they said he shouldn't have accepted a $100,000 gift from Houston homebuilder Bob Perry while on the board. That gift, in two checks, was reported to the Texas Ethics Commission, but with no dollar amounts attached. After ethics commissioners looked at it and required nothing further, Ceverha and Perry owned up to the amount of the gift in The Dallas Morning News. You can read a back-and-forth on the ethics commission's decision in the Soapbox section of our website. And ERS posted a copy of McCormick's report, at www.ers.state.tx.us. • The Texas Legislature is only a week behind Congress for the number of days in session for the last two years, according to the Texas Municipal League. That's if the special session starting next week isn't extended. Since the beginning of 2005, Congress has met 238 days and the Texas Legislature, once this session is under its belt, will have met for 231 days. During the 2003-04 biennium, TML says the part-time Texas Lege met for 255 days, compared with 248 days for the full-time Congress. • State lawmakers have tried to lower the cap on appraisal increases to limit increases in local taxes. Local governments have fought it as an infringement of local control. Right now, the limit is 10 percent and an effort to lower it failed in the House last year (though it'll surely come back). The city council in Austin offered a new twist: They want the state to give them the authority to lower the cap themselves, preserving local control and leaving to local voters the question of what ought to be done. • The Children's Health Insurance Program is starting a $3 million campaign to sign kids up. Enrollment has been dropping steadily, from 322,898 in December of 292,681 this month, a decline of 9.3 percent in five months. Enrollment has dropped by more than 200,000 since lawmakers cut it back in 2003. Now the state will do radio, print, bus bench and Spanish-language TV ads to promote the program. • Put librarians back in the 65 percent soup. They weren't included in the state's initial idea of direct instructional costs, but Education Commissioner Shirley Neeley has moved them into that category. She's polishing the rules ordered by Gov. Rick Perry, who wants at least 65 percent of public education money going to instruction. Neeley will phase in the rules over three years time. • Rep. Craig Eiland, D-Galveston, wants to add full funding for the Teacher Retirement System to the agenda for the special session. TRS needs about $300 million to balance assets against expected debts, and he says it'll be easier to fix now than when the problem gets really big. He'd have the state increase its contribution to 7.31 percent of educator salaries, up from 6 percent and he says the Employee Retirement System could use a similar, though smaller fix: an infusion of $60 million in state money.

"The moral test of any society is how it treats its children." --Hubert Humphrey ``As we examine the issue of school finance, regardless of whether you believe we should invest more dollars into education or not, we must be cognizant of how we treat our children. We must find ways to spend money in a manner that directly impacts children--and what better way to do that than to invest in their teachers.There has been much conversation over linking teacher compensation to student performance recently. Teachers are our direct link to students. They provide the key to improving student achievement, and I believe we should explore ways to compensate and reward teachers. Improvement will not happen by accident, but by design. Research shows that an effective teacher can achieve twice as much academic growth from a student than an ineffective teacher. An effective teacher can virtually eliminate the achievement gap between students of different family income levels. So why is it that we pay teachers simply according to seniority or years of experience. Salaries in the private market are typically driven by the employee's effectiveness on the job. Someone who demonstrates more talent, skill, or effort is usually compensated with more pay. Professions that compensate individuals based on the quality of work produced for clients typically produce better results. Not only does the private sector reward those who do the best job, but they also compete for the best and brightest in our teaching force. Many of our best teachers leave for higher pay and opportunities for advancement that a career in teaching does not offer. We must change our system to keep these individuals in the classroom teaching our children. Many argue education is not a business and that children are not widgets. But that should not preclude us from taking lessons from business and applying them in such a way that improves how we compensate teachers. Those businesses paying market-based salaries are, after all, the competition. Two states--Florida and Minnesota--as well as many school districts, one of which is our very own Houston ISD, have recently announced teacher pay systems that link to student performance. Florida recently announced that the top 10% of teachers demonstrating student improvement will receive additional salary, while Minnesota is offering significant increases in state aid to school districts that will base at least 60 percent of teacher pay raises on performance rather than seniority. The compensation system approved by voters in Denver, Colorado, last year has received wide support for its ability to pay teachers based on their individual talents and ability to meet goals for student performance. Earlier this year Houston ISD became the largest school district in the nation to offer rewards to teachers based on student performance. In 2005, governors in 20 states proposed changes in the way teachers are paid. As the Texas Legislature takes up the issue of school finance this spring we have a golden opportunity to positively affect both the amount, and the way we pay teachers. In addition to an increase in the base pay for teachers, the Legislature should set aside a meaningful amount of money dedicated to funding pay plans in local school districts that reward teachers for student achievement. Teachers must have a voice in the development of these plans. These plans should also include multiple indicators of student performance so that pay is not based solely on one test, and both individuals and teams should be rewarded for success. Additionally, teachers with a proven record of student achievement should be offered the opportunity to advance in their career. Those "Master Teachers" can help other educators improve their craft while remaining in the classroom with students and being compensated for the additional duties. We must take the guesswork out of education. Today's technology allows us to know what works with students and what does not. We must use this information to empower our decision-making capabilities and influence the way we compensate, train, and support teachers in the field. Our focus should always be on improvement, on taking a student further along than anyone expected he or she could go. As we begin the next chapter of the school finance debate, we must remember, that the moral test of any society is how it treats its children; and never lose sight that our priority must be on our students. And that starts with getting a good education from excellent teachers. Shapiro, R-Plano, chairs the Senate Education Committee.


Texas Weekly's Soapbox is a venue for opinions, spins, alternate takes, and other interesting stuff sent in by readers and others. We moderate submissions to keep crazy people out, and anonymous commentary is ineligible. Readers can respond (through the moderator) to things posted here. Got something to submit? We're interested in everything from full-blown opinion pieces to short bits to observations or tidbits that have escaped us and the mass media. One rule: Your name goes on your words. Call or send an email: Ross Ramsey, Editor, Texas Weekly, 512/288-6598, ramsey@texasweekly.com.

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