Texas Ed Spectator

After veto, governor proposes more money for community colleges

Trying to quell unrest over his June veto of $154 million for health insurance for community college employees, Gov. Rick Perry is proposing a unique solution: More money. Lots of it.

Maybe people are actually going to blame Perry for increases in local property taxes. Looks like he’s back-peddling quite a bit.

After veto, governor proposes more money for community colleges

In June, Perry vetoed the health insurance money because he and the community colleges disagree how the costs should be split between the state and local taxpayers and students. Several senators said they were unaware of the governor’s concern or the prospect of a veto. Perry’s staffers testified that most of the discussions were at staff levels, not with lawmakers.

And the staff just didn’t bring it to the lawmakers’ attention? I still haven’t seen a plausible explanation as to why Perry slashed the funding. Which political constituents did he think he was pleasing with his veto? He (or rather fellow Republicans) is just now finding out how much he has pissed people off.

Technorati Tags: Rick Perry, Texas, community colleges, health insurance, veto

I’m not sure what they think they will accomplish.

MyWestTexas.com - Texas Democrats threaten retaliation for Perry’s veto

Meeting today in Washington, the Texas Democratic Congressional Delegation is so perturbed about Gov. Rick Perry’s veto of $154 million in community college funding that it may consider reprisals, spokesmen said.

The 12-member group sent an angry letter to Perry June 25 and will wait for an answer before deciding what to do, but Higher Education Act reauthorizations and federal grant funding are the obvious options, they said.

As far as I can tell, Republican members of the legislature aren’t happy with Perry’s veto. Why would he worry about what some Democrats think? They might cut funding to more college students? He’s already shown he doesn’t care.

Technorati Tags: Community Colleges, Rick Perry, health insurance, funding

Perry’s reasoning for vetoing the San Antonio Life Sciences Institute (SALSI) makes even less sense after reading the Express-News editorial.

MySA.com: Editorials

The governor said he doesn’t want to create more top research institutions before a new commission on higher education and global competitiveness comes up with a plan for the most effective use of funds.

This isn’t a new school. The institute was established by the legislature in 2001. It has already received $6.5 million in funding. It may or may not be deserving of the requested $6 million. It was at least as deserving as UT Permian Basin that received over $16 million dollars.

I think what bothers me more than anything else is that “he” -Perry- “doesn’t want to create more top research institutions” makes it sound like he is the sole authority of how many “top” research institutions Texas gets to have. I get the impression that this institute could not possibly exist without Perry’s blessing. The fact that it was created by a previous legislature is irrelevant.

All things considered, the SALSI is probably better off if it can develop without relying on the whims of state government. It’s just Perry’s political arrogance bugs me. How convenient to use the commission as an excuse to justify a veto in this case. What commission does he use to justify the cases he didn’t veto?

Technorati Tags: San Antonio Life Sciences Institute, Texas, higher education, Rick Perry, line item veto

Here’s a list of higher education projects vetoed by Perry as pork.

The body count: Perry’s higher ed vetoes

The body count: Perry’s higher ed vetoes

Too bad he doesn’t give a reason for all the pork he leaves in.

Perry signs budget, blasts higher education funding

Perry reiterated his demand, aired in February, that lawmakers place all higher education special items in a portion of the budget subject to his line-item veto. Thirty-six special items added late in the legislative session by House and Senate negotiators and costing $123 million wound up subject to his veto pen, and he vetoed 14 of them.

But scores of other special items worth hundreds of millions of dollars were sprinkled through the budget and therefore remained essentially veto-proof. For example, the University of Texas of the Permian Basin in Odessa, near Speaker Tom Craddick’s hometown of Midland, received $9 million for “instruction enhancement” and $7.4 million for “institutional enhancement.”

So how were items determined to be “special items” and listed separately subject to line item veto? How does “institutional enhancement” at Permain Basin contribute to state’s set goals for improving enrollment and graduation rates but a museum of fine arts at Angelo State University does not?

Now I don’t claim to know how these things were listed in the budget but it seems to me that if Perry could veto the community colleges’ group health insurance, he could have also found a way to veto other times that were “sprinkled” through the budget.

Does anyone know what Perry stands for and what he’s against in term of education issue?

Technorati Tags: Rick Perry, Higher Education, Texas, Line Item Veto, education funding