WHO CARES FOR KIDS?

There’s an old saying that the master who does not hold his servants accountable will end up getting very negative results.  We citizens of Texas need to take a hard look at those who serve us in Austin.  A district court has documented that approximately 700 small children have died from negligence or abuse because Children’s Protective Services is mismanaged, grossly understaffed, and underfunded.  Such a shame in view of the fact that the Attorney General, Commissioner of Agriculture and other elected state officials have squandered several hundred thousands of dollars rewarding ex-employees who no longer work—and have done so illegally.

We rank 37^th in support of our public education system, and our leaders refuse to replace the $5 billion+ dollars deducted from the education budget two sessions ago.  They smugly stand idly by while even the Supreme Court, in its attempt to justify their inaction, says that our system has many, many faults, but it meets minimum standards.  Ask yourself whether or not you would trust a baby doctor—who clearly has many faults and shortcomings as a physician, yet meets minimum standards—with the handling of your child.

 The Legislature in its panic to avoid addressing a shortage of tax money has driven us into debt by over 30 billion dollars, and yet our highway system is in sore need of fixing.  A substantial number of our bridges have been ruled to be substandard by reputable engineering investigations.  Yet there is not one hint of how we could raise additional revenue to address our crumbling transportation infrastructure. 

Our governor steadfastly refuses to accept several billion dollars in federal funds which are available to us for health purposes while we continue to lead the nation in uninsured citizens. 

Come on people, there’s got to be more important issues for us to dwell on rather than who goes to the potty where; whether we wear our guns inside our coat or out; and whether or not we should allow our public schools to spend $62 million dollars on football stadiums.

It is past time for us to take a more enlightened view of our public servants and stop blindly voting because of a label.  Self-proclaimed arch-conservatives may conserve a dollar or two, but they are certainly not conserving a bright future for our posterity or the future of this state. We all need to be better motivated to participate in the elections and be better informed on how we hold our public officials accountable.