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Family issues:
It is difficult to define "family issues," as I believe that most issues are family issues. Here are some that are very important to Texas families.
Education is my highest priority. With Texas ranked 50th in the nation in terms of graduation rates, we must do better. The nationwide dropout rate is 9.8%, yet in Texas it is 38%. In Texas, African Americans drop out at a rate of 45%, Hispanics 50%, and Anglos, 24%. And 71% of 3rd graders are below proficiency in reading, 23% in math. If we are to put our state back on track, we must change this course.
We must invest in education or we will continue to see a deteriorating society. We spent more than twice as much per prisoner as we do per student. The mandate should not be just to lower property taxes, it should be to make our educational system better, and to pay our teachers sufficiently so that their pay does not rank in the lower one-third of teachers nationwide. Our teachers need more input in what is taught- and how it is taught- so often now, they spend so much more time doing paperwork, when they could be teaching. As the product of public schools, I had some wonderful teachers who gave of their time and talent to help me learn. Many stayed after school and tutored. We need to attract and KEEP good teachers, and we can do this best by respecting how important teachers are to our future and by paying them accordingly. Teachers hold our future in their hands--what we do today will reap benefits in the future.
Texas has the fastest-growing population of children in the country and all children should be prepared to enter the workforce. Rather than having a multi-million dollar "slush fund" to attract businesses, we should invest money in our schools and attract business because of our well-educated population. In Texas, each year we expend $5,444 per student in school, but spend $13,283 per person in prison. Better education will lead to fewer in prison, and will save us money.
In 2003, the national average SAT score was 1026, in Texas it was 993, and it has been going down for several years. We're 39th in the nation in SAT scores. This trend must change.
Texas is 46th in terms of average hourly wages, and 43rd in terms of workforce education--there is a direct correlation here. Higher education leads to higher wages and better jobs. A better-educated workforce will bring better jobs to Texas. It is difficult for parents to be involved in their children's education if they're working two to three jobs just to put food on the table and keep a roof over their heads. If we can provide better education for all, better jobs will follow, and parents will be able to spend more time with their children, which should lead to lower dropout rates and lower crime rates.
Crime is linked to our failure in education: With an overall dropout rate of 38% from our public schools, is it any wonder that Texas leads the nation in the number of adults in our criminal justice system, or that we're ranked second in the number of adults in prison? We spend more than twice as much per year on each person in jail than we do on each child in school. We simply can't afford to continue this trend.
We can continue to build ever more prisons and lock up more and more Texans, or we can invest in education and families and change the direction of our state. I choose education; I hope you do, too.
Sex Education: Our children need realistic sexual education. Texas is number one in the nation in teen births, yet we continue to teach "abstinence only," thinking that this will make the problem go away. Of course, our children should be told the ONLY way to avoid sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and pregnancy is to abstain from sex, but IF they are going to have sex (and 51% of high school students have had sexual intercourse), then they need to know how to best protect themselves from STDs and unwanted or unplanned pregnancies, and they need to be told this in medically accurate and age appropriate ways.
I believe that our children should be taught age-appropriate sexual education in school, and they should also be taught about the responsibilities of parenthood (including child support payments from the fathers), and alternatives. Among the legal choices available to them are adoption and the "baby Moses" law, and our children need to know about these options, too.
Please see http://www.advocatesforyouth.org/real.htm for information about the REAL (Realistic Education About Life) Act.
Health Care: We have 5.1 million Texans who have no health insurance--a rate of 23.5%, the highest in the nation. The national average is 12%. Texas is number one in terms of uninsured children. This is a disgrace for our great state. The amount of health insurance provided by employers has shrunk as rates have continued to increase. I believe we must work to find a way to provide statewide health insurance. Today, uninsured people still get health care, but they do so in our emergency rooms, which provide the most expensive health care available, and also tends to slow the provision of emergency services for victims of accidents and other trauma. It should be less expensive to provide affordable health care than it is for our counties and state to continually pay for excessive emergency room use.
I highly recommend the report: Code Red, the Critical Condition of Health Care in Texas, which may be found at hthttp://www.coderedtexas.org/
This report details problems with our system and offers recommendations to fix them.
MHMR (Mental Health Mental Retardation): This budget has been slashed repeatedly. I do have a special interest in this area. My sister who lives with us has mild mental retardation, and we have seen services just melting away for those who are among society's most innocent and most powerless. People with mental disabilities deserve the protection of our state. Children with mental health issues are less likely to receive services now than in years past. We must help Texans who need this extra help through counseling and other services. If we are a moral society, as I believe we are, then we must meet these responsibilities.
Taxes: We need a tax structure that is fair so that we can afford to increase funding for public education. Today, just one in 16 businesses in Texas pays the franchise tax, which is the state's general business tax. All businesses should want to invest in education because better education means better employees. An educated populace benefits us all-both citizens and businesses should share the costs equitably. The tax system in Texas is listed at one of the "Terrible Ten" in the nation in terms of regressive taxes. Lower income families pay three times as great a share of their income in taxes as the wealthiest five percent, and middle-income families pay twice as much. It is clear that lower and middle-income families are hurt the most by Texas' over-reliance on the sales tax. It is equally clear that businesses must all pay their fair share of taxes.
Trans Texas Corridor (TTC): The Tran Texas Corridor is a land grab of the first order. It isn't about moving Texans, it is about moving jobs right out of Texas and the rest of the US. Central America recently received a grant to build a large highway that connects all of C.A. together and to a port in El Salvador. Is there any doubt that this port will be used to bring in containers from Asia, bypassing US ports and the good-paying jobs that go with them, going across Central American, up through Mexico, in to Texas on the TTC, where they won't be checked until they get to the "Smart Port" in Kansas City. First of all, from a security point, this is dangerous. If we are not checking those huge containers until they get into the heart of our country, who knows what terrorists might put into them? Also, if we rely on one main route for the majority of our country's imports, it presents a tempting target for terrorists- they could easily cripple our country once the majority of freight enters through the TTC just by bombing one site.
Taking land from people because it is "underutilized" (TXDoT's word for farm and ranch land) is so wrong I can't even begin to say. They want to take some of the best farmland in our state for this monstrosity. This isn't like a highway, where they might take a couple of hundred feet; they're talking miles of takings! People will lose farms and ranches which have been in their families for generations.
Why is this being built? Two words- CORPORATE GREED! Corporations such as Wal-Mart want their goods made cheaper and cheaper, and, while they can export some to Central America, they can get them done even cheaper in Asia, and then if they can by-pass good-paying jobs in the US ports to bring them in even cheaper, they're happy. Corporate Greed for companies like Zachry and Cintra, who only want to make more and more millions, so they will get even richer, they don't care about Texas families. Greedy politicians, like Rick Perry, who has been paid thousands and thousands by Zachry as "campaign donations." It is amazing how easily he was bought- give him tens of thousands, and he has sold out our heartland- many of them good Republicans who have voted Republican for years- but who likely won't be doing it again. The current leadership needs to go, and that includes senators who voted for this monster. We need folks who actually care more about Texans than corporate greed and getting personally wealthy from these greedy road constructors.
Toll-roads: Roads which have been paid with gas taxes should NOT be converted into toll roads, and our roads should NOT be sold to private investors, who are only responsible to their investors, not to Texas taxpayers.
Toll Roads are being touted to us as the "only way" to have new roads, but we're not buying that. In San Antonio and in Austin citizens groups have sprung up to save us from the tolling trolls.
In San Antonio, the bull dozers were literally in place and working (including puncturing a sewer line that leaked into the aquifer for a few days before it was noticed), but citizen's groups were able to get them stopped, by forcing updates of impact reviews.
In SW Austin, a new group, Fix290, has sprung up, to work specifically on the toll road in our part of SD 25- the Oak Hill "Y". TXDoT's plan turns Oak Hill into a wasteland of elevated highways and concrete, splitting neighborhoods, killing the town, and turning what is now a lovely area into one of ugliness with elevated highways cutting across site lines and bringing in ever more noise. This plan even has highway being build over Williamson Creek, in the flood plain, which will, of course, move the floods further down creek, like the Westcreek neighborhood, in which my husband and lived up til 5 years ago.
The Fix 290 group has come up with a plan that looks very workable, costs much less, keeps a grove of oak trees that are 200-300 years old intact, and makes much more sense. The 290/71 highway expansion was funded several years ago, but not "let." TXDoT has been honest in saying that the tolls on this road aren't to build this road- they are to build roads elsewhere, yet those of us living and working in this area, including those coming in to Austin from western Hays County, will be paying for all those roads, and the ones for whom the roads are being built won't. That sounds neither equitable, fair, nor democratic! If they need more money to build more roads elsewhere, then either up the gas tax, which is the most fair and least expensive way overall for all, or, if they refuse to do that, then toll those roads that they want to build.
No way should a road that has already been funded and paid for be turned into a toll road, especially not to fund roads elsewhere!
To read more about my opponent's involvement with toll roads, go to http://satollparty.com/post/index.php?s=Jeff+Wentworth to read several stories about him.
I encourage everyone to go to http://fix290.com and read about this top plan. I also encourage all the folks who would be by the toll road plan of TXDoT to sign the petition http://www.petitiononline.com/fix290/petition.html. To get TXDoT to take this plan seriously, the Fix 290 folks need to have several thousand signatures on the petition, not just the few hundred.
I'm listing the consensus points below from the Fix 290 group- I hope that you will agree and sign the petition. If you ever drive out to the Oak Hill Y (going out to Pace Bend Park, for example, going to Johnson City for the Christmas lights), and especially if you live and/or work in this are, please sign the petition.
1. We do not want toll roads.
2. We do not want the elevated flyovers at Y intersection of 71 and 290.
3. We prefer at grade solution for the Y intersection.
4. If at grade solution is not feasible, we would like to have bridges or other feasible means with minimum practicable elevation.
5. We prefer construction that will impact the environment the least
6 We prefer construction with lower costs.
7. We would like to see a traffic solution that takes into consideration the Oak Hill community future as well as the benefits of those passing thru.
Valuing Families
Much has been made by the religious right about same gendered couples and families. Because I believe that, just as the state has no right to tell churches what to do, neither do churches (or any type) have the right to tell our State what to do, and that is what is happening. This issue is a simple matter of social justice. For me, it is about the children. I have several friends who are in committed same gender relationships who have children. At this point, should something happen to one of the parents, their children's financial future is endangered. I believe that all families, especially those with children, should have the same legal rights to protect their families. If churches don't want to bless same sex unions, that is certainly their right, but our state should not be in the business of deciding which two consenting adults may legally love each other, as they were 40 years ago with the laws that made it illegal for an anglo and a person of color to marry.
It appears to me that most of our problems start with the high dropout rates from our schools. In our great nation of plenty, Texas is ranked among the highest in things in which we don't want to rank highly, and among the lowest in things in which we should rank among the highest.
Here are some statistics about Texas about which NO ONE should be proud:
Second in the nation in number of adults in prison, first in the number of adults in our correctional system (this included parole)
Forty-sixth in low hourly wages
Forty-third in workforce education
Almost twice as many uninsured as the national average
Second in the nation in teen birth rates
Thirty-seventh in prenatal care
Fourth in the nation in terms of children under 18 living in poverty
Second in the nation in terms of hunger, third in malnourishment
In our great state, this is unacceptable. We must stop these trends and we must stop them now!
Kathi Thomas for Senate...Imagine, we CAN have a better Texas!
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